Phonological effects on the perceptual weighting of voice cues for voice gender categorization

Voice perception and speaker identification interact with linguistic processing. This study investigated whether lexicality and/or phonological effects alter the perceptual weighting of voice pitch (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL) cues for perceived voice gender categorization. F0 and VTL of forward words and nonwords (for lexicality effect), and time-reversed nonwords (for phonological effect through phonetic alterations) were manipulated. Participants provided binary “man”/“woman” judgements of the different voice conditions. Cue weights for time-reversed nonwords were significantly lower than cue weights for both forward words and nonwords, but there was no significant difference between forward words and nonwords. Hence, voice cue utilization for voice gender judgements seems to be affected by phonological, rather than lexicality effects.</p

L'effet «autre voix» : comment l'identité du locuteur et la connaissance de la langue influencent le traitement de la parole émotionnelle

The human voice is a powerful tool to convey emotions. Humans hear voices on a daily basis and are able to rapidly extract relevant information to successfully interact with others. The theoretical aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of familiarity on emotional voice processing. Chapters 2 and 3 present behavioral and electrophysiological studies investigating how self- versus non self-produced voices influence the processing of emotional speech utterances. By contrasting self and other, familiarity is here assessed at a personal level. The results of Chapter 2 show a dissociation of explicit and implicit processing of the self-voice. While explicit discrimination of an emotional self-voice and other-voice was somewhat impaired, implicit self-processing prompted a self-advantage in emotion recognition and speaker discrimination. Chapter 3 reports a prioritization for the non-self voice in the processing of emotional and low-level acoustic changes, reflected in faster electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioral responses. In Chapter 4, the effect of voice familiarity on is assessed at a larger sociocultural scale by comparing speech utterances in the native and a foreign language. Taken together, this thesis highlights some ways in which the ‘otherness’ of a voice - whether a non-self speaker or a foreign language speaker - is processed with a higher priority on the one hand, but with less acoustic precision on the other hand.L’objectif théorique de cette thèse est d’étudier le rôle de la familiarité vocale sur le traitement de la voix émotionnelle. Les chapitres 2 et 3 présentent des études comportementales et électrophysiologiques portant sur les contributions spécifiques de la voix du self et la voix de l’autre sur le traitement de la parole émotionnelle. En comparant le self et l’autre, la familiarité est évaluée ici à un niveau personnel. Les résultats du chapitre 2 montrent une dissociation chez les participants des traitements explicites et implicites de leur propre voix. Alors que la discrimination explicite de leur propre voix émotionnelle est réduite, le traitement implicite de soi entraîne un avantage pour la reconnaissance des émotions et la discrimination du locuteur. Le chapitre 3 montre que les voix inconnues sont priorisées par rapport à la voix du self dans le traitement des changements émotionnels et acoustiques de bas niveau, par des réponses électrophysiologiques (EEG) et comportementales plus rapides. Au chapitre 4, l’effet de la familiarité sur la perception des émotions vocales est évalué au niveau socioculturel en comparant la langue maternelle et étrangère. Au travers de ces études, cette thèse met en évidence les différentes manières par lesquelles «l’étrangeté» d’une voix - qu’il s’agisse d’un locuteur autre que le soi ou d’une langue étrangère - est traitée avec une priorité plus élevée, mais une précision acoustique diminuée

nose referenced difference waves

Difference wave of nose-referenced data<br

Effects of speaker identity on emotion-related auditory change detection: An ERP study

International audienc

Happy you, happy me: expressive changes on a stranger's voice recruit faster implicit processes than self-produced expressions

International audienceIn social interactions, people have to pay attention both to the ‘what’ and ‘who’. In particular, expressive changes heard on speech signals have to be integrated with speaker identity, differentiating e.g. self- and other-produced signals. While previous research has shown that self-related visual information processing is facilitated compared to non-self stimuli, evidence in the auditory modality remains mixed. Here, we compared electroencephalography (EEG) responses to expressive changes in sequence of self- or other-produced speech sounds using a mismatch negativity (MMN) passive oddball paradigm. Critically, to control for speaker differences, we used programmable acoustic transformations to create voice deviants that differed from standards in exactly the same manner, making EEG responses to such deviations comparable between sequences. Our results indicate that expressive changes on a stranger’s voice are highly prioritized in auditory processing compared to identical changes on the self-voice. Other-voice deviants generate earlier MMN onset responses and involve stronger cortical activations in a left motor and somatosensory network suggestive of an increased recruitment of resources for less internally predictable, and therefore perhaps more socially relevant, signals