On how the brain decodes vocal cues about speaker confidence

Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior
Xiaoming Jiang, Marc D Pell

Abstract

In speech communication, listeners must accurately decode vocal cues that refer to the speaker's mental state, such as their confidence or 'feeling of knowing'. However, the time course and neural mechanisms associated with online inferences about speaker confidence are unclear. Here, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the temporal neural dynamics underlying a listener's ability to infer speaker confidence from vocal cues during speech processing. We recorded listeners' real-time brain responses while they evaluated statements wherein the speaker's tone of voice conveyed one of three levels of confidence (confident, close-to-confident, unconfident) or were spoken in a neutral manner. Neural responses time-locked to event onset show that the perceived level of speaker confidence could be differentiated at distinct time points during speech processing: unconfident expressions elicited a weaker P2 than all other expressions of confidence (or neutral-intending utterances), whereas close-to-confident expressions elicited a reduced negative response in the 330-500 msec and 550-740 msec time window. Neutral-intending expressions, which were also perceived as relatively confident, elicited a more delayed, larger sustain...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 25, 2015·Neuropsychologia·Xiaoming Jiang, Marc D Pell
May 25, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Todd RogersDana R Carney
May 20, 2017·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Konstantina ZougkouSilke Paulmann
Oct 25, 2017·Cognition & Emotion·Antarika SenAnnett Schirmer
Sep 22, 2017·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Annett Schirmer, Thomas C Gunter
May 18, 2018·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Nele Hellbernd, Daniela Sammler
Jul 12, 2019·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Xiaoming JiangMarc D Pell
Jul 1, 2019·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Jennifer M RocheKrystal Bryndel
May 4, 2017·Human Brain Mapping·Xiaoming JiangMarc D Pell
Jan 10, 2021·Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience·Maël MauchandMarc D Pell
Nov 16, 2020·Progress in Neurobiology·Sascha Frühholz, Stefan R Schweinberger
Jul 17, 2021·PloS One·Winny W Y YueWendy W S Yue

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