February 7, 2016

February 7, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In the final paragraph of “Beyond Words: Human Communication Through Sound” (2016), Kraus & Slater, without knowing it, describe Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB. “An important aspect of synchrony is that it is a natural signature of emotion, since the potent neural chemistry of emotion can trigger activation across multiple brain regions within a very short space of time (Scherer, 2013).” This describes SVB. Since “synchrony” refers to absence of activation of “basic signaling mechanisms underlying flight or fight behavior”, this latter part is a description of NVB. 

“Interpersonal synchrony” always builds on SVB as it “implies shared emotion.” Certainly, the “social bonds between individuals”, which are made possible by “blurring the boundaries between self and other (Tarr et al, 2014), is what communication is all about.” Thus, as long as we remain engaged in NVB, our “words” merely “scratch the surface”, but only in SVB will the sound of the speaker be able to “move” the listener “beyond words.” In NVB, by contrast, the speaker’s voice is experienced as an aversive stimulus by the listener. 

One of the “future issues” which is suggested by these authors is “identification of distinct components of rhythmic processing” to better understand “connections between music and language skills.” However, only SVB is one of the “components of rhythmic processing.” In NVB, the link with between music and language is lost as the speaker’s voice pushes, pulls, punches, suffocates and drills the listener. Their suggestion is most needed: “Further investigation of dynamic synchrony, for example, two people speaking in unison, may help reveal predictive mechanism important for speech.” The SVB/NVB distinction is necessary as it is precisely about how we are actually affecting each other while we speak. Let’s listen to that