Voice F0 responses to pitch-shifted auditory feedback: a preliminary study

Auditory feedback has been suggested to be important for voice fundamental frequency (F0) control. The present study featured a new technique for testing this hypothesis by which the pitch of a subject's voice was modulated, fed back over earphones, and the resultant change in the emitted voice F0 was measured. The responses of 67 normal, healthy young adults were recorded as they attempted to ignore intermittent upward or downward shifts in pitch feedback while they sustained steady vowel sounds (/a/) or sang musical scales. Ninety-six percent of subjects increased their F0 when the feedback pitch was decreased, and 78% of subjects decreased their F0 when the pitch feedback was increased. Latencies of responses ranged from 104 to 223 ms. Results indicate people normally rely on pitch feedback to control voice F0.