Donald A. Robin, Annie New, Patrick Almond, Bryan Dimler, Bill Rogers, Sazzad Nasir, Chuck Larson

Our group has studied involuntary (reflexive) behavioral and neural responses to pitch or loudness perturbations in auditory feedback during vocalization. Our early work in understanding the neural mechanisms of feedback control of the voice focused on the amplitude or latency of the ERP response. In the past 5 years we have used fMRI provide a further understanding of the neural basis of sensory control systems during vocalization. Our approach has been to use fMRI to identify regional activation patterns in the brain associated with involuntary responses. We have begun to develop network connectivity models of these involuntary responses using fMRI data and a combination of fMRI (high spatial resolution) with ERP (high temporal resolution) to construct causal connectivity models associated with pitch shift perturbations. In the past year we have begun to study voluntary responses to pitch shifted feedback by having subjects purposefully follow or oppose the shifted feedback. To that end, we have found behavioral differences in the latency of following versus opposing responses. Currently we have begun to delineate the neural responses associated with voluntary following and opposing responses using fMRI data. In this talk, we will present our initial data by comparing subjects’  involuntary responses to mid-vocalization pitch shifts with those that occur when subjects voluntarily follow or oppose the pitch shift. This talk will focus on changes in region BOLD activation patterns associated with voluntary pitch shift responses.