Stimulus complexity matters when you hear your own voice: Attention effects on self-generated voice processing

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Discriminating self- from non-self voice is crucial for self-awareness and communication.
• The neural basis of self-voice perception and recognition is not well understood.
• The influence of attention and stimulus complexity on own-voice processing requires clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interaction between self-relevance and stimulus type in selective voice attention.
• To examine how self-relevance affects the brain's representation of regularity in voice perception.
• To clarify the neurofunctional underpinnings of self-voice recognition.

Main Methods:

• Employed an oddball task paradigm with event-related potentials (ERPs) in 18 healthy males.
• Presented pre-recorded self-generated voices (SGV) and non-self voices (NSV) as standard or target stimuli.
• Utilized nonverbal vocalizations and disyllabic words as stimulus types.

Main Results:

• Increased N2 amplitude observed for SGV compared to NSV stimuli, suggesting enhanced processing of self-voice.
• Stimulus type modulated later processing: P3 amplitude was higher for SGV words vs. NSV words, but not for vocalizations.
• SGV standards elicited reduced N1 and P2 amplitudes relative to NSV standards, indicating facilitated early auditory processing for self-voice.

Conclusions:

• Self-voice captures more attention when presented as words, but not as vocalizations, highlighting stimulus-dependent effects.
• Detection of auditory regularity is facilitated for one's own voice at early neural processing stages.
• Self-relevance differentially modulates attention to voices based on the type of auditory stimulus.