Fine-tuning of auditory cortex during speech production

• Published in: Psychophysiology Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 180 - 190
• Main Authors: Heinks-Maldonado, Theda H., Mathalon, Daniel H., Gray, Max, Ford, Judith M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing 01.03.2005; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Auditory feedback; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biofeedback, Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Efference copy; Electroencephalography; Electrophysiology; Event-related potential (ERP); Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; N100; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Speech - physiology; Speech production; Human; Central nervous system; N100; Electrophysiology; Feedback regulation; Speech production; Cognition; Verbal production; Auditory cortex; Encephalon; Hearing; Language; Event-related potential (ERP); Speech; Perception; Auditory pathway; Auditory feedback; Event evoked potential; Efference copy
• ISSN: 0048-5772; 1540-5958; 1469-8986
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00272.x

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.