We explored knowledge transfer capabilities of pre-trained speech models with vocalizations from the closest living relatives of humans: non-human primates. We assessed model performance in identifying individual gibbons based on their songs using linear probing. When compared to models pre-trained on bird songs or general audio, speech-based models appear to produce rich bioacoustic representations, encoding […]

Prior research has shown that laughter is closely linked to pragmatic development in preschoolers. Our study examined how children (6–10 y/o) and adults align through laughter. In our data, children laugh as frequently as adults, but their mimicry and acoustic alignment differ. In adults (parent interacting with child, PwC),  Mimicking (Mim) and Isolated (Iso) laughter […]

The ability to understand speech in one’s native language is thought to be universal. This intuitive assumption implies that literate and illiterate individuals share at least the most basic speech processing skill that allows them to recognise spoken words. Our study provides neurophysiological evidence (Mismatch Negativity) against this claim by showing that speech representations stored […]

Handwriting is a complex activity involving temporal and rhythmic organization. We tested whether this graphic movement can be influenced by listening to rhythmic cues. Second and Fifth Graders were asked to trace loops while listening to (i) a melodic background without a metronome, (ii) a melodic background with a slow metronome (1.6 Hz), or (iii) […]

  The discrimination between [ɹ] and [l] sounds –as in the English minimal pair “rip” and “lip”– can be learned by an unsupervised model such as the self-supervised contrastive predictive coding model (Oord et al. 2018). Performance –ranging from 50% at chance to 100% for perfect discrimination– depends on a number of factors, including: the […]

Alpha oscillations in the auditory cortex are key to attention and the suppression of irrelevant information. Using intra-cerebral recordings, López-Madrona et al. identified two distinct neural sources during rest and auditory stimulation: “oscillatory” sources, defined by strong alpha oscillations at rest, and “evoked” sources, characterised by significant responses to stimuli. Two alpha mechanisms were identified […]

Preterm birth can have a dramatic impact on early development. Cognitive and linguistic delays are frequent, but we still know too little about how language develops after moderate-to-late prematurity. François et al. asked babies to associate words or pseudo-words with familiar or unfamiliar objects in various conditions. Association abilities were inferred from the standard Preferred […]

Do we have and do need more than associations to account for mental activities? A radical associationism proposal should be able to merge the fields of associative, statistical and Hebbian learning. This would unify these theoretical and empirical approaches, schematically represented above. Dates correspond to key publications that have changed the trajectory of theorising in […]

Created with BioRender.com Humans and other animals have specialised brain regions dedicated to processing the voice of their conspecifics. We used an fMRI-guided electrophysiological technique on macaque monkeys to investigate one of these regions, the anterior Temporal Voice Area. For the first time, a subpopulation of neurons selectively responsive to human voices was identified. These […]

During natural interactions, listeners produce reactions in response to speakers, a phenomenon known as conversational feedback. Feedback depends on the main speaker’s production. Our model uses multimodal features to predict when and what type of feedback will occur during conversations. Throughout the conversations, the model computes the feedback probability (the black curve on the top […]