Mixture of orthogonal sequences made from extended time-stretched pulses enables measurement of involuntary voice fundamental frequency response to pitch perturbation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using orthogonal sequences of extended time-stretched pulses to measure involuntary voice pitch responses to auditory stimuli, enabling objective, non-invasive assessment of auditory feedback control.

Contribution

The study develops a new measurement approach with orthogonal pulse sequences and provides an open-source tool for assessing involuntary voice pitch responses.

Findings

Consistent involuntary responses with ~100 ms latency detected

Method effectively isolates involuntary pitch control responses

Tool available as open-source for broader research use

Abstract

Auditory feedback plays an essential role in the regulation of the fundamental frequency of voiced sounds. The fundamental frequency also responds to auditory stimulation other than the speaker's voice. We propose to use this response of the fundamental frequency of sustained vowels to frequency-modulated test signals for investigating involuntary control of voice pitch. This involuntary response is difficult to identify and isolate by the conventional paradigm, which uses step-shaped pitch perturbation. We recently developed a versatile measurement method using a mixture of orthogonal sequences made from a set of extended time-stretched pulses (TSP). In this article, we extended our approach and designed a set of test signals using the mixture to modulate the fundamental frequency of artificial signals. For testing the response, the experimenter presents the modulated signal aurally while the subject is voicing sustained vowels. We developed a tool for conducting this test quickly and interactively. We make the tool available as an open-source and also provide executable GUI-based applications. Preliminary tests revealed that the proposed method consistently provides compensatory responses with about 100 ms latency, representing involuntary control. Finally, we discuss future applications of the proposed method for objective and non-invasive auditory response measurements.