Detecting our own vocal errors: An event-related study of the thresholds for perceiving and compensating for vocal pitch errors

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that a perception-action dissociation exists for the cortical processing of vocal pitch, because speakers compensate for small vocal errors without awareness. In this event-related potential (ERP) study, participants vocalized while hearing their productions either altered or unaltered in pitch, and reported whether their auditory feedback was altered. Pitch alterations as small as 10 cents resulted in compensatory vocal responses, while participants reported hearing perturbations that were 15 cents and larger. Similarly, P1 ERP responses were elicited by perturbations 15 cents and larger, while N1 responses followed a linear trend with increasing perturbation magnitudes, and P2 responses were elicited by perturbations 30 cents and larger. Although their thresholds differed, both motor and perceptual responses were elicited by small frequency altered feedback (FAF) perturbations. Previous reports of a perception-action dissociation may reflect differences in the magnitude of vocal error required to elicit a motor response, and for an individual to report a pitch change, rather than to detect a pitch change (as reflected by ERP responses).