Successful auditory motor adaptation requires task-relevant auditory errors.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Speech Science
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Speech motor learning relies on adapting to auditory errors.
• The brain must distinguish relevant from irrelevant auditory errors for effective learning.
• Understanding error relevance is key to speech motor control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the brain assesses the relevance of auditory errors during speech motor adaptation.
• To compare speech motor learning under conditions of task-relevant versus task-irrelevant auditory errors.
• To explore the relationship between perceptual targeting and auditory motor adaptation.

Main Methods:

• Participants (n=30) produced speech with perturbed auditory feedback.
• Auditory errors were manipulated to be either task-relevant (linked to production) or task-irrelevant (experimenter-defined).
• A state-space model and categorical perception tasks were used to analyze adaptation and error sensitivity.

Main Results:

• Speech motor adaptation and error sensitivity were significantly greater for task-relevant errors compared to task-irrelevant errors.
• Participants with smaller perceptual targets showed increased adaptation and error sensitivity, especially with relevant errors.
• Larger perceptual targets correlated with less adaptation to auditory perturbations.

Conclusions:

• The brain actively evaluates the relevance of auditory errors, prioritizing relevant ones for speech motor learning.
• Perceptual targeting plays a crucial role, with smaller targets leading to heightened error sensitivity and adaptation.
• These findings illuminate the complex interplay between perception and production in optimizing speech motor learning.