Assessing effects of vibroacoustic stimulation compared to a guided mindfulness meditation using the biosignal of human speech.

An exploratory pilot study tested whether speech prosody can serve as a biosignal to measure stress reduction. Thirty participants were split into three groups: guided mindfulness meditation, a vibroacoustic intervention, or a control. Each read a text aloud before and after a single 20-minute session. Acoustic-prosodic analysis of the sixty readings showed that both intervention groups spoke with a breathier vocal quality in the second reading, indicating relaxation, while the control group's speech became tenser and less variable in loudness. The findings suggest that speech prosody is a sensitive biomarker for classifying treatment effects and evaluating relaxation outcomes.

Study at a glance

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.