serval:BIB_39BD8AF897A4
Emotional pre-eminence of human vocalizations.
10.1007/s10548-008-0051-8
000254756000008
18347967
Aeschlimann
M.
author
Knebel
J.F.
author
Murray
M.M.
author
Clarke
S.
author
article
2008
Brain Topography
0896-0267
journal
20
4
239-248
Human vocalizations (HV), as well as environmental sounds, convey a wide range of information, including emotional expressions. The latter have been relatively rarely investigated, and, in particular, it is unclear if duration-controlled non-linguistic HV sequences can reliably convey both positive and negative emotional information. The aims of the present psychophysical study were: (i) to generate a battery of duration-controlled and acoustically controlled extreme valence stimuli, and (ii) to compare the emotional impact of HV with that of other environmental sounds. A set of 144 HV and other environmental sounds was selected to cover emotionally positive, negative, and neutral values. Sequences of 2 s duration were rated on Likert scales by 16 listeners along three emotional dimensions (arousal, intensity, and valence) and two non-emotional dimensions (confidence in identifying the sound source and perceived loudness). The 2 s stimuli were reliably perceived as emotionally positive, negative or neutral. We observed a linear relationship between intensity and arousal ratings and a "boomerang-shaped" intensity-valence distribution, as previously reported for longer, duration-variable stimuli. In addition, the emotional intensity ratings for HV were higher than for other environmental sounds, suggesting that HV constitute a characteristic class of emotional auditory stimuli. In addition, emotionally positive HV were more readily identified than other sounds, and emotionally negative stimuli, irrespective of their source, were perceived as louder than their positive and neutral counterparts. In conclusion, HV are a distinct emotional category of environmental sounds and they retain this emotional pre-eminence even when presented for brief periods.
Acoustic Stimulation
Acoustics
Adult
Auditory Perception
Electroencephalography
Emotions
Female
Humans
Male
Nonverbal Communication
Psychophysics
Reaction Time
Sound
Statistics as Topic
eng
60_published
true
peer-reviewed
University of Lausanne
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