An ultrasound observation apparatus according to the present invention includes a frequency analysis unit, a feature calculation unit, and a feature image data generation unit. The frequency analysis unit calculates a plurality of frequency spectra by analyzing a frequency of a signal generated on the basis of an echo signal that is an electric signal converted from an ultrasound echo generated from ultrasound transmitted to an observation target and reflected from the observation target. The feature calculation unit calculates each of features of the plurality of frequency spectra, calculates corrected features of each of the frequency spectra by performing attenuation correction on the features of each of the frequency spectra, on each of a plurality of attenuation rate candidate values giving different attenuation characteristics when the ultrasound propagates through the observation target, and sets an optimum attenuation rate for the observation target from among the plurality of attenuation rate candidate values, using the corrected features. The feature image data generation unit generates feature image data for displaying the corrected features based on the optimum attenuation rate in association with visual information, together with an ultrasound image generated from the echo signal.
