Neural sensitivity to human voices: ERP evidence of task and attentional influences

Daniel A. Levy, Roni Granot, Shlomo Bentin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Scopus citations

Abstract

In an earlier study, we found that human voices evoked a positive event-related potential (ERP) peaking at ∼ 320 ms after stimulus onset, distinctive from those elicited by instrumental tones. Here we show that though similar in latency to the Novelty P3, this Voice-Sensitive Response (VSR) differs in antecedent conditions and scalp distribution. Furthermore, when participants were not attending to stimuli, the response to voices was undistinguished from other harmonic stimuli (strings, winds, and brass). During a task requiring attending to a feature other than timbre, voices were not distinguished from voicelike stimuli (strings), but were distinguished from other harmonic stimuli. We suggest that the component elicited by voices and similar sounds reflects the allocation of attention on the basis of stimulus significance (as opposed to novelty), and propose an explanation of the task and attentional factors that contribute to the effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)291-305
Number of pages15
JournalPsychophysiology
Volume40
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2003

Keywords

  • Attention
  • Auditory processing
  • ERPs
  • Human voice perception
  • Novelty P3
  • VSR

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