My work pictured by AI – Daniel Friedrichs

What is this work about? We explored the connection between mandible length and the temporal dynamics of speech. Our study involved testing speakers with different mandible sizes and observing how their speech timing was affected. We found that mandible length can indeed influence the time it takes to open and close the mouth, which in turn can affect the length of syllables in speech. This finding is particularly important for language evolution, as the human jaw has undergone significant changes throughout human history. For example, the jaw has decreased in size due to softer diets since the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. By considering the movements of the mandible as similar to that of a pendulum, it becomes apparent that the duration of an oscillation, or period, should depend entirely on its length. This analogy suggests that humans in the distant past might have spoken more slowly due to slower mouth opening and closing movements, resulting in slower transmission of information. If this were true, it could also have had an impact on the evolution of the human brain, as humans would have to process linguistic information at lower frequencies (for example, previous studies have shown that the brain tracks the speech signal at frequencies that correspond to the lengths of syllables). It seems possible that, over time, the human brain has adapted to changes in human jaw anatomy, resulting in the speech and language patterns we observe today. Our research sheds light on the fascinating relationship between anatomy and speech, and how changes in our physical makeup can influence the way we communicate.

The first word that came to mind when seeing the AI-generated picture? Adaptation.