fNIRS experimental study on the impact of AI-synthesized familiar voices on brain neural responses.

Journal: Scientific reports
PMID: 40374900

Abstract

With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) speech synthesis technology, its application in personalized voice services and its potential role in emotional comfort have become research focal points. This study aims to explore the impact of AI-synthesized familiar and unfamiliar voices on neural responses in the brain. We utilized the GPT-SoVITS project to synthesize three types of voices: a female voice, a sweet female voice, and a maternal voice, all reading the same text. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we monitored the changes in blood oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex and temporal cortex of participants during listening, assessing brain activation. The experimental results showed that the AI-synthesized maternal voice significantly activated the participants' prefrontal and temporal cortices. Combined with participants' feedback, the activation of these areas may reflect multidimensional features of voice familiarity processing, including emotion, memory, and cognitive function. This finding reveals the potential applications of AI voice technology in enhancing mental health and user experience.

Authors

  • Weijia Zhang
  • Jiaju Li
    Department of Mathematica and Information Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
  • Luyang Ji
    Department of Mathematica and Information Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
  • Xue Cheng
    Key Laboratory of Imaging Diagnosis and Minimally Invasive Intervention Research, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center of Interventional Medicine Engineering and Biotechnology, Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine of Lishui City, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui 323000, China; Clinical College of The Affiliated Central Hospital, School of Medicine, Lishui University, Lishui 323000, China.
  • Dongqin Sun
    Department of Mathematica and Information Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
  • Yanrong Jiang
    Department of Mathematica and Information Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
  • Feiyu Chen
    Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
  • Yiduo Zhou
    Department of Mathematica and Information Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
  • Calvin Choi
    Oxford Industrial Holding Group, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
  • Hao Cheng
    Department of Forensic Pathology, School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, China.
  • Shaomin Cai
    School of Medicine, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China. usxmedlab@yeah.net.

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