system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do elderly people sound old?

What is it about one’s vocal chords/intonation/enunciation that causes them to physically sound older? I can tell when the person who answers the phone is young, middle aged or elderly. Why?
gpt
Voice and speech pathologist here. The aging of the voice is known as vocal senescence. The auditory characteristics that cause a perceptual change in aged voices were studied by Iwao Honjo and Nobuhiko Isshiki in an article in 1978 in the journal Oto-Rhino-Laryngologica entitled ‘Laryngoscopic and Vocal Characteristics of Aged Persons’ They reported that “laryngoscopic and vocal changes in aged persons were examined in 20 males and 20 females whose ages ranged from 69 to 85 years, with the mean of 75 years. From their recorded voices, assessment of voice quality, measurements of both the fundamental frequency, and the pitch perturbation were carried out.
“The characteristic findings obtained were as follows: (a) the aged males tended to show a marked vocal cord atrophy and/or edema with a higher fundamental frequency of voice (mean of 162Hz) than that in adult males, (b) the aged females tended to have a vocal cord edema and slight hoarseness with a relatively lower fundamental frequency (mean of 165Hz) than that of adult females.
“Vocal changes in senescence are characterized by slight hoarseness or a noticeable change in fundamental frequency of voice.
“The change of vocal cords in terms of mass, such as atrophy or edema is considered to be the most responsible factor in the above vocal changes during senescence.”