On the development of respiratory-laryngeal coordination in human infant laughter

Susanne Fuchs (Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics, Berlin)

 

About the talk

Changes in the coordination of breathing and vocalization during laughter are considered a milestone in human evolution and infant speech development. Specifically, it is assumed that infants initially realize their voice on inhalation and exhalation but later learn to predominantly coordinate their voice with exhalation. This assumption relies on listeners’ perception of acoustic signals but not on actual breathing data. Furthermore, tickling has often been used to evoke laughter rather than allowing it to occur spontaneously. 

The current study aims to address this research gap by investigating infant laughter in natural environments, including acoustic, respiratory and bodily motion recordings. So far, 130 sessions have been recorded with ca. 40 infants aged between six and 14 months. I will present preliminary data and explore developmental pathways during this period.

The speaker

Susanne Fuchs is a senior researcher at the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics in Berlin. Her work focuses on the biopsychosocial foundations of speech and language, and their multimodal manifestations in human interactions. At present, she is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of Cornelia Ebert, professor of linguistics and semantics at Goethe University Frankfurt, and the priority program »Visual Communication. Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Perspectives« (ViCom), funded by the DFG – German Research Foundation.

Registration

Please register for the colloquium and the following lunch by Sunday, November 15.