Speaking with an alien voice: Flexible sense of agency during vocal production.

• Main Authors: Franken, M.K (Author), Hall, L. (Author), Hartsuiker, R.J (Author), Johansson, P. (Author), Lind, A. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association 2021
• Subjects: adult; altered auditory feedback; article; auditory feedback; female; human; human experiment; male; pitch; PsycINFO; sense of agency; speech production; vocalization; voice
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Speakers monitor auditory feedback during speech production in order to correct for speech errors. The comparator model proposes that this process is supported by comparing sensory feedback to internal predictions of the sensory consequences of articulation. Additionally, this comparison process is proposed to support the sense of agency over vocal output. The current study tests this hypothesis by asking whether mismatching auditory feedback leads to a decrease in the sense of agency as measured by speakers’ responses to pitch-shifted feedback. Participants vocalized while auditory feedback was unexpectedly and briefly pitch-shifted. In addition, in one block, the entire vocalization’s pitch was baseline-shifted (“alien voice”), while it was not in the other block (“normal voice”). Participants compensated for the pitch shifts even in the alien voice condition, suggesting that agency was flexible. This is problematic for the classic comparator model, where a mismatching feedback would lead to a loss of agency. Alternative models are discussed in light of these findings, including an adapted comparator model and the inferential account, which suggests that agency is inferred from the joint contribution of several multisensory sources of evidence. Together, these findings suggest that internal representations of one’s own voice are more flexible than often assumed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Public Significance Statement—This study suggests that the sense of agency during speech is more flexible than often assumed. The sense of agency is not simply the result of an absolute match between expected and observed sensory feedback. Instead, it may rely on the contribution of multisensory information and/or on temporal covariance between prediction and feedback. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) © 2021 American Psychological Association