Project description
New insights into the mammalian voice perception system
The vocalisations of mammals hold significant clues as to their inner states and identities. Recent evidence suggests that certain human auditory brain specialisations and mechanisms, relevant for voice and speech perception, are associated with abrupt shifts in human capacities compared to other primates. The question is whether brain specialisations for voice and speech perception reflect human-specific predispositions rather that being the consequence of rapid evolutionary adaptations. The EU-funded VOIMA project will combine ethology and brain imaging to compare voice and speech processing in humans, dogs and pigs. The project aims to provide new insights into how speech has shaped human voice perception.
Objective
Vocalizations of any mammal carry prominent cues about the inner states and identity of the vocalizer. Voice is also a prevalent channel for humans’ recently emerged communication system, speech. Recent evidence suggests that certain human auditory brain specializations and mechanisms, relevant for voice and speech perception, reflect abrupt shifts in human capacities compared to other primates. Do these brain specializations for voice and speech perception reflect human-specific predispositions and are thus human-unique, or are they the consequence of rapid evolutionary adaptations or developmental accommodations of the ancient voice perception system to recent demands imposed by the presence of speech? I hypothesize that in general voice perception mechanisms are conserved across mammals, and provide a neuronal niche in which specializations for human voice and speech perception may arise also in non-humans. The case of companion animals provides an unparalleled model system to study the possible evolutionary and experiential effects of the presence of speech on the mammalian voice perception system. Dogs and pigs are phylogenetically distant, highly vocal species that live, when kept as companions, with humans. VOIMA combines ethology and brain imaging (EEG/fMRI/HD-DOT) to compare voice and speech processing in humans, dogs and pigs: WP1 seeks evidence for selective processing of conspecific voices, human voice, and speech. WP2 explores the mechanisms and specific sensitivities for inner state coding, voice identity recognition and vocalizer normalization, from con- and heterospecific voice. WP3 tests how sensitivities to human voice and speech emerge across dog breed types, in neonate dogs, pigs, wolves and wild boars, and in input-manipulated developing dogs. Revealing how adaptation to the human social niche shapes domestic mammals' voice perception, this project will provide new insights on how speech shaped human voice perception.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animals
- humanitieslanguages and literaturelinguisticsphonetics
- engineering and technologymedical engineeringdiagnostic imagingmagnetic resonance imaging
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethology
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Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
1053 Budapest
Hungary