Listening to life: Speech technology transforms clinical research

(Press-News.org) ATLANTA, Georgia, USA, 3 June 2025 – In a comprehensive Genomic Press interview published today in Psychedelics, Dr. Deanna M. Kaplan reveals how her journey from journalism student to clinical psychologist led to revolutionary advances in capturing human experiences through voice technology. As Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Health Technologies for Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare, Dr. Kaplan has transformed how researchers understand the impact of clinical interventions in everyday life.

From Silent Retreats to Scientific Innovation

Dr. Kaplan's path to innovation began with personal experiences that highlighted a fundamental gap in clinical research. Watching her mother navigate chronic pain from a connective tissue disorder, she observed how clinical assessments failed to capture the daily fluctuations and real-world impacts of her condition. Similarly, her participation in silent meditation retreats raised questions about whether transformative experiences "on the cushion" actually translated into meaningful changes in daily life.

"I realized that while most health research takes place in labs or clinics, the experiences that shape people's wellbeing unfold in the small, ordinary moments of daily life," Dr. Kaplan explains in the interview. This insight drove her to pursue doctoral training with Dr. Matthias Mehl at the University of Arizona, a pioneer in ambulatory assessment methods.

The Birth of Fabla: Meeting an Unmet Need

After joining Emory's faculty in a position focused on psychospiritual topics and emerging psychedelic therapies, Dr. Kaplan encountered a significant methodological challenge. Existing tools for capturing participants' experiences relied heavily on structured surveys or passive audio recording, missing the richness of personal narratives. Could there be a better way to understand how people process and integrate profound experiences from psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions?

In collaboration with Santiago Arconada Alvarez, Co-Director of Mobile Apps at Emory's AppHatchery, Dr. Kaplan developed Fabla, a secure smartphone application that allows research participants to record spontaneous voice narratives throughout their day. The app captures what she calls "voice memos for research" – candid, unstructured reflections that reveal how clinical interventions influence daily life.

Beyond Psychedelics: Widespread Applications

While initially designed for psychedelic research, Fabla has found applications across diverse health domains. More than a dozen research groups now use the platform to study topics including veteran experiences during substance use treatment, epilepsy patient experiences, and healthcare provider burnout. This broad adoption speaks to a universal need in clinical science: qualitative understanding of how interventions work in the complex contexts of real life.

The technology arrives at a crucial moment. As Dr. Kaplan notes, advances in artificial intelligence and large language models are transforming how researchers analyze voice data. Yet this technological leap brings both promise and peril. How can researchers harness these tools while preserving the authentic human elements that make personal narratives so valuable?

Ethical Frontiers in Voice Analysis

Dr. Kaplan's current research grapples with fundamental questions about voice data in the age of AI. "Where qualitative data like spoken narratives once required human interpretation, we now see a shift toward automated systems that can extract meaning, emotion, and even inferred mental states at scale," she observes. This capability raises critical ethical considerations about privacy, consent, and the risk of reducing complex human experiences to algorithmic outputs.

Her lab focuses particularly on preserving what she terms the "intersubjective dimensions" of voice data – the relational and contextual aspects that give meaning to human communication. This concern becomes especially relevant in psychedelic research, where experiences often involve ineffable shifts in perception and identity that resist standardized measurement. Could automated analysis systems capture these nuanced transformations, or might they impose reductive frameworks that miss essential therapeutic mechanisms?

A Research Philosophy Rooted in Reflexivity

Throughout the interview, Dr. Kaplan emphasizes an approach to science that prioritizes human connection alongside technological efficiency. She recalls advice from her doctoral program’s clinical training director: "When in doubt, be a human." This philosophy shapes not only her research methods but also her laboratory culture, where she encourages students to resist the pressure for speed and productivity when it compromises care or scientific quality.

Dr. Kaplan also shares how she maintains balance through an adapted Shabbat practice with her partner, unplugging from technology for 24 hours each week. This personal commitment to contemplative time mirrors her research interests in how transformative experiences translate into sustainable life changes. What factors determine whether insights gained during intensive interventions become integrated into daily routines?

Future Directions and Unanswered Questions

Looking ahead, Dr. Kaplan sees her work positioned at the intersection of behavioral science and artificial intelligence, with implications extending far beyond academic research. As voice-based AI assistants become ubiquitous and mental health apps proliferate, understanding how to ethically capture and interpret voice data becomes increasingly urgent. Her research raises provocative questions: How might voice biomarkers complement traditional clinical assessments? What safeguards ensure that efficiency gains from automation don't sacrifice the therapeutic value of being heard and understood?

Dr. Deanna M. Kaplan's Genomic Press interview is part of a larger series called Innovators & Ideas that highlights the people behind today's most influential scientific breakthroughs. Each interview in the series offers a blend of cutting-edge research and personal reflections, providing readers with a comprehensive view of the scientists shaping the future. By combining a focus on professional achievements with personal insights, this interview style invites a richer narrative that both engages and educates readers. This format provides an ideal starting point for profiles that explores the scientist's impact on the field, while also touching on broader human themes. More information on the research leaders and rising stars featured in our Innovators & Ideas – Genomic Press Interview series can be found in our publications website: https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/.

The Genomic Press Interview in Psychedelics titled "Deanna M. Kaplan: Listening to daily life: exploring speech data, shared meaning, and generative artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical science," is freely available via Open Access on 3 June 2025 in Psychedelics at the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/pp025k.0023.

About Psychedelics: Psychedelics: The Journal of Psychedelic and Psychoactive Drug Research (ISSN: 2997-2671, online and 2997-268X, print) is a peer-reviewed medical research journal published by Genomic Press, New York. Psychedelics is dedicated to advancing knowledge across the full spectrum of consciousness altering substances, from classical psychedelics to stimulants, cannabinoids, entactogens, dissociatives, plant derived compounds, and novel compounds including drug discovery approaches. Our multidisciplinary approach encompasses molecular mechanisms, therapeutic applications, neuroscientific discoveries, and sociocultural analyses. We welcome diverse methodologies and perspectives from fundamental pharmacology and clinical studies to psychological investigations and societal-historical contexts that enhance our understanding of how these substances interact with human biology, psychology, and society.

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