Abstract

Here we show that the frequency of consonant sound repetitions in different samples of language describe a continuum, with speeches of outstanding politicians lying on the upper end and writings of schizophrenic subjects on the lower end. Furthermore, we show that the perceptual periodicities of a speech of Obama facilitate lexical access and induce emotional responses analogous to music and congruent with the context. This provides indirect evidence of emotional entrainment between the speaker and his audience. Our findings also support the transformative technology of the mind theory of music (Patel, 2010). In fact, we argue that music and poetry were invented by transforming the previously acquired ability to analyze the prosodic component of language, which was advantageous in social interactions.

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