Changes in the male voice at puberty

Harries, Meredydd; Walker, Jacqueline; Williams, Denise; Hawkins, Sarah; Hughes, Ieuan A.

doi:10.1136/adc.77.5.445

Cited by 135 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Voice pitch is also negatively associated with circulating testosterone in adult men (Dabbs & Mallinger 1999) and in boys during late adolescence (Pedersen et al 1986). While testosterone is not associated with lower pitch in boys during puberty, testes volume is ( Harries et al 1997). Evidence that testosterone also lowers women's voice pitch also exists ( Van Borsel et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers

2008

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In humans, voice pitch is thought to be a cue of underlying quality and an important criterion for mate choice, but data from non-Western cultures have not been provided. Here we test attributions to and preferences for voices with raised and lowered pitch in hunter-gatherers. Using a forced-choice playback experiment, we found that both men and women viewed lower pitched voices in the opposite sex as being better at acquiring resources (e.g. hunting and gathering). While men preferred higher pitched women's voices as marriage partners, women showed no overall preference for voice pitch in men. However, women who were currently breastfeeding had stronger preferences for higher pitched male voices whereas women not currently breastfeeding preferred lower pitched voices. As testosterone is considered a costly signal associated with dominance, heritable immunity to infection and low paternal investment, women's preferences potentially reflect a trade-off between securing good genes and paternal investment. Men's preferences for higher pitched female voices are probably due to an evolved preference for markers of fecundity, reflected in voice pitch.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers

2008

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“…In our family, the girl's age at the onset of puberty was comparable to previous reports in female MKRN3 mutation carriers (range: 3.0-6.5 y; mean 5.9; median 6.0 y) (13). Although the boy's pubertal development was not formally assessed, his voice break occurred very early at 10.5 y of age (14), suggesting his puberty was already advanced at that age (15).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A missense mutation in MKRN3 in a Danish girl with central precocious puberty and her brother with early puberty

et al. 2015

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“…There was a remarkably higher inter-recording tonic pitch consistency between female recordings for both songs in the second dataset. This may have been due to puberty voice changes for male subjects (Harries, Walker, Williams, Hawkins, & Hughes, 1997). As these songs are often learned at young age, male singers might have learned these songs before puberty.…”

Section: Gender Lyrics and Geographical Originsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Absolute Pitch Memory in the Oral Transmission of Folksongs

Olthof

Janssen²,

Honing³

2015

EMR

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Absolute Pitch (AP) is the ability to identify or produce isolated tones in the absence of contextual cues or reference pitches. While AP is thought to differ from other human abilities in its bimodal distribution (Takeuchi & Hulse, 1993) -either you have it or you do not -recent evidence suggests that memory for absolute pitch in a melody is actually widespread (Schellenberg & Trehub, 2003). In the current project the Dutch collection of historic audio recordings, Onder de Groene Linde (Grijp, 2008), is used as a source to explore the potential role of AP in the memory of songs transmitted in oral traditions. Since the melodies in this database are grouped by tune family and are available as sound files, they can serve as empirical support for the Absolute Pitch Memory (APM) hypothesis, predicting that these tunes are memorized and transmitted over time and geographical location based on their absolute pitch height. To this end, between-and within-tune family analyses were performed. In the between-tune family analysis, two tune families showed significant inter-recording tonic pitch consistency. The within-tune family analysis further substantialized that effect, while controlling for possible factors of variance such as gender, geographical origin, and lyrics. Together, the results are taken as empirical support that APM plays a significant role in the oral transmission of folksongs.

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Changes in the male voice at puberty

Cited by 135 publications

References 9 publications

Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers

Voice pitch alters mate-choice-relevant perception in hunter–gatherers

A missense mutation in MKRN3 in a Danish girl with central precocious puberty and her brother with early puberty

The Role of Absolute Pitch Memory in the Oral Transmission of Folksongs

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