Empathy is one of the most fundamental human abilities. But what exactly happens in our brains when we put ourselves in someone else’s emotional state? And how is empathy triggered? These questions fascinates linguist Gláucia Laís Salomão.
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As a researcher in speech and voice science, Gláucia Laís Salomão is particularly interested in how emotions flow from speaker to listener through the voice. She has recently launched the project ”Listening to other’s emotions. Neural representations of empathy arising from emotional voices”.
Gláucia Laís Salomão is also a musician, and she understands that evoking emotion in a listener requires more than just good technique – whether consciously or unconsciously.
– We use breathing and sound articulation, among other things, to help the listener ”hear” our emotional state, says Gláucia Laís Salomão.
The vocal folds vibrate differently during voice production, depending on our emotional state. This variation plays a crucial role in voice quality (or ”voice timbre”), as the sound of our voice is directly affected by how the vocal folds vibrate. If they come together tensely, such as when we’re angry, the voice tends to sound ”strained”. If the vocal folds meet in a relaxed manner, the resulting voice is generally perceived as ”soothing”.
Gláucia Laís Salomão collects data using advanced equipment at the Stockholm University Brain Imaging Centre (SUBIC). Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), she examines what happens in the brain when participants hear emotional voices.
– It doesn't even have to be regular speech; short vocalizations or small squeals – like ”iiiih” for expressing fear – or grunts – like ”ugh” for disgust – are highly effective to convey emotions, explains Gláucia Laís Salomão.
Small squeals – like ’iiiih’ for expressing fear – or grunts – like ’ugh’ for disgust – are highly effective to convey emotions
The participants’ physiological reactions are also measured when the voices reach their ears. This is done using galvanic skin response (GSR), which detects subtle changes in the skin. For instance, when we feel sad or scared, ”micro-sweating” in our skin can fluctuate.
Emotional surges are also reflected in our eyes; the pupils dilate or constrict, which can be measured using a technique called pupillometry.
Participants are asked to rate emotional experience
– Participants are also asked to rate their own emotional experience when they hear the emotionally charged voices, says Gláucia Laís Salomão
By combining these techniques, Gláucia Laís Salomão aims to investigate how our ”psychophysiological” reactions correlate with our subjective experience of empathy.
As a whole, the project will enable an investigation into what happens in both the brain and body when we express emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, and fear through our voice. Also, it will make it possible to examine how vocal expression and the perception of emotions interact in the brain when we experience empathy in response to emotional voices.
This project investigates empathy arising from emotional voices, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), galvanic skin response (GSR) and information about the participants' own experiences.
