Identification of auditory evoked potentials of one's own voice

We recorded vocalization related cortical potentials (VRCP) with complete masking of one's own voice, and separated the feedback auditory potentials following vocalization from the VRCP complex.

We used 9 right-handed healthy subjects. We recorded VRCP during simple vowel vocalizing under two conditions, (1) without masking (control); (2) with masking. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from seven areas, Fz, Cz, Pz, C3, C4, T3 and T4, of the International 10-20 system. The trigger point was the onset of vocalized sound recorded through a microphone.

In both control and masking conditions, similar negative potentials prior to the vocalization were observed. However, the amplitude just after the onset of vocalization was significantly smaller in the masking than the control condition. The difference waveform, obtained by subtracting the waveforms in the masking from those in the control condition, showed a simple negative peak after the vocalization onset.

We considered that the difference waveform indicated the auditory evoked potentials following own voice in the auditory feedback process. Since there was no difference of the negative potentials before vocalization between the two conditions, we speculated that the masking effect on auditory feedback following vocalization was crucial, while its effect on the preparatory process of simple vocalization might be minimal.