title: Voice Modulation: A Window into the Origins of Human Vocal Control?
abstract: An unresolved issue in comparative approaches to speech evolution is the apparent absence of an intermediate vocal communication system between human speech and the less flexible vocal repertoires of other primates. We argue that humans' ability to modulate nonverbal vocal features evolutionarily linked to expression of body size and sex (fundamental and formant frequencies) provides a largely overlooked window into the nature of this intermediate system. Recent behavioral and neural evidence indicates that humans' vocal control abilities, commonly assumed to subserve speech, extend to these nonverbal dimensions. This capacity appears in continuity with context-dependent frequency modulations recently identified in other mammals, including primates, and may represent a living relic of early vocal control abilities that led to articulated human speech.
authors: Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
authors: Katarzyna
authors: K
authors: Pisanski
authors: Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
authors: Valentina
authors: V
authors: Cartei
authors: Royal Holloway Vocal Communication Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK.
authors: Carolyn
authors: C
authors: McGettigan
authors: Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
authors: Jordan
authors: J
authors: Raine
authors: Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. Electronic address: reby@sussex.ac.uk.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Reby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D013060:Speech; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: formant scaling; fundamental frequency; nonverbal vocal communication; source–filter theory; speech evolution