Assessing effects of vibroacoustic stimulation compared to a guided mindfulness meditation using the biosignal of human speech.
Charlotte Fooks, Oliver Niebuhr
Frontiers in network physiology 2026 DOI: 10.3389/fnetp.2026.1677209 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Exploratory pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 30 |
| Population | Participants divided into three treatment groups |
| Interventions | guided mindfulness meditation vibroacoustic intervention |
| Duration | One 20-minute treatment |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Biosignal Network physiology Speech prosody Stress Vibroacoustic Well-being |
| Key points | Speech prosody is a sensitive biomarker for treatment-effect classification and evaluation, with intervention groups showing breathier vocal quality and control group showing tenser speech. |
Abstract
High stress and low wellbeing pose severe individual, societal and economic threats, and there is a pressing demand for non-invasive stress reduction tools. This exploratory pilot study assessed the efficacy of speech prosody as a biosignal for stress elicitation, when comparing relaxation outcomes of two interventions with a control group. Thirty participants were divided into three treatment groups; (1) guided mindfulness meditation (2) vibroacoustic intervention (3) control. All participants read aloud a text before and after one 20-min treatment. The sixty readings were assessed using a multi-parametric acoustic-prosodic analysis, and within-speaker differences were compared between the initial and final reading. Results show groups (1) and (2) spoke with a breathier vocal quality in the second reading, while group (3) speech was tenser and at a lower, less variable loudness. Results demonstrate speech prosody is a sensitive biomarker for treatment-effect classification and evaluation. Practical limitations and future research perspectives are discussed.