Effects of vocal training on involuntary responses to pitch-shifted voice auditory feedback

Control of voice fundamental frequency (F0) relies on the interaction between various forms of sensory feedback and neural motor control mechanisms. Previous research has shown that unexpected changes in pitch in the auditory feedback result in two components of the compensatory vocal responses, an early involuntary response and a later voluntary response. In an attempt to determine whether these responses can be modified due to training, we examined involuntary vocal responses to unpredictable perturbations in pitch auditory feedback following a vocal training task. Ten subjects were trained over a five-day period to change their voice F0 in the opposite direction to the pitch-shifted feedback (±100 cents, 1000ms) and 10 in the same direction as the feedback. Results showed that the involuntary response was not affected by training. These results have implications on our understanding of voice control.