A Quantitative Measurement of Voice Separation Ability in Humans

The human auditory system can separate multiple voices and comprehend the contents of them to a certain extent. This ability correlates with brain´s cognitive ability and can reflect the brain´s health status. So we propose a quantitative measurement method of the voice separation ability by using pairs of Japanese vowels. By this measurement method, 35 subjects aged 20s and 50s were tested, and the relation between age and voice separation ability was investigated. Moreover, to explain the measurement results much essentially, a quantification method of analyzing complex voice signal is presented. The characteristic of complex voice signal is calculated, and it can be used to evaluate human´s voice separation ability accurately. Thus, it is considered that this measurement and quantification method can be possibly applied to early diagnosis of brain illness, such as dementia.