Neuro-cognitive studies of vocal emotion processing in speech

言语中声音情感处理的神经认知研究

• 批准号: 203708-2011
• 负责人: Pell, Marc
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=569996
• 关键词: Neuro; cognitive; studies; vocal; emotion

The field of "social neuroscience" is developing rapidly, and there is a recent surge of interest in how humans communicate their emotions and respond to emotional stimuli. In this research program, we investigate a topic that has been somewhat neglected-how emotions are expressed and understood from the human voice while speaking, and how underlying mental functions are structured in the brain. To recognize vocal expressions of emotion (e.g., anger, joy), listeners must process acoustic fluctuations in speech, such as pitch, loudness, and rhythm, which differentiate over time in emotionally meaningful ways. The fact that emotional expressions in the voice are represented across time raises a critical empirical question: how quickly do we detect emotions when listening to a speaker's voice? And what neural structures are involved? Understanding the precise time course for recognizing emotional meanings in speech will be fundamental for describing the human capacity for acoustic communication and the basis of this system in the brain. Another important question that we will address is: when listeners recognize vocal expressions of emotion, does this information guide their visual attention and/or judgements of visual stimuli (e.g., facial expressions) in systematic ways? Answering this question will tell us much about natural social interactions, where humans must typically integrate emotional cues in more than one sensory modality in socially meaningful and adaptive ways. Our studies will involve young, healthy adults and our questions will be tested from different vantage points, using complementary methods at the forefront of cognitive neuroscience (behavioural approaches, eye-tracking, electrophysiology, and neuroimaging). Our research will lead to a more sophisticated model of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms that support emotional communication through the voice, and in broader terms, it will shed light on the uniquely human capacity to communicate both linguistic and emotional meanings using complex auditory signals. Our results will energize debate and spark new ideas that will significantly advance knowledge of how humans interact socially and communicate their emotions and intentions.

“社会神经科学”领域正在迅速发展，最近人们对人类如何交流情绪和对情绪刺激作出反应的兴趣激增。在这个研究项目中，我们研究了一个被忽视的话题——说话时如何从人类的声音中表达和理解情感，以及大脑中潜在的心理功能是如何构建的。为了识别情感的声音表达（如愤怒、喜悦），听者必须处理语音中的声音波动，如音调、响度和节奏，这些变化会随着时间的推移而以情感上有意义的方式变化。声音中的情绪表达是随时间变化的，这一事实提出了一个关键的经验问题：当我们倾听说话人的声音时，我们能多快地察觉到情绪？涉及到哪些神经结构？理解在言语中识别情感意义的精确时间过程将是描述人类声音交流能力和大脑中这一系统基础的基础。我们要解决的另一个重要问题是：当听众识别情绪的声音表达时，这些信息是否以系统的方式引导他们的视觉注意力和/或对视觉刺激（如面部表情）的判断？回答这个问题将告诉我们很多关于自然社会互动的信息，在这种互动中，人类通常必须以一种以上的感官形式，以有社会意义和适应性的方式整合情感线索。我们的研究将涉及年轻、健康的成年人，我们的问题将从不同的有利位置进行测试，使用认知神经科学前沿的互补方法（行为方法、眼动追踪、电生理学和神经成像）。我们的研究将导致一个更复杂的神经认知机制模型，支持通过声音进行情感交流，从更广泛的角度来看，它将揭示人类使用复杂的听觉信号进行语言和情感交流的独特能力。我们的研究结果将激发辩论，并激发新的想法，这将大大推进人类如何进行社会互动和交流他们的情感和意图的知识。