Abstract:
Auditory feedback effects on voice F[inf 0] control were investigated in terms of the frequency range of feedback harmonic components. The analysis was based on data obtained by a new experimental auditory feedback method called TAF (transformed auditory feedback). This method replaces a natural side tone path with an artificial path which modifies the parameters of the feedback speech sounds in real time, and measures effects in the speech sounds produced [Kawahara and Williams, Vocal Fold Physiology Symposium (1995)]. A series of TAF experiments using sustained vowel phonations with band limitations using high-pass and low-pass filters was conducted. Estimated impulse responses from pitch perception to voice F[inf 0] control illustrated that the response is compensatory and can be decomposed into two second-order responses with an initial delay. The results indicated that high-pass filtering does not show significant effects on response parameters while low-pass filtering shows a negative correlation between the cutoff frequency and the response delay. The average response delays for high-pass filtering and low-pass filtering were equivalent for a 800-Hz cutoff frequency. Implications on voice pitch perception will be discussed.