Here is the transcript and summary of voice expert Rébecca Kleinberger’s talk titled “Why You Don’t Like The Sound Of Your Own Voice” at TED conference. In this talk, Rébecca Kleinberger, a researcher at MIT Media Lab, explores the complex relationship people have with their own voices. She highlights the connection between the evolution of humans and the growth of our voice box, emphasizing the importance of the voice in communication and creating bonds. Kleinberger also discusses how our voice is linked to our relationships and personal experiences, exploring the concept of the “mask” and the different voices we possess.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
If you ask evolutionary biologists when did humans became humans, some of them will say that at some point we started standing on our feet, became biped, and became the masters of our environment. Others will say that it’s because our brains started growing much bigger that we’re able to have much more complex cognitive processes. And others might argue that it’s because we developed a language that allowed us to evolve as a species.
DESCENT OF THE LARYNX
Interestingly, those three phenomena are all connected. We’re not sure how or in which order, but they are all linked with the change of shape of a little bone in the back of your neck that changed the angle between our head and our body that made us able to stand upright, but also for our brain to evolve in the back, and for our voice box to grow from 7 centimeters for primates to 11 and up to 17 centimeters for humans. And this is called the descent of the larynx, and the larynx is the site of your voice.
When baby humans are born today, their larynx is not descended yet. That only happens at about three months old. So metaphorically, each of us here has relived the evolution of our whole species.
And talking about babies, when you were starting to develop in your mother’s womb, the first sensation that you had coming from the outside world, at only three weeks old when you’re about the size of a shrimp, were through the tactile sensation coming from the vibrations of your mother’s voice.
So as we can see, the human voice is quite meaningful and important at the level of the species, at the level of the society, this is how we communicate and create bonds, and at the personal and interpersonal levels. With our voice we share much more than words and data, we share basically who we are, and our voice is indistinguishable from how other people see us.
It is a mask that we wear in society. But our relationship with our own voice is far from obvious. We rarely use our voice for ourselves, we use it as a gift to give to others. It is how we touch each other, it’s a dialectical grooming.
But what do we think about our own voice? So please raise your hand if you don’t like the sound of your voice when you hear it on a recording machine. Yeah, thank you, indeed most people report not liking the sound of their voice recording. So what does that mean?
Let’s try to understand that in the next ten minutes. I’m a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, part of the Opera of the Future group, and my research focuses on the relationship people have with their own voice and with the voices of others. I study what we can learn from listening to voices from various fields, from neurology to biology, cognitive sciences, linguistics, and in our group we create tools and experiences to help people gain a better applied understanding of their voice in order to reduce their biases, to become better listeners, to create more healthy relationships, or just to understand themselves better.
And this really has to come with a holistic approach on the voice, because think about all the applications and implications that the voice might have as we discover more about it.
Your voice is a very complex phenomenon, it requires a synchronization of more than 100 muscles in your body, and by listening to the voice we can understand possible failures of what happens inside. For example, listening to very specific type of turbulences and non-linearity of the voice can help predict very early stages of Parkinson’s, just through a phone call. Listening to the breathiness of the voice can help detect heart disease.
And we also know that the changes of tempo inside individual words is a very good marker of depression. Your voice is also very linked with your hormone levels. Third parties listening to female voices were able to very accurately place the speaker on their menstrual cycle, just with acoustic information.
And now, with technology listening to us all the time, Alexa from Amazon Echo might be able to predict if you’re pregnant even before you know it. So think about the ethical application of that. Your voice is also very linked to how you create relationships.
You have a different voice for every person you talk to. If I take a little snippet of your voice and I analyze it, I can know whether you’re talking to your mother, to your brother, your friend, or your boss. We can also use as a predictor the vocal posture, meaning how you decide to place your voice when you talk to someone, and your vocal posture when you talk to your spouse can help predict not only if, but also when you will divorce.
So there’s a lot to learn from listening to voices, and I believe that this has to start with understanding that we have more than one voice. I’m going to talk about three voices that most of us possess in a model of what I call the mask.
So when you look at the mask, what you see is a projection of a character. Let’s call that your outward voice. This is also the most classic way to think about the voice. It’s a way of projecting yourself in the world.
The mechanism for this projection is well understood. Your lungs contract your diaphragm, and that creates a self-sustained vibration of your vocal fold that creates a sound, and then the way you open and close the cavities in your mouth, your vocal tract, is going to transform the sound.
So everyone has the same mechanism, but voices are quite unique because very subtle differences in size, in physiology, in hormone levels are going to change, are going to make very subtle differences in your outward voice.
And your brain is very good at picking up those subtle differences from other people’s outward voices. In our lab, we’re working on teaching machines to understand those subtle differences, and we use deep learning to create a real-time speaker identification system to help raise awareness on the use of the shared vocal space. So who talks and who never talks during meetings to increase group intelligence. And one of the difficulties with that is that your voice is also not static.
We already said that it changes with every person you talk to, but it also changes generally throughout your life. The beginning and at the end of the journey, male and female voices are very similar. It’s very hard to distinguish the voice of a very young girl from the voice of a very young boy. But in the between, your voice becomes a marker of your fluid identity.
Generally, for male voices, there is a big change at puberty, and then for female voices, there is a change at each pregnancy and a big change at menopause. So all of that is the voice other people hear when you talk.
So why is it that we are so unfamiliar with it? Why is it that it’s not the voice that we hear? So let’s think about it. When you wear a mask, you actually don’t see the mask. And when you try to observe it, what you will see is inside of the mask. And that’s your inward voice.
So to understand why it’s different, let’s try to understand the mechanism of perception of this inward voice. Because your body has many ways of filtering it differently from the outward voice. So to perceive this voice, it first has to travel through your ears. And your outward voice travels through the air, while your inward voice travels through your bones. This is called bone conduction.
And because of this, your inward voice is going to sound in a lower register and also more musically, harmonically than your outward voice. Once it travels there, it has to access your inner ear. And there is a certain mechanism taking place here. It’s a mechanical filter. It’s a little partition that comes and protects your inner ear each time you produce the sound. So that also reduces what you hear.
And then there is a third filter. It’s a biological filter. Your cochlea, the part of your inner ear that processes the sound, is made out of living cells. And those living cells are going to trigger differently according to how often they hear the sound. It’s an habituation effect. So because of this, as your voice is the sound you hear the most in your life, you actually hear it less than other sounds.
Finally, we have a fourth filter. It’s a neurological filter. Neurologists found out recently that when you open your mouth to create a sound, your own auditory cortex shuts down. So you hear your voice, but your brain actually never listens to the sound of your voice.
Well, evolutionarily, that might make sense because we know cognitively what you’re going to sound like, so maybe we don’t need to spend energy analyzing the signal. And this is called a corollary discharge. And this happens for every motion that your body does.
The exact definition of a corollary discharge is a copy of a motor command that is sent by the brain. This copy doesn’t create any motion itself, but instead is sent to other regions of the brain to inform them of the impending motion. And for the voice, this corollary discharge also has a different name. It is your inner voice.
So let’s recapitulate. We have the mask, the outward voice, the inside of the mask, your inward voice, and then you have your inner voice. And I like to see this one as the puppeteer that holds the strings of the whole system. And your inner voice is the one you hear when you read a text silently.
When you rehearse for an important conversation sometimes it’s hard to turn it off, right? It’s really hard to look at a text written in your native language without having this inner voice read it. It’s also the voice that refuses to stop singing the stupid song you have in your head.
And for some people, it’s actually impossible to control it. And that’s the case of schizophrenic patients who have auditory hallucinations. Who can’t distinguish at all between voices coming from inside and outside their head. So in our lab, we’re also working on small devices to help those people make those distinctions and know if the voice is internal or external.
You can also think about the inner voice as the voice that speaks in your dream. This inner voice can take many forms. And in your dreams, you actually unleash the potential of this inner voice. That’s another work we’re doing in our lab.
Trying to access this inner voice in dreams. So even if you can’t always control it, the inner voice, you can always engage with it through dialogue, through inner dialogue. And you can even see this inner voice as the missing link between thoughts and actions. So I hope I’ve left you with a better appreciation, a new appreciation of all of your voices.
And the role it plays inside and outside of you. As for your voice, it’s a very critical determinant of what makes you human. And of how you interact with the world. Thank you.
SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:
Rébecca Kleinberger’s talk titled “Why You Don’t Like The Sound Of Your Own Voice” delves into the complexities of the human voice and our relationship with it. Here are the key points:
1. Introduction to Human Evolution and Voice: Kleinberger begins by discussing how some evolutionary biologists attribute human evolution to bipedalism, brain growth, and language development. She mentions the descent of the larynx, which allows humans to have a larger vocal range compared to primates.
2. Significance of Voice from Birth: The speaker explains that a baby’s first external sensation in the womb is the vibration of the mother’s voice. The voice is portrayed as a means of communication and bonding, acting as a societal mask.
3. Common Dislike for Recorded Voice: Kleinberger observes that many people dislike hearing their own voice in recordings. She introduces her research at MIT Media Lab, which focuses on understanding people’s relationship with their own voice and the voices of others.
4. Voice as a Diagnostic Tool: The talk explores how the voice can be indicative of various health conditions, such as Parkinson’s, heart disease, and depression. Kleinberger mentions how voice changes can also reflect hormonal levels, suggesting that technology could potentially predict conditions like pregnancy.
5. Voice in Interpersonal Relationships: The speaker discusses how individuals have distinct voices for each person they interact with. She mentions that vocal posture can be used to predict relationship outcomes, such as divorce.
6. The Three Voices Model: Kleinberger introduces a model comprising three types of voices:
– Outward Voice: The voice projected to the world, which is unique due to physiological and hormonal differences.
– Inward Voice: The voice one hears internally, which is affected by bone conduction and various filters that alter its perception.
– Inner Voice: The mental voice used in silent reading or thinking.
7. Technological Applications and Ethical Considerations: The talk touches upon how technology, like voice recognition systems, can analyze voices for various applications. Kleinberger’s lab works on tools to help individuals, such as schizophrenic patients, distinguish between internal and external voices. Ethical concerns are raised regarding the use of voice data for predictions and diagnostics.
8. Dynamic Nature of Voice: The speaker emphasizes that voices are not static and change with life events and the people one interacts with. She mentions that male and female voices undergo changes at different life stages, such as puberty, pregnancy, and menopause.
9. Understanding Voice Perception Mechanisms: Kleinberger delves into the mechanisms of voice perception, explaining how the inward voice sounds different due to bone conduction and various filters. She discusses the concept of corollary discharge, where the brain sends a copy of a motor command, informing other regions of impending motion.
10. Engaging with the Inner Voice: The talk explores how the inner voice can sometimes be uncontrollable and how it acts as a link between thoughts and actions. Kleinberger mentions work being done to access the inner voice in dreams.
11. Conclusion and Appreciation of Voice: Kleinberger concludes by encouraging an appreciation for the complexities and roles of our voices. She emphasizes the voice as a critical determinant of human identity and interaction.
In summary, Kleinberger’s talk provides a comprehensive exploration of the human voice, its significance, complexities, and our relationship with it, while also touching upon ethical and technological considerations.
