Voice as relational orientation cue: neural dynamics underlying the decoding of listener- and content-oriented vocal communication.

In spoken communication, listeners must decode communicative meanings from a speaker's voice, which can either reflect the speaker-listener relationship (listener-oriented) or the speaker's stance toward the topic (content-oriented). However, the neurodynamic mechanisms dissociating online inference of these relational orientations through vocal cues remain poorly understood. The current study combined electroencephalography (EEG) with a cross-splicing paradigm across two experiments (Exp. 1: relational orientation judgment; Exp. 2: passive listening) to investigate the neural dynamics underlying the decoding of listener- vs. content-oriented emotive meanings. Utterances began with a leading phrase encoding relational orientation in its vocal and semantic cues, followed by a main sentence with either congruent or incongruent vocal cues. Phase-locked results revealed consistent late positivities distinguishing listener- and content-oriented cues across both experiments. These components were modulated by congruency in Exp. 1, with greater late positivities for incongruent vs. congruent cues observed only in the listener-oriented condition. Non-phase-locked results showed late alpha synchronization for distinguishing listener- vs. content-oriented voices, with incongruent cues reducing alpha power in listener-oriented conditions in Exp. 1. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) decoded relational orientation using EEG signal across 266-1600 ms and congruency in fragmented windows, revealing stable neural representations for listener/content distinctions. Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) further confirmed these effects could not be explained by low-level acoustic features, specific vocal expressions, or response-related variability. These findings suggest that decoding listener-oriented vocal cues involves enhanced pragmatic inference and conflict resolution processes. The core neural dissociation generalizes across active judgment and naturalistic passive listening contexts.