Abstract
Self-related stimuli are important cues for people to recognize themselves in the external world and hold a special status in our perceptual system. Self-voice plays an important role in daily social communication and is also a frequent input for self-identification. Although many studies have been conducted on the acoustic features of self-voice, no research has ever examined the spatial aspect, although the spatial perception of voice is important for humans. This study proposes a novel perspective for studying self-voice. We investigated people’s distance perception of their own voice when the voice was heard from an external position. Participants heard their own voice from one of four speakers located either 90 or 180 cm from their sitting position, either immediately after uttering a short vowel (i.e., active session) or hearing the replay of their own pronunciation (i.e., replay session). They were then asked to indicate which speaker they heard the voice from. Their voices were either pitch-shifted by ± 4 semitones (i.e., other-voice condition) or unaltered (i.e., self-voice condition). The results of spatial judgment showed that self-voice from the closer speakers was misattributed to that from the speakers further away at a significantly higher proportion than other-voice. This phenomenon was also observed when the participants remained silent and heard prerecorded voices. Additional structural equation modeling using participants’ schizotypal scores showed that the effect of self-voice on distance perception was significantly associated with the score of delusional thoughts (Peters Delusion Inventory) and distorted body image (Perceptual Aberration Scale) in the active speaking session but not in the replay session. The findings of this study provide important insights for understanding how people process self-related stimuli when there is a small distortion and how this may be linked to the risk of psychosis.
Highlights
Self-related stimuli are important cues for people to recognize themselves in the external world and hold a special status in our perceptual system
The main effect of the session showed that the ratings in the replay session were higher than those in the active session, probably because the participants were able to concentrate on the acoustic features of the voice feedback when they did not need to speak in the replay session as compared to the active session
The significant interaction was probably because the participants tended to rate higher in the replay session for the conditions of 0 and − 4 semitones but not for the condition of + 4 semitones than the active session
Summary
Self-related stimuli are important cues for people to recognize themselves in the external world and hold a special status in our perceptual system. We investigated people’s distance perception of their own voice when the voice was heard from an external position Participants heard their own voice from one of four speakers located either 90 or 180 cm from their sitting position, either immediately after uttering a short vowel (i.e., active session) or hearing the replay of their own pronunciation (i.e., replay session). Electrophysiological studies showed that self-voice triggered smaller P3a—an event-related potential reflecting the involuntary orientating of a ttention16—in an odd-ball paradigm compared to othervoices[17,18] This indicated that fewer pre-attentional resources are involved in the processing of self-voice[18]. Distortions of acoustic features using pitch-shift greatly impair people’s ability of self-recognition even when robot.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp They hear the voice feedback in real-time[20]. Patients with left and right brain damage showed different impairments in self-voice recognition, either misattributing others’ voices to themselves or denying the ownership of self-voice[28]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
