Journal article
Speaking fundamental frequency in (pre)pubertal female choristers: A longitudinal study
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.160(1), pp.762-772
07/01/2026
DOI: 10.1121/10.0044370
PMID: 42489469
Abstract
Humans exhibit vocal sexual dimorphism driven by hormonally mediated laryngeal changes during puberty, yet longitudinal evidence for female speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) development remains limited. This study draws on an unprecedented longitudinal corpus of 75 female choristers (aged 8-18 years; mean: 12.70 ± 2.15) recorded at Wells Cathedral School (UK) at six-month intervals between 1999 and 2017, averaging 8.12 sessions per participant and yielding 609 acquisitions in total. Participants read a phonetically balanced passage at conversational intensity; SFF was estimated via Praat's autocorrelation algorithm and modeled using a linear mixed-effects framework. The model revealed significant effects of age, quadratic age, cubic age, and starting age (age of choir entry), with all p values ≤0.019 and no significant interactions. SFF declined non-linearly with age, plateauing around 17 years. Later choir entry was associated with higher SFF, suggesting that earlier or more extensive vocal training modestly elevates SFF overall. The model explained 30.29% of total variance, with significant random effects reflecting considerable inter-individual variability in timing and magnitude of pubertal SFF change. These findings underscore the multifactorial nature of female voice development and suggest that sparse temporal sampling may insufficiently capture the complexity of maturational trajectories.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Speaking fundamental frequency in (pre)pubertal female choristers: A longitudinal study
- Creators
- Christian T Herbst - University of IowaDavid P Meyer - University of IowaBruno Gingras - University of ViennaVeronika S Schatzmann - Vienna University of Economics and BusinessEvangelos Himonides - Institute for Fiscal StudiesDavid M Howard - Royal Holloway University of LondonGraham F Welch - Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.160(1), pp.762-772
- DOI
- 10.1121/10.0044370
- PMID
- 42489469
- NLM abbreviation
- J Acoust Soc Am
- ISSN
- 1520-8524
- eISSN
- 1520-8524
- Publisher
- AIP Publishing
- Grant note
- Swedish Royal Society: 1999 UK Arts and Humanities Research Board: B/SG/AN8886/APN14717, 2003 Youth Music 'Sing Up' research evaluation: 2007-2011 European Science Foundation: ESF/SCSS Exploratory Workshop programme, 2002 PR/SCSS/01-28S
Funding at various points during this longitudinal research study was provided by the Swedish Royal Society (1999), the European Science Foundation (ESF/SCSS Exploratory Workshop programme, 2002 PR/SCSS/01-28S), the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board (Award B/SG/AN8886/APN14717, 2003), and the Youth Music 'Sing Up' research evaluation (2007-2011), as well as the host universities, University College London and York. We sincerely thank all the participants over the years for the valuable time and energy. We further thank their respective legal guardians, and Wells Cathedral at large. Without their help and support, this study would not have been possible. The research reported here was part of a larger study to investigate the nature of female cathedral chorister vocal development, led by G.W. and D.M.H. We sincerely thank Brad Story for helpful discussions; and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful feedback and comments.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/01/2026
- Academic Unit
- School of Music; Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9985183559702771
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