Human cortical sensorimotor network underlying feedback control of vocal pitch

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 110; no. 7; pp. 2653 - 2658
• Main Authors: Chang, Edward F., Niziolek, Caroline A., Knight, Robert T., Nagarajan, Srikantan S., Houde, John F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC National Academy of Sciences 12.02.2013; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Acoustic data; Acoustic Stimulation; Analysis of Variance; Animal vocalization; Auditory cortex; Behavioral neuroscience; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Sciences; Brain; Correlation analysis; Electrodes; Feedback control systems; Feedback, Sensory - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hemispheres; Humans; Listening; Motor ability; Motor cortex; Motors; Phonation - physiology; Pitch Discrimination - physiology; Speech; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Time Factors; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; vocalization; Human
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216827110

The control of vocalization is critically dependent on auditory feedback. Here, we determined the human peri-Sylvian speech network that mediates feedback control of pitch using direct cortical recordings. Subjects phonated while a real-time signal processor briefly perturbed their output pitch (speak condition). Subjects later heard the same recordings of their auditory feedback (listen condition). In posterior superior temporal gyrus, a proportion of sites had suppressed responses to normal feedback, whereas other spatially independent sites had enhanced responses to altered feedback. Behaviorally, speakers compensated for perturbations by changing their pitch. Single-trial analyses revealed that compensatory vocal changes were predicted by the magnitude of both auditory and subsequent ventral premotor responses to perturbations. Furthermore, sites whose responses to perturbation were enhanced in the speaking condition exhibited stronger correlations with behavior. This sensorimotor cortical network appears to underlie auditory feedback-based control of vocal pitch in humans.