Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38844457›Full record

ArticleNature communications2024

Spectro-temporal acoustical markers differentiate speech from song across cultures.

Philippe Albouy, Samuel A Mehr, Roxane S Hoyer, Jérémie Ginzburg, Yi Du, Robert J Zatorre

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Contrastive adaptation in perception of speech versus song.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025
    Review
  10. CoVox: A dataset of contrasting vocalizations.Behavior research methods · 2025
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Audio-visual concert performances synchronize audience's heart rates.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Philippe AlbouyCERVO Brain Research Centre, School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec City, QC, Canada. philippe.albouy@psy.ulaval.ca.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8549-6954
Samuel A MehrInternational Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, QC, Canada.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9400-7718
Roxane S HoyerCERVO Brain Research Centre, School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec City, QC, Canada.
Jérémie GinzburgCERVO Brain Research Centre, School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec City, QC, Canada.
Yi DuInstitute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4512-5221
Robert J ZatorreInternational Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, QC, Canada. robert.zatorre@mcgill.ca.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1730-7423

Funding

Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award (U Component)UL1TR001863 · NCATS · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI John H. Krystal, LUCILA OHNO-MACHADO · 2016 to 2026
$102.9M
Psychological functions of music in infancyDP5OD024566 · OD · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI MEHR, SAMUEL A · 2017 to 2021
$2.2M
Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé (Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec) 280380Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé (Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec) 329968Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles et en Génie du Canada) RGPIN-2019-06162NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001863NIH HHS DP5 OD024566U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research DP5OD024566
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Humans produce two forms of cognitively complex vocalizations: speech and song. It is debated whether these differ based primarily on culturally specific, learned features, or if acoustical features can reliably distinguish them. We study the spectro-temporal modulation patterns of vocalizations produced by 369 people living in 21 urban, rural, and small-scale societies across six continents. Specific ranges of spectral and temporal modulations, overlapping within categories and across societies, significantly differentiate speech from song. Machine-learning classification shows that this effect is cross-culturally robust, vocalizations being reliably classified solely from their spectro-temporal features across all 21 societies. Listeners unfamiliar with the cultures classify these vocalizations using similar spectro-temporal cues as the machine learning algorithm. Finally, spectro-temporal features are better able to discriminate song from speech than a broad range of other acoustical variables, suggesting that spectro-temporal modulation-a key feature of auditory neuronal tuning-accounts for a fundamental difference between these categories.

Indexed as

Machine LearningSpeechAcousticsAdultAuditory PerceptionCross-Cultural ComparisonFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedMusicSingingSound SpectrographyYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID38844457
PMCPMC11156671

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.