Production of Nonverbal Acoustic Signals and Resulting Physiological Responses

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal vocal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts. However, despite their importance in the human vocal repertoire, the mechanisms and functions of non-verbal signals remain little studied and poorly understood in humans.Our studies aim to improve our understanding of the nature and function of non-verbal signals.

Detailed Description
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Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal vocal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts. Many of these signals (such as cries) are already produced at birth and likely serve a number of important biological and social functions. In addition, human speech is characterised by nonlinguistic acoustic parameters (such as pitch, formant frequencies, and nonlinear phenomena) that are known to correlate with biologically important traits of the vocalizer. However, despite their importance in the human vocal repertoire, the mechanisms and functions of non-verbal signals remain little studied and poorly understood in humans. Theses studies aim to improve the understanding of the nature and function of non-verbal signals. Thus, this study is part of a long-term research project in which investigators are trying to clarify the information contained in the acoustic structure of human non-verbal signals, and to investigate the factors influencing their production.

Official Title
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Production of Nonverbal Acoustic Signals and Resulting Physiological Responses

Conditions
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Self-Perception

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Production of vocal sounds


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: - Participant should be affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme Exclusion Criteria: Pregnant women Voice production disorders Hearing impairment, speech production disorders or major health problems. Chronic smoker (more than 10 cigarettes per day)

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 80 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Healthy adult population aged 18 to 80 years<br>Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study. | Behavioral: Production of vocal sounds<br>* Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study. For example, they can read a script containing vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'), short sentences ('hello, how are you'), longer passages of standardised reading texts, and can also be asked to speak freely about any topic ('freedom of speech'). They can be asked to play a role or to imitate a particular emotional state. For example, imagine that you have just been told that you have won a million euros in the lottery. Produce a vocalisation to express your excitement or talk to your dog your dog by imagining that he has done a negative action and then do the same thing by imagining that this time imagining that the action was positive.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vocal analysis | Participants will receive instructions on what to say or what type of non-verbal vocalisation to produce during the manipulation. The vocalisations thus produced by the participants will be systematically recorded and analysed using software adapted to acoustic analysis Measurement of acoustic variables such as fundamental frequency (pitch), vocal tract resonances (formants) and vocal disturbances (jitter, shimmer), the nonlinearities and chaotic/noise properties of vocalisations | During the vocal production | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Heart rate (bpm) |  | During the vocal production | 
| Skin conductance (Siemens) |  | During the vocal production | 
| Skin temperature (°C) |  | During the vocal production | 
| Nociception Level Index (NOL) | A non-invasive finger probe, containing four sensors, will be placed on the on the index finger of the participants. | During the vocal production | 
| Pupillary diameter (millimeter) | Using a high resolution binocular for automated pupil diameter measurement with an infrared camera | During the vocal production | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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acoustic analysis, physiological responses, psycho-acoustic tests