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Effects of face masks on acoustic analysis and speech perception: Implications for peri-pandemic protocols

View ORCID ProfileMichelle Magee, Courtney Lewis, Gustavo Noffs, Hannah Reece, Jess C. S. Chan, Charissa J. Zaga, Camille Paynter, Olga Birchall, Sandra Rojas Azocar, Angela Ediriweera, Marja W. Caverlé, Benjamin G. Schultz, View ORCID ProfileAdam P. Vogel
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.327452
Michelle Magee
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2Redenlab, Melbourne Australia
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Courtney Lewis
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2Redenlab, Melbourne Australia
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Gustavo Noffs
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Hannah Reece
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Jess C. S. Chan
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Charissa J. Zaga
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
3Department of Speech Pathology, Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Camille Paynter
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Olga Birchall
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Sandra Rojas Azocar
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
4Department of Speech Pathology, Orthopedics & Audiology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
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Angela Ediriweera
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
5Department of Physiology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
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Marja W. Caverlé
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Benjamin G. Schultz
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Adam P. Vogel
1Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Australia
2Redenlab, Melbourne Australia
6Department of Neurodegeneration, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Germany
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  • For correspondence: vogela@unimelb.edu.au
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ABSTRACT

Wearing face masks (alongside physical distancing) provides some protection against infection from COVID-19. Face masks can also change how we communicate and subsequently affect speech signal quality. Here we investigated how three face mask types (N95, surgical and cloth) affect acoustic analysis of speech and perceived intelligibility in healthy subjects. We compared speech produced with and without the different masks on acoustic measures of timing, frequency, perturbation and power spectral density. Speech clarity was also examined using a standardized intelligibility tool by blinded raters. Mask type impacted the power distribution in frequencies above 3kHz for both the N95 and surgical masks. Measures of timing and spectral tilt also differed across mask conditions. Cepstral and harmonics to noise ratios remained flat across mask type. No differences were observed across conditions for word or sentence intelligibility measures. Our data show that face masks change the speech signal, but some specific acoustic features remain largely unaffected (e.g., measures of voice quality) irrespective of mask type. Outcomes have bearing on how future speech studies are run when personal protective equipment is worn.

Competing Interest Statement

APV, CL and MM work for Redenlab, a speech analytics company.

Footnotes

  • ↵# co-first authors

  • https://redenlab.com/clinical-resources

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted October 08, 2020.
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Effects of face masks on acoustic analysis and speech perception: Implications for peri-pandemic protocols
Michelle Magee, Courtney Lewis, Gustavo Noffs, Hannah Reece, Jess C. S. Chan, Charissa J. Zaga, Camille Paynter, Olga Birchall, Sandra Rojas Azocar, Angela Ediriweera, Marja W. Caverlé, Benjamin G. Schultz, Adam P. Vogel
bioRxiv 2020.10.06.327452; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.327452
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Effects of face masks on acoustic analysis and speech perception: Implications for peri-pandemic protocols
Michelle Magee, Courtney Lewis, Gustavo Noffs, Hannah Reece, Jess C. S. Chan, Charissa J. Zaga, Camille Paynter, Olga Birchall, Sandra Rojas Azocar, Angela Ediriweera, Marja W. Caverlé, Benjamin G. Schultz, Adam P. Vogel
bioRxiv 2020.10.06.327452; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.327452

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