Objective:To determine the effectiveness of individualized voice therapy in persistent pediatric voice disorders. Methods:Thirty-eight children who were admitted to the Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology Shenzhen Hospital, Southern Medical University due to persistent voice disorder from November 2021 to October 2022 were included. All children were evaluated by dynamic laryngoscopy before voice therapy. Two voice doctors performed GRBAS score and acoustic analysis on the children's voice samples to obtain the relevant parameters including F0, Jitter, Shimmer, and MPT; All children were given personalized voice therapy for 8 weeks. Results:Among 38 children with voice disorders, 75.8%（29 cases） were diagnosed with vocal nodules, 20.6%（8 cases） were vocal polyps, and 3.4%（1 case） were vocal cysts. And in all children. And 51.7%（20 cases） had the sign of supraglottic extrusion under dynamic laryngoscopy. GRBAS scores decreased from 1.93 ± 0.62, 1.82 ± 0.55, 0.98 ± 0.54, 0.65 ± 0.48, 1.05 ± 0.52 to 0.62 ± 0.60, 0.58 ± 0.53, 0.32 ± 0.40, 0.22 ± 0.36, 0.37 ± 0.36. F0, Jitter, Shimmer decreased from（243.11±39.73） Hz, （0.85±0.99）%, （9.96±3.78）% to（225.43±43.20） Hz, （0.33±0.57）%, （7.72±4.32）%, respectively MPT was prolonged from（5.82±2.30） s to（7.87±3.21） s after treatment. All parameters changes had statistical significance. Conclusion:Voice therapy can solve children's voice problems, improve their voice quality and effectively treat children's voice disorders.
Humans ; Child ; Voice Disorders/diagnosis* ; Voice ; Voice Quality ; Acoustics ; Speech Acoustics ; Vocal Cords/surgery*

Objective: This pilot human trial demonstrates the ability of the investigational newborn hearing screening device to provide acoustic stimulation to produce evoked potentials, as well as its ability to capture and acquire auditory evoked potentials, especially the auditory brainstem response (ABR) wave V. This pilot study also demonstrates the ease of recognizing and identifying ABR waves in the graphical presentation of the evoked potentials over time. Methods: Fourteen normal-hearing adults or a total of twenty-eight (28) normal-hearing adult ears underwent auditory brainstem response testing using the investigational hearing screening device. A commercially available auditory brainstem response detection device was used to confirm that the acquired ABR waves of the investigational device are normal. The ABR waves displayed by the investigation device were also reviewed by the clinical audiologists to determine their recognizability and identifiability. Results: The pilot trial demonstrates the ability of the investigational newborn hearing screening device in providing acoustic stimulation to produce evoked potentials, and in acquiring and capturing ABR waves, specifically the wave V, among normal-hearing adult ears. The clinical audiologists recognized and identified the ABR wave V among the evoked potentials at 40dB, 60dB, and 80dB acoustic stimulation. About eighty-nine percent (89.2%) of all ears tested had identifiable and recognizable wave V upon acoustic stimulation at 40dB. Conclusion The investigational hearing screening device: (1) can provide acoustic stimulation to produce evoked potentials, (2) can accurately capture and acquire these evoked potentials, (3) can present these evoked potentials in a voltage per time graphical display which an audiologist and trained HCP can easily read and interpret (diagnostic ABR), and (4) can present wave V auditory brainstem potentials that can be easily identified by an audiologist and trained HCP (screening ABR).
Infant, Newborn ; Acoustics ; Pilot Projects

Magneto-acoustic-electric tomography (MAET) boasts high resolution in ultrasound imaging and high contrast in electrical impedance imaging, making it of significant research value in the fields of early tumor diagnosis and bioelectrical monitoring. In this study, a method was proposed that combined high conductivity liquid metal and maximum length sequence (M sequence) coded excitation to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. It was shown that, under rotational scanning, the liquid metal significantly improved the signal-to-noise ratio of the inter-tissue magneto-acoustic-electric signal and enhanced the quality of the reconstructed image. The signal-to-noise ratio of the signal was increased by 5.6, 11.1, 21.7, and 45.7 times under the excitation of 7-, 15-, 31-, and 63-bit M sequence code, respectively. The total usage time of 31-bit M sequence coded excitation imaging was shortened by 75.6% compared with single-pulse excitation when the same signal-to-noise ratio was improved. In conclusion, the imaging method combining liquid metal and M-sequence coding excitation has positive significance for improving MAET image quality.
Contrast Media ; Electricity ; Electric Conductivity ; Acoustics ; Tomography

Objective:To investigate the characteristics of wideband acoustic immittance（WAI） measurements in patients with unilateral Ménière's disease（MD） and evaluate the clinical value of WAI in diagnosis of MD. Methods:WAI was performed in 30 patients with unilateral MD（30 ears for symptomatic and 30 ears for asymptomatic） and in 26 healthy individuals（52 ears）（control group）. The WAI measurements, including the frequency first appearing two peaks in energy absorbance（EA） tympanogram, resonance frequency（RF）, the peak value of absorbance（PVA）, the integral area of absorbance（IAA）, EA curve at peak pressure, were analyzed. Results:①The occurrence of two peaks in EA tympanogram in both the MD symptomatic and asymptomatic ear was observed in 27 ears（84.4%）, and 38 ears（70.4%） in the control group, with no significant difference in the frequency of first appearing in two peaks onset between the groups（all P>0.05）. ②The RF of the MD symptomatic ears was significantly lower than that of the asymptomatic ears（t=-3.544, P=0.001） and that of the control subjects（t=2.084, P=0.041）; there was no difference of RF between the MD asymptomatic ears and the control group（P>0.05）. ③The PVA were significantly lower in both MD symptomatic（t=4.240, P<0.01） and asymptomatic ears（t=4.202, P=0.001） than in controls. ④The IAA in MD symptomatic（t=3.295, P=0.001） and asymptomatic ears（t=3.193, P=0.003） was significantly lower than in the control group. ⑤Comparison of the EA curve at peak pressure of the three groups: the EAs of MD symptomatic ears were lower than those of the control group at the range of 1 059-2 911 Hz（all P<0.05）; the EAs of MD symptomatic ears were lower than those of MD asymptomatic ears within 1 000 Hz and 1 834-2 119 Hz（all P<0.05）; the EAs of MD asymptomatic ears were lower than those of the control group at the range of 515-2 748 Hz（all P<0.05）. Conclusion:Symptomatic ears in unilateral MD patients show alterations in some WAI measurements compared to asymptomatic ears and/or controls, suggesting that middle ear mechanical fuction of the affected side may be modified due to the endolymphatic hydrops. The clinical significance of WAI needs to be further explored in the context of evaluating MD.
Humans ; Meniere Disease/diagnosis* ; Endolymphatic Hydrops/diagnosis* ; Ear ; Hearing Tests ; Acoustics

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Wendler Glottoplasty to elevate vocal pitch in transgender women. Methods: The voice parameters of pre-and 3-month post-surgery of 29 transgender women who underwent Wendler Glottoplasty in department of otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery of Beijing Friendship Hospital from January, 2017 to October, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The 29 transgender women ranged in age from 19-47 (27.0±6.3) years old. Subjective evaluation was performed using Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male to Female (TVQ^MtF). Objective parameters included fundamental frequency (F₀), highest pitch, lowest pitch, habitual volume, Jitter, Shimmer, maximal phonation time (MPT), noise to harmonic ratio (NHR) and formants frequencies(F1, F2, F3, F4). SPSS 25.0 software was used for statistically analysis. Results: Three months after surgery, the score of TVQ^MtF was significantly decreased [(89.9±14.7) vs. (50.4±13.6), t=11.49, P<0.001]. The F₀ was significantly elevated [(152.7±23.3) Hz vs. (207.7±45.9) Hz, t=-6.03, P<0.001]. Frequencies of F1, F2 and F3 were significantly elevated. No statistical difference was observed in the frequencies of F4. The highest pitch was not significantly altered while the lowest pitch was significantly elevated [(96.8±17.7) Hz vs. (120.0±28.9) Hz, t=-3.71, P=0.001]. Habitual speech volume was significantly increased [(60.0±5.2) dB vs. (63.6±9.6) dB, t=-2.12, P=0.043]. Jitter, Shimmer, NHR and MPT were not obviously altered (P>0.05). Conclusions: Wendler Glottoplasty could notably elevate the vocal pitch, formants frequencies and degree of vocal femininity in transgender women without affecting phonation ability and voice quality. It can be an effective treatment modality for voice feminization.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Transgender Persons ; Retrospective Studies ; Speech Acoustics ; Voice Quality ; Phonation

Animals ; Reflex, Startle ; Models, Animal ; Acoustics

The acoustic detection method based on machine learning and signal processing is an important method of pathological voice detection and the extraction of voice features is one of the most important. Currently, the features widely used have disadvantage of dependence on the fundamental frequency extraction, being easily affected by noise and high computational complexity. In view of these shortcomings, a new method of pathological voice detection based on multi-band analysis and chaotic analysis is proposed. The gammatone filter bank was used to simulate the human ear auditory characteristics to analyze different frequency bands and obtain the signals in different frequency bands. According to the characteristics that turbulence noise caused by chaos in voice will worsen the spectrum convergence, we applied short time Fourier transform to each frequency band of the voice signal, then the feature gammatone short time spectral self-similarity (GSTS) was extracted, and the chaos degree of each band signal was analyzed to distinguish normal and pathological voice. The experimental results showed that combined with traditional machine learning methods, GSTS reached the accuracy of 99.50% in the pathological voice database of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) and had an improvement of 3.46% compared with the best existing features. Also, the time of the extraction of GSTS was far less than that of traditional nonlinear features. These results show that GSTS has higher extraction efficiency and better recognition effect than the existing features.
Acoustics ; Databases, Factual ; Fourier Analysis ; Humans ; Noise ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Transcranial magneto-acoustic electrical stimulation (TMAES) is a novel method of brain nerve regulation and research, which uses induction current generated by the coupling of ultrasound and magnetic field to regulate neural electrical activity in different brain regions. As the second special envoy of nerve signal, calcium plays a key role in nerve signal transmission. In order to investigate the effect of TMAES on prefrontal cortex electrical activity, 15 mice were divided into control group, ultrasound stimulation (TUS) group and TMAES group. The TMAES group received 2.6 W/cm ² and 0.3 T of magnetic induction intensity, the TUS group received only ultrasound stimulation, and the control group received no ultrasound and magnetic field for one week. The calcium ion concentration in the prefrontal cortex of mice was recorded in real time by optical fiber photometric detection technology. The new object recognition experiment was conducted to compare the behavioral differences and the time-frequency distribution of calcium signal in each group. The results showed that the mean value of calcium transient signal in the TMAES group was (4.84 ± 0.11)% within 10 s after the stimulation, which was higher than that in the TUS group (4.40 ± 0.10)% and the control group (4.22 ± 0.08)%, and the waveform of calcium transient signal was slower, suggesting that calcium metabolism was faster. The main energy band of the TMAES group was 0-20 Hz, that of the TUS group was 0-12 Hz and that of the control group was 0-8 Hz. The cognitive index was 0.71 in the TMAES group, 0.63 in the TUS group, and 0.58 in the control group, indicating that both ultrasonic and magneto-acoustic stimulation could improve the cognitive ability of mice, but the effect of the TMAES group was better than that of the TUS group. These results suggest that TMAES can change the calcium homeostasis of prefrontal cortex nerve clusters, regulate the discharge activity of prefrontal nerve clusters, and promote cognitive function. The results of this study provide data support and reference for further exploration of the deep neural mechanism of TMAES.
Acoustics ; Animals ; Brain ; Calcium ; Electric Stimulation ; Mice ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Transcranial magneto-acoustic-electrical stimulation is a new non-invasive neuromodulation technology, in which the induced electric field generated by the coupling effect of ultrasound and static magnetic field are used to regulate the neural rhythm oscillation activity in the corresponding brain region. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of transcranial magneto-acoustic-electrical stimulation on the information transfer and communication in neuronal clusters during memory. In the experiment, twenty healthy adult Wistar rats were randomly divided into a control group (five rats) and stimulation groups (fifteen rats). Transcranial magneto-acoustic-electrical stimulation of 0.05~0.15 T and 2.66~13.33 W/cm ² was applied to the rats in stimulation groups, and no stimulation was applied to the rats in the control group. The local field potentials signals in the prefrontal cortex of rats during the T-maze working memory tasks were acquired. Then the coupling differences between delta rhythm phase, theta rhythm phase and gamma rhythm amplitude of rats in different parameter stimulation groups and control group were compared. The experimental results showed that the coupling intensity of delta and gamma rhythm in stimulation groups was significantly lower than that in the control group ( P<0.05), while the coupling intensity of theta and gamma rhythm was significantly higher than that in the control group ( P<0.05). With the increase of stimulation parameters, the degree of coupling between delta and gamma rhythm showed a decreasing trend, while the degree of coupling between theta and gamma rhythm tended to increase. The preliminary results of this paper indicated that transcranial magneto-acoustic-electrical stimulation inhibited delta rhythmic neuronal activity and enhanced the oscillation of theta and gamma rhythm in the prefrontal cortex, thus promoted the exchange and transmission of information between neuronal clusters in different spatial scales. This lays the foundation for further exploring the mechanism of transcranial magneto-acoustic-electrical stimulation in regulating brain memory function.
Acoustics ; Animals ; Electric Stimulation ; Memory, Short-Term/physiology* ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Theta Rhythm/physiology* ; Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Objective: To study voice changes in children after adenotonsillectomy or adenoidectomy and the relationship with the vocal tract structure. Methods: Fifty patients were recruited in this study prospectively, aged from 4 to 12 years old with the median age of 6. They were underwent adenotonsillectomy or adenoidectomy in Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University from July 2019 to August 2020. In the cases, there are 31 males and 19 females. Thirty-six patients underwent adenotonsillectomy and 14 patients underwent adenoidectomy alone. Twenty-two children (13 males, 9 females) with Ⅰ degree of bilateral tonsils without adenoid hypertrophy and no snoring were selected as normal controls. Adenoid and tonsil sizes were evaluated. Subjective changes of voice were recorded after surgery. Moreover, voice data including fundamental frequency(F0), jitter, shimmer, noise to harmonic ratio(NHR), maximum phonation time(MPT), formant frequencies(F1-F5) and bandwidths(B1-B5) of vowel/a/and/i/were analyzed before, 3 days and 1 month after surgery respectively.SPSS 23.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Thirty-six patients(72.0%,36/50) complained of postoperative voice changes. The incidence was inversely correlated with age. In children aged 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12, the incidence was 83.3%(25/30), 63.6%(7/11) and 44.4%(4/9) respectively. Voice changes appeared more common in children underwent adenotonsillectomy(77.8%,28/36) than in those underwent adenoidectomy alone(57.1%,8/14), but there was no statistical difference. After operation, for vowel/a/, MPT(Z=2.18,P=0.041) and F2(t=2.13,P=0.040) increased, B2(Z=2.04,P=0.041) and B4(Z=2.00,P=0.046) decreased. For vowel/i/, F2(t=2.035,P=0.050) and F4(t=4.44,P=0.0001) increased, B2(Z=2.36,P=0.019) decreased. Other acoustic parameters were not significantly different from those before surgery. The F2(r=-0.392, P =0.032) of vowel/a/and F2(r=-0.279, P=0.048) and F4 (r=-0.401, P =0.028) of vowel/i/after adenotonsillectomy were significantly higher than those of adenoidectomy alone. Half of patients with postopertive voice changes can recover spontaneously 1 month after surgery. Conclusions: Voice changes in children underwent adenotonsillectomy or adenoidectomy might be related to their changes in formants and bandwidths. The effect of adenotonsillectomy on voice was more significant compared with that of adenoidectomy alone. The acoustic parameters did not change significantly after surgery except MPT.
Adenoidectomy ; Adenoids/surgery* ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Speech Acoustics ; Tonsillectomy ; Voice Quality