ArticleScience advances2024
Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech: A Registered Report.
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23citing papers in PubMed
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Music Is Quasi-Rhythmic Too: Comparing Bandwidth in Speech and Music Acoustic Modulation Spectra.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Pitch as a Shared Code for Music and Speech: Behavioral and Neural Evidence From Stroke Patients.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Synergistic tension among the music and lyrics of late-Romantic choral songs.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Music is a distinct perceptual category with subjective grounds.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Singing to the newborn brain uncovers early traces of specialized neural networks.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Spontaneous production rates in music and speech: Effector systems or domain specificity?Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low-frequency rhythms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Music is scaled, while speech is not: A cross-cultural analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- CoVox: A dataset of contrasting vocalizations.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Music as a social instrument: a brief historical and conceptual perspective.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Review
- The role of musical aspects of language in human cognition.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- The Expanded Natural History of Song Discography, A Global Corpus of Vocal Music.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- The phoenix of phonaesthetics: the rise of an old-new research paradigm on the beauty of language sound.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Appreciation of singing and speaking voices is highly idiosyncratic.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Spectro-temporal acoustical markers differentiate speech from song across cultures.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Signatures of speech and song: "Universal" links despite cultural diversity.Science advances · 2024Article
- Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries.Nature human behaviour · 2024Article
- Spectrotemporal cues and attention jointly modulate fMRI network topology for sentence and melody perception.Scientific reports · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
75 authors.
Yuto OzakiGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-7134-1422
Adam TierneyDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Peter Q PfordresherDepartment of Psychology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7024-0785
John M McBrideCenter for Algorithmic and Robotized Synthesis, Institute for Basic Science, Ulsan, South Korea.ORCID 0000-0002-1496-3807
Emmanouil BenetosSchool of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-6820-6764
Polina ProutskovaSchool of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
Gakuto ChibaGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.ORCID 0009-0009-3209-8990
Fang LiuSchool of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-7776-0222
Nori JacobyComputational Auditory Perception Group, Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2868-0100
Suzanne C PurdySchool of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.ORCID 0000-0001-9978-8173
Patricia OpondoSchool of Arts, Music Discipline, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-4023-8833
W Tecumseh FitchDepartment of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.ORCID 0000-0003-1830-0928
Shantala HegdeMusic Cognition Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.ORCID 0000-0003-3805-3397
Martín RocamoraUniversidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.ORCID 0000-0003-3183-9717
Rob ThorneSchool of Music, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Florence NwekeDepartment of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.ORCID 0000-0002-4070-3777
Dhwani P SadaphalDepartment of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Parimal M SadaphalIndependent Researcher, New Delhi, India.ORCID 0009-0001-0394-5267
Shafagh HadaviGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.
Shinya FujiiFaculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.ORCID 0000-0001-5003-2367
Sangbuem ChooGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.
Marin NaruseFaculty of Policy Management, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.
Utae EharaHaponetay, Shimizu-cho, Hokkaido, Japan.
Latyr SyIndependent researcher, Tokyo, Japan.
Mark Lenini ParseleloMemorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-1215-1469
Manuel Anglada-TortDepartment of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-3421-9361
Niels Chr HansenAarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0003-2142-6484
Felix HaidukDepartment of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Ulvhild FærøvikInstitute of Biological and Medical Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Violeta MagalhãesCentre of Linguistics of the University of Porto (CLUP), Porto, Portugal.ORCID 0000-0003-2163-2835
Wojciech KrzyżanowskiAdam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Art Studies, Musicology Institute, Poznań, Poland.ORCID 0000-0003-3576-5735
Olena ShcherbakovaMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4949-6169
Diana HereldDepartment of Psychiatry, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Brenda Suyanne BarbosaDepartment of Musicology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Marco Antonio Correa VarellaDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.ORCID 0000-0002-7274-7360
Mark van TongerenIndependent researcher, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.ORCID 0009-0000-9169-3145
Polina DessiatnitchenkoSchool of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Su Zar ZarHeadmistress, The Royal Music Academy, Yangon, Myanmar.
Iyadh El KahlaDepartment of Cultural Policy, University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany.
Olcay MusluCentre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1512-2652
Jakelin TroyDirector, Indigenous Research, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research); Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
Teona LomsadzeInternational Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Dilyana KurdovaSouth-West University Neofit Rilski, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.ORCID 0009-0000-8566-3708
Cristiano TsopeUniversidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
Daniel FredrikssonDalarna University, Falun, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0002-1479-6260
Aleksandar ArabadjievDepartment of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology, University of Music and Performing Arts-MDW, Wien, Austria.ORCID 0009-0006-4960-9097
Jehoshaphat Philip SarbahDepartment of Music and Dance, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Adwoa ArhineDepartment of Music, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.ORCID 0009-0007-8895-8393
Tadhg Ó MeachairDepartment of Ethnomusicology and Folklore, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Javier Silva-ZuritaDepartment of Humanities and Arts, University of Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile.ORCID 0000-0002-5180-3255
Ignacio Soto-SilvaDepartment of Humanities and Arts, University of Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile.
Neddiel Elcie Muñoz MillaloncoTraditional Performer and Culture Bearer, Castro, Chile.
Rytis AmbrazevičiusKaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania.ORCID 0000-0002-6144-2828
Psyche LouiMusic, Imaging and Neural Dynamics Lab, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7664-6092
Andrea RavignaniDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Yannick JadoulDepartment of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-0540-3135
Pauline Larrouy-MaestriMusic Department, Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-9245-0743
Camila BruderMusic Department, Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-7956-2679
Tutushamum Puri TeyxokawaTxemim Puri Project-Puri Language Research, Vitalization and Teaching/Recording and Preservation of Puri History and Culture, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Urise KuikuroIndependent Researcher, Brazil.ORCID 0009-0004-0851-9664
Rogerdison NatsitsabuiIndependent Researcher, Brazil.
Nerea Bello SagarzazuDepartment of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Limor RavivMax Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-0716-3553
Minyu ZengGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.
Shahaboddin Dabaghi VarnosfaderaniInstitute for English and American Studies (IEAS), Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Juan Sebastián Gómez-CañónMusic Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-2544-6311
Kayla KolffInstitute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8625-2185
Christina Vanden Bosch der NederlandenDepartment of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-0919-1777
Meyha ChhatwalDepartment of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
Ryan Mark DavidDepartment of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
I Putu Gede SetiawanIndependent researcher, Tokyo, Japan.
Great LekakulFaculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.ORCID 0009-0005-7469-4775
Vanessa Nina BorsanGraduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.ORCID 0000-0001-8421-4409
Nozuko NguquSchool of Arts, Music Discipline, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa.ORCID 0009-0009-9494-7046
Patrick E SavageSchool of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.ORCID 0000-0001-6996-7496
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a "musi-linguistic" continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech.
Indexed as
LanguageMusicSpeechAdultFemaleHumansMalePitch PerceptionPre-Registration Publication
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.