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The brain's sensitivity to sensory error can be modulated by altering perceived speech variability
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Poster D58 in Poster Session D, Wednesday, October 25, 4:45 - 6:30 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Caroline Niziolek1, Ding-lan Tang1, Sara Beach1, Benjamin Parrell1; 1University of Wisconsin–Madison
When the sensory outcomes of our speech movements don’t match our expectations, we learn from the resulting error, changing our subsequent speech behavior. This process, essential in both acquiring spoken language ability and adapting to changing environments, critically relies on error sensitivity, which governs the proportion of learning that results from a given error. Although behavioral and computational evidence suggests error sensitivity can change in response to task demands, neural evidence regarding the flexibility of error sensitivity in the human brain is lacking. In speech production, the sensitivity of the nervous system to auditory errors has been extensively studied by examining the suppression of neural activity related to auditory processing while speaking (speaking-induced suppression, or SIS). Here, we tested whether the nervous system’s sensitivity to errors, as measured by SIS, can be modulated by auditory feedback perturbations that alter speakers’ perceived variability. Adult speakers (n = 15) underwent MEG recording while producing monosyllabic words and listening to playback of those words. In three separate sessions, participants were exposed to perturbations that either 1) increased perceived variability, shifting all productions away from their mean formant values, 2) decreased perceived variability, shifting all productions towards their mean formant values, or 3) did not change variability (no alteration to feedback). Our results showed that SIS was attenuated when perceived variability was increased, consistent with predictions generated from previous behavioral data and state-space modeling. Conversely, we observed no significant changes in error sensitivity when perceived variability was unaltered or artificially reduced. The current study establishes the validity of behaviorally modulating the nervous system’s sensitivity to errors. As sensitivity to sensory errors plays a critical role in sensorimotor adaptation, modifying error sensitivity has the potential to enhance motor learning and rehabilitation in speech and, potentially, more broadly across motor domains.
Topic Areas: Speech Motor Control, Multisensory or Sensorimotor Integration