1
|
Weirich M, Simpson AP, Knutti N. Effects of testosterone on speech production and perception: Linking hormone levels in males to vocal cues and female voice attractiveness ratings. Physiol Behav 2024; 283:114615. [PMID: 38880296 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114615] [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: 03/27/2024] [Revised: 06/10/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024]
Abstract
This study sets out to investigate the potential effect of males' testosterone level on speech production and speech perception. Regarding speech production, we investigate intra- and inter-individual variation in mean fundamental frequency (fo) and formant frequencies and highlight the potential interacting effect of another hormone, i.e. cortisol. In addition, we investigate the influence of different speech materials on the relationship between testosterone and speech production. Regarding speech perception, we investigate the potential effect of individual differences in males' testosterone level on ratings of attractiveness of female voices. In the production study, data is gathered from 30 healthy adult males ranging from 19 to 27 years (mean age: 22.4, SD: 2.2) who recorded their voices and provided saliva samples at 9 am, 12 noon and 3 pm on a single day. Speech material consists of sustained vowels, counting, read speech and a free description of pictures. Biological measures comprise speakers' height, grip strength, and hormone levels (testosterone and cortisol). In the perception study, participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of female voice stimuli (sentence stimulus, same-speaker pairs) that were manipulated in three steps regarding mean fo and formant frequencies. Regarding speech production, our results show that testosterone affected mean fo (but not formants) both within and between speakers. This relationship was weakened in speakers with high cortisol levels and depended on the speech material. Regarding speech perception, we found female stimuli with higher mean fo and formants to be rated as sounding more attractive than stimuli with lower mean fo and formants. Moreover, listeners with low testosterone showed an increased sensitivity to vocal cues of female attractiveness. While our results of the production study support earlier findings of a relationship between testosterone and mean fo in males (which is mediated by cortisol), they also highlight the relevance of the speech material: The effect of testosterone was strongest in sustained vowels, potentially due to a strengthened effect of hormones on physiologically strongly influenced tasks such as sustained vowels in contrast to more free speech tasks such as a picture description. The perception study is the first to show an effect of males' testosterone level on female attractiveness ratings using voice stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Melanie Weirich
- Institute for German Linguistics, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
| | - Adrian P Simpson
- Institute for German Linguistics, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
| | | |
Collapse
|
2
|
Polo P, Fajardo G, Muñoz-Reyes JA, Valenzuela NT, Belinchón M, Figueroa O, Fernández-Martínez A, Deglín M, Pita M. The role of exogenous testosterone and social environment on the expression of sociosexuality and status-seeking behaviors in young Chilean men. Horm Behav 2024; 161:105522. [PMID: 38447330 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Revised: 01/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Testosterone plays an important role as a social hormone. Current evidence suggests that testosterone is positively related to sociosexuality increasing the psychological attitudes toward investing in short-term versus long-term mating and promotes status-seeking behaviors both by dominance and prestige. In addition, the social environment may play an important role in the expression of mating effort through changes in sociosexuality and status-seeking behaviors. However, the causal relationships among the mentioned variables are still debated. We employed a double-blind, placebo-controlled within-individual design, in order to test and integrate the proposed causal relationships between testosterone and social environment over short-term and long-term mating orientation and dominant and prestigious status-seeking behaviors in a sample of 95 young Chilean men. We did not find evidence that the administration of exogenous testosterone increased short-term or decreased long-term mating orientation as expected. Moreover, exogenous testosterone did not affect either aggressive or cooperative behavior failing to support the social status hypothesis. We also did not find any relationship between short or long-term mating orientation with status-seeking behaviors. Finally, we found support for the effect of social environment on sociosexual attitudes but not over status-seeking behaviors. Thus, men reported higher levels of short-term mating orientation in the presence of a woman compared to a man and no differences were found for long-term mating orientation. We argue that sociosexuality may be expressed flexibly, but contextual factors such as the presence of women seem more important than changes in testosterone levels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Polo
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile.
| | - Gabriela Fajardo
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile; Facultad de Administración y Economía, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Jose Antonio Muñoz-Reyes
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | - Nohelia T Valenzuela
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | - Montserrat Belinchón
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | - Oriana Figueroa
- Laboratorio de Comportamiento Animal y Humano, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Marcel Deglín
- Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile; Hospital Carlos van Buren, Valparaíso, Chile; Clínica Ciudad del Mar, Viña del Mar, Chile
| | - Miguel Pita
- Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Nan Y, Mehta P, Liao J, Zheng Y, Han C, Wu Y. Testosterone administration decreases sensitivity to angry facial expressions in healthy males: A computational modeling approach. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2024; 161:106948. [PMID: 38211451 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Revised: 11/10/2023] [Accepted: 12/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
Previous research indicates that higher testosterone levels are related to increased aggressive and dominant behaviors, particularly in males. One possible mechanism for these hormone-behavior associations could involve threat perception. However, the causal influence of testosterone on men's recognition of threatening facial expressions remains unknown. Here, we tested the causal effect of exogenous testosterone on men's sensitivity to facial threat by combining a psychophysical task with computational modeling. We administered a single dose (150 mg) of testosterone or placebo gel to healthy young men (n = 120) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participant design. Participants were presented with morphed emotional faces mixing anger/fear and neutral expressions and made judgments about the emotional expression. Across typical regression analysis, signal detection analysis, and drift diffusion modeling, our results consistently showed that individuals who received testosterone (versus placebo) exhibited a lower perceived sensitivity to angry facial expressions. But we observed no significant effects of testosterone administration on fearful facial expressions. The findings indicate that testosterone attenuates sensitivity to facial threat, especially angry facial expressions, which could lead to a misestimation of others' dominance and an increase in one's own aggressive and dominant behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu Nan
- Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China; School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Pranjal Mehta
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jiajun Liao
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yueyuan Zheng
- Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Chengyang Han
- Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yin Wu
- Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China; Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Chen S, Han C, Wang S, Liu X, Wang B, Wei R, Lei X. Hearing the physical condition: The relationship between sexually dimorphic vocal traits and underlying physiology. Front Psychol 2022; 13:983688. [DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.983688] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing amount of research has shown associations between sexually dimorphic vocal traits and physiological conditions related to reproductive advantage. This paper presented a review of the literature on the relationship between sexually dimorphic vocal traits and sex hormones, body size, and physique. Those physiological conditions are important in reproductive success and mate selection. Regarding sex hormones, there are associations between sex-specific hormones and sexually dimorphic vocal traits; about body size, formant frequencies are more reliable predictors of human body size than pitch/fundamental frequency; with regard to the physique, there is a possible but still controversial association between human voice and strength and combat power, while pitch is more often used as a signal of aggressive intent in conflict. Future research should consider demographic, cross-cultural, cognitive interaction, and emotional motivation influences, in order to more accurately assess the relationship between voice and physiology. Moreover, neurological studies were recommended to gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary origins and adaptive functions of voice modulation.
Collapse
|
5
|
Buades-Rotger M, Göttlich M, Weiblen R, Petereit P, Scheidt T, Keevil BG, Krämer UM. Low Competitive Status Elicits Aggression in Healthy Young Men: Behavioral and Neural Evidence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1123-1137. [PMID: 33959776 PMCID: PMC8599182 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Winners are commonly assumed to compete more aggressively than losers. Here, we find overwhelming evidence for the opposite. We first demonstrate that low-ranking teams commit more fouls than they receive in top-tier soccer, ice hockey, and basketball men's leagues. We replicate this effect in the laboratory, showing that male participants deliver louder sound blasts to a rival when placed in a low-status position. Using neuroimaging, we characterize brain activity patterns that encode competitive status as well as those that facilitate status-dependent aggression in healthy young men. These analyses reveal three key findings. First, anterior hippocampus and striatum contain multivariate representations of competitive status. Second, interindividual differences in status-dependent aggression are linked with a sharper status differentiation in the striatum and with greater reactivity to status-enhancing victories in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Third, activity in ventromedial, ventrolateral, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with trial-wise increases in status-dependent aggressive behavior. Taken together, our results run counter to narratives glorifying aggression in competitive situations. Rather, we show that those in the lower ranks of skill-based hierarchies are more likely to behave aggressively and identify the potential neural basis of this phenomenon.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Macià Buades-Rotger
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Martin Göttlich
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Ronja Weiblen
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | | | - Thomas Scheidt
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Brian G Keevil
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Ulrike M Krämer
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| |
Collapse
|