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 (10–12 years) and a group of older (13–15 years) children. Twenty healthy young adults (20–25 years) 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.