Developmental sex-specific change in auditory-vocal integration: ERP evidence in children

Abstract

Objective: The present event-related potential (ERP) study examined the developmental mechanisms of auditory-vocal integration in normally developing children. Neurophysiological responses to altered auditory feedback were recorded to determine whether they are affected by age and sex.

Method: Forty-two children were pairwise matched for sex and were divided into a group of younger (10-12years) and a group of older (13-15years) children. Twenty healthy young adults (20-25years) also participated in the experiment. ERPs were recorded from the participants who heard their voice pitch feedback unexpectedly shifted -50, -100, or -200 cents during sustained vocalization.

Results: P1 amplitudes became smaller as subjects increased in age from childhood to adulthood, and males produced larger N1 amplitudes than females. An age-related decrease in the P1-N1 latencies was also found: latencies were shorter in young adults than in school children. A complex age-by-sex interaction was found for the P2 component, where an age-related increase in P2 amplitudes existed only in girls, and boys produced longer P2 latencies than girls but only in the older children.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that neurophysiological responses to pitch errors in voice auditory feedback depend on age and sex in normally developing children.

Significance: The present study provides evidence that there is a sex-specific development of the neural mechanisms involved in auditory-vocal integration.