Effects of acute psychological stress on acoustic measures in vocally healthy children

Abstract

Psychological stress is closely related to laryngeal functions and its disorders. The present study investigated the effects of acute psychological stress on physiological and voice parameters in vocally healthy children. The Children Trier- Social-Stress-Test (TSST-C) protocol was translated and adopted to induce acute psychological stress. Seventeen vocally healthy boys participated in the study, they were required to tell a story and complete a mental arithmetic task in front of an unfamiliar experimenter. Heart rates, self-perceived anxiety levels and acoustic voice parameters (mean fundamental frequency and standard deviation of fundamental frequency) were monitored throughout the acute psychological stress manipulation. Results revealed significant increase in heart rates and self-perceived anxiety levels during story telling task compared to other experiment phases (baseline, mental arithmetic task and feedback phase). The results supported the use of the modified version of TSST-C protocol in inducing acute psychological stress in laboratory setting. However, fundamental frequency and standard deviation of fundamental frequency did not vary significantly as a response of stress manipulation by the protocol.