The voice: From identity to interactions.

Abstract

The human voice is a ubiquitous and a complex phenomenon. Voices are used for conversational speech, where the vocal expression conveys a great deal of linguistic and nonlinguistic information. There is also considerable modification of the talker's voice, and of the listener's perceptual processing, during interactions. In this chapter, we address the different kinds of information expressed in the voice and the various factors, including those derived from cognitive neuroscience, that lead to variations in how people speak. We note at the outset that indexical aspects of someone's voice, which refer to talker-specific properties of the voice, cannot be completely distinguished from the properties of his or her speech. For example, some factors, such as the accent with which he or she speaks, will affect both indexical and linguistic aspects of his or her spoken voice. ANATOMY, EVOLUTION, AND THE MECHANICS OF VOICE Anatomy of SpeechAccording to the source/filter theory of speech production (Fant, 1960), the sound produced atCopyright American Psychological Association. Not for further distribution. FIGURE 11.1. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image of a female British English talker, producing the vowel "e" in "me." Gross anatomical structures are indicated on the image.

Flexible voices: Identity perception from variable vocal signals

“…The human voice provides a multitude of cues to person identity – from only a short recording of a voice, listeners can discriminate between speakers, recognise them as familiar and identify them by their names (Kreiman & Sidtis, 2011 ). Variations in the anatomy of each individual’s vocal apparatus, such as the thickness of the vocal folds, differences in the shape of a person’s palate, and the dynamic use of the vocal tract, give rise to differences in pronunciation, accent and other idiosyncratically marked features of a person’s vocal inventory (see Scott & McGettigan, 2015 , for a review). The acoustic consequences of these differences between individuals allow listeners to process a speaker’s identity from their vocal signals only.…”

The social life of voices: studying the neural bases for the expression and perception of the self and others during spoken communication

“…Although there are relatively unchanging aspects of every voice, due to the anatomical constraints of the talker's vocal tract as well as body size and shape (Kreiman and Sidtis, 2011 ), it is also important to note that the voice is not a static object. There is no such thing as a passive voice; the voice (like all sounds) demands an action to occur for it to exist at all (Scott and McGettigan, 2015 ). Much of our vocal expression is the result of voluntary motor acts, which can be modified consciously in response to changes in acoustic, informational and social demands (McGettigan and Scott, 2014 ; Scott and McGettigan, 2015 ).…”

“…There is no such thing as a passive voice; the voice (like all sounds) demands an action to occur for it to exist at all (Scott and McGettigan, 2015 ). Much of our vocal expression is the result of voluntary motor acts, which can be modified consciously in response to changes in acoustic, informational and social demands (McGettigan and Scott, 2014 ; Scott and McGettigan, 2015 ). Sidtis and Kreiman ( 2012 ) write that the voice is “revelatory of ‘self,’ mental states, and consciousness,” reflecting “both the speaker and the context in which the voice is produced” (p. 150).…”

From speech and talkers to the social world: The neural processing of human spoken language

“…From the first perspective, the involvement of the dorsolateral temporal lobes in auditory speech processing may rest upon perceptual networks consisting of multiple processing pathways, comparable to the distinct processing streams seen in the visual system. From the second perspective, if there is speech, there is always a talking voice (5) and there may be significant hemispheric asymmetries involved in the ways that left and right temporal fields process these different kinds of information (6, 7). From the third perspective, we can study speech in isolation, but the neural systems that process speech develop these skills in social, conversational settings, and speech is an overwhelmingly social behavior.…”