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Hyde J, Feenaughty L, van Mersbergen M. Does Vocalization Increase the Positive Valence of Emotion? J Voice 2024:S0892-1997(24)00233-9. [PMID: 39107212 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.07.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2024] [Revised: 07/15/2024] [Accepted: 07/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/09/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study aims to determine if the act of voicing can have an effect on mood. DESIGN A within-participant reversal paradigm, where each participant served as their own control. METHODS Following a baseline condition, 40 participants (8 male, 32 female, none disclosed as other) underwent three experimental conditions: breathing, articulating, and voicing. After each condition, participants underwent a picture-viewing emotion-induction paradigm using the International Affective Picture System followed by rating their current mood and arousal. RESULTS Immediately following the articulating condition, aversive pictures were rated as less unpleasant compared with the other conditions. Additionally, arousal levels were rated lower immediately following the articulating and voicing conditions in response to the positive pictures. CONCLUSIONS The findings showed that the act of making speech sounds, not simply voicing by itself, may influence the way we process emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Hyde
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee; Voice Center, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ochsner Health, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Lynda Feenaughty
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee
| | - Miriam van Mersbergen
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
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Yoo H, Su PL, Ramsay G, Long HL, Bene ER, Kimbrough Oller D. Infant vocal category exploration as a foundation for speech development. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.17.576142. [PMID: 38293228 PMCID: PMC10827196 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.17.576142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Non-random exploration of infant speech-like vocalizations (e.g., squeals, growls, and vowel- like sounds or "vocants") is pivotal in speech development. This type of vocal exploration, often noticed when infants produce particular vocal types in clusters, serves two crucial purposes: it establishes a foundation for speech because speech requires formation of new vocal categories, and it serves as a basis for vocal signaling of wellness and interaction with caregivers. Despite the significance of clustering, existing research has largely relied on subjective descriptions and anecdotal observations regarding early vocal category formation. In this study, we aim to address this gap by presenting the first large-scale empirical evidence of vocal category exploration and clustering throughout the first year of life. We observed infant vocalizations longitudinally using all-day home recordings from 130 typically developing infants across the entire first year of life. To identify clustering patterns, we conducted Fisher's exact tests to compare the occurrence of squeals versus vocants, as well as growls versus vocants. We found that across the first year, infants demonstrated clear clustering patterns of squeals and growls, indicating that these categories were not randomly produced, but rather, it seemed, infants actively engaged in practice of these specific categories. The findings lend support to the concept of infants as manifesting active vocal exploration and category formation, a key foundation for vocal language.
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Pisanski K, Bryant GA, Cornec C, Anikin A, Reby D. Form follows function in human nonverbal vocalisations. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2022.2026482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Katarzyna Pisanski
- ENES Sensory Neuro-Ethology Lab, CRNL, Jean Monnet University of Saint Étienne, UMR 5293, St-Étienne 42023, France
- CNRS French National Centre for Scientific Research, DDL Dynamics of Language Lab, University of Lyon 2, Lyon 69007, France
| | - Gregory A. Bryant
- Department of Communication, Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Clément Cornec
- ENES Sensory Neuro-Ethology Lab, CRNL, Jean Monnet University of Saint Étienne, UMR 5293, St-Étienne 42023, France
| | - Andrey Anikin
- ENES Sensory Neuro-Ethology Lab, CRNL, Jean Monnet University of Saint Étienne, UMR 5293, St-Étienne 42023, France
- Division of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Lund 22100, Sweden
| | - David Reby
- ENES Sensory Neuro-Ethology Lab, CRNL, Jean Monnet University of Saint Étienne, UMR 5293, St-Étienne 42023, France
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Long HL, Ramsay G, Griebel U, Bene ER, Bowman DD, Burkhardt-Reed MM, Oller DK. Perspectives on the origin of language: Infants vocalize most during independent vocal play but produce their most speech-like vocalizations during turn taking. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0279395. [PMID: 36584126 PMCID: PMC9803194 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing body of research emphasizes both endogenous and social motivations in human vocal development. Our own efforts seek to establish an evolutionary and developmental perspective on the existence and usage of speech-like vocalizations ("protophones") in the first year of life. We evaluated the relative occurrence of protophones in 40 typically developing infants across the second-half year based on longitudinal all-day recordings. Infants showed strong endogenous motivation to vocalize, producing vastly more protophones during independent vocal exploration and play than during vocal turn taking. Both periods of vocal play and periods of turn-taking corresponded to elevated levels of the most advanced protophones (canonical babbling) relative to periods without vocal play or without turn-taking. Notably, periods of turn taking showed even more canonical babbling than periods of vocal play. We conclude that endogenous motivation drives infants' tendencies to explore and display a great number of speech-like vocalizations, but that social interaction drives the production of the most speech-like forms. The results inform our previously published proposal that the human infant has been naturally selected to explore protophone production and that the exploratory inclination in our hominin ancestors formed a foundation for language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen L. Long
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Gordon Ramsay
- Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
- Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Ulrike Griebel
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Edina R. Bene
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Dale D. Bowman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Department of Mathematics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Megan M. Burkhardt-Reed
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - D. Kimbrough Oller
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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Oller DK, Ramsay G, Bene E, Long HL, Griebel U. Protophones, the precursors to speech, dominate the human infant vocal landscape. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200255. [PMID: 34482735 PMCID: PMC8419580 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Human infant vocalization is viewed as a critical foundation for vocal learning and language. All apes share distress sounds (shrieks and cries) and laughter. Another vocal type, speech-like sounds, common in human infants, is rare but not absent in other apes. These three vocal types form a basis for especially informative cross-species comparisons. To make such comparisons possible we need empirical research documenting the frequency of occurrence of all three. The present work provides a comprehensive portrayal of these three vocal types in the human infant from longitudinal research in various circumstances of recording. Recently, the predominant vocalizations of the human infant have been shown to be speech-like sounds, or 'protophones', including both canonical and non-canonical babbling. The research shows that protophones outnumber cries by a factor of at least five based on data from random-sampling of all-day recordings across the first year. The present work expands on the prior reports, showing the protophones vastly outnumber both cry and laughter in both all-day and laboratory recordings in various circumstances. The data provide new evidence of the predominance of protophones in the infant vocal landscape and illuminate their role in human vocal learning and the origin of language. This article is part of the theme issue 'Vocal learning in animals and humans'.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. Kimbrough Oller
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Gordon Ramsay
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Edina Bene
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Helen L. Long
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Ulrike Griebel
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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Oller DK, Griebel U. Functionally Flexible Signaling and the Origin of Language. Front Psychol 2021; 11:626138. [PMID: 33574785 PMCID: PMC7870697 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.626138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
At the earliest break of ancient hominins from their primate relatives in vocal communication, we propose a selection pressure on vocal fitness signaling by hominin infants. Exploratory vocalizations, not tied to expression of distress or immediate need, could have helped persuade parents of the wellness and viability of the infants who produced them. We hypothesize that hominin parents invested more in infants who produced such signals of fitness plentifully, neglecting or abandoning them less often than infants who produced the sounds less frequently. Selection for such exploratory vocalization provided a critically important inclination and capability relevant to language, we reason, because the system that encouraged spontaneous vocalization also made vocalization functionally flexible to an extent that has not been observed in any other animal. Although this vocal flexibility did not by itself create language, it provided an essential foundation upon which language would evolve through a variety of additional steps. In evaluating this speculation, we consider presumable barriers to evolving language that are thought to be implications of Darwinian Theory. It has been claimed that communication always involves sender self-interest and that self-interest leads to deceit, which is countered through clever detection by receivers. The constant battle of senders and receivers has been thought to pose an insuperable challenge to honest communication, which has been viewed as a requirement of language. To make communication honest, it has been proposed that stable signaling requires costly handicaps for the sender, and since language cannot entail high cost, the reasoning has suggested an insurmountable obstacle to the evolution of language. We think this presumed honesty barrier is an illusion that can be revealed by recognition of the fact that language is not inherently honest and in light of the distinction between illocutionary force and semantics. Our paper also considers barriers to the evolution of language (not having to do with honesty) that we think may have actually played important roles in preventing species other than humans from evolving language.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. Kimbrough Oller
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Ulrike Griebel
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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Preterm and full term infant vocalization and the origin of language. Sci Rep 2019; 9:14734. [PMID: 31611607 PMCID: PMC6791864 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51352-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2019] [Accepted: 09/27/2019] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
How did vocal language originate? Before trying to determine how referential vocabulary or syntax may have arisen, it is critical to explain how ancient hominins began to produce vocalization flexibly, without binding to emotions or functions. A crucial factor in the vocal communicative split of hominins from the ape background may thus have been copious, functionally flexible vocalization, starting in infancy and continuing throughout life, long before there were more advanced linguistic features such as referential vocabulary. 2-3 month-old modern human infants produce "protophones", including at least three types of functionally flexible non-cry precursors to speech rarely reported in other ape infants. But how early in life do protophones actually appear? We report that the most common protophone types emerge abundantly as early as vocalization can be observed in infancy, in preterm infants still in neonatal intensive care. Contrary to the expectation that cries are the predominant vocalizations of infancy, our all-day recordings showed that protophones occurred far more frequently than cries in both preterm and full-term infants. Protophones were not limited to interactive circumstances, but also occurred at high rates when infants were alone, indicating an endogenous inclination to vocalize exploratorily, perhaps the most fundamental capacity underlying vocal language.
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