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Borjon JI, Abney DH, Yu C, Smith LB. Infant vocal productions coincide with body movements. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13491. [PMID: 38433472 PMCID: PMC11161311 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13491] [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: 05/12/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
Producing recognizable words is a difficult motor task; a one-syllable word can require the coordination of over 80 muscles. Thus, it is not surprising that the development of word productions in infancy lags considerably behind receptive language and is a known limiting factor in language development. A large literature has focused on the vocal apparatus, its articulators, and language development. There has been limited study of the relations between non-speech motor skills and the quality of early speech productions. Here we present evidence that the spontaneous vocalizations of 9- to 24-month-old infants recruit extraneous, synergistic co-activations of hand and head movements and that the temporal precision of the co-activation of vocal and extraneous muscle groups tightens with age and improved recognizability of speech. These results implicate an interaction between the muscle groups that produce speech and other body movements and provide new empirical pathways for understanding the role of motor development in language acquisition. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: The spontaneous vocalizations of 9- to 24-month-old infants recruit extraneous, synergistic co-activations of hand and head movements. The temporal precision of these hand and head movements during vocal production tighten with age and improved speech recognition. These results implicate an interaction between the muscle groups producing speech with other body movements. These results provide new empirical pathways for understanding the role of motor development in language acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy I. Borjon
- Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, USA
- Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, USA
- Texas Center for Learning Disorders, University of Houston, Houston, USA
| | - Drew H. Abney
- Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
| | - Chen Yu
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, USA
| | - Linda B. Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
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Osiecka AN, Fearey J, Ravignani A, Burchardt LS. Isochrony in barks of Cape fur seal ( Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups and adults. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11085. [PMID: 38463637 PMCID: PMC10920323 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Revised: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Animal vocal communication often relies on call sequences. The temporal patterns of such sequences can be adjusted to other callers, follow complex rhythmic structures or exhibit a metronome-like pattern (i.e., isochronous). How regular are the temporal patterns in animal signals, and what influences their precision? If present, are rhythms already there early in ontogeny? Here, we describe an exploratory study of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) barks-a vocalisation type produced across many pinniped species in rhythmic, percussive bouts. This study is the first quantitative description of barking in Cape fur seal pups. We analysed the rhythmic structures of spontaneous barking bouts of pups and adult females from the breeding colony in Cape Cross, Namibia. Barks of adult females exhibited isochrony, that is they were produced at fairly regular points in time. Instead, intervals between pup barks were more variable, that is skipping a bark in the isochronous series occasionally. In both age classes, beat precision, that is how well the barks followed a perfect template, was worse when barking at higher rates. Differences could be explained by physiological factors, such as respiration or arousal. Whether, and how, isochrony develops in this species remains an open question. This study provides evidence towards a rhythmic production of barks in Cape fur seal pups and lays the groundwork for future studies to investigate the development of rhythm using multidimensional metrics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna N. Osiecka
- Department of Vertebrate Ecology and Zoology, Faculty of BiologyUniversity of GdańskGdańskPoland
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of BiologyUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
| | - Jack Fearey
- Sea Search Research and Conservation NPCCape TownSouth Africa
- Department of Statistical Sciences, Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and ConservationUniversity of Cape TownCape TownWestern CapeSouth Africa
| | - Andrea Ravignani
- Comparative Bioacoustics GroupMax Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegenThe Netherlands
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical MedicineAarhus UniversityAarhus CDenmark
- Department of Human NeurosciencesSapienza University of RomeRomeItaly
| | - Lara S. Burchardt
- Comparative Bioacoustics GroupMax Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegenThe Netherlands
- Leibniz‐Zentrum Allgemeine SprachwissenschaftBerlinGermany
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Anikin A. The honest sound of physical effort. PeerJ 2023; 11:e14944. [PMID: 37033726 PMCID: PMC10078454 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Acoustic correlates of physical effort are still poorly understood, even though effort is vocally communicated in a variety of contexts with crucial fitness consequences, including both confrontational and reproductive social interactions. In this study 33 lay participants spoke during a brief, but intense isometric hold (L-sit), first without any voice-related instructions, and then asked either to conceal their effort or to imitate it without actually performing the exercise. Listeners in two perceptual experiments then rated 383 recordings on perceived level of effort (n = 39 listeners) or categorized them as relaxed speech, actual effort, pretended effort, or concealed effort (n = 102 listeners). As expected, vocal effort increased compared to baseline, but the accompanying acoustic changes (increased loudness, pitch, and tense voice quality) were under voluntary control, so that they could be largely suppressed or imitated at will. In contrast, vocal tremor at approximately 10 Hz was most pronounced under actual load, and its experimental addition to relaxed baseline recordings created the impression of concealed effort. In sum, a brief episode of intense physical effort causes pronounced vocal changes, some of which are difficult to control. Listeners can thus estimate the true level of exertion, whether to judge the condition of their opponent in a fight or to monitor a partner’s investment into cooperative physical activities.
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Florit-Pons J, Vilà-Giménez I, Rohrer PL, Prieto P. Multimodal Development in Children's Narrative Speech: Evidence for Tight Gesture-Speech Temporal Alignment Patterns as Early as 5 Years Old. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:888-900. [PMID: 36809062 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study aims to analyze the development of gesture-speech temporal alignment patterns in children's narrative speech from a longitudinal perspective and, specifically, the potential differences between different gesture types, namely, gestures that imagistically portray or refer to semantic content in speech (i.e., referential gestures) and those that lack semantic content (i.e., non-referential gestures). METHOD This study uses an audiovisual corpus of narrative productions (n = 332) from 83 children (43 girls, 40 boys) who participated in a narrative retelling task at two time points in development (at 5-6 and 7-9 years of age). The 332 narratives were coded for both manual co-speech gesture types and prosody. Gestural annotations included gesture phasing (i.e., preparation, stroke, hold, and recovery) and gesture types (in terms of referentiality, i.e., referential and non-referential), whereas prosodic annotations included pitch-accented syllables. RESULTS Results revealed that by ages 5-6 years, children already temporally aligned the stroke of both referential and non-referential gestures with pitch-accented syllables, showing no significant differences between these two gesture types. CONCLUSIONS The results of the present study contribute to the view that both referential and non-referential gestures are aligned with pitch accentuation, and therefore, this is not only a characteristic of non-referential gestures. Our results also add support to McNeill's phonological synchronization rule from a developmental perspective and indirectly back up recent theories about the biomechanics of gesture-speech alignment, suggesting that this is an inherent ability of oral communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Júlia Florit-Pons
- Grup d'Estudis de Prosòdia, Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Ingrid Vilà-Giménez
- Grup d'Estudis de Prosòdia, Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Department of Subject-Specific Education, Universitat de Girona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Patrick Louis Rohrer
- Grup d'Estudis de Prosòdia, Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes, Nantes Université, France
| | - Pilar Prieto
- Grup d'Estudis de Prosòdia, Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
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Potočnik MM, Edwards I, Potočnik N. Locomotor-Respiratory Entrainment upon Phonated Compared to Spontaneous Breathing during Submaximal Exercise. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:2838. [PMID: 36833534 PMCID: PMC9957459 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20042838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Recently, increased attention to breathing techniques during exercise has addressed the need for more in-depth study of the ergogenic effects of breathing manipulation. The physiological effects of phonation, as a potential breathing tool, have not yet been studied. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the respiratory, metabolic and hemodynamic responses of phonated exhalation and its impact on locomotor-respiratory entrainment in young healthy adults during moderate exercise. Twenty-six young, healthy participants were subjected to peak expiratory flow (PEF) measurements and a moderate steady cycling protocol based on three different breathing patterns (BrP): spontaneous breathing (BrP1), phonated breathing pronouncing "h" (BrP2) and phonated breathing pronouncing "ss" (BrP3). The heart rate, arterial blood pressure, oxygen consumption, CO2 production, respiratory rate (RR), tidal volume (VT), respiratory exchange ratio and ventilatory equivalents for both important respiratory gasses (eqO2 and eqCO2) were measured (Cosmed, Italy) simultaneously during a short period of moderate stationary cycling at a predefined cadence. To evaluate the psychological outcomes, the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was recorded after each cycling protocol. The locomotor-respiratory frequency coupling was calculated at each BrP, and dominant coupling was determined. Phonation gradually decreased the PEF (388 ± 54 L/min at BrP2 and 234 ± 54 L/min at BrP3 compared to 455 ± 42 L/min upon spontaneous breathing) and affected the RR (18.8 ± 5.0 min-1 at BrP2 compared to 22.6 ± 5.5 min-1 at BrP1 and 21.3 ± 7.2 min-1 at BrP3), VT (2.33 ± 0.53 L at BrP2 compared to 1.86 ± 0.46 L at BrP1 and 2.00 ± 0.45 L at BrP3), dominant locomotor-respiratory coupling (1:4 at BrP2 compared to 1:3 at BrP1 and BrP2) and RPE (10.27 ± 2.00 at BrP1 compared to 11.95 ± 1.79 at BrP1 and 11.95 ± 1.01 at BrP3) but not any other respiratory, metabolic or hemodynamic measures of the healthy adults during moderate cycling. The ventilatory efficiency was shown to improve upon dominant locomotor-respiratory coupling, regardless of BrP (eqO2 = 21.8 ± 2.2 and eqCO2 = 24.0 ± 1.9), compared to the other entrainment coupling regimes (25.3 ± 1.9, 27.3 ± 1.7) and no entrainment (24.8 ± 1.5, 26.5 ± 1.3), respectively. No interaction between phonated breathing and entrainment was observed during moderate cycling. We showed, for the first time, that phonation can be used as a simple tool to manipulate expiratory flow. Furthermore, our results indicated that in young healthy adults, entrainment, rather than expiratory resistance, preferentially affected ergogenic enhancement upon moderate stationary cycling. It can only be speculated that phonation would be a good strategy to increase exercise tolerance among COPD patients or to boost the respiratory efficiency of healthy people at higher exercise loads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maja Marija Potočnik
- Departmenet of Anasthesiology and Intensive Therapy, University Medical Center, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Ian Edwards
- Centre for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Nejka Potočnik
- Institute of Physiology, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Shi X. Towards a post-age picturebook pedagogy. HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS 2022; 9:423. [PMID: 36466701 PMCID: PMC9707091 DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01446-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
This article is one of the first attempts to materialise Joanna Haynes and Karin Murris' conceptualisation of the post-age pedagogy that focuses on loosening the boundaries of age-based expectation. The project is conducted against the backdrop of the discourse of ageism existing hand-in-hand with various age-transgressive practices. It involved multiple case studies of child and adult readers' responses to two picturebooks, i.e., How to Five Forever (1995) and Grandpa Green (2011). The two research questions are: how do children and adults respond to Forever and Grandpa? What is the pattern of similarities and differences in their responses? In addressing these research questions, the present study aims to facilitate the emergence of a post-age picturebook pedagogy. The findings reveal that a post-age picturebook pedagogy should acknowledge the chance of holistic learning opportunities that picturebooks can offer to both children and adults, including, for instance, aesthetic appreciation, literary understanding, emotional engagement, and material experience. Such a pedagogy involves an egalitarian view of child and adult that acknowledges some biologically determined differences subject to the factor of age and meanwhile emphasises their shared humanity and idiosyncrasies, thus undermining the binary division between simple child and sophisticated adult. The material affordances of a picturebook can be deployed to amplify the points of connection and dialogue in child and adult readers' responses and a post-age picturebook pedagogy should strive to enrich interpretive and experiential possibilities for diverse readerships. In comparison with the existing empirical studies using picturebooks, this project positions adults as readers who can enjoy picturebooks for their own sake rather than co-readers whose responsibility is mainly to facilitate child readers' learning and development. It stresses and seeks to maximise the potential of picturebooks for creating a beneficial and pleasant experience for all involved, both child and adult, an aspect that has long been overlooked.
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Laudanska Z, López Pérez D, Kozioł A, Radkowska A, Babis K, Malinowska-Korczak A, Tomalski P. Longitudinal changes in infants' rhythmic arm movements during rattle-shaking play with mothers. Front Psychol 2022; 13:896319. [PMID: 36337572 PMCID: PMC9634176 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.896319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
From early on, infants produce a variety of rhythmic behaviors-an ability that likely supports later social communication. However, it is unclear, how this rhythmic motor production changes with age. Here, we investigated the coupling between infants' arm movements across the first year of life in a social context of a rattle-shaking play with their mothers. Through longitudinal measurements at 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of age using wearable motion trackers placed on infants' arms, we show that infants (N = 40) are similarly motivated to attempt rattle-shaking across the first year of life. However, with age, they make more rattling movements with an increased frequency. Their left and right arm movements become more coupled during rattle-shaking, as shown by an increase in wavelet coherence. Infants produced more rattling movements when they were rattling alone than when their mothers were rattling or singing simultaneously. There were no differences between infants' individual and social rattling in between-arms coherence. Our results may help to understand rhythmic arm movements as precursors of motor social coordination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zuzanna Laudanska
- Neurocognitive Development Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - David López Pérez
- Neurocognitive Development Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | | | | | | | - Przemysław Tomalski
- Neurocognitive Development Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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Pouw W, Harrison SJ, Dixon JA. The importance of visual control and biomechanics in the regulation of gesture-speech synchrony for an individual deprived of proprioceptive feedback of body position. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14775. [PMID: 36042321 PMCID: PMC9428168 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18300-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Do communicative actions such as gestures fundamentally differ in their control mechanisms from other actions? Evidence for such fundamental differences comes from a classic gesture-speech coordination experiment performed with a person (IW) with deafferentation (McNeill, 2005). Although IW has lost both his primary source of information about body position (i.e., proprioception) and discriminative touch from the neck down, his gesture-speech coordination has been reported to be largely unaffected, even if his vision is blocked. This is surprising because, without vision, his object-directed actions almost completely break down. We examine the hypothesis that IW's gesture-speech coordination is supported by the biomechanical effects of gesturing on head posture and speech. We find that when vision is blocked, there are micro-scale increases in gesture-speech timing variability, consistent with IW's reported experience that gesturing is difficult without vision. Supporting the hypothesis that IW exploits biomechanical consequences of the act of gesturing, we find that: (1) gestures with larger physical impulses co-occur with greater head movement, (2) gesture-speech synchrony relates to larger gesture-concurrent head movements (i.e. for bimanual gestures), (3) when vision is blocked, gestures generate more physical impulse, and (4) moments of acoustic prominence couple more with peaks of physical impulse when vision is blocked. It can be concluded that IW's gesturing ability is not based on a specialized language-based feedforward control as originally concluded from previous research, but is still dependent on a varied means of recurrent feedback from the body.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wim Pouw
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Steven J Harrison
- Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| | - James A Dixon
- Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
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