Relationship between objective and subjective perceptual measures of speech in individuals with head and neck cancer

TL;DR

This study explores the relationship between perceptual and objective speech measures in head and neck cancer patients, highlighting the potential for simplified clinical assessments based on objective data.

Contribution

It demonstrates strong correlations between subjective and objective speech measures, suggesting a streamlined approach for clinical monitoring of speech in HNC patients.

Findings

Strong correlation between subjective intelligibility and objective measures

Objective speech rate aligns with perceptual assessments

A single intelligibility measure may suffice for clinical monitoring

Abstract

Meaningful speech assessment is vital in clinical phonetics and therapy monitoring. This study examined the link between perceptual speech assessments and objective acoustic measures in a large head and neck cancer (HNC) dataset. Trained listeners provided ratings of intelligibility, articulation, voice quality, phonation, speech rate, nasality, and background noise on speech. Strong correlations were found between subjective intelligibility, articulation, and voice quality, likely due to a shared underlying cause of speech symptoms in our speaker population. Objective measures of intelligibility and speech rate aligned with their subjective counterpart. Our results suggest that a single intelligibility measure may be sufficient for the clinical monitoring of speakers treated for HNC using concomitant chemoradiation.