Abstract
The influence of delayed auditory feedback on action evaluation and execution of real-life action-induced sounds apart from language and music is still poorly understood. Here, we examined how a temporal delay impacted the behavioral evaluation and neural representation of hurdling and tap-dancing actions in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, postulating that effects of delay diverge between the two, as we create action-induced sounds intentionally in tap dancing, but incidentally in hurdling. Based on previous findings, we expected that conditions differ regarding the engagement of the supplementary motor area (SMA), posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG), and primary auditory cortex (A1). Participants were videotaped during a 9-week training of hurdling and tap dancing; in the fMRI scanner, they were presented with point-light videos of their own training videos, including the original or the slightly delayed sound, and had to evaluate how well they performed on each single trial. For the undelayed conditions, we replicated A1 attenuation and enhanced pSTG and SMA engagement for tap dancing (intentionally generated sounds) vs. hurdling (incidentally generated sounds). Delayed auditory feedback did not negatively influence behavioral rating scores in general. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response transiently increased and then adapted to repeated presentation of point-light videos with delayed sound in pSTG. This region also showed a significantly stronger correlation with the SMA under delayed feedback. Notably, SMA activation increased more for delayed feedback in the tap-dancing condition, covarying with higher rating scores. Findings suggest that action evaluation is more strongly based on top–down predictions from SMA when sounds of intentional action are distorted.
Highlights
IntroductionMost human actions produce sounds, and these sounds are either the goal of the performed action (goal-related actioninduced sounds, G sounds hereafter) or a mere byproduct (byproduct action-induced sounds, B sounds)
Most human actions produce sounds, and these sounds are either the goal of the performed action or a mere byproduct
With regard to self-produced sounds, dynamic causal modeling of eventrelated brain potentials in EEG suggest that A1 is modulated by predictive models from supplementary motor area (SMA) (Jo et al, 2019) and posterior superior temporal gyrus (Chennu et al, 2016), damping responses to expected sounds
Summary
Most human actions produce sounds, and these sounds are either the goal of the performed action (goal-related actioninduced sounds, G sounds hereafter) or a mere byproduct (byproduct action-induced sounds, B sounds). When performing an action that generates a sound as a mere byproduct (a B action, hereafter), we would be starkly surprised if the corresponding sound would not ensue, suggesting that B sounds are part of the brain’s expectations during action execution Physiological evidence for this view is provided by sensory attenuation to self-initiated sounds, which manifests in electroencephalography (EEG) as amplitude reduction of the N1 component (Baess et al, 2011), and in magnetoencephalography (MEG) as amplitude reduction of the magnetic counterpart of the N1, called M100 or N1(m) component (Aliu et al, 2009; Horváth et al, 2012), which is mainly (but not exclusively, cf Godey et al, 2001; Yvert et al, 2005) evoked from primary auditory cortex (Reite et al, 1994). With regard to self-produced sounds, dynamic causal modeling of eventrelated brain potentials in EEG suggest that A1 is modulated by predictive models from supplementary motor area (SMA) (Jo et al, 2019) and posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) (Chennu et al, 2016), damping responses to expected sounds (for reviews, cf. Rauschecker, 2012; Heilbron and Chait, 2018)
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