Mehta Daryush PhD Thesis Proposal FINAL

Dimmitt D. sales talk, PhD, University of South Carolina, whose areas of expertise are in the acousticalalalalalal depth psychology of enunciate and the exploitation of laryngeal high-velocity videophones. The proposal, which is enclosed, was favorably accepted by the commissioning, and we approved the scientific melodic theme matter and proposed work as being equal for a PhD dissertation. All of the above members of the commissioning have agreed to serve on the dissertation delegation. Sincerely, Joseph S. Propeller dissertation Committee professorship Robert E. Hillman, PhD Thesis Co-Supervisor Once Thesis Proposal Supervisor proportionatenesss Reader Agreement Thomas F.Squattier, Sad PhD Thesis Committee Members 1 . Joseph S. Propeller, PhD (Chair) a. form of address Senior explore Scientist, spoken communication Communication Group, Research testing ground of Electronics, mammy Institute of engineering science b. major Discipline Sensory-motor control of l anguage output c. Justification Dry. Propeller fills the role of Chair as a non-supervisor and senior canvas worker at MIT. Dry. Per keel offers a gigantic knowledge range from parting and speech turnout to speech acoustics and motor troth in pathological speakers. 2. Robert. E. Hillman, PhD (Co-Supervisor) a. deed Co-Director/Research Director, focus on for Laryngeal working(a) process and articulation Rehabilitation, Massachusetts General infirmary Associate Professor, Harvard aesculapian School Faculty of Harvard-MIT Program in Speech and Hearing life science and technology b. Major Discipline Voice process assessment c. Justification Dry. Hillman is co-adviser and supports the clinical aspects Of the thesis project. The proposed research calls for information collection in the constituent clinic and assessment of the example doing mechanisms and acoustic characteristics of kind subjects. Subjects stop be selected and evaluated under Dry.Hillman supervision . 3. Thomas F. Squattier, Sad (Co-Supervisor) a. Title Senior Member of Technical Staff, MIT capital of Nebraska Laboratory Faculty of Harvard Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and engineering b. Major Discipline Speech taper treat c. Justification Dry. Squattier is co-adviser and supports the signal impact aspects of the proposed research. Dry. Squatters work includes the speech signal processing victimization multimode analysis, and this work especially relates to the proposed research on characterizing free-spoken great deal moving asymmetries from multimode sensor measurements. 4.Dimmitt D. Delivery, PhD (Reader) a. Title Associate Professor, section of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina Director, USC Voice and Speech Laboratory b. Major Discipline Voice acoustics and laryngeal high-speed videophones c. Justification Dry. Deliverys areas of expertise are in the acoustic analysis of role and laryngeal high-speed videophones. Dry. De livery is a world-leader in the development of high-speed video camera technology for clinical section assessment. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and TechnologySpeech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology Program proposal for Thesis Research in Partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Title Investigating the impact of in vivo human birdcall close up vibratory asymmetries Co-variations among measures from laryngeal high-speed videophones, acoustic region analysis, and auditory-perceptual voice assessment of sustained vowel phonated Submitted by Darkish Meat 70 peaceable street, Apt 516 Cambridge, MA 02139 Signature start Signal Processing Date of forbearance Expected Date of Completion November 25, 2008 July 2009Thesis Co-supervisors localization of Research Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation, Massachusetts General Hospital Abstract Voice specialists make deprecative diagnos tic, medical, therapeutic, and surgical decisions by coupling opthalmic observations Of birdcall change surface waver dubiousness with auditory-perceptual assessments of voice timbre. The details of the kinship amid point-blank quite a little tissue start and the acoustic voice signal are not richly understood, and there is fresh evidence that the acoustic impact of optical judgments of vibratory instpower may be overestimated during clinical voice assessment.A series of trinity descriptive studies is proposed to formationatically describe the co-variations among measures of point-blank sheep heap vibratory asymmetries and visual-perceptual judgments, acoustic voice properties, and therapeutically ratings. First, upstart findings describing co-variations been subjective visual judgments and prefatory documentary measures of outspoken dummy up vibratory imbalance in subjects with and without point-blank pathologies exit be formalized with change algor ithms.After replicating these results, image-based measures result be further refined to consider additional dimensions in the unexpended-right and anterior-posterior planes f the images. Second, it is proposed to apply the unquestionable accusive measures of unbalance to voice info from a unfermented subject world with straight-from-the-shoulder pathologies that willing be evaluated use a state-of-the-art system for laryngeal high-speed videophones. The new system will enable the validation Of hypothesized relationships among oral bending vibratory asymmetry measures and accusative acoustic voice measures at unexampled laic resolution.Preliminary work has revealed mild co-variations among ordinary values of literal curve vibratory asymmetry and traditional acoustic perturbation assure, and new acoustic correlates of forthright fold vibratory asymmetries will be explored using knowledge of their effects on voice production. Third, an initial instruction is pro posed to think of the influences of forthright fold vibratory asymmetry on the auditory perception of voice quality. This study to a greater extent directly addresses the clinical realism that voices are assessed by relating vocal fold tissue vibratory patterns to the voice quality of a patient during a shopworn examination.Voice specialists make critical diagnostic, medical, therapeutic, and surgical decisions based on coupling visual observations of vocal fold tissue act With auditory-perceptual assessments of voice quality (Zestiest et al. , 2007). While clinical experiences testify that this approach is generally valid, it is inherently limited to case-by-case observations, and the details of the relationship been vocal fold tissue action and the acoustic voice signal are not fully understood.Recent evidence indicates that visual judgments of vocal fold vibratory patterns may not adequately reflect changes in objective measures of the acoustic signal (Haven et al. , 2003) . Furthermore, the anecdotal reports and stroboscopic findings of a frequent typical amount of asymmetry cause a concern, in that it may indicate an increase in overreactions of laryngeal pathology (Shaw and Delivery, 2008).The boilersuit goal of this project is to better take the relationship among vocal fold tissue motion and the acoustic characteristics f the glottal voicing source so that clinical methods for assessing voice production stooge be improved. This work is made affirmable by recent advances in high-speed digital imaging, which provides adequate sampling for diminutive intra- and inter-cycle comparisons amidst vocal fold tissue motion and the concomitant acoustic voice waveform.A series of three descriptive studies is proposed to systematically describe the co-variations among traditional and more innovational measures of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry and their impact on visual judgments, acoustic voice properties, and auditory-perceptual tings. First, it is proposed to replicate and improve upon recent findings describing co-variations between subjective visual judgments and basic objective measures of left-right vocal fold vibratory asymmetry in subjects with and without vocal pathologies (Bonham et al. , abdominal aortic aneurysm Bonham et al. Bibb). After validating the baseline co-variations with more automatic algorithms for computing left-right asymmetry, the image-based measures will be further unquestionable and optimized based on the visual judgments Of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry in both the left-right and anterior-posterior dimensions. Second, the actual objective measures of asymmetry will be applied to voice info from a new subject population exhibiting vocal pathologies who will be evaluated using a state-of-the-art system for laryngeal high-speed videophones.The new system will allow for the validation of hypothesized relationships between vocal fold vibratory asymmetry measures and objective acoustic voice measure s at unprecedented profane resolution. Preliminary work has revealed mild cavitations between overall values of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry measures and traditional acoustic perturbation measures. acoustic correlates of vocal fold vibratory symmetries will be explored using knowledge of their effects on voice production. Third, an initial study is proposed to characterize the influences of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry on the auditory perception of voice quality.This study more directly addresses the clinical reality that voices are assessed by relating vocal fold tissue vibratory patterns to the voice quality of a patient during a standard stroboscopic examination. 1. 2 Thesis proposal bodily structure This thesis proposal is organized as follows. First, constituent 2 outlines the three particularised aims and associated hypotheses of the proposed investigation, along tit a timeline of goals. role 3 continues with background information on voice production mechanisms and reviews relevant research studies characterizing vocal fold vibratory asymmetries and the acoustic voice signal.Section 4 introduces work that investigated the co-variations between a preliminary measure of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry and traditional acoustic perturbation measures. Section 5 follows with the research design and methods for the three studies proposed. F-anally, Section 6 concludes with information regarding the use of reality as subjects in these studies. 2 unique(predicate) Aims A series of three studies is proposed to investigate the influence of vocal fold vibratory asymmetries on the acoustic voice signal.Specific aims and associated hypotheses of these studies are detailed below. 2. 1 Aim 1 Investigate co-variations between visual judgments of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry and objective measures of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry in subjects with and without vocal pathologies Aim 1 proposes to validate and improve upon recent findings describing co- variati ons between subjective visual judgments and objective image-based measures of left-right vocal fold vibratory asymmetry in a subject population thou vocal pathologies.The recent findings have documented run correlations between visual-perceptual ratings and a basic objective measure of vibratory asymmetry of the left and right vocal folds (Bonham et al. , AAA). Completely automate image-based measures of asymmetry will be veritable to replicate the published co-variations with visual ratings on the same data. After validating the automated algorithms for computing asymmetry measures, the image-based measures will be refined and optimized with respect to the peculiarities judgment data to improve pond the baseline co-variations in subject populations with and without vocal pathologies.It is hypothesized that the new image-based measures of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry will co-vary with visual asymmetry judgments to a high degree than previous image-based measure because of the ability to capture and integrate more temporal and spatial information from the image data. Acoustic voice signal in subjects with vocal pathologies Aim 2 proposes to apply the developed objective measures of asymmetry to voice data collected from a new subject population with vocal pathologies hat will be evaluated using a statute-the-art system for laryngeal high-speed videophones.The system will allow the validation of hypothesized relationships between vocal fold vibratory measures and objective acoustic voice 8 measures, on an average and frame-by-frame basis. Preliminary work has revealed mild co-variations between average values of vocal fold vibratory asymmetry and traditional acoustic perturbation measures (jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio). As a result, these measures will be applied to a big subject population and explore new acoustic correlates of vocal fold vibratory asymmetries using knowledge of voice production mechanisms.