Production of Nonverbal Acoustic Signals and Resulting Physiological Responses

NCT ID: NCT05238285

Last Updated: 2025-03-18

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Total Enrollment: 2000 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-03-08
• Study Completion Date: 2027-04-30

Brief Summary

Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal vocal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts. However, despite their importance in the human vocal repertoire, the mechanisms and functions of non-verbal signals remain little studied and poorly understood in humans.Our studies aim to improve our understanding of the nature and function of non-verbal signals.

Detailed Description

Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal vocal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts. Many of these signals (such as cries) are already produced at birth and likely serve a number of important biological and social functions. In addition, human speech is characterised by nonlinguistic acoustic parameters (such as pitch, formant frequencies, and nonlinear phenomena) that are known to correlate with biologically important traits of the vocalizer.

However, despite their importance in the human vocal repertoire, the mechanisms and functions of non-verbal signals remain little studied and poorly understood in humans.

Theses studies aim to improve the understanding of the nature and function of non-verbal signals. Thus, this study is part of a long-term research project in which investigators are trying to clarify the information contained in the acoustic structure of human non-verbal signals, and to investigate the factors influencing their production.

Conditions

Self-Perception

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: OTHER
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Healthy adult population aged 18 to 80 years

Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study.

Production of vocal sounds

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study.

For example, they can read a script containing vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'), short sentences ('hello, how are you'), longer passages of standardised reading texts, and can also be asked to speak freely about any topic ('freedom of speech'). They can be asked to play a role or to imitate a particular emotional state. For example, "imagine that you have just been told that you have won a million euros in the lottery. Produce a vocalisation to express your excitement" or "talk to your dog your dog by imagining that he has done a negative action and then do the same thing by imagining that this time imagining that the action was positive".

Interventions

Production of vocal sounds

Participants will be asked to produce vocal sounds of different nature according to the non-verbal parameters of interest for the given study.

For example, they can read a script containing vowels ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'), short sentences ('hello, how are you'), longer passages of standardised reading texts, and can also be asked to speak freely about any topic ('freedom of speech'). They can be asked to play a role or to imitate a particular emotional state. For example, "imagine that you have just been told that you have won a million euros in the lottery. Produce a vocalisation to express your excitement" or "talk to your dog your dog by imagining that he has done a negative action and then do the same thing by imagining that this time imagining that the action was positive".

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Participant should be affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme

Exclusion Criteria

• Pregnant women
• Voice production disorders
• Hearing impairment, speech production disorders or major health problems.
• Chronic smoker (more than 10 cigarettes per day)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 80 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Lyon

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

ROLAND PEYRON, MDPHD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne

Nicolas MATHEVON, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

University of Saint-Etienne, France

Locations

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Etienne

Saint-Etienne, , France

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

France

Central Contacts

ROLAND PEYRON, MDPhD

Role: CONTACT

roland.peyron@chu-st-etienne.fr

(0)477127805 ext. +33

Nicolas MATHEVON, PhD

Role: CONTACT

nicolas.mathevon@univ-st-etienne.fr

04 77 48 50 22 ext. +33

Other Identifiers

2020-A03457-32:

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

20CH259

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id