Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Auditory Perception01:17

Auditory Perception

The auditory system is essential for sound perception, utilizing various critical structures. When sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then transmitted to the middle ear, where three tiny bones – the malleus, incus, and stapes – amplify the sound. This amplification is crucial, as it ensures that the sound vibrations are strong enough to be conveyed to the inner ear. These vibrations then reach the cochlea, a...
Perception of Sound Waves01:01

Perception of Sound Waves

The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...
Hearing01:31

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
Sound Intensity Level00:53

Sound Intensity Level

Humans perceive sound by hearing. The human ear helps sound waves reach the brain, which then interprets the waves and creates the perception of hearing. The loudness of the environment in which a person is located determines whether they can distinguish between different sound sources.
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and hence a...
Perception01:28

Perception

Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Feasibility and Relevance of an Eye-Tracking-Based Assessment of Morphosyntactic Comprehension in Young Autistic Children.

Autism & developmental language impairments·2026
Same author

Universal and culture-tuned neural codes for vocal emotion: an fMRI MVPA study using Japanese and Canadian voices.

Oxford open neuroscience·2026
Same author

Voice information processing by the primate brain.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2026
Same author

Reconstructing voice identity from noninvasive auditory cortex recordings.

eLife·2026
Same author

Characterizing the Heartbeat-Evoked Potential: A Two-Component Model of Cardiac Signal Processing?

Psychophysiology·2025
Same author

Unraveling variability in young children's brain responses to varied sensory stimulations.

iScience·2025
Same journal

An adaptable, self-organizing, single-cell morphology circuit optimizes suctorian predatory trap structure.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Temporal tuning of switch-like virulence expression resolves environmental uncertainty through phenotypic heterogeneity.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

An abstract relational map emerges in the human medial prefrontal cortex with consolidation.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Phloem evolved gradually and asynchronously to xylem in early vascular plants.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Tracing the origins of crmA megasynthase through lichen genomes.

Current biology : CB·2026
Same journal

Planar cell polarity-directed cell crawling drives polarized epithelial morphogenesis.

Current biology : CB·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis
05:48

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis

Published on: August 9, 2024

Human voice perception.

Marianne Latinus1, Pascal Belin

  • 1Voice Neurocognition Laboratory, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. marianne.latinus@glasgow.ac.uk

Current Biology : CB
|February 22, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Humans extract significant social information from voices, including identity, mood, and physical traits, even without understanding speech. This non-linguistic vocal communication reveals much about social interactions.

More Related Videos

Electroencephalography Measurements in Awake Marmosets Listening to Conspecific Vocalizations
07:52

Electroencephalography Measurements in Awake Marmosets Listening to Conspecific Vocalizations

Published on: July 26, 2024

Pupillometry to Assess Auditory Sensation in Guinea Pigs
09:25

Pupillometry to Assess Auditory Sensation in Guinea Pigs

Published on: January 6, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis
05:48

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis

Published on: August 9, 2024

Electroencephalography Measurements in Awake Marmosets Listening to Conspecific Vocalizations
07:52

Electroencephalography Measurements in Awake Marmosets Listening to Conspecific Vocalizations

Published on: July 26, 2024

Pupillometry to Assess Auditory Sensation in Guinea Pigs
09:25

Pupillometry to Assess Auditory Sensation in Guinea Pigs

Published on: January 6, 2023

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Acoustics

Background:

  • Humans possess innate abilities for speech production and perception.
  • Beyond linguistic content, voices convey rich, non-linguistic social information.
  • This vocal information processing is a fundamental aspect of human communication.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the acoustical cues used in vocal information extraction.
  • To understand how the brain processes and analyzes non-linguistic vocal cues.
  • To review the emerging field of voice perception research and its methodologies.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on voice perception.
  • Analysis of acoustical properties of human speech.
  • Examination of cognitive processes involved in interpreting vocal cues.

Main Results:

  • Voices provide information on speaker identity, gender, age, size, mood, and dominance.
  • Non-linguistic vocal cues are crucial for social cognition and interaction assessment.
  • Acoustical features like pitch, tone, and prosody carry significant social meaning.

Conclusions:

  • Vocal perception extends beyond language, offering deep insights into social dynamics.
  • The brain efficiently deciphers complex social information from auditory cues alone.
  • Further research in voice perception can illuminate human social cognition and communication.