Search

In social interactions, people have to pay attention both to thewhatandwho. In particular, expressive changes heard on speech signals have to be integrated with speaker identity, differentiating e.g. self- and other-produced signals. While previous research has shown that self-related visual information processing is facilitated compared to non-self stimuli, evidence in the auditory modality remains mixed. Here, we compared electroencephalography (EEG) responses to expressive changes in sequence of self- or other-produced speech sounds, using a mismatch negativity (MMN) passive oddball paradigm. Critically, to control for speaker differences, we used programmable acoustic transformations to create voice deviants which differed from standards in exactly the same manner, making EEG responses to such deviations comparable between sequences. Our results indicate that expressive changes on a stranger’s voice are highly prioritized in auditory processing compared to identical changes on the self-voice. Other-voice deviants generate earlier MMN onset responses and involve stronger cortical activations in a left motor and somatosensory network suggestive of an increased recruitment of resources for less internally predictable, and therefore perhaps more socially relevant, signals.

International audience; Affect, space and multisensory integration are processes that are closely linked. However, it is unclear whether the spatial location of emotional stimuli interacts with multisensory presentation to influence the emotional experience they induce in the perceiver.In this study, we used the unique advantages of virtual reality techniques to present potentially aversive crowd stimuli embedded in a natural context and to control their display in terms of sensory and spatial presentation. Individuals high in crowdphobic fear navigated in an auditory-visual virtual environment, in which they encountered virtual crowds presented through the visual channel, the auditory channel or both. They reported the intensity of their negative emotional experience at a far distance and at a close distance from the crowd stimuli. Whereas auditory-visual presentation of close feared stimuli amplified negative feelings, auditory-visual presentation of distant feared stimuli did not amplify negative feelings.This suggests that spatial closeness allows multisensory processes to modulate the intensity of the emotional experience induced by aversive stimuli. Nevertheless, the specific role of auditory stimulation must be investigated in order to better understand this interaction between multisensory, affective and spatial representation processes. This phenomenon may serve the implementation of defensive behaviors in response to aversive stimuli that are in position to threaten an individual’s feeling of security.

Clinical remission of depression may be associated with emotional residual symptoms. We studied the association of emotional blunting, rumination with neural networks dynamics in remitted depressed patients and cognitive performance during an N-Back task. Twenty-six outpatients in remission of depression (Hamilton Depressive rating scale score

International audience; Other's eye gaze is a powerful attention orienting cue that can change our perception of objects in the environment. Here, we seek to characterize the influence of attention orienting by eye gaze on the neural processing of visual targets. We used a Posner-like cueing paradigm to investigate with magnetoencephalography the brain responses associated with target processing. We analyzed the cerebral sources of the evoked responses to visual targets that were validly or invalidly cued by eye gaze. The effect of attention orienting was reflected in faster reaction times to valid than invalid targets. At the brain level, we showed an early influence of attention orienting by gaze with enhanced brain responses for invalid relative to valid targets. This influence was maximum contra-laterally to the target, with a right hemisphere dominance. Responses to targets presented in the left visual field were modulated between 91 and 400 ms in the right posterior parietal and occipital cortices. Responses to targets presented in the right visual field were modulated between 174 and 218 ms in the left superior parietal cortex. Our results confirm previous EEG studies that demonstrated early influence of attention orienting by gaze on target processing and provide evidence for the sources of this effect in occipito-parietal regions. This early influence may reflect the first stage of the perceptual changes induced by social attention.

Clinical remission of depression may be associated with emotional residual symptoms. We studied the association of emotional blunting, rumination with neural networks dynamics in remitted depressed patients and cognitive performance during an N‐Back task. Twenty‐six outpatients in remission of depression (Hamilton Depressive rating scale score

We present an open-source software platform that transforms the emotions expressed by speech signals using audio effects like pitch shifting, inflection, vibrato, and filtering. The emotional transformations can be applied to any audio file, but can also run in real-time (with less than 20-millisecond latency), using live input from a microphone. We anticipate that this tool will be useful for the study of emotions in psychology and neuroscience, because it enables a high level of control over the acoustical and emotional content of experimental stimuli in a variety of laboratory situations, including real-time social situations. We present here results of a series of validation experiments showing that transformed emotions are recognized at above-chance levels in the French, English, Swedish and Japanese languages, with a naturalness comparable to natural speech. Then, we provide a list of twenty-five experimental ideas applying this new tool to important topics in the behavioral sciences.

International audience; Fear of crowds is a symptom found in agoraphobia (among others) and which has both visual and auditory relevant components. In order to examine the potential interest of auditory-visual virtual reality to treat fear of crowds, we investigated the efficiency of an auditory-visual virtual environment in evoking affective reaction. We conducted an evaluation test with healthy participants sensitive to the fear of crowds to explore the influence of auditory-visual virtual environment on affective reactions. Our application involves both high fidelity visual stimulation and interactive 3D sound. Our specific presentation of animated crowds of humans creates an environment that is highly arousing, suggesting that manipulating the sensory presentation together with the spatial location of stimulation might provide a way to modulate affective reactions.

The human voice is a powerful tool to convey emotions. Humans hear voices on a daily basis and are able to rapidly extract relevant information to successfully interact with others. The theoretical aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of familiarity on emotional voice processing. Chapters 2 and 3 present behavioral and electrophysiological studies investigating how self- versus non self-produced voices influence the processing of emotional speech utterances. By contrasting self and other, familiarity is here assessed at a personal level. The results of Chapter 2 show a dissociation of explicit and implicit processing of the self-voice. While explicit discrimination of an emotional self-voice and other-voice was somewhat impaired, implicit self-processing prompted a self-advantage in emotion recognition and speaker discrimination. Chapter 3 reports a prioritization for the non-self voice in the processing of emotional and low-level acoustic changes, reflected in faster electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioral responses. In Chapter 4, the effect of voice familiarity on emotional voice processing is assessed at a larger sociocultural scale by comparing speech utterances in the native and a foreign language. Taken together, this thesis highlights some ways in which the ‘otherness’ of a voice - whether a non-self speaker or a foreign language speaker - is processed with a higher priority on the one hand, but with less acoustic precision on the other hand.; L’objectif théorique de cette thèse est d’étudier le rôle de la familiarité vocale sur le traitement de la voix émotionnelle. Les chapitres 2 et 3 présentent des études comportementales et électrophysiologiques portant sur les contributions spécifiques de la voix du self et la voix de l’autre sur le traitement de la parole émotionnelle. En comparant le self et l’autre, la familiarité est évaluée ici à un niveau personnel. Les résultats du chapitre 2 montrent une dissociation chez les participants des traitements explicites et implicites de leur propre voix. Alors que la discrimination explicite de leur propre voix émotionnelle est réduite, le traitement implicite de soi entraîne un avantage pour la reconnaissance des émotions et la discrimination du locuteur. Le chapitre 3 montre que les voix inconnues sont priorisées par rapport à la voix du self dans le traitement des changements émotionnels et acoustiques de bas niveau, par des réponses électrophysiologiques (EEG) et comportementales plus rapides. Au chapitre 4, l’effet de la familiarité sur la perception des émotions vocales est évalué au niveau socioculturel en comparant la langue maternelle et étrangère. Au travers de ces études, cette thèse met en évidence les différentes manières par lesquelles «l’étrangeté» d’une voix - qu’il s’agisse d’un locuteur autre que le soi ou d’une langue étrangère - est traitée avec une priorité plus élevée, mais une précision acoustique diminuée.

The human voice is a powerful tool to convey emotions. Humans hear voices on a daily basis and are able to rapidly extract relevant information to successfully interact with others. The theoretical aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of familiarity on emotional voice processing. Chapters 2 and 3 present behavioral and electrophysiological studies investigating how self- versus non self-produced voices influence the processing of emotional speech utterances. By contrasting self and other, familiarity is here assessed at a personal level. The results of Chapter 2 show a dissociation of explicit and implicit processing of the self-voice. While explicit discrimination of an emotional self-voice and other-voice was somewhat impaired, implicit self-processing prompted a self-advantage in emotion recognition and speaker discrimination. Chapter 3 reports a prioritization for the non-self voice in the processing of emotional and low-level acoustic changes, reflected in faster electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioral responses. In Chapter 4, the effect of voice familiarity on is assessed at a larger sociocultural scale by comparing speech utterances in the native and a foreign language. Taken together, this thesis highlights some ways in which the ‘otherness’ of a voice - whether a non-self speaker or a foreign language speaker - is processed with a higher priority on the one hand, but with less acoustic precision on the other hand., L’objectif théorique de cette thèse est d’étudier le rôle de la familiarité vocale sur le traitement de la voix émotionnelle. Les chapitres 2 et 3 présentent des études comportementales et électrophysiologiques portant sur les contributions spécifiques de la voix du self et la voix de l’autre sur le traitement de la parole émotionnelle. En comparant le self et l’autre, la familiarité est évaluée ici à un niveau personnel. Les résultats du chapitre 2 montrent une dissociation chez les participants des traitements explicites et implicites de leur propre voix. Alors que la discrimination explicite de leur propre voix émotionnelle est réduite, le traitement implicite de soi entraîne un avantage pour la reconnaissance des émotions et la discrimination du locuteur. Le chapitre 3 montre que les voix inconnues sont priorisées par rapport à la voix du self dans le traitement des changements émotionnels et acoustiques de bas niveau, par des réponses électrophysiologiques (EEG) et comportementales plus rapides. Au chapitre 4, l’effet de la familiarité sur la perception des émotions vocales est évalué au niveau socioculturel en comparant la langue maternelle et étrangère. Au travers de ces études, cette thèse met en évidence les différentes manières par lesquelles «l’étrangeté» d’une voix - qu’il s’agisse d’un locuteur autre que le soi ou d’une langue étrangère - est traitée avec une priorité plus élevée, mais une précision acoustique diminuée.