Acoustic Information About Upper Limb Movement in Voicing

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2020 May 13

PMID 32393618

Citations 17

Authors

Wim Pouw

Alexandra Paxton

Steven J Harrison

James A Dixon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We show that the human voice has complex acoustic qualities that are directly coupled to peripheral musculoskeletal tensioning of the body, such as subtle wrist movements. In this study, human vocalizers produced a steady-state vocalization while rhythmically moving the wrist or the arm at different tempos. Although listeners could only hear and not see the vocalizer, they were able to completely synchronize their own rhythmic wrist or arm movement with the movement of the vocalizer which they perceived in the voice acoustics. This study corroborates recent evidence suggesting that the human voice is constrained by bodily tensioning affecting the respiratory-vocal system. The current results show that the human voice contains a bodily imprint that is directly informative for the interpersonal perception of another's dynamic physical states.

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