Effects of attentional instructions on the behavioral and neural mechanisms of speech auditory feedback control

The present study investigated how instructions for paying attention to auditory feedback may affect speech error detection and sensorimotor control. Electroencephalography (EEG) and speech signals were recorded from 21 neurologically intact adult subjects while they produced the speech vowel sound /a/ and received randomized ±100 cents pitch-shift alterations in their real-time auditory feedback. Subjects were instructed to pay attention to their auditory feedback and press a button to indicate whether they detected a pitch-shift stimulus during trials. Data for this group was compared with 22 matched subjects who completed the same speech task under altered auditory feedback condition without attentional instructions. Results revealed a significantly smaller magnitude of speech compensations in the attentional-instruction vs. no-instruction group and a positive linear association between the magnitude of compensations and P2 event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes. In addition, we found that the amplitude of P2 ERP component was significantly larger in the attentional-instruction vs. no-instruction group. Source localization analysis showed that this effect was accounted for by significantly stronger neural activities in the right hemisphere insula, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, transverse temporal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus in the attentional-instruction group. These findings suggest that attentional instructions may enhance speech auditory feedback error detection, and subsequently improve sensorimotor control via generating more stable speech outputs (i.e., smaller compensations) in response to pitch-shift alterations. Our data are informative for advancing theoretical models and motivating targeted interventions with a focus on the role of attentional instructions for improving treatment outcomes in patients with motor speech disorders.