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Nussbaum C, Schirmer A, Schweinberger SR. Musicality - Tuned to the melody of vocal emotions. Br J Psychol 2024; 115:206-225. [PMID: 37851369 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023]
Abstract
Musicians outperform non-musicians in vocal emotion perception, likely because of increased sensitivity to acoustic cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and timbre. Yet, how musicians make use of these acoustic cues to perceive emotions, and how they might differ from non-musicians, is unclear. To address these points, we created vocal stimuli that conveyed happiness, fear, pleasure or sadness, either in all acoustic cues, or selectively in either F0 or timbre only. We then compared vocal emotion perception performance between professional/semi-professional musicians (N = 39) and non-musicians (N = 38), all socialized in Western music culture. Compared to non-musicians, musicians classified vocal emotions more accurately. This advantage was seen in the full and F0-modulated conditions, but was absent in the timbre-modulated condition indicating that musicians excel at perceiving the melody (F0), but not the timbre of vocal emotions. Further, F0 seemed more important than timbre for the recognition of all emotional categories. Additional exploratory analyses revealed a link between time-varying F0 perception in music and voices that was independent of musical training. Together, these findings suggest that musicians are particularly tuned to the melody of vocal emotions, presumably due to a natural predisposition to exploit melodic patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Nussbaum
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Annett Schirmer
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Stefan R Schweinberger
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Neuenswander KL, Gillespie GSR, Lick DJ, Bryant GA, Johnson KL. Social evaluative implications of sensory adaptation to human voices. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231348. [PMID: 38544561 PMCID: PMC10966390 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2023] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
People form social evaluations of others following brief exposure to their voices, and these impressions are calibrated based on recent perceptual experience. Participants adapted to voices with fundamental frequency (f o; the acoustic correlate of perceptual pitch) manipulated to be gender-typical (i.e. masculine men and feminine women) or gender-atypical (i.e. feminine men and masculine women) before evaluating unaltered test voices within the same sex. Adaptation resulted in contrastive aftereffects. Listening to gender-atypical voices caused female voices to sound more feminine and attractive (Study 1) and male voices to sound more masculine and attractive (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b tested whether adaptation occurred on a conceptual or perceptual level, respectively. In Study 3a, perceivers adapted to gender-typical or gender-atypical voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in opposite directions for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. Findings showed weak evidence that evaluations differed between conditions. In Study 3b, perceivers adapted to masculinized or feminized voices for both men and women (i.e. adaptors pitch manipulated in the same direction for men and women) before evaluating unaltered test voices. In the feminized condition, participants rated male targets as more masculine and attractive. Conversely, in the masculinized condition, participants rated female targets as more feminine and attractive. Voices appear to be evaluated according to gender norms that are updated based on perceptual experience as well as conceptual knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Gregory A. Bryant
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095, USA
| | - Kerri L. Johnson
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Nussbaum C, Pöhlmann M, Kreysa H, Schweinberger SR. Perceived naturalness of emotional voice morphs. Cogn Emot 2023; 37:731-747. [PMID: 37104118 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2200920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2022] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023]
Abstract
Research into voice perception benefits from manipulation software to gain experimental control over acoustic expression of social signals such as vocal emotions. Today, parameter-specific voice morphing allows a precise control of the emotional quality expressed by single vocal parameters, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and timbre. However, potential side effects, in particular reduced naturalness, could limit ecological validity of speech stimuli. To address this for the domain of emotion perception, we collected ratings of perceived naturalness and emotionality on voice morphs expressing different emotions either through F0 or Timbre only. In two experiments, we compared two different morphing approaches, using either neutral voices or emotional averages as emotionally non-informative reference stimuli. As expected, parameter-specific voice morphing reduced perceived naturalness. However, perceived naturalness of F0 and Timbre morphs were comparable with averaged emotions as reference, potentially making this approach more suitable for future research. Crucially, there was no relationship between ratings of emotionality and naturalness, suggesting that the perception of emotion was not substantially affected by a reduction of voice naturalness. We hold that while these findings advocate parameter-specific voice morphing as a suitable tool for research on vocal emotion perception, great care should be taken in producing ecologically valid stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Nussbaum
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Manuel Pöhlmann
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
| | - Helene Kreysa
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | - Stefan R Schweinberger
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
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Andreeva IG, Ogorodnikova EA. Auditory Adaptation to Speech Signal Characteristics. J EVOL BIOCHEM PHYS+ 2022. [DOI: 10.1134/s0022093022050027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Schweinberger SR, von Eiff CI. Enhancing socio-emotional communication and quality of life in young cochlear implant recipients: Perspectives from parameter-specific morphing and caricaturing. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:956917. [PMID: 36090287 PMCID: PMC9453832 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.956917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The use of digitally modified stimuli with enhanced diagnostic information to improve verbal communication in children with sensory or central handicaps was pioneered by Tallal and colleagues in 1996, who targeted speech comprehension in language-learning impaired children. Today, researchers are aware that successful communication cannot be reduced to linguistic information—it depends strongly on the quality of communication, including non-verbal socio-emotional communication. In children with cochlear implants (CIs), quality of life (QoL) is affected, but this can be related to the ability to recognize emotions in a voice rather than speech comprehension alone. In this manuscript, we describe a family of new methods, termed parameter-specific facial and vocal morphing. We propose that these provide novel perspectives for assessing sensory determinants of human communication, but also for enhancing socio-emotional communication and QoL in the context of sensory handicaps, via training with digitally enhanced, caricatured stimuli. Based on promising initial results with various target groups including people with age-related macular degeneration, people with low abilities to recognize faces, older people, and adult CI users, we discuss chances and challenges for perceptual training interventions for young CI users based on enhanced auditory stimuli, as well as perspectives for CI sound processing technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan R. Schweinberger
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- *Correspondence: Stefan R. Schweinberger,
| | - Celina I. von Eiff
- Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
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Nussbaum C, Schirmer A, Schweinberger SR. Contributions of fundamental frequency and timbre to vocal emotion perception and their electrophysiological correlates. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:1145-1154. [PMID: 35522247 PMCID: PMC9714422 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac033] [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: 09/24/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Our ability to infer a speaker's emotional state depends on the processing of acoustic parameters such as fundamental frequency (F0) and timbre. Yet, how these parameters are processed and integrated to inform emotion perception remains largely unknown. Here we pursued this issue using a novel parameter-specific voice morphing technique to create stimuli with emotion modulations in only F0 or only timbre. We used these stimuli together with fully modulated vocal stimuli in an event-related potential (ERP) study in which participants listened to and identified stimulus emotion. ERPs (P200 and N400) and behavioral data converged in showing that both F0 and timbre support emotion processing but do so differently for different emotions: Whereas F0 was most relevant for responses to happy, fearful and sad voices, timbre was most relevant for responses to voices expressing pleasure. Together, these findings offer original insights into the relative significance of different acoustic parameters for early neuronal representations of speaker emotion and show that such representations are predictive of subsequent evaluative judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Nussbaum
- Correspondence should be addressed to Christine Nussbaum, Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Leutragraben 1, Jena 07743, Germany. E-mail:
| | - Annett Schirmer
- Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong SAR,Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong SAR,Center for Cognition and Brain Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Stefan R Schweinberger
- Department for General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena 07743, Germany,Voice Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena 07743, Germany,Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva 1202, Switzerland
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