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Merritt B, Bent T. Revisiting the acoustics of speaker gender perception: A gender expansive perspective. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 151:484. [PMID: 35105035 DOI: 10.1121/10.0009282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Examinations of speaker gender perception have primarily focused on the roles of fundamental frequency (fo) and formant frequencies from structured speech tasks using cisgender speakers. Yet, there is evidence to suggest that fo and formants do not fully account for listeners' perceptual judgements of gender, particularly from connected speech. This study investigated the perceptual importance of fo, formant frequencies, articulation, and intonation in listeners' judgements of gender identity and masculinity/femininity from spontaneous speech from cisgender male and female speakers as well as transfeminine and transmasculine speakers. Stimuli were spontaneous speech samples from 12 speakers who are cisgender (6 female and 6 male) and 12 speakers who are transgender (6 transfeminine and 6 transmasculine). Listeners performed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) gender identification task and masculinity/femininity rating task in two experiments that manipulated which acoustic cues were available. Experiment 1 confirmed that fo and formant frequency manipulations were insufficient to alter listener judgements across all speakers. Experiment 2 demonstrated that articulatory cues had greater weighting than intonation cues on the listeners' judgements when the fo and formant frequencies were in a gender ambiguous range. These findings counter the assumptions that fo and formant manipulations are sufficient to effectively alter perceived speaker gender.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon Merritt
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
| | - Tessa Bent
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
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Luther T, Lewis CA, Grahlow M, Hüpen P, Habel U, Foster C, Bülthoff I, Derntl B. Male or Female? - Influence of Gender Role and Sexual Attraction on Sex Categorization of Faces. Front Psychol 2021; 12:718004. [PMID: 34621218 PMCID: PMC8490621 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The categorization of dominant facial features, such as sex, is a highly relevant function for social interaction. It has been found that attributes of the perceiver, such as their biological sex, influence the perception of sexually dimorphic facial features with women showing higher recognition performance for female faces than men. However, evidence on how aspects closely related to biological sex influence face sex categorization are scarce. Using a previously validated set of sex-morphed facial images (morphed from male to female and vice versa), we aimed to investigate the influence of the participant's gender role identification and sexual orientation on face sex categorization, besides their biological sex. Image ratings, questionnaire data on gender role identification and sexual orientation were collected from 67 adults (34 females). Contrary to previous literature, biological sex per se was not significantly associated with image ratings. However, an influence of participant sexual attraction and gender role identity became apparent: participants identifying with male gender attributes and showing attraction toward females perceived masculinized female faces as more male and femininized male faces as more female when compared to participants identifying with female gender attributes and attraction toward males. Considering that we found these effects in a predominantly cisgender and heterosexual sample, investigation of face sex perception in individuals identifying with a gender different from their assigned sex (i.e., transgender people) might provide further insights into how assigned sex and gender identity are related.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa Luther
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Carolin A. Lewis
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Emotion Neuroimaging Lab, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Melina Grahlow
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Philippa Hüpen
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, JARA-Institute Brain Structure Function Relationship (INM 10), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Ute Habel
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, JARA-Institute Brain Structure Function Relationship (INM 10), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Celia Foster
- Biopsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
- Department of Human Perception, Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Isabelle Bülthoff
- Department of Human Perception, Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Birgit Derntl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- International Max Planck Research School for Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Tübingen Neuro Campus, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Abstract
Biological sex differences in brain function and structure are reliably associated with several cortico-subcortical brain regions. While sexual orientation (hetero- versus homosexuality) has been similarly linked to functional differences in several phylogenetically-old brain areas, the research on morphological brain phenotypes associated with sexual orientation is far from conclusive. We examined potential cerebral structural differences linked to sexual orientation in a group of 74 participants, including 37 men (21 homosexual) and 37 women (19 homosexual) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Gray matter volumes (GMV) were compared with respect to sexual orientation and biological sex across the entire sample using full factorial designs controlling for total intracranial volume, age, handedness, and education. We observed a significant effect of sexual orientation for the thalamus and precentral gyrus, with more GMV in heterosexual versus homosexual individuals, and for the putamen, with more GMV in homosexual + than heterosexual individuals. We found significant interactions between biological sex and sexual orientation, indicating that the significant effect for the putamen cluster was driven by homosexual women, whereas heterosexual women had increased precentral gyrus GMV. Heterosexual men exhibited more GMV in the thalamus than homosexual men. This study shows that sexual orientation is reflected in brain structure characteristics and that these differ between the sexes. The results emphasize the need to include or control for potential effects of participants' sexual orientation in neuroimaging studies. Furthermore, our findings provide important new insights into the brain morphology underlying sexual orientation and likely have important implications for understanding brain functions and behavior.
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Prete G, Fabri M, Foschi N, Tommasi L. Voice gender categorization in the connected and disconnected hemispheres. Soc Neurosci 2020; 15:385-397. [PMID: 32130082 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2020.1734654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The role of the left and right hemispheres in processing the gender of voices is controversial, some evidence suggesting a bilateral involvement, some others suggesting a right-hemispheric superiority. We investigated this issue in a gender categorization task involving healthy participants and a male split-brain patient: female or male natural voices were presented in one ear during the simultaneous presentation of white noise in the other ear (dichotic listening paradigm). Results revealed faster responses by the healthy participants for stimuli presented in the left than in the right ear, although no asymmetries emerged between the two ears in the accuracy of both the patient and the control group. Healthy participants were also more accurate at categorizing female than male voices, and an opposite-gender bias emerged - at least in females - showing faster responses in categorizing voices of the opposite gender. The results support a bilateral hemispheric involvement in voice gender categorization, without asymmetries in the patient, but with a faster categorization when voices are directly presented to the right hemisphere in the healthy sample. Moreover, when the two hemispheres directly interact with one another, a faster categorization of voices of the opposite gender emerges, and it can be an evolutionary grounded bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Prete
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara , Chieti, Italy
| | - Mara Fabri
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Neuroscience and Cell Biology Section, Polytechnic University of Marche , Ancona, Italy
| | - Nicoletta Foschi
- Regional Epilepsy Center, Neurological Clinic, "Ospedali Riuniti" , Ancona, Italy
| | - Luca Tommasi
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara , Chieti, Italy
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