Using modulation spectra for voice pathology detection and classification

In this paper, we consider the use of Modulation Spectra for voice pathology detection and classification. To reduce the high-dimensionality space generated by Modulation spectra we suggest the use of Higher Order Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and we propose a feature selection algorithm based on the Mutual Information between subjective voice quality and computed features. Using SVM with a radial basis function (RBF) kernel as classifier, we conducted experiments on a database of sustained vowel recordings from healthy and pathological voices. For voice pathology detection, the suggested approach achieved a detection rate of 94.1% and an Area Under the Curve (AUC) score of 97.8%. For voice pathology classification, an average detection rate and AUC of 88.6% and 94.8%, respectively, was achieved in classifying polyp against keratosis leukoplakia, adductor spasmodic dysphonia and vocal nodules.