M2 paid internship (Up to 6 months, early 2025)

 What Do Nonverbal Vocalizations Reveal in Sports?
Investigating Human Vocal Communication and Control Across Competitive Contexts
Laboratories:
ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, CRNL Center for Research in Neuroscience in Lyon
University of Lyon / Saint-Etienne,
CNRS UMR5292, INSERM UMR_S 1028
Campus Métare, Batiment K, 21 rue du Dr Paul Michelon
42100 Saint-Etienne
France
Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage
Université Lumière Lyon 2
CNRS UMR5596
DDL – MSH, 14 Avenue Berthelot
69363 Lyon CEDEX 07
France
Supervisors:
PhD student, Virgile Daunay, ENES lab, Jean Monnet University, St Etienne / DDL lab, University of Lyon
2 (virgile.daunay@cnrs.fr)
Dr. Kasia Pisanski, ENES lab, Jean Monnet University, St Etienne / DDL lab, University of Lyon 2
(katarzyna.pisanski@cnrs.fr)
Prof. David Reby, ENES lab, Jean Monnet University (dreby@me.com)
Anticipated start date and duration:
January or February 2025 (with some flexibility), up to 6 months.
Description of the Project:
While human non-verbal vocalizations like laughter and infant cries have been studied, other vocalizations
such as sighs, roars, and grunts remain relatively unexplored, especially from a functional and evolutionary
standpoint. These vocalizations are common across all cultures and are likely evolutionarily ancient, pre-
dating speech and language. They show clear parallels with the affective vocalizations of other mammals,
including primates (Bryant & Aktipis, 2014). Unlike other species, humans possess remarkable control over
these vocalizations, modulating them independently of internal or external stimuli. This raises an intriguing
question: How and why does controlling vocalizations provide an evolutionary advantage in
humans?
To address this, we will examine human vocalizations in ecologically relevant competitive contexts,
focusing on the potential benefits of vocal control. Competitive sports offer an ideal setting to study these
phenomena, where non-verbal vocalizations like grunts and roars are frequently produced by players.
Research suggests that such vocal signals may sometimes help regulate respiratory flow and enhance
performance (Murakawa & Tokoro, 2007; O'Connell et al., 2014; Tammany et al., 2021). However, these
vocalizations can also convey information about an athlete's sex, physical engagement, and even the
progression and outcome of a match as demonstrated with tennis grunts (Raine et al., 2017). Additionally,
physical exertion affects key vocal features such as voice pitch (F0), loudness, and vocal tremor (Anikin,
2023).
M2 paid internship (Up to 6 months, early 2025)
In competitive contexts, athletes may suppress cues to physical effort to disguise fatigue and project
untapped strength. Conversely, in cooperative settings, effort may be intentionally exaggerated. Humans
have been shown to modulate vocal features like pitch and loudness to exaggerate or feign effort,
influencing how listeners perceive effort and formidability (Anikin, 2023; Šebesta et al., 2019).
This project will explore how various competitive contexts—including team sports, combat sports, and solo
sports—affect the production of competitive vocalizations and the transmission of both indexical cues
(e.g., physical traits) and dynamic cues (e.g., effort, fatigue). Using audio-video recordings of sport
matches through online databases and potentially also field recordings with local athletes, we will use
acoustic analysis to compare the acoustic structure of vocalisations and test whether they predict
competitive outcomes. We may also use natural and synthetic sports vocalizations in playback experiments
with human listeners to examine how they impact listener perception.
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
• Collecting real-life recordings of vocalizations from athletes (from online sources and potentially real
life) and compiling a database of players’ vocalizations and other play data (e.g., body size, match
outcomes).
• Conducting acoustic analysis of these recordings (e.g., pitch, loudness, frequency modulation)
using software like PRAAT or soundgen in R.
• Analyzing how these vocalizations differ across various sports types and testing whether they
predict static (such as size) or dynamic (such as effort) cues.
• Designing and conducting perceptual playback experiments to assess how listeners interpret these
vocalizations (e.g., in terms of formidability, effort, or dominance). This may involve acoustic
manipulation or resynthesis of vocalizations.
Profile of the candidate:
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in bioacoustics, voice production and perception,
evolutionary psychology, or sports science. Experience with acoustic analysis (e.g., PRAAT software or
soundgen), and solid programming and statistical skills (e.g., R, Python) are highly desirable. A strong
motivation for both fieldwork and lab-based data collection, as well as autonomy and attention to detail in
experimental protocols, will be essential. The student will also contribute to the joint activities of the ENES
laboratory.
How to apply?
Interested candidates should send a cover letter and CV to Virgile Daunay (virgile.daunay@cnrs.fr) and
Katarzyna Pisanski (katarzyna.pisanski@cnrs.fr) before December 18, 2024. You can also contact us
with questions or to discuss.