Investigating the statistical properties of the swallowing sounds.

In this paper the statistical properties of the swallowing sound is discussed. This knowledge is required for the acoustical modeling of the swallowing mechanism as it is important to select an appropriate type of the system (i.e. linear vs. nonlinear) for modeling. The tests of linearity and gaussianity were performed. The results of the statistical test of gaussianity showed a nonGaussian distribution of the swallowing sound signals. Also, the test of linearity exhibited the nonlinear characteristics of the model that represents the swallowing sound generation.