Fascinating observation by Pouw et al.:Significance
We show that the human voice carries an acoustic signature of muscle
tensioning during upper limb movements which can be detected by
listeners. Specifically, we find that human listeners can synchronize
their own movements to very subtle wrist movements of a vocalizer only
by listening to their vocalizations and without any visual contact. This
study shows that the human voice contains information about dynamic
bodily states, breaking ground for our understanding of the evolution of
spoken language and nonverbal communication. The current findings are
in line with other research on nonhuman animals, showing that
vocalizations carry information about bodily states and capacities.
AbstractWe show that the human voice has complex acoustic qualities that are
directly coupled to peripheral musculoskeletal tensioning of the body,
such as subtle wrist movements. In this study, human vocalizers produced
a steady-state vocalization while rhythmically moving the wrist or the
arm at different tempos. Although listeners could only hear and not see
the vocalizer, they were able to completely synchronize their own
rhythmic wrist or arm movement with the movement of the vocalizer which
they perceived in the voice acoustics. This study corroborates recent
evidence suggesting that the human voice is constrained by bodily
tensioning affecting the respiratory–vocal system. The current results
show that the human voice contains a bodily imprint that is directly
informative for the interpersonal perception of another’s dynamic
physical states.