Feeling voices

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53585. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053585. Epub 2013 Jan 16.

Abstract

Two experiments investigated deaf individuals' ability to discriminate between same-sex talkers based on vibrotactile stimulation alone. Nineteen participants made same/different judgments on pairs of utterances presented to the lower back through voice coils embedded in a conforming chair. Discrimination of stimuli matched for F0, duration, and perceived magnitude was successful for pairs of spoken sentences in Experiment 1 (median percent correct = 83%) and pairs of vowel utterances in Experiment 2 (median percent correct = 75%). Greater difference in spectral tilt between "different" pairs strongly predicted their discriminability in both experiments. The current findings support the hypothesis that discrimination of complex vibrotactile stimuli involves the cortical integration of spectral information filtered through frequency-tuned skin receptors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Speech Perception / physiology*
  • Voice / physiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a Discovery grant awarded to the second author from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Reference #: 341583-07), and Graphics, Animation and New Media (GRAND) Canada, a federally funded Network of Centres of Excellence (Reference #: G-NI-10-Ry-01). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.