Pauline Larrouy-Maestri, PhD

Main research areas
- Auditory processing in language and music
- Music perception/ evaluation/ preference
- Singing performance
- Melodic representation in speech prosody
Personal Website: https://pauline-lm.github.io/
Vita
Academic Education
2016 | Post-doctoral visit (6 months) at McGill University, School of Communication, Montreal, Canada (Lab director: Marc Pell) |
2014 | Post-doctoral visit (6 months) at the Auditory Perception and Action Laboratory, State University of New York at Buffalo, US |
2009–2013 | Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Liège, Belgium |
2006–2010 | Bachelor in Music (instrument: piano), Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium |
2007–2009 | Master in Speech Therapy, University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium |
2005–2007 | Bachelor in Speech Therapy, University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium |
2003–2005 | Bachelor in Psychology, University of Toulouse (Mirail), France |
2002–2004 | Bachelor in Pedagogy, University of Toulouse (Mirail), France |
1999–2003 | University Degree in Music Therapy, University of Montpellier (Paul-Valéry), France |
Career
Since 2019 | Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics |
2014–2019 | Postdoc Researcher in the Neuroscience Department of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics |
2009–2014 | Assistant at the Psychology Department, University of Liège, Belgium |
2009–2011 | Speech Therapist (freelance) |
1999–2009 | Music performer, music teacher (freelance) |
Publications
Publications
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Kegel, V., Schlotz, W., van Rijn, P., Menninghaus, W., & Poeppel, D. (2023). Ironic Twists of Sentence Meaning Can Be Signaled by Forward Move of Prosodic Stress. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance Online Publication. DOI:10.1037/xge0001377
van Rijn, P., Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2023). Modelling individual and cross-cultural variation in the mapping of emotions to speech prosody. Nature Human Behaviour 7, 386–396. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01505-5
Teng, X., Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Poeppel, D. (preprint). Musical phrasal segmentation and structural prediction underpinned by neural modulation and phase precession at ultra-low frequencies. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.15.452556
Fink, L., Durojaye, C., Roeske, T., Wald-Fuhrmann, M., & Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2022). The dùndún drum helps us understand how we process speech and music. Frontiers for Young Minds, section Neuroscience and Psychology.
Holz, N., Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Poeppel, D. (2022). The variably intense vocalizations of affect and emotion (VIVAE) corpus prompts new perspective on nonspeech perception. Emotion, 22(1), 213–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0001048
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Wang, X., Vairo Nunes, R., & Poeppel, D. (In press). Are you your best judge?: On the self-evaluation of singing. Journal of Voice
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Poeppel, D., & Pfordresher. (2022). Pitch units in music and speech prosody. In How language speaks to music: prosody from a cross-domain perspective, Richard Wiese, Mathias Scharinger Eds. doi: 10.1515/9783110770186
Holz, N., Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Poeppel, D. (2021). The paradoxical role of emotional intensity in the perception of vocal affect. Scientific Reports 11, 9663 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88431-0
Durojaye, C. Fink, L., Roeske, T., Wald-Fuhrmann, M., Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2021). Perception of Nigerian Dùndún Talking Drum Performances as Speech-Like vs. Music-Like: The Role of Familiarity and Acoustic Cues, Frontiers in Psychology, 12:652673. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652673
Harrison, P., Marjieh, R., Adolfi, F., van Rijn, P., Anglada-Tort, M., Tchernichovski, O., Larrouy-Maestri, P. & Jacoby, N. (2020). Gibbs Sampling with people. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 33 (NeurIPS 2020) https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.02595
Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2020). Evaluation tools in singing education. In The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume II: Education, Eds. H.R. Gudmundsdottir, C. Beyron, & A.J. Cohen.
Roeske, T.C., Larrouy-Maestri, P., Sakamoto, Y., & Poeppel, D. (2020). Listening to birdsong reveals basic features of rate perception and aesthetic judgements. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287(1923), 20193010.
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Harrison, P.M.C., & Müllensiefen, D. (2019). The Mistuning Perception Test: A new measurement instrument. Behavior Research Methods, 51(2), 663-675. doi: 10.3758/s13428-019-01225-1
Ayoub, M-R., Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Morsomme. (2019). The effect of smoking on the fundamental frequency of the speaking voice. Journal of Voice, 33(5), 11-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2018.04.001
Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Pfordresher, P. (2018). Pitch perception in music: Do scoops matter? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(10), 1523-1541.doi: 10.1037/xhp0000550
Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2018). “I know it when I hear it”: On listeners’ perception of mistuning. Music & Science, 1, 1-17. doi: 10.1177/2059204318784582
Merrill, J., & Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2017) Vocal features of song and speech: Insights from Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:1108. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01108
Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2017). The influence of non-musical variables on the evaluation of vocal pitch accuracy. CFMAE Interdisciplinary Journal for Music and Art Pedagogy, Special Issue on Singing & Voice, 9, 123-141.
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Morsomme, D. Magis, D., & Poeppel, D. (2017). Lay listeners can evaluate the pitch accuracy of operatic voices. Music Perception,34(4), 489-495. doi:10.1525/MP.2017.34.4.489
Larrouy-Mestri, P. (2016). Justesse en voix chantée: bien évaluer pour bien guider. In De la voix parlée au chant, Claire Klein-Dallant Ed., ISBN: 978-1-234-56789-7. Pp. 515-522.
Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2015). Influence du stress sur la voix parlée et chantée. Langage et pratiques, 56, 33-42.
Larrouy-Maestri P., Magis D., Grabenhorst M., Morsomme D. (2015). Layman versus Professional Musician: Who Makes the Better Judge? PLoS ONE, 10(8): e0135394. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135394
Pfordresher, P. Q., & Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2015). On drawing a line through the spectrogram: How do we understand deficits of vocal pitch imitation? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience,9. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00271
Hutchins, S., Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Peretz, I. (2014). Singing ability is rooted in vocal-motor control of pitch. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 76(8), 2522-2530. doi: 10.3758/s13414-014-0732-1
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Magis, D., & Morsomme, D. (2014). The evaluation of vocal accuracy: The case of operatic singing voices. Music Perception, 32(1), 1-10. doi: 10.1525/MP.2014.32.1.1
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Magis, D., & Morsomme, D. (2014). The effect of melody and technique on the singing voice accuracy of trained singers. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 39, 126-129. doi: 10.3109/14015439.2013.777112
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Magis, D., & Morsomme, D. (2014). Effects of melody and technique on acoustical and musical features of Western operatic singing voices. Journal of Voice, 28(3), 332-340. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2013.10.019
Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Morsomme, D. (2014). Criteria and tools for objectively analysing the vocal accuracy of a popular song. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 39, 11-18. doi: 10.3109/14015439.2012.696139
Larrouy-Maestri, P., & Morsomme, D. (2014). The effects of stress on singing voice accuracy. Journal of Voice, 28(1), 52-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2013.07.008
Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2013). Evaluer la justesse d’une performance vocale mélodique. Cahiers de l’ASELF, 10(4), 3-13.
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Lévêque, Y., Schön, D., Giovanni, A., & Morsomme, D. (2013). The evaluation of singing voice accuracy: A comparison between subjective and objective methods. Journal of Voice, 27(2), 259e1-e5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2012.11.003
Larrouy-Maestri, P., Leybaert, J., & Kolinsky, R. (2013). The benefit of musical and linguistic expertise on language acquisition in sung material. Musicae Scientae, 17(2), 217-228. doi: 10.1177/1029864912473470
Awards & Grants
Awards & Grants
2017 | Nominated and selected for “Sign Up! Careerbuilding for outstanding female post docs in the MPG” |
2016 | Young Investigator Award from the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) and the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC14) |
2015 | Merit scholarship program for foreign students (Bourses d´excellence pour étudiants étrangers, PBEEE) from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et technologies (> Research stay at McGill University, School of Communication, under the supervision of Prof. Marc Pell) |
2013 | Patrimoine de l´Université de Liège and FNRS fundings (> Post doctoral training at the APAL Laboratory at the University at Buffalo (USA) under the supervision of Prof. Peter Pfordresher) |
2011 | Grant at the "Concours de bourses de voyage" from the French Community of Belgium (> Doctoral training at the BRAMS Laboratory at Montreal under the supervision of Prof. Isabelle Peretz and Dr. Sean Hutchins |
Projects
- Cognitive Process behind Prosodic Perception
The tone of the voice carries information about the emotional state or intention of a speaker. Whereas the nature of acoustic features of contrasted prosodic signals has attracted a lot of attention in the last decades (particularly since Banse ...
- Acoustic and neural correlates of affect perception in screams
Screaming is an ability we share with many other primates, and which we possess long before we learn to express our affective state with speech. Previous studies focusing on fearful screams highlighted certain acoustic features, such as roughness, ...
- Singing Voice Preferences
As suggested by the many singing contests and music programs in the media, the singing voice attracts ample attention. Recent studies showed that lay and expert listeners share similar definitions of what is “correct” when listening to ...
- Does it Sound Right? Perception of Correctness in Music
Listeners can easily say if a singer sounds in tune or out of tune (Larrouy-Maestri et al., 2013, 2015) and if a band plays on the beat or not. In fact, we are used to “categorize” what we hear and identify performances sounding wrong. ...
- Are you speaking to me?
Although we intuitively know if someone is speaking or singing, the neuronal mechanisms that drive this experience are not well understood. Whether we perceive auditory sequences as speech or song is associated with certain acoustic features ...
- Neurophysiological tracking of music
Music, like speech, can be considered as a continuous stream of sounds organized in hierarchical structures. Human listeners parse continuous speech into linguistic units of phrases and sentences. Inspired by EEG and MEG studies on speech parsing, ...
- Inferring meaning from variably intense emotion expressions
Whether conveyed by the face, body, or voice, nonverbal emotion expressions are ubiquitous. We are, generally speaking, quite good at inferring meaning from such expressions. It has long been suggested that the stronger an emotional state is ...