Auditory-motor mapping for pitch control in singers and nonsingers

Little is known about the basic processes underlying the behavior of singing. This experiment was designed to examine differences in the representation of the mapping between fundamental frequency (F0) feedback and the vocal production system in singers and nonsingers. Auditory feedback regarding F0 was shifted down in frequency while participants sang the consonant-vowel /ta/. During the initial frequency-altered trials, singers compensated to a lesser degree than nonsingers, but this difference was reduced with continued exposure to frequency-altered feedback. After brief exposure to frequency altered auditory feedback, both singers and nonsingers suddenly heard their F0 unaltered. When participants received this unaltered feedback, only singers’ F0 values were found to be significantly higher than their F0 values produced during baseline and control trials. These aftereffects in singers were replicated when participants sang a different note than the note they produced while hearing altered feedback. Together, these results suggest that singers rely more on internal models than nonsingers to regulate vocal productions rather than real time auditory feedback.

[1]  W. D. Ward,et al.  Pitch performance in singing without auditory feedback , 1975 .

[2]  Matthias Schlesewsky,et al.  Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs , 2006 .

[3]  Frank H. Guenther,et al.  Speech motor control: Acoustic goals, saturation effects, auditory feedback and internal models , 1997, Speech Commun..

[4]  C. Larson,et al.  Voice F0 responses to pitch-shifted auditory feedback: a preliminary study. , 1997, Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation.

[5]  Jay J Bauer,et al.  Vocal responses to unanticipated perturbations in voice loudness feedback: an automatic mechanism for stabilizing voice amplitude. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[6]  C. Larson,et al.  Audio-vocal responses to repetitive pitch-shift stimulation during a sustained vocalization: improvements in methodology for the pitch-shifting technique. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  C. Larson,et al.  Human laryngeal responses to auditory stimulation. , 1983, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  C. Larson,et al.  Voice F0 responses to manipulations in pitch feedback. , 1998, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[9]  Thomas M Donath,et al.  Control of voice fundamental frequency in speaking versus singing. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[10]  Bernard S. Lee.  Effects of delayed speech feedback , 1950 .

[11]  B. Wyke.  Laryngeal neuromuscular control systems in singing. A review of current concepts. , 1974, Folia phoniatrica.

[12]  Robert J. Zatorre,et al.  Experience-dependent neural substrates involved in vocal pitch regulation during singing , 2008, NeuroImage.

[13]  G. Fairbanks,et al.  Systematic research in experimental phonetics. I. A theory of the speech mechanism as a servosystem. , 1954, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[14]  K. Munhall,et al.  Compensation following real-time manipulation of formants in isolated vowels. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[15]  Frank H. Guenther,et al.  A neural network model of speech acquisition and motor equivalent speech production , 2004, Biological Cybernetics.

[16]  Jeffery A. Jones,et al.  Remapping Auditory-Motor Representations in Voice Production , 2005, Current Biology.

[17]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  Sensorimotor adaptation in speech production. , 1998, Science.

[18]  Robert J Zatorre,et al.  Neural Substrates Governing Audiovocal Integration for Vocal Pitch Regulation in Singing , 2005, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[19]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  An internal model for sensorimotor integration. , 1995, Science.

[20]  C. Larson,et al.  Effects of pitch-shift velocity on voice Fo responses. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[21]  Chi-Sang Poon,et al.  Internal models in sensorimotor integration: perspectives from adaptive control theory , 2005, Journal of neural engineering.

[22]  Jeffery A. Jones,et al.  Perceptual calibration of F0 production: evidence from feedback perturbation. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[23]  A. Braun,et al.  Words in melody: an H215O PET study of brain activation during singing and speaking , 2003, Neuroreport.

[24]  Kevin G. Munhall,et al.  The role of auditory feedback during phonation: studies of Mandarin tone production , 2002, J. Phonetics.

[25]  C. Larson,et al.  Instructing subjects to make a voluntary response reveals the presence of two components to the audio-vocal reflex , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[26]  Hideki Kawahara,et al.  Hearing voice: transformed auditory feedback effects on voice pitch control , 1998 .

[27]  Jeffery A. Jones,et al.  Learning to produce speech with an altered vocal tract: the role of auditory feedback. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[28]  Scott T. Grafton,et al.  Forward modeling allows feedback control for fast reaching movements , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[29]  Thomas Murry,et al.  Pitch-matching accuracy in singers and nonsingers , 1990 .

[30]  J. Elman.  Effects of frequency-shifted feedback on the pitch of vocal productions. , 1981, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[31]  J. Flanagan,et al.  Modulation of grip force with load force during point-to-point arm movements , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[32]  D K Oller,et al.  The role of audition in infant babbling. , 1988, Child development.

[33]  G. J. Borden.  An interpretation of research on feedback interruption in speech , 1979, Brain and Language.

[34]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Localization of cerebral activity during simple singing. , 1999, Neuroreport.

[35]  Kevin G Munhall,et al.  Adaptive control of vowel formant frequency: evidence from real-time formant manipulation. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[36]  F A Mussa-Ivaldi,et al.  Adaptive representation of dynamics during learning of a motor task , 1994, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[37]  Kathryn Barnes-Burroughs,et al.  Pitch matching accuracy of trained singers, untrained subjects with talented singing voices, and untrained subjects with nontalented singing voices in conditions of varying feedback. , 2003, Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation.

[38]  M. Hirano,et al.  Laryngeal sensory innervation: Origins of sensory nerve fibers in the nodose ganglion of the cat , 1989 .

[39]  Paul Boersma,et al.  Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer , 2002 .

[40]  J. Perkell,et al.  A Neural Model of Speech Production and Its Application to Studies of the Role of Auditory Feedback in Speech , 2003 .

[41]  W. Zemlin.  Speech and Hearing Science : Anatomy and Physiology , 1968 .

[42]  B. Wyke,et al.  Articular reflex mechanisms in the larynx. , 1965, The Annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology.

[43]  Lois L. Elliott,et al.  The Role of Hearing in Controlling Voice Fundamental Frequency , 1970 .

[44]  Hideki Kawahara,et al.  Restructuring speech representations using a pitch-adaptive time-frequency smoothing and an instantaneous-frequency-based F0 extraction: Possible role of a repetitive structure in sounds , 1999, Speech Commun..

[45]  Johan Sundberg,et al.  Significance of auditory and kinesthetic feedback to singers' pitch control. , 2002, Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation.

[46]  W Grodd,et al.  Opposite hemispheric lateralization effects during speaking and singing at motor cortex, insula and cerebellum , 2000, Neuroreport.

[47]  S R Garber,et al.  The effects of feedback filtering on nasalization in normal and hypernasal speakers. , 1979, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[48]  Pascal van Lieshout,et al.  Speech Motor Control in Normal and Disordered Speech: Future Developments in Theory and Methodology , 2004 .

[49]  H. Lane,et al.  The Lombard Sign and the Role of Hearing in Speech , 1971 .

[50]  Guy J. Brown,et al.  Computational auditory scene analysis , 1994, Comput. Speech Lang..