COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information
With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video databas...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.982899/full |
| _version_ | 1828412652851822592 |
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| author | Nadia Aguillon-Hernandez Renaud Jusiak Marianne Latinus Claire Wardak |
| author_facet | Nadia Aguillon-Hernandez Renaud Jusiak Marianne Latinus Claire Wardak |
| author_sort | Nadia Aguillon-Hernandez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T12:53:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f822abadf55e4f3da6be4ac6fdb67602 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-453X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T12:53:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-f822abadf55e4f3da6be4ac6fdb676022022-12-22T01:48:11ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2022-09-011610.3389/fnins.2022.982899982899COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal informationNadia Aguillon-HernandezRenaud JusiakMarianne LatinusClaire WardakWith the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.982899/fullspeechemotionfacevoiceocclusionage |
| spellingShingle | Nadia Aguillon-Hernandez Renaud Jusiak Marianne Latinus Claire Wardak COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information Frontiers in Neuroscience speech emotion face voice occlusion age |
| title | COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information |
| title_full | COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information |
| title_fullStr | COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information |
| title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information |
| title_short | COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information |
| title_sort | covid 19 masks a barrier to facial and vocal information |
| topic | speech emotion face voice occlusion age |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.982899/full |
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