Multi-band dysperiodicity analyses of disordered connected speech

The objective is to analyze vocal dysperiodicities in connected speech produced by dysphonic speakers. The analysis involves a variogram-based method that enables tracking instantaneous vocal dysperiodicities. The dysperiodicity trace is summarized by means of the signal-to-dysperiodicity ratio, which has been shown to correlate strongly with the perceived degree of hoarseness of the speaker. Previously, this method has been evaluated on small corpora only. In this article, analyses have been carried out on two corpora comprising over 250 and 700 speakers. This has enabled carrying out multifrequency band and multi-cue analyses without risking over-fitting. The analysis results are compared to the cepstral peak prominence, which is a popular cue that indirectly summarizes vocal dysperiodicities frame-wise. A perceptual rating has been available for