Production of Nonverbal Acoustic Signals and Resulting Physiological Responses

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Production of vocal sounds: Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study. For example, they can read a script containing vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'), short sentences ('hello, how are you'), longer passages of standardised reading texts, and can also be asked to speak freely about any topic ('freedom of speech'). They can be asked to play a role or to imitate a particular emotional state. For example, "imagine that you have just been told that you have won a million euros in the lottery. Produce a vocalisation to express your excitement" or "talk to your dog your dog by imagining that he has done a negative action and then do the same thing by imagining that this time imagining that the action was positive".

Study summary

Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal vocal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts. However, despite their importance in the human vocal repertoire, the mechanisms and functions of non-verbal signals remain little studied and poorly understood in humans.Our studies aim to improve our understanding of the nature and function of non-verbal signals.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Vocal analysis — During the vocal production
  Participants will receive instructions on what to say or what type of non-verbal vocalisation to produce during the manipulation. The vocalisations thus produced by the participants will be systematically recorded and analysed using software adapted to acoustic analysis Measurement of acoustic variables such as fundamental frequency (pitch), vocal tract resonances (formants) and vocal disturbances (jitter, shimmer), the nonlinearities and chaotic/noise properties of vocalisations

Trial sites (1)

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