Perceptual and acoustic differences between authentic and acted nonverbal emotional vocalizations.

Most research on nonverbal emotional vocalizations is based on actor portrayals, but how similar are they to the vocalizations produced spontaneously in everyday life? Perceptual and acoustic differences have been discovered between spontaneous and volitional laughs, but little is known about other emotions. We compared 362 acted vocalizations from seven corpora with 427 authentic vocalizations using acoustic analysis, and 278 vocalizations (139 authentic and 139 acted) were also tested in a forced-choice authenticity detection task ( N = 154 listeners). Target emotions were: achievement, amusement, anger, disgust, fear, pain, pleasure, and sadness. Listeners distinguished between authentic and acted vocalizations with accuracy levels above chance across all emotions (overall accuracy 65%). Accuracy was highest for vocalizations of achievement, anger, fear, and pleasure, which also displayed the largest differences in acoustic characteristics. In contrast, both perceptual and acoustic differences between authentic and acted vocalizations of amusement, disgust, and sadness were relatively small. Acoustic predictors of authenticity included higher and more variable pitch, lower harmonicity, and less regular temporal structure. The existence of perceptual and acoustic differences between authentic and acted vocalizations for all analysed emotions suggests that it may be useful to include spontaneous expressions in datasets for psychological research and affective computing.

Expressive body movement responses to music are coherent, consistent, and low dimensional.

Embodied music cognition stresses the role of the human body as mediator for the encoding and decoding of musical expression. In this paper, we set up a low dimensional functional model that accounts for 70% of the variability in the expressive body movement responses to music. With the functional principal component analysis, we modeled individual body movements as a linear combination of a group average and a number of eigenfunctions. The group average and the eigenfunctions are common to all subjects and make up what we call the commonalities. An individual performance is then characterized by a set of scores (the individualities), one score per eigenfunction. The model is based on experimental data which finds high levels of coherence/consistency between participants when grouped according to musical education. This shows an ontogenetic effect. Participants without formal musical education focus on the torso for the expression of basic musical structure (tempo). Musically trained participants decode additional structural elements in the music and focus on body parts having more degrees of freedom (such as the hands). Our results confirm earlier studies that different body parts move differently along with the music.

Relación del feed-back y las barreras de comunicación del docente con la motivación intrínseca de estudiantes adolescentes de educación física / Relations of feed-back and teacher communication barriers with in-trinsic motivation among adolescent students in physical education

Este estudio examinó la relación entre los diferentes tipos de feed-back y la evitación de las barreras de la comunicación por parte del docente con la motivación intrínseca del alumnado en clases de educación física. Los estudiantes (n = 214) cumplimentaron varios cuestionarios que valoraban la percepción del feed-back del docente, el uso de estrategias de comunicación para evitar las barreras de comunicación con el alumnado y la motivación intrínseca. Los resultados mostraron que los tipos de feed-back general positivo percibido, conocimiento del rendimiento percibido y no verbal positivo general correlacionaban tanto positivamente entre sí, como también con la evitación de barreras de la comunicación y la motivación intrínseca del alumnado. Además, los análisis de regresión realizados revelaron que el uso del feed-back general positivo percibido y del conocimiento del rendimiento percibido predijeron un clima de aula exento de barreras de la comunicación. Los resultados son discutidos en el marco de una mejora de la calidad de la docencia en clases de educación física (AU)

This study examined the relationship between different types of feed-back and avoiding the teacher’s communication barriers with students and intrinsic motivation in physical education classes. Students (n = 214) completed a set of questionnaires that assessed the perception of the teacher feedback, the use of communication strategies to overcome the barriers of communication with students and intrinsic motivation. The results showed positive relationships between the general positive feedback received, the knowledge of perceived performance and general positive and nonverbal feedback, as well as the avoidance of barriers to communication and students’ intrinsic motivation. In addition, regression analysis revealed that use of the generally positive feedback and the knowledge of the perceived performance predicted a classroom atmosphere free of communication barriers. The results are discussed in the context of improving the quality of teaching in physical education classes (AU)

Does attention constrain developmental trajectories in fragile x syndrome? A 3-year prospective longitudinal study.

Basic attentional processes and their impact on developmental trajectories in fragile X syndrome were assessed in a 3-year prospective study. Although fragile X syndrome is a monogenic X-linked disorder, there is striking variability in outcomes even in young boys with the condition. Attention is a key factor constraining interactions with the environment, so it is a perfect candidate to predict trajectories in cognitive and behavioral outcomes. In this study, 48 boys with fragile X syndrome were assessed 3 times over 24 months. Although nonverbal IQ declined, there were significant improvements in nonverbal growth scores and in cognitive attention. In contrast, behavioral difficulties (i.e., autistic symptomatology, hyperactivity-inattention) remained stable over this time frame. Attentional markers in the visual and auditory modalities predicted intellectual abilities and classroom behavior, whereas auditory markers alone predicted autistic symptomatology.

Non-verbal communication of compassion: measuring psychophysiologic effects.

BACKGROUND: Calm, compassionate clinicians comfort others. To evaluate the direct psychophysiologic benefits of non-verbal communication of compassion (NVCC), it is important to minimize the effect of subjects' expectation. This preliminary study was designed to a) test the feasibility of two strategies for maintaining subject blinding to non-verbal communication of compassion (NVCC), and b) determine whether blinded subjects would experience psychophysiologic effects from NVCC. METHODS: Subjects were healthy volunteers who were told the study was evaluating the effect of time and touch on the autonomic nervous system. The practitioner had more than 10 years' experience with loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a form of NVCC. Subjects completed 10-point visual analog scales (VAS) for stress, relaxation, and peacefulness before and after LKM. To assess physiologic effects, practitioners and subjects wore cardiorespiratory monitors to assess respiratory rate (RR), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) throughout the 4 10-minute study periods: Baseline (both practitioner and subjects read neutral material); non-tactile-LKM (subjects read while the practitioner practiced LKM while pretending to read); tactile-LKM (subjects rested while the practitioner practiced LKM while lightly touching the subject on arms, shoulders, hands, feet, and legs); Post-Intervention Rest (subjects rested; the practitioner read). To assess blinding, subjects were asked after the interventions what the practitioner was doing during each period (reading, touch, or something else). RESULTS: Subjects' mean age was 43.6 years; all were women. Blinding was maintained and the practitioner was able to maintain meditation for both tactile and non-tactile LKM interventions as reflected in significantly reduced RR. Despite blinding, subjects' VAS scores improved from baseline to post-intervention for stress (5.5 vs. 2.2), relaxation (3.8 vs. 8.8) and peacefulness (3.8 vs. 9.0, P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Subjects also had significant reductions in RR (P < 0.0001) and improved HRV (P < 0.05) with both tactile and non-tactile LKM. CONCLUSION: It is possible to test the effects of LKM with tactile and non-tactile blinding strategies; even with blinding in this small preliminary study, subjects reported significant improvements in well-being which were reflected in objective physiologic measures of autonomic activity. Extending compassion is not only good care; it may also be good medicine. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: US National ClinicalTrials.gov registration number, NCT01428674.

A decision-algorithm defining the rehabilitation approach: 'Facial oral tract therapy'.

AIM: The aim of this study was to describe and define the rehabilitation approach: 'Facial Oral Tract Therapy' (F.O.T.T.). METHOD: We defined the content and process of the rehabilitation approach (F.O.T.T.) in a decision-algorithm supported by a manual with supplementary material. The algorithm was developed by a research occupational therapist and an F.O.T.T. senior instructor. We used an inductive approach combining existing knowledge from: F.O.T.T. instructors, therapists trained in using the F.O.T.T. approach, and existing literature. A group of F.O.T.T. instructors and the originator of the treatment approach Mrs. Kay Coombes has given comments to and approved the algorithm. RESULT: The algorithm consist of five flowcharts: 'one assessment' chart guiding the therapist in the examination of the patient and four 'treatment charts', one for each of the four areas of F.O.T.T.: swallowing and eating; oral hygiene; breathing, voice, and speech articulation; facial expression, giving guidance on interventions. The algorithm outlines all important components in the treatment that the therapist should decide to use or not to use in the intervention. The algorithm is supported by a manual with criteria of when to use which components. CONCLUSION: This algorithm is designed to be a practical guideline to therapists using F.O.T.T. in clinical practice and in educational settings. The use of this algorithm may support standardization of F.O.T.T. and thereby promote and maintain the quality in the treatment. This in turn will facilitate research that addresses F.O.T.T. and outcomes.

Emotional pre-eminence of human vocalizations.

Human vocalizations (HV), as well as environmental sounds, convey a wide range of information, including emotional expressions. The latter have been relatively rarely investigated, and, in particular, it is unclear if duration-controlled non-linguistic HV sequences can reliably convey both positive and negative emotional information. The aims of the present psychophysical study were: (i) to generate a battery of duration-controlled and acoustically controlled extreme valence stimuli, and (ii) to compare the emotional impact of HV with that of other environmental sounds. A set of 144 HV and other environmental sounds was selected to cover emotionally positive, negative, and neutral values. Sequences of 2 s duration were rated on Likert scales by 16 listeners along three emotional dimensions (arousal, intensity, and valence) and two non-emotional dimensions (confidence in identifying the sound source and perceived loudness). The 2 s stimuli were reliably perceived as emotionally positive, negative or neutral. We observed a linear relationship between intensity and arousal ratings and a "boomerang-shaped" intensity-valence distribution, as previously reported for longer, duration-variable stimuli. In addition, the emotional intensity ratings for HV were higher than for other environmental sounds, suggesting that HV constitute a characteristic class of emotional auditory stimuli. In addition, emotionally positive HV were more readily identified than other sounds, and emotionally negative stimuli, irrespective of their source, were perceived as louder than their positive and neutral counterparts. In conclusion, HV are a distinct emotional category of environmental sounds and they retain this emotional pre-eminence even when presented for brief periods.

Left hemisphere specialization for duration discrimination of musical and speech sounds.

Hemispheric asymmetries for processing duration of non-verbal and verbal sounds were investigated in 60 right-handed subjects. Two dichotic tests with attention directed to one ear were used, one with complex tones and one with consonant-vowel syllables. Stimuli had three possible durations: 350, 500, and 650 ms. Subjects judged whether the duration of a probe was same or different compared to the duration of the target presented before it. Target and probe were part of two dichotic pairs presented with 1s interstimulus interval and occurred on the same side. Dependent variables were reaction time and accuracy. Results showed a significant right ear advantage for both dependent variables with both complex tones and consonant-vowel syllables. This study provides behavioural evidence of a left hemisphere specialization for duration perception of both musical and speech sounds in line with the current view based on a parameter--rather than domain-specific structuring of hemispheric perceptual asymmetries.

Procedural memory predicts social skills in persons with schizophrenia.

Despite a growing number of studies that have investigated the relationship between neurocognition and psychosocial outcome in schizophrenia, no studies have looked at the relationship between procedural memory and social skills measures in schizophrenia. The goal of this study was to investigate whether procedural memory, often preserved in schizophrenia, could predict nonverbal social skills in chronic patients with schizophrenia. Fourteen outpatients with schizophrenia participated in our study. Procedural memory was evaluated using the Mirror Reading Test, and nonverbal and verbal social skills were evaluated using a structured role play test. As predicted, there was a significant positive correlation between the learning index of the Mirror Reading Test and nonverbal skills (Spearman rho=0.559, p = 0.038), but not for verbal communication skills or processing skills. Although preliminary, these results provide the first evidence of an association between procedural memory and nonverbal social skills in patients with schizophrenia.

Analysis and synthesis of the three-dimensional movements of the head, face, and hand of a speaker using cued speech.

In this paper we present efforts for characterizing the three dimensional (3-D) movements of the right hand and the face of a French female speaker during the audiovisual production of cued speech. The 3-D trajectories of 50 hand and 63 facial flesh points during the production of 238 utterances were analyzed. These utterances were carefully designed to cover all possible diphones of the French language. Linear and nonlinear statistical models of the articulations and the postures of the hand and the face have been developed using separate and joint corpora. Automatic recognition of hand and face postures at targets was performed to verify a posteriori that key hand movements and postures imposed by cued speech had been well realized by the subject. Recognition results were further exploited in order to study the phonetic structure of cued speech, notably the phasing relations between hand gestures and sound production. The hand and face gestural scores are studied in reference with the acoustic segmentation. A first implementation of a concatenative audiovisual text-to-cued speech synthesis system is finally described that employs this unique and extensive data on cued speech in action.

[EEG-based communication--a new concept for rehabilitative support in patients with severe motor impairment]. / "EEG-basierende Kommunikation"--ein neues Konzept zur rehabilitativen Unterstützung von Patienten mit schwerer motorischer Beeinträchtigung.

This paper describes a paralyzed patient diagnosed with severe infantile cerebral palsy, trained over a period of several months to use an EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI) for verbal communication. The patient learned to "produce" two distinct EEG patterns by mental imagery and to use this skill for BCI-controlled spelling. The EEG feedback training was conducted at a clinic for Assisted Communications, supervised from a distant laboratory with the help of a telemonitoring system. As a function of training sessions significant learning progress was found, resulting in an average accuracy level of 70% correct responses for letter selection. At present, "copy spelling" can be performed with a rate of approximately one letter per minute. The proposed communication device, the "Virtual Keyboard", may improve actual levels of communication ability in completely paralyzed patients. "Telemonitoring-assisted" training facilitates clinical application in a larger number of patients.