Séminaire LPNC - Kasia PISANSKI

Human nonverbal vocalisations: the missing link

Much like the evolved vocalisations of other animals, the human voice conveys a great diversity of biological and social information in its nonverbal acoustic features. Yet to date, most research in the human voice sciences has focused on static individual differences in nonverbal parameters of speech. This traditional approach largely overlooks crucial elements of human vocal communication, like our rare capacity to voluntarily modulate our voices within a broad acoustic space, and the striking parallels between the nonverbal vocalisations of humans (such a cries, screams, laughs, and groans) and the affective vocalisations of other animals. Using a multi-disciplinary comparative framework, my most recent research programme, which I will review in this talk, aims to  reveal the extent to which the acoustic *form* of human nonverbal vocal signals maps onto their apparent evolved *function.* I will present data from several recent and ongoing studies examining the social functions of human vocalisations, from aggressive roars and pain cries to pleasure vocalisations like laughter. Together these data provide strong evidence that human vocalisations, like those of other animals, function to communicate and even exaggerate evolutionarily relevant information.