Perceptive processes of the genderless human voice in the dichotic listening test

Brain responses to genderless human voices are expected to differ from voices with gendered characteristics. In the genderless dichotic listening test protocol, which was created for the first time, behavioral evaluations of genderless syllables and syllables with gender characteristics in terms of auditory asymmetry were made. 49 volunteers with a mean age of 24.03 (18-45) were included in the study. Edinburgh Hand Preference Questionnaire, State Anxiety Rating Scale and Visual Analogue Scale were administered to the participants who were listened to dichotic female, dichotic male and dichotic genderless syllables. For each participant, homonym versions of all female, male and genderless dichotic syllables, which were applied after three dichotic sessions and used during the test, were played, and markings were provided on a line progressing between male and female on the visual bar. In addition, the level of intelligibility was evaluated with a scoring system between 1-10. In this study, in which the perceptual processes of the genderless human voice were evaluated in the dichotic listening test; A significant decrease was observed in the number of syllables perceived by the right ear in genderless sounds compared to female and male voices. While the genderless dichotic voice was perceived in the middle of both genders, no difference was found in terms of intelligibility. Making the dichotic test protocol more standardized in the literature and current science and improving the quantitative properties of the findings of our study will increase its usability.