Nadia Guerouaou

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Biography:
I am a doctoral student in the Perception and Sound Design (STMS lab/CNRS/Ircam Paris) and Plasticity and Subjectivity (Lille Neuroscience & Cognition Centre lab/INSERM/CHRU de Lille) teams. In parallel to my research activity, I have a degree in Neuropsychology and work as a clinical psychologist at the Regional Consultation of Psychotrauma in the Hauts de France, where I receive patients suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). My doctoral work focuses on the use of technologies for transforming emotion in the voice, called voice filters. It observes this technical object on the one hand on the ethical side (moral acceptability by the population, societal consequences of voice deepfakes and cultural variation France-Japan) and on the other hand through questions of interest to cognitive neurosciences (study of the potential use of these filters to interfere with the processing of traumatic memories in psychiatry). Our first study of emotional speech filters was an experimental ethics study. We tested the moral acceptability in the French population of various potential scenarios of everyday uses of voice filters. This study showed a fairly high general acceptability of the various uses proposed by our scenarios and has been published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0083">The shallow of your smile: the ethics of expressive vocal deep-fakes." style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #000000; text-decoration: inherit; outline: none; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff;">in Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society</a>. Various press articles aimed at a wider audience have enabled us to review these results (CNRS: L'étonnante acceptabilité des deepfakes; Liberation: Idées et débats; AOC: Rendre sa voix plus souriante, deepfakes et filtres vocaux émotionnels ). The impact of culture being known in the relationship to emerging technologies, a work has been started in Japan, within the Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology of Pr Watanabe (Waseda University Tokyo) in order to question the relationship to ethical questions among researchers and arists involved in the issues of synthetic selves (androids, virtual reality...). This work is supported by a JSPS grant. The second part of my doctoral work on voice filters focuses on the voice of PTSD patients. The primary objective is to search for new acoustic biomarkers in the voice of patients in order to better characterize the pathology and the healing process associated with exposure psychotherapy in imagination of the traumatic event. The second aspect of this doctoral project is the use of voice transformation techniques developed at IRCAM for the purpose of augmentative psychotherapy. This work is part of the SOUNDS 4 CARE theme of the Perception and Sound Design team which promotes collaboration between the disciplines of sound and care. In parallel, since 2018, I have been teaching Neuroethics to Psychology and Neuropsychology students (L3 and M2) at the University of Lille. I mainly deal with the current and potential uses of new technologies emerging from research in cognitive neuroscience; neurotechniques and the impact that these misuses, especially in the context of augmentation, could have on our societies. These tools, which are in full expansion, require continuous adaptation on the part of users and experts, and open debates to overcome the techclash and bring out the essential questions for an enlightened use of these technologies. Thesis co-supervised by Pr Guillaume Vaiva (@GuillaumeVaiva) and Dr Jean-Julien Aucouturier (@jjtokyo) <a href="https://twitter.com/GuerouaouN"></a>

I am a doctoral student in the Perception and Sound Design (STMS lab/CNRS/Ircam Paris) and Plasticity and Subjectivity (Lille Neuroscience & Cognition Centre lab/INSERM/CHRU de Lille) teams. In parallel to my research activity, I have a degree in Neuropsychology and work as a clinical psychologist at the Regional Consultation of Psychotrauma in the Hauts de France, where I receive patients suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

My doctoral work focuses on the use of technologies for transforming emotion in the voice, called voice filters. It observes this technical object on the one hand on the ethical side (moral acceptability by the population, societal consequences of voice deepfakes and cultural variation France-Japan) and on the other hand through questions of interest to cognitive neurosciences (study of the potential use of these filters to interfere with the processing of traumatic memories in psychiatry).

Our first study of emotional speech filters was an experimental ethics study. We tested the moral acceptability in the French population of various potential scenarios of everyday uses of voice filters. This study showed a fairly high general acceptability of the various uses proposed by our scenarios and has been published in Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society. Various press articles aimed at a wider audience have enabled us to review these results (CNRS: L'étonnante acceptabilité des deepfakes; Liberation: Idées et débats; AOC: Rendre sa voix plus souriante, deepfakes et filtres vocaux émotionnels ). The impact of culture being known in the relationship to emerging technologies, a work has been started in Japan, within the Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology of Pr Watanabe (Waseda University Tokyo) in order to question the relationship to ethical questions among researchers and arists involved in the issues of synthetic selves (androids, virtual reality...). This work is supported by a JSPS grant.

The second part of my doctoral work on voice filters focuses on the voice of PTSD patients. The primary objective is to search for new acoustic biomarkers in the voice of patients in order to better characterize the pathology and the healing process associated with exposure psychotherapy in imagination of the traumatic event. The second aspect of this doctoral project is the use of voice transformation techniques developed at IRCAM for the purpose of augmentative psychotherapy. This work is part of the SOUNDS 4 CARE theme of the Perception and Sound Design team which promotes collaboration between the disciplines of sound and care.

In parallel, since 2018, I have been teaching Neuroethics to Psychology and Neuropsychology students (L3 and M2) at the University of Lille. I mainly deal with the current and potential uses of new technologies emerging from research in cognitive neuroscience; neurotechniques and the impact that these misuses, especially in the context of augmentation, could have on our societies. These tools, which are in full expansion, require continuous adaptation on the part of users and experts, and open debates to overcome the techclash and bring out the essential questions for an enlightened use of these technologies.

Thesis co-supervised by Pr Guillaume Vaiva (@GuillaumeVaiva) and Dr Jean-Julien Aucouturier (@jjtokyo)

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Email : Nadia.Guerouaou (at) ircam.fr

Team : Perception et design sonores

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Nadia Guerouaou

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