title: Focal manipulations of formant trajectories reveal a role of auditory feedback in the online control of both within-syllable and between-syllable speech timing.
abstract: Within the human motor repertoire, speech production has a uniquely high level of spatiotemporal complexity. The production of running speech comprises the traversing of spatial positions with precisely coordinated articulator movements to produce 10-15 sounds/s. How does the brain use auditory feedback, namely the self-perception of produced speech sounds, in the online control of spatial and temporal parameters of multisyllabic articulation? This question has important bearings on the organizational principles of sequential actions, yet its answer remains controversial due to the long latency of the auditory feedback pathway and technical challenges involved in manipulating auditory feedback in precisely controlled ways during running speech. In this study, we developed a novel technique for introducing time-varying, focal perturbations in the auditory feedback during multisyllabic, connected speech. Manipulations of spatial and temporal parameters of the formant trajectory were tested separately on two groups of subjects as they uttered "I owe you a yo-yo." Under these perturbations, significant and specific changes were observed in both the spatial and temporal parameters of the produced formant trajectories. Compensations to spatial perturbations were bidirectional and opposed the perturbations. Furthermore, under perturbations that manipulated the timing of auditory feedback trajectory (slow-down or speed-up), significant adjustments in syllable timing were observed in the subjects' productions. These results highlight the systematic roles of auditory feedback in the online control of a highly over-learned action as connected speech articulation and provide a first look at the properties of this type of sensorimotor interaction in sequential movements.
authors.affiliation: Speech Communication Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. cais@mit.edu
authors.forename: Shanqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Satrajit S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Frank H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Guenther
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Perkell
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D056228:Feedback, Sensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026201:Musculoskeletal Manipulations / Q000379:methods*; D009862:Online Systems; D010700:Phonetics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 1989;75(3):586-98
references.pmid: 2744116
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2007 Apr;121(4):2296-311
references.pmid: 17471743
references.citation: Brain Lang. 1979 May;7(3):307-19
references.pmid: 455050
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2007 Feb;121(2):1157-63
references.pmid: 17348536
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2006 Apr;119(4):2288-97
references.pmid: 16642842
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1998 Jun;103(6):3153-61
references.pmid: 9637026
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2008 Feb 1;39(3):1429-43
references.pmid: 18035557
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1994 Jun;95(6):3605-16
references.pmid: 8046150
references.citation: J Speech Hear Disord. 1955 Dec;20(4):333-46
references.pmid: 13272227
references.citation: PLoS One. 2010 Nov 08;5(11):e13866
references.pmid: 21079783
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2004 Aug;116(2):1168-78
references.pmid: 15376682
references.citation: Science. 1998 Feb 20;279(5354):1213-6
references.pmid: 9469813
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2001 Jan;13(1):101-9
references.pmid: 11133313
references.citation: Psychol Rev. 1998 Oct;105(4):611-33
references.pmid: 9830375
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 1998 Sep 1;2(9):338-47
references.pmid: 21227230
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2000 Nov 1;4(11):423-431
references.pmid: 11058820
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2002 Jun;111(6):2842-52
references.pmid: 12083218
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2002 Jan;111(1 Pt 1):357-66
references.pmid: 11831808
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2010 Dec;128(6):EL355-60
references.pmid: 21218857
references.citation: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 1999 Dec;9(6):718-27
references.pmid: 10607637
references.citation: J Commun Disord. 2006 Sep-Oct;39(5):350-65
references.pmid: 16887139
references.citation: Neuron. 2011 Feb 10;69(3):407-22
references.pmid: 21315253
references.citation: Neural Netw. 1996 Nov;9(8):1265-1279
references.pmid: 12662535
references.citation: Trends Neurosci. 2008 Jun;31(6):265-72
references.pmid: 18471906
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 2003 Oct;152(3):341-52
references.pmid: 12904935
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2007 Nov;5(11):e316
references.pmid: 18044990
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2010 Oct;128(4):2033-48
references.pmid: 20968374
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1988 Sep;84(3):917-28
references.pmid: 3183209
references.citation: Psychol Res. 2002 Feb;66(1):71-9
references.pmid: 11963280
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1982 Sep;72(3):705-16
references.pmid: 7130529