Sensorimotor control of vocal production.

在你的一生中，听到自己说话的声音，也就是所谓的听觉反馈，是至关重要的。在言语发育过程中，部分或全部失聪会严重影响儿童的发音质量，甚至妨碍言语的正常发展。此外，越来越多的证据表明，口吃、帕金森氏症、自闭症谱系障碍甚至精神分裂症患者的听觉反馈过程与其他人不同。鉴于听觉反馈对流利语音的重要性，并真正了解无序的音频-声音整合的含义，我们必须清楚地了解听觉反馈是如何调节言语运动的。这项拟议的研究计划的目标是促进我们对大脑如何利用听觉反馈进行言语运动控制的理解。具体地说，我们将1)记录幼儿时期听觉反馈处理的发展概况；2)确定人们如何对他们在音调和元音产生中听到的错误做出反应的神经生理学相关性；以及3)确定发声熟练程度的个体差异如何调节说话者从发声错误中学习的方式。 为了解决这些重要的问题，我们将要求儿童和成年人在实时听到他们的声音频率变化的同时发言。在整个实验中，他们的音调或共振峰(元音)将被改变，这样我们就可以测量说话者做出的纠正反应。我们还将记录事件相关电位(ERPs)，以评估支持这些感知发声错误处理的神经机制。 在其他实验中，我们将在他们的发声作品内部和之间注入人工不稳定。在会议过程中，他们会听到他们的声音比平时更加多变。与直觉相反的是，我们预测，暴露在这种嘈杂的听觉反馈中将使说话者更容易重新映射他们的声音清晰度和他们期望听到的听觉反馈之间的关系。 这些研究的结果有可能改变我们对语言和其他自愿运动行为的感觉运动控制的理解，并将对某些沟通障碍(如口吃)的诊断和补救、理解听力障碍的后果、声乐教学以及理解第二语言学习产生影响。

Throughout life, hearing your own voice as you speak, also known as auditory feedback, is critically important. During speech development, partial or total deafness can severely affect the quality of a child's articulations or even prevent the normal development of speech all together. Moreover, there is growing evidence that people who stutter, have Parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorders, and even schizophrenia process their auditory feedback differently than other individuals. Given the importance of auditory feedback for fluent speech, and to truly understand the implications of disordered audio-vocal integration, it is imperative that we have a clear understanding of how speech motor acts are modulated by auditory feedback. The goal of this proposed research program is to advance our understanding of how the brain uses auditory feedback for speech motor control. Specifically, we will 1) document the developmental profile of auditory feedback processing during early childhood; 2) determine the neurophysiological correlates of how people respond to errors they hear in their vocal pitch and vowel productions; and 3) determine how individual differences in vocal proficiency modulate the way speakers learn from their vocal mistakes. To address these important questions we will ask children and adults to speak while hearing their voice altered in frequency in real time. Across the experiments either their vocal pitch, or their formants (vowels) will be altered, so that we can measure the corrective responses that speakers make. We will also record event-related potential (ERPs) in order to assess the neural mechanisms that support the processing of these perceived vocal errors. In other experiments, we will ‘inject’ artificial instability within and across their vocal productions. Over the course of a session they will hear their voice as more variable than it normally is. Counterintuitively, we predict that exposure to this noisy auditory feedback will cause speakers to more readily remap the relationship between their vocal articulations and the auditory feedback they expect to hear. The results of these studies have the potential to transform our understanding of the sensorimotor control of speech and other voluntary motor behaviours, and will have implications for the diagnosis and remediation of certain communication disorders (e.g., stuttering); for understanding the consequences of hearing impairments; for vocal pedagogy; and for understanding second language learning.