My Voice or Yours? An Electrophysiological Study

Abstract

This study examined the neural processes underlying own voice discrimination using electrophysiological methods. Event-related potentials were recorded while healthy subjects (n = 17) heard passively three oddball sequences composed of recordings of the French vowel/a/pronounced either by the participant her/himself or by two unknown persons. The results indicated that, although the mismatch negativity (MMN) displayed similar peak latency and amplitude in both conditions, the subsequent P3a clearly distinguished the two conditions since its amplitude was significantly smaller for own voice discrimination than for that of unknown voices. Moreover, the own voice discriminative response was associated with an early pre-MMN response. This early response involved a left inferior frontal component, the activity of which lasted throughout the time course of the discriminative response, which included both MMN and P3a.

The effects of stimulus complexity on the preattentive processing of self-generated and nonself voices: An ERP study

“…The authors reported no differences in the mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to self-generated versus nonself voice stimuli (Graux et al, 2015;Graux et al, 2013). However, the authors observed a reduced reorienting response to one's own voice, in comparison with both unknown (Graux et al, 2013) and familiar (Graux et al, 2015) voice stimuli, reflected by smaller P3a amplitudes to the self-generated voice. These findings were interpreted as evidence for the prioritized processing of nonself voice stimuli when compared with a self-generated voice, in a context in which individuals' attention was engaged in a concurrent visual task.…”

“…An important contribution to the comprehension of the neurocognitive correlates of self-generated voice processing in later information-processing stages comes from two recent ERP studies investigating both the preattentive deviance detection and the orienting response to one's own versus a nonself voice (Graux, Gomot, Roux, Bonnet-Brilhault, & Bruneau, 2015;Graux et al, 2013). In these experiments, participants were asked to pay attention to a silent movie and to ignore the concurrent acoustic stimulation, consisting of recordings of their own voices, as well as voices from unknown (Graux et al, 2013) and familiar (Graux et al, 2015) speakers.…”

“…In these experiments, participants were asked to pay attention to a silent movie and to ignore the concurrent acoustic stimulation, consisting of recordings of their own voices, as well as voices from unknown (Graux et al, 2013) and familiar (Graux et al, 2015) speakers. These studies have the advantage of shedding light on brain responses to voice information, irrespective of the participants' attentional focus, avoiding potential confounds resulting from attentional biases (Garrido, Kilner, Stephan, & Friston, 2009;Näätänen, 2001;Näätänen, Paavilainen, Rinne, & Alho, 2007;Pulvermüller & Shtyrov, 2006).…”

“…These studies have the advantage of shedding light on brain responses to voice information, irrespective of the participants' attentional focus, avoiding potential confounds resulting from attentional biases (Garrido, Kilner, Stephan, & Friston, 2009;Näätänen, 2001;Näätänen, Paavilainen, Rinne, & Alho, 2007;Pulvermüller & Shtyrov, 2006). The authors reported no differences in the mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to self-generated versus nonself voice stimuli (Graux et al, 2015;Graux et al, 2013). However, the authors observed a reduced reorienting response to one's own voice, in comparison with both unknown (Graux et al, 2013) and familiar (Graux et al, 2015) voice stimuli, reflected by smaller P3a amplitudes to the self-generated voice.…”

“…However, it is worth noting that the voice stimuli used in the studies of Graux et al (2013;Graux et al, 2015) were short vocalizations (/a/) lasting 300 ms. Previous studies have demonstrated an important interplay between stimulus complexity and voice identity processing (Cook & Wilding, 1997;Fleming, Giordano, Caldara, & Belin, 2014;Goggin, Thompson, Strube, & Simental, 1991;Nygaard & Pisoni, 1998;Nygaard, Sommers, & Pisoni, 1994;Patel & Schell, 2008;Perrachione & Wong, 2007;Schweinberger, Herholz, & Sommer, 1997;Ventura et al, 2009).…”