Embracing variability: toward proactive and precision-based voice science
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Voice science has long grappled with uncertainty from instrumental limitations, methodological inconsistencies, and physiological variability. Although fluctuations within physiological systems may reflect meaningful vocal function, identifying these patterns is challenging because similar variability exists in measurement instruments and protocols.Purpose We propose that rigorous measurement practices combined with frameworks focused on functional capacity can transform physiological variability, traditionally dismissed as “noise,” into diagnostic information for precision-based voice care. A conceptual framework integrating vocal capacity, demand response, reserve, and recovery enables individualized monitoring, predictive risk assessment, and proactive intervention, mirroring progress in cardiology and orthopedics where variability became diagnostic. Applied to voice, this approach can transform clinical practice: a teacher’s inconsistent perturbation may signal depleted reserve requiring pacing; a singer’s instability may reflect insufficient reserve under rehearsal load, guiding recovery scheduling; and a neurological patient’s fluctuations may indicate variable demand response, informing targeted intervention.Conclusions Variability-informed models can establish individual baselines, track change trajectories, and identify functional thresholds before overt disorder emerges. Embracing physiological variability offers a path to align clinical strategies with functional sustainability, transforming uncertainty into actionable insight for research and clinical practice.
Source: Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology
Authors: Eric J. Hunter, Mark L. Berardi
Institution: University of Iowa
Language: English
Topic: Voice and Speech Disorders
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4414501151