NEWS CATEGORIES:



NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>
MEET THE EDITORS >>
Home / News / Science / Behavior/Humans

Behavior/Humans


A Woman's Voice Betrays Her Fertility Peak

Ovulation and voice pitch

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

5th of May 2008, 18:06 GMT

Adjust text size:



Enlarge picture
Do you want a kid? The first thing that you should do is to listen to your woman's voice because it signals her ovulation, as showed by a new research carried out by a team made of Nathan Pipitone and Gordon Gallup, of the State University of New York at Albany, and published in the Evolution and Human Behavior journal.

The researchers recorded women counting from 1 to 10 at four different moments of their menstrual cycle. These recordings were then played to a poll of young male and female
subjects, who were asked to mark the attractiveness of the voices they heard. No matter the gender of the subjects who gave the ranking, the feminine voices were most attractive when recorded during ovulation.

"The results are in line with evidence that the female voice box, or larynx, is under the influence of sex hormones. The changes in the female voice during peak fertility support the view that women are "different" at that point in the menstrual cycle - in other words, that they experience estrus," said Gallup.

Monkey and ape females have a very obvious method of signaling fertility: buttock pads (ischial callosities), thick and brightly colored tissue around their genitalia. When a female is in estrus, the pads swell (sometimes to enormous sizes) and redden. There's very little subtlety to this.

Obviously, women lack this, relying in more discrete methods of signaling their fertility moments. Humans live in large societies, but they form monogamous couples, thus the human females must find a way to signal her estrus, but not with the purpose of attracting foreign males.

"Other differences include changes in sexual receptivity and odor sensitivity. The fact that men notice the differences in vocal attractiveness suggests that there is a subtle evolutionary battle of the sexes going on: as women evolve ever more efficient ways to conceal fertility - to avoid unwanted attention - men become increasingly sensitive to the tiny changes that do occur. Other women also pick up on the changes, perhaps to keep an eye on the competition," said Gallup.

"We have found that voices are higher in pitch on high-fertility days of the cycle," said Martie Haselton at the University of California, Los Angeles, co-author of another similar research.

"The voice changes might explain some of the shift in lap dancer tip earnings. Dancers certainly chat with their customers. But there is also evidence that visual attractiveness changes during the menstrual cycle. Voice quality is unlikely to be the whole story. Men can tell when a woman is most fertile, although the message seems to be conveyed by 'subtle behavioral signals' that evade conscious detection," said Geoffrey Miller from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, co-author of a 2007 research showing that women lap dancers get more tips during their ovulation days. The research did not detect if it was scent or other physical changes that attracted men, but it was clear that the dance moves in that period had something really special.

"The result fits with my findings that it's possible to detect ovulation through the effect of raised levels of estrogens on the way women walk and dance. It is highly possible that estrogen modulates motion abilities. It seems to be most likely that body motion - and not pheromones - is the information carrier." said evolutionary psychologist Karl Grammer of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna.

TAGS:

menstrual | fertile | ovule | voice
Read by 2,330 user(s) | Add comment | Link to this article TWEET THIS


Article rating:
Fair (2.3/5) 6 vote(s)    

Subscribe to news | Print article | Send to friend

© Copyright 2001-2009 Softpedia
Contact:

 

 

SEARCH THE NEWS ARCHIVE :




Today's News
| Yesterday's News | News Archive


MORE RELATED ARTICLES:


The Senses of the Plants

10 Things About Bird Songs

Why Figs Are Good for Your Health

Neglected Tropical Crops

I Dance for Sex

A Plant Apartheid

A History of Writing

Sexual Cannibalism: Some Males Lose Their Heads for Sex

The March of the Colorado Beetles

The Genetic Bases of Sex and a First Anti-Malaria Vaccine

User opinions:

No user comments yet.
Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!

Share your opinion:

Your Name:
Your Email Address:
(will not be used for commercial purposes)
Solve this to prove you're not a bot: =
Your review/opinion:

 




Windows tabGames tabDrivers tabMac tabLinux tabScripts tabMobile tabHandheld tabGadgets tabNews tab

SUBMIT PROGRAM   |   ADVERTISE   |   GET HELP   |   SEND US FEEDBACK   |   RSS FEEDS   |   ENTER NEWS SITE   |   ENGLISH BOARD   |   ROMANIAN FORUM