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: RGPIN-2016-04373
• 负责人: Pell, Marc
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 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: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709274
• 关键词: Neuro; cognitive; studies; vocal; emotion

This research program investigates how humans use their voice to communicate emotion and social intentions in the context of spoken language, as part of a growing effort to advance knowledge of the cognitive and affective processes that underlie human social behaviour. In the past decade, we have made significant gains in our understanding of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms involved in processing vocal expressions of basic' emotion (e.g., anger or joy). Increasingly, this work is being extended to look at how the brain responds to more socially-complex meanings encoded by the human voice in conjunction with the linguistic message (e.g.,sarcasm). Here, we plan new experiments that logically extend our long-standing work on the neuro-cognition of vocal emotion processing (THEME 1), while expanding our focus to novel studies that consider the social functions of vocal behaviour in relation to the adult human brain (THEMES 2 & 3). In THEME 1, we address a gap in the literature on emotions by comparing the cognitive underpinnings and time course for processing emotions embedded in speech (emotional prosody) versus non-linguistic expressions of emotion (laughs, screams). While vocal emotions expressed non-linguistically and in speech share core acoustic-perceptual features, these signals appear to engage different neural regions and have distinct on-line effects on the processing system. We will test these ideas further to clarify how the type of vocal expression (speech vs. non-linguistic) and type of emotion affect ongoing neural responses to the stimuli in reference to event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In THEME 2, we ask the question: how does the listener encode socially relevant vocal meanings that refer to a speaker's mental state, such as their confidence level (feeling of knowing)? And how are vocal speech cues processed to evaluate speaker believability? Our experiments will address these questions using ERPs and functional magnetic resonance imaging, for example, by investigating how utterances produced in a confident/unconfident manner are processed by listeners when the speaker has a native vs. foreign accent, or when they can access general knowledge concurrent with vocal cues. In THEME 3, we examine another important social dimension of the voice: how speakers use these cues to mark their interpersonal stance or orientation toward the listener. In a set of acoustic-perceptual and ERP studies, we will examine the contexts of politeness, jocularity (mock impoliteness), and vocal cues that communicate sexual innuendo. Our plan represents an original and feasible extension of previous work, and all necessary resources to ensure success are accessible to the research team. Our work will inform theories and new research at the interface of cognitive neuroscience and social psychology, and foster research that incorporates voice into descriptions of how humans socially interact.

该研究计划调查人类如何使用他们的声音在口语的背景下传达情感和社会意图，作为不断努力推进人类社会行为的认知和情感过程的知识的一部分。在过去的十年里，我们在理解涉及处理基本情感的声音表达的神经认知机制方面取得了重大进展（例如，愤怒或喜悦）。这项工作越来越多地被扩展到研究大脑如何对人类声音编码的更复杂的社会意义以及语言信息做出反应（例如，讽刺）。在这里，我们计划进行新的实验，从逻辑上扩展我们长期以来对声音情感处理的神经认知的工作（主题1），同时将我们的重点扩展到考虑与成人大脑有关的声音行为的社会功能的新研究（主题2和3）。 在主题1中，我们通过比较言语（情感韵律）与非语言情感表达（笑声，尖叫声）中嵌入的情感处理的认知基础和时间过程来解决情感文献中的空白。虽然非语言表达的语音情感和语音共享核心的听觉感知特征，这些信号似乎参与不同的神经区域，并对处理系统有不同的在线效果。我们将进一步测试这些想法，以澄清声音表达的类型（语音与非语言）和情感类型如何影响对事件相关脑电位（ERP）刺激的持续神经反应。 在主题2中，我们提出了这样一个问题：听者如何编码与说话者的心理状态有关的社会相关的声音含义，例如他们的信心水平（知道的感觉）？如何处理声音言语线索来评估说话者的可信度？我们的实验将使用ERP和功能性磁共振成像来解决这些问题，例如，通过调查当说话者具有本地口音与外国口音时，或者当他们可以访问与语音提示同时发生的一般知识时，听者如何处理以自信/不自信方式产生的话语。 在主题3中，我们考察了声音的另一个重要的社会维度：说话者如何使用这些线索来标记他们对听者的人际立场或取向。在一系列听觉感知和ERP研究中，我们将研究礼貌，幽默（模仿不礼貌）和传达性暗示的声音线索的背景。 我们的计划代表了以前工作的原始和可行的扩展，并且研究团队可以获得确保成功的所有必要资源。我们的工作将为认知神经科学和社会心理学的理论和新研究提供信息，并促进将声音纳入人类社会互动方式描述的研究。