Fine-tuning of auditory cortex during speech production.
The cortex suppresses sensory information when it is the result of a self-produced motor act, including the motor act of speaking. The specificity of the auditory cortical suppression to self-produced speech, a prediction derived from the posited operation of a precise forward model system, has not been established. We examined the auditory N100 component of the event-related brain potential elicited during speech production. While subjects uttered a vowel, they heard real-time feedback of their unaltered voice, their pitch-shifted voice, or an alien voice substituted for their own. The subjects' own unaltered voice feedback elicited a dampened auditory N100 response relative to the N100 elicited by altered or alien auditory feedback. This is consistent with the operation of a precise forward model modulating the auditory cortical response to self-generated speech and allowing immediate distinction of self and externally generated auditory stimuli.
Heinks-Maldonado
Theda H
TH
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Mathalon
Daniel H
DH
Gray
Max
M
Ford
Judith M
JM
D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*