Pitch Variation Research Articles

No Musician Advantage in the Perception of Degraded-Fundamental Frequency Speech in Noisy Environments.

Pitch variations of the fundamental frequency (fo) contour contribute to speech perception in noisy environments, but whether musicians confer an advantage in speech in noise (SIN) with altered fo information remains unclear. This study investigated the effects of different levels of degraded fo contour (i.e., conveying lexical tone or intonation information) on musician advantage in speech-in-noise perception. A cohort of native Mandarin Chinese speakers, comprising 30 trained musicians and 30 nonmusicians, were tested on the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese sentences with natural, flattened-tone, flattened-intonation, and flattened-all fo contours embedded in background noise masked under three signal-to-noise ratios (0, -5, and -9 dB). Pitch difference thresholds and innate musical skills associated with speech-in-noise benefits were also assessed. Speech intelligibility score improved with increasing signal-to-noise level for both musicians and nonmusicians. However, no musician advantage was observed for identifying any type of flattened-fo contour SIN. Musicians exhibited smaller fo pitch discrimination limens than nonmusicians, which correlated with benefits for perceiving speech with intact tone-level fo information. Regardless of musician status, performance on the pitch and accent musical-skill subtests correlated with speech intelligibility score. Collectively, these results provide no evidence for a musician advantage for perceiving speech with distorted fo information in noisy environments. Results further show that perceptual musical skills on pitch and accent processing may benefit the perception of SIN, independent of formal musical training. Our findings suggest that the potential application of music training in speech perception in noisy backgrounds is not contingent on the ability to process fo pitch contours, at least for Mandarin Chinese speakers. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23706354.

Reward adaptive wind power tracking control based on deep deterministic policy gradient

Wind power efficiency is an essential factor affecting wind power development, and efficient wind power control methods are the key to improving wind power efficiency. Previous wind power control methods require high internal system expertise in internal systems and struggled to balance the accuracy of the maximum power control and the output stability under high wind speed. Therefore, this paper proposes a reward-adaptive control method for wind power tracking based on Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG). The method can use one controller to simultaneously control the generator torque and pitch angle in various operating conditions following the system state and the designed flag of operating conditions, thus enabling efficient tracking of the maximum power generation, and stabilizing the output power under high wind speed. Moreover, this paper proposes an internal and external reward algorithm that integrates the Intrinsic Curiosity Module (ICM) and the Actor–Critic (AC) architecture, which can adaptively calculate the reward of DDPG, thereby effectively resolving the sparse reward problem, accelerating the convergence of neural network, and improving the learning effect. From the simulation, the control method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the power generation efficiency under turbulent wind speed, reduce the pitch angle variation by about 30%, and improve the power tracking accuracy by more than 70%.

Numerical Simulations of the NREL Phase VI Wind Turbine with Low-Amplitude Sinusoidal Pitch

Currently, most wind turbine performance analyses and simulations are performed assuming constant pitch and yaw angles during each rotation. Nevertheless, induced vibration or rotor imbalance can affect the pitch or yaw angle within each rotation. In this study, the effects of low-amplitude sinusoidal pitch angle oscillations of the blade on the performance of a wind turbine was investigated numerically by comparing it against the baseline (without pitch variations). Large eddy simulations were performed in which the motion of blades was handled by the curvilinear immersed boundary (CURVIB) method. The grid resolution was increased near the moving immersed boundaries using dynamic overset grids to resolve rotating blades. It was found that low-amplitude (up to 3 degrees) sinusoidal oscillations in the pitch angle negligibly affected the mean torque but increased its fluctuations and created distinct features in the wake of the turbine. In fact, the turbine’s mean torque at wind speed of 15 m/s decreases from 1245 N.m to 1223 N.m, while its fluctuation (standard deviation) increases from 2.85 N.m to 7.94 N.m, with a dynamic pitch of 0.5 degrees and frequency of 3.6 Hz.

Neurophysiological time course of timbre-induced music-like perception.

Traditionally, pitch variation in a sound stream has been integral to music identity. We attempt to expand music's definition, by demonstrating that the neural code for musicality is independent of pitch encoding. That is, pitchless sound streams can still induce music-like perception and a neurophysiological hierarchy similar to pitched melodies. Previous work reported that neural processing of sounds with no-pitch, fixed-pitch, and irregular-pitch (melodic) patterns, exhibits a right-lateralized hierarchical shift, with pitchless sounds favorably processed in Heschl's gyrus (HG), ascending laterally to nonprimary auditory areas for fixed-pitch and even more laterally for melodic patterns. The objective of this EEG study was to assess whether sound encoding maintains a similar hierarchical profile when musical perception is driven by timbre irregularities in the absence of pitch changes. Individuals listened to repetitions of three musical and three nonmusical sound-streams. The nonmusical streams were comprised of seven 200-ms segments of white, pink, or brown noise, separated by silent gaps. Musical streams were created similarly, but with all three noise types combined in a unique order within each stream to induce timbre variations and music-like perception. Subjects classified the sound streams as musical or nonmusical. Musical processing exhibited right dominant α power enhancement, followed by a lateralized increase in θ phase-locking and spectral power. The θ phase-locking was stronger in musicians than in nonmusicians. The lateralization of activity suggests higher-level auditory processing. Our findings validate the existence of a hierarchical shift, traditionally observed with pitched-melodic perception, underscoring that musicality can be achieved with timbre irregularities alone.NEW & NOTEWORTHY EEG induced by streams of pitchless noise segments varying in timbre were classified as music-like and exhibited a right-lateralized hierarchy in processing similar to pitched melodic processing. This study provides evidence that the neural-code of musicality is independent of pitch encoding. The results have implications for understanding music processing in individuals with degraded pitch perception, such as in cochlear-implant listeners, as well as the role of nonpitched sounds in the induction of music-like perceptual states.

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Zens: Designing and evaluating a movement sonification interface to alter body and flexibility perception in Yoga

In this paper, we followed a user-centered design process to develop Zens, a movement sonification interface that uses sounds from the ocean to sonify yoga movements and allows altering the pitch of such sounds. We present the results of two studies aimed at understanding the subjective experience of using Zens and the effect of pitch variations in body and flexibility perception when practicing yoga. We found that using Zens yielded higher scores on the subjective experience of those participants who used Zens than those who conventionally practiced Yoga. Our results indicate that using an ascending pitch altered our participants’ overall body perception, particularly their flexibility. Finally, we discuss aspects related to alterations in the speed and displacement of yogis’ movements when their direction and pitch concur.

Role of Interfacial Evaporation Process in Thin Vapor Chambers With Variable Pillar Spacing and Nonuniform Heat Flux

This paper reports the results of our numerical studies on the performance of thin film evaporation, mostly seen in the evaporator of a thin vapour chamber, using micropillar arrays of varying pitch and under both uniform and non-uniform heat flux conditions. The dry-out heat flux and evaporator surface temperature have been used as the performance metrics. A numerical model has been formulated to solve the fluid flow and phase change heat transfer considering the capillary pumping action (wicking action). The model is next exercised to study the performance of the evaporator with variable pitch of the micropillar array and with both uniform and non-uniform heat flux at the base. The pitch variations are done either by maintaining the mean pitch to be constant (same number of pillars) or by keeping the limiting pitch (maximum) equal to the uniform pitch scenario. The results show that a linearly decreasing pillar spacing arrangement along the downstream direction, i.e., along the flow direction (+ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> direction), results in significant enhancement of the cooling limit up to 1.5 times along with the reduction in overall evaporator surface temperature when compared to uniform pillar spacing where increase in cooling limit is accompanied with increase in overall evaporator surface temperature. In addition, the interplay of variable spacing and non-uniform heat flux results in design guidelines for pillar arrangements for given power maps while throwing new insights into the complex fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena encountered in this process. A higher concentration of pillars is found to result in lower evaporator surface temperatures, thereby recommending more number of pillars in high heat flux zones.

Performance of rocking frames with friction tension-only devices

The implementation of a new friction tension-only “GripNGrab” device attached to a rocking steel frame is described. The device, when subject to significant tension dissipates energy via sliding in the frictional component. When the device is loaded in the compression direction, almost no compressive force is carried, but displacement occurs in the ratchetting component. This absence of any significant compressive force within the dissipative system means that the rocking frame will always recentre after uplift from earthquake shaking. A 9 m tall 4.75m wide 3-storey steel concentrically braced rocking frame is designed for low-damage seismic performance. Restoring forces are provided by (i) gravity, (ii) friction “GripNGrab” (GNG) tension-only dissipation devices at the base, and (iii) beam-slab effects. The initial fundamental period of the structure was 0.16s. The initial structure used a 10mm GNG ratchet pitch, and had a GNG strength to not slide under serviceability level shaking. Elastic, pushover, cyclic pushover, as well as time history analyses, with different shaking intensities are conducted using OpenSEES software. The scope of work is limited to a single building and a single ground motion. Parameters varied included the presence of beam-slab effects, and the GNG device stiffness, strength and tooth pitch. It is shown that the full behaviour of the frame could be understood considering cyclic pushover analysis. The peak uplift displacement was conservatively estimated from the peak roof displacement using rigid body mechanics and the tension-only device provided no resistance to full frame recentring. For the frames considered, cumulative uplift displacements, necessary to determine the inelastic displacement capacity of the tension only device, were up to 28 times the peak uplift displacement, not necessarily occurring at the maximum shaking intensity. Maximum frame base shear force demands were up to 1.43 times that from pushover analysis. When the beam-slab, connecting the rocking frame to the rest of the structure, increased the lateral force resistance, the base shear increased significantly, reduced peak roof displacements, and increased the effective number of peak uplift displacement cycles (NPUDc). For large shaking intensities, yielding of the beam-slab occurred resulting in permanent peak roof and uplift displacements. The GNG device strength, stiffness and tooth pitch variations for the cases studied did not significantly affect the response. Initial stiffness, and secant stiffness, based methods to predict the response of rocking frames were non-conservative for these short-period structures with small energy dissipation, and a simple improvement to match the behaviour was developed for the case studied based on the R-T-m relationship for a range of shaking intensity.

Multi-objective optimization of the effects of superheat degree and blade pitch on the wet steam parameters

Steam expansion in the low-pressure stages of the steam turbines, due to the supercooled flow, causes the nucleation phenomenon and the two-phase flow, which leads to an efficiency drop and severe mechanical damage to the turbine. In this research, the impacts of the inlet steam superheat degree and variation of blade pitch in the turbine blade cascade have been investigated. Then, optimizing the concurrent effects of the inlet steam superheat degree and blade pitch to keep the inlet mass flow rate fixed are studied utilizing the genetic algorithm. Moreover, wetness fraction, pressure losses, momentum, and economic cost are the objective functions of the present study. Based on the results, as the inlet steam superheat degree increases, the inlet mass flow rate of the turbine blade decreases; and the blade pitch increase can increase the mass flow rate. Case B is chosen as the optimal case in which, when the inlet mass flow rate is fixed compared to the original case, the wetness fraction, the droplet average radius, and the pressure losses decrease by 56%, 65%, and 3.4%, respectively, and the momentum increases by 5%; in addition, the economic cost is 1.5 ($/hour) in the optimal case.

Successful lexical tone production of Mandarin Chinese autistic children with intellectual impairment.

Atypical speech prosody has been commonly found among autistic children. Yet it remains unknown whether prosody impairment originates from poor pitch ability in general or whether it is the result of the difficulty in understanding and using prosody for communicative purposes. To investigate whether native Mandarin Chinese-speaking autistic children with intellectual impairment were able to accurately produce native lexical tones, which are pitch patterns that distinguish word meaning lexically and serve little social purpose. Using a picture-naming task, thirteen 8-13-year-old Mandarin Chinese-speaking autistic children with intellectual impairment were tested on their production of Chinese lexical tones. Chronical age-matched typically developing (TD) children were included as the control group. Perceptual assessment and phonetic analyses were conducted with the produced lexical tones. The majority of the lexical tones produced by the autistic children were perceived as accurate by adult judges. Phonetic analysis of the pitch contours found no significant difference between the two groups, and the autistic children and TD children used the phonetic features in comparable ways when differentiating the lexical tones. However, the lexical tone accuracy rate was lower among the autistic children than among the TDs, and the larger individual difference was observed among the autistic children than the TD children. These results indicate that autistic children are able to produce the global contours of the lexical tones, and pitch deficits do not seem to qualify as a core feature of autism. What is already known on the subject Atypical prosody has been considered a maker of the speech of autistic children, and meta-analysis found a significant difference in mean pitch and pitch range between TD children and autistic children. Yet it remains unknown whether the pitch deficits are the result of impaired perceptual-motoric ability or if they reflect failure in learning sentential prosody, which requires an understanding of the interlocutors' mind. In addition, research on pitch ability of autistic children with intellectual disabilities has been scarce, and whether these children are able to produce pitch variation is largely unknown. What this paper adds to existing knowledge We tested native Mandarin Chinese autistic children with intellectual impairment on their production of native lexical tones. The lexical tones in Chinese are pitch variations realized on individual syllables that distinguish lexical meaning, but they do not serve social pragmatic purposes. We found that although these autistic children had only developed limited spoken language, the majority of their lexical tones were perceived as accurate. They were able to use the phonetic features in comparable ways with the TD children when distinguishing the lexical tones. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? It seems unlikely that pitch processing at the lexical level is fundamentally impaired in autistic children, and pitch deficits do not seem to qualify for a core feature of their speech. Practitioners should be cautious when using pitch production as a clinical marker for autistic children.

Learning radar cross section of an intermeshing-rotor helicopter with blade pitch

PurposeThis study aims to study the radar cross-section (RCS) of an intermeshing rotor with blade pitch.Design/methodology/approachThe variation of rotor blade pitch is designed into three modes: fixed mode, linear mode and smooth mode. The dynamic process of two crossed rotors is simulated, where the instantaneous RCS is calculated by physical optics and physical theory of diffraction.FindingsIncreasing the pitch angle in the fixed mode can reduce the average RCS of rotor at the given head azimuth. The RCS curve of helicopter in linear mode and smooth mode will have a large peak in the side direction at the given moment. Although the blade pitch in smooth mode is generally larger than that in fixed mode, the smooth mode is conducive to reducing the peak and mean value of helicopter RCS at the given heading azimuth.Originality/valueThe calculation method for analyzing RCS of intermeshing rotor with variable blade pitch is established.

High-altitude airship variable-pitch propeller performance analysis at multiple altitudes

To achieve better propulsion performance for high-altitude airships, this paper proposes a variable-pitch propeller design and performance analysis. Propeller surrogate models were constructed based on an in-house fluid–structure solver and validated by a wind tunnel experiment. Based on the surrogate model, this paper studied propeller performance under the common influence of propeller pitch variation and rotational speed, and proved the positive effect of the variable-pitch propeller on maintaining relatively high efficiency in large rotational speed range. This paper compared the performance of variable-pitch propellers and fixed-pitch propellers under the constraints of the motor. The results show that introducing variable-pitch propellers to high-altitude airships can significantly improve propeller performance at multiple altitudes and laminar wind speeds. And the potential of airship weight reduction brought by the variable-pitch technique is discussed as well.

Toward improving the performance of a variable pitch vertical axis wind turbine (VP-VAWT), Part 2: Multi-objective optimization using NSGA-II with CFD in the loop

In this study, a multi-objective optimization is performed to improve the performance of a Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) at low tip speed ratios considering the aerodynamic and structural objectives. In this regard, firstly, a multi-objective optimization platform is developed. Using the results of part-1 of the current research, design of experiment (DOE) analysis, more effective design variables and their limited range of variation were extracted. These quantities were selected from pitch profile and blade section geometry variables, which will form a minimal optimization problem including the essential physics with reduced computational cost. The optimization is executed using a homemade NSGA-II code, validated by a benchmark model. It is embedded within the main MATLAB code, which relates and controls the flow field solution and optimization loop. Average moment coefficient in the downwind phase, the maximum moment coefficient in the upwind phase and the bending stiffness were selected as objective functions. These parameters would reflect power, structural fatigue and strength, respectively. The Pareto front charts are provided, which depict the relationship between objectives. It will then be followed by trend analysis and provide trade-off capability. Different aerodynamic aspects of the optimized VAWT are also compared with the reference VAWT, demonstrating the effects of optimum pitch profile and blade section. The trend analysis shows a compromise between structural and aerodynamic objectives, while the two indices of maximum moment and stiffness are not opposing. Moreover, a practical method for effective angle of attack identification is employed. Based on this estimation, one may deduce that the angle of attack in the upwind phase is more influenced by pitch variation than in the downwind. Interestingly, thrust coefficient and thrust angle variation range reduction would be achieved as a result of the proposed optimization, which is beneficial for the whole system's stability. According to the results, the developed framework is capable of performing other multi-disciplinary optimization challenges.

OC6 project Phase III: validation of the aerodynamic loading on a wind turbine rotor undergoing large motion caused by a floating support structure

Abstract. This paper provides a summary of the work done within Phase III of the Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation and unCertainty (OC6) project, under the International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Programme Task 30. This phase focused on validating the aerodynamic loading on a wind turbine rotor undergoing large motion caused by a floating support structure. Numerical models of the Technical University of Denmark 10 MW reference wind turbine were validated using measurement data from a 1:75 scale test performed during the UNsteady Aerodynamics for FLOating Wind (UNAFLOW) project and a follow-on experimental campaign, both performed at the Politecnico di Milano wind tunnel. Validation of the models was performed by comparing the loads for steady (fixed platform) and unsteady (harmonic motion of the platform) wind conditions. For the unsteady wind conditions, the platform was forced to oscillate in the surge and pitch directions under several frequencies and amplitudes. These oscillations result in a wind variation that impacts the rotor loads (e.g., thrust and torque). For the conditions studied in these tests, the system aerodynamic response was almost steady. Only a small hysteresis in airfoil performance undergoing angle of attack variations in attached flow was observed. During the experiments, the rotor speed and blade pitch angle were held constant. However, in real wind turbine operating conditions, the surge and pitch variations would result in rotor speed variations and/or blade pitch actuations, depending on the wind turbine controller region that the system is operating. Additional simulations with these control parameters were conducted to verify the fidelity of different models. Participant results showed, in general, a good agreement with the experimental measurements and the need to account for dynamic inflow when there are changes in the flow conditions due to the rotor speed variations or blade pitch actuations in response to surge and pitch motion. Numerical models not accounting for dynamic inflow effects predicted rotor loads that were 9 % lower in amplitude during rotor speed variations and 18 % higher in amplitude during blade pitch actuations.

Automatic measurement of slice thickness in CT images of a Siemens phantom

This study aims to develop a program in Python language for automatic measurement of slice thickness in computed tomography (CT) images of a Siemens phantom with different values of slice thickness, field of view (FOV), and pitch. A Siemens phantom was scanned using a Siemens 64-slice Somatom Perspective CT scanner with various slice thicknesses (i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mm), FOVs (i.e. 220, 260, and 300 mm), and pitch (i.e. 0.7, 0.9, and 1). Automatic measurement of slice thickness was performed by segmenting the ramp insert in the image and detecting angles of the ramp insert using the Hough transform. The resulting angles were subsequently used to rotate the image. Profiles of pixel along the ramp insert were made from the rotated images, and the slice thickness was calculated by determining the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the profiles. The product of the FWHM in pixels and the pixel size was corrected by the tangent of the ramp insert (i.e., 23°) to obtain the measured slice thickness. The results of the automatic measurements were compared with manual measurements carried out using a MicroDicom Viewer. The differences between the automatic and manual measurements at all slice thicknesses were less than 0.30 mm. The automatic and manual measurements had high linear correlations. For variations of the FOV and pitch, the differences between the automatic and manual measurement were less than 0.16 mm. The automatic and manual measurements were significantly different (p-value < 0.05) for slice thickness variation. In addition, the automatic and manual measurements were not significantly different (p-value > 0.05) for variations of FOV and pitch.

Numerical Analysis on Dynamic Behavior Characteristics of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle during Water Entry

In the present study, the dynamic behavior characteristics of an amphibious assault vehicle during water entry were analyzed using STAR-CCM+, a commercial computational fluid dynamics(CFD) code. All computations were performed using an overset mesh system and a RANS based flow-solver coupled with dynamic fluid-body interaction(DFBI) solver for simulating three degrees of freedom motion. For numerical validation of the solver, a water entry simulation of inclined circular cylinder was conducted and it was compared between an existing experiment data and CFD results. The pitch angle variation and the trajectory of the circular cylinder during water entry shows good agreement with previous experimental and numerical studies. For the water entry simulations of the amphibious assault vehicle, the analysis of dynamic behaviors of the amphibious assault vehicle with different slope angles, submerged depths and initial velocities were conducted. It is confirmed that the steep slope angle increases the submerged volume of the amphibious assault vehicle, so the buoyancy acting on the vehicle is increased and the moved distance for the re-flotation is decreased. It is also revealed that the submerged volume is increased, bow-up phenomenon occur earlier.

The numerical investigation of spindle torque for a controllable pitch propeller in feathering maneuver

Present paper studies the variation of the blade spindle torque in a controllable pitch propeller (CPP) during the feathering maneuver, which is one of the rare but most challenging propeller maneuvers in CPP operation. The knowledge of the spindle torque under different operating conditions is one of the key features for the CPP controller unit design. The aim of this study is determining the forces needed to be governed to control the blade motion of a CPP converted from a fixed pitch propeller and the scale effect on these forces. So as to obtain a realistic numerical setup, the time-dependent superposed motion of the main rotation of the propeller and the rotation of each blade around its axis is modeled using a hybrid overset/sliding mesh technique. The spindle torque values were calculated during the dynamical variation of the blade pitch in feathering maneuver, and a novel expression is recommended to non-dimensionalize the predicted spindle torque. The result revealed that the required torque values to rotate each blade during the propeller maneuver is rising up to a critical pitch angle. Further increment of the pitch angle results in lower spindle torque values. Furthermore, this critical pitch angle is inversely proportional to the propeller loading.

Novel coil design and analysis for high-power wireless power transfer with enhanced Q-factor

The power transfer efficiency (PTE) is a crucial aspect for effective wireless power transfer (WPT) applications. The quality factor (Q) of the WPT coil plays a critical role in ensuring higher PTE. In this paper, a novel method of improving the Q of a WPT coil is proposed. Resistance reduction techniques are presented which involves variation of the trace pitch, width, and thickness. This approach targets the high AC losses centered in the inner turns, which subsequently results in an increased Q. Numerical analysis with respect to the inductance and resistance models are presented, analyzed, and compared to that of the EM simulation results. To verify the efficacy of the proposed coil structure, a prototype is fabricated where good agreement is achieved between the measured and simulated results. The proposed coil attained a quality factor increment of about 19.24% at 85 kHz in comparison to the conventional one. The proposed technique can be used to optimize planar spiral coils to attain higher Q.

Effects of different violin playing techniques on workload in forearm and shoulder muscles

Due to their working position, violinists are more prone to musculoskeletal pain than other instrumentalists. Playing the violin may cause increased activity in the shoulder and forearm muscles due to techniques such as vibrato (pitch variation), double-fingering (thirds), and changes in speed and volume (piano and forte). This study investigated how the different violin techniques affect muscle activity while playing scales and a music piece. Surface EMG was recorded bilaterally from the upper trapezius and forearm muscles in 18 violinists. Increased playing speed followed by playing with vibrato was the most demanding task affecting the left forearm muscles. Playing forte was the most demanding factor for the right forearm muscles. The music piece and the grand mean of all techniques showed similar workload demands. These results show that specific techniques require higher workload demands and should be considered when planning rehearsals with these techniques as a part of injury prevention.

Two pup vocalization types are genetically and functionally separable in deer mice

Vocalization is a widespread social behavior in vertebrates that can affect fitness in the wild. Although many vocal behaviors are highly conserved, heritable features of specific vocalization types can vary both within and between species, raising the questions of why and how some vocal behaviors evolve. Here, using new computational tools to automatically detect and cluster vocalizations into distinct acoustic categories, we compare pup isolation calls across neonatal development in eight taxa of deer mice (genus Peromyscus) and compare them with laboratory mice (C57BL6/J strain) and free-living, wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus). Whereas both Peromyscus and Mus pups produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), Peromyscus pups also produce a second call type with acoustic features, temporal rhythms, and developmental trajectories that are distinct from those of USVs. In deer mice, these lower frequency "cries" are predominantly emitted in postnatal days one through nine, whereas USVs are primarily made after day 9. Using playback assays, we show that cries result in a more rapid approach by Peromyscus mothers than USVs, suggesting a role for cries in eliciting parental care early in neonatal development. Using a genetic cross between two sister species of deer mice exhibiting large, innate differences in the acoustic structure of cries and USVs, we find that variation in vocalization rate, duration, and pitch displays different degrees of genetic dominance and that cry and USV features can be uncoupled in second-generation hybrids. Taken together, this work shows that vocal behavior can evolve quickly between closely related rodent species in which vocalization types, likely serving distinct functions in communication, are controlled by distinct genetic loci.