Vocal communication is tied to interpersonal arousal coupling in caregiver-infant dyads.

ABSTRACT: It has been argued that a necessary condition for the emergence of speech in humans is the ability to vocalise irrespective of underlying affective states, but when and how this happens during development remains unclear. To examine this, we used wearable microphones and autonomic sensors to collect multimodal naturalistic datasets from 12-month-olds and their caregivers. We observed that, across the day, clusters of vocalisations occur during elevated infant and caregiver arousal. This relationship is stronger in infants than caregivers: caregivers vocalisations show greater decoupling with their own states of arousal, and their vocal production is more influenced by the infant's arousal than their own. Different types of vocalisation elicit different patterns of change across the dyad. C

SUBMITTER: Wass S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9833822 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature