Table 3.
Studies on the impact of physical load on voice and speech production.
| Study | Speech process | Subjects | Context | Task | Speech measures | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baker et al., 2008 | Breathing | N = 12 (6 males) | Laboratory | Aerobic task with progressive workload at 50% and 75% of VO2max: speaking and no-speaking condition. Baseline with six additional time points at 50% of VO2max and two at the 75% of VO2max. Speech task: 15 s standardized novel fragment every 3 min. | SPP AR IP | • SPP decreased in the 50 and 75% of VO2max speaking tasks. |
| • IP increased the 50 and 75% of VO2max speaking tasks. | ||||||
| • AR no change. | ||||||
| Godin and Hansen, 2008 | Phonation Resonance | N = 51 (9 males) | Laboratory | 35 standard speech sentences. Physical activity on an elliptical stair stepper. | F0 F0 SD Utterance duration Voiced – non voiced frames Formants | • Speaker independent correlates: percentage of voicing (decrease in 88.2% of the participants). |
| • Speaker dependent correlates: F0 (increase in 60.8%, decrease in 13.6% and no change in 25.5% of the participants), F0 SD (no significant impact), utterance duration (50–50%), glottal waveform and formant parameters (significant shift in F1 but many non-responders). | ||||||
| Godin and Hansen, 2011 | Phonation Resonance | N = 4 (2 males) | Laboratory | Five repeated series of eight vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV), and eight consonant-vowel (CV) utterances in BL (seated) and during physical load. | F1, F2 OQ | • F1: interaction effect between speaker and physical load. |
| • F2: main effect of physical load. | ||||||
| • OQ: interaction between speaker, vowel, and physical load. | ||||||
| Godin and Hansen, 2015 | Phonation Resonance | N = 78 (gender counterbalanced) | Laboratory | 65 readings of 15 s. (Non)native read and spontaneous speech. Maintaining 10 mph on an elliptical stair stepper. | NAQ HRF F0 | Correlation between F0, NAQ, and HRF shift: a shift in F0 on the entire sample showed significant correlations with a NAQ shift (r = 0.53) and HRF shift (r = -0.34) and there was a strong correlation between NAQ and HRF (r = -0.89). |
| Johannes et al., 2007 | Phonation | N = 11 (male) | Laboratory | Standard cycle test progressively increased load until breaking point of exhaustion. Speech task: counting 1–10. | F0 | Increased F0, only at submaximal and maximal effort. |
| Mohler, 1982 | Breathing Phonation | N = 44 (male) | Laboratory | Incremental treadmill test with 4 min exercise – 15 min pause intervals. Speech test: 3–5 s single ‘a.’ | F0 | Linear relationship between F0 and physical load in terms of dyspnea, oxygen consumption (VO2) and ventilation (VE). Anxiety creates ceiling effect (i.e., higher F0 onset in anxious state). |