What the study found
Attention to auditory feedback changed speech error detection and vocal control, and some of these effects differed between people with post-stroke aphasia and age-matched controls.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors suggest that attentional modulation of auditory feedback may help support speech monitoring in aphasia by linking cortical error processing to conscious feedback awareness, and they state that this could improve communicative outcomes.
What the researchers tested
The researchers studied 66 participants with post-stroke aphasia and 64 age-matched controls. Participants sustained the vowel sound /a/ while real-time auditory feedback was randomly shifted up or down by 100 cents during EEG, or electroencephalography, recordings. They compared a condition with instructions to monitor feedback and press buttons when pitch shifts were detected with the same task performed without those instructions.
What worked and what didn't
Participants with aphasia showed significantly lower pitch-shift detection accuracy than controls. Under instructions, P2, an event-related potential neural component, increased in both groups, with a stronger effect in controls than in aphasia. Vocal compensations were reduced under instructions in controls, but not in aphasia. Instructions also changed the relationship between P2 activity and vocal response: with instructions, larger P2 activity was associated with smaller vocal compensations, while no such relationship was seen without instructions. In aphasia, larger P2 amplitudes were associated with better detection accuracy.
What to keep in mind
The abstract does not describe detailed limitations beyond the study’s participant groups and task setting. The findings are based on a specific vocal feedback task using pitch-shifted auditory feedback during EEG recording, so the available summary does not show how far the results extend beyond that context.
Key points
- People with post-stroke aphasia were less accurate than controls at detecting pitch-shift changes.
- Instructions to monitor auditory feedback increased P2 neural activity in both groups.
- The P2 increase was stronger in controls than in people with aphasia.
- Instructions reduced vocal compensations in controls, but not in aphasia.
- In aphasia, larger P2 amplitudes were linked to better detection accuracy.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Attentional instructions altered feedback control in aphasia
- Authors:
- Yilun Zhang, Roozbeh Behroozmand
- Institutions:
- The University of Texas at Dallas
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-10
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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