The acoustic and neurobological bases of the processing of vocal emotion

Abstract

In this talk, I will briefly address the ways that the expression of emotion in the voice is affected by physiological processes (e.g., the effects of adrenaline on the vocal folds), as well an interplay of voluntary and involuntary aspects of vocal control. I will outline some behavioural and functional imaging studies of the perception of emotional voices, and the ways that emotion in the voice can be associated with some general acoustic properties (e.g., duration correlates negatively with ratings of arousal). However there is weaker evidence for a relationship between emotional valence and acoustic factors, as well as considerable evidence for emotion specific relationships between acoustic profiles and emotion ratings. I will extend this into a consideration of the sensori-motor networks recruited by different kinds of emotional vocalisations, and argue that this can often reflect more emotion specific effects, which can be linked to both affective and behavioural aspects of emotional processing.