Right intra-hemispheric connections include right M1 to right IFG, right PMC to

right M1 and right STG to right IFG. A negative coupling is seen from right IFG to right STG as well. Interestingly, negative pathways are generated during the shift condition that are not present in the no shift condition. This change of circuitry indicates differential processing necessary during the detection and correction of perceived vocal error. Cross-hemispheric connections include right primary motor cortex to left primary motor cortex, and left STG. Left IFG is coupled with right PMC. Importantly, a connection between left STG to right STG is observed. Additionally, selleck compound a negatively correlated connection is present

from TGFbeta inhibitor right STG to Left STG (Fig. 2). The focus of this study was to use effective connectivity modeling of fMRI data to determine neural networks involved in vocal control and identify pathways that are key to detecting and correcting vocal errors. Vocalization is a highly complex motor skill that requires coordination amongst multiple effector systems (e.g., respiratory and vocal) at a rapid pace. In order to execute voluntary actions with precision, both feedforward and feedback systems are integrated. Feedforward models compare anticipated changes to be imposed with the actual output (Jeannerod, Kennedy, & Magnin, 1979). Therefore, it is the difference between the actual and predicted sensory feedback that results in a sensory error, which is used to correct the current state estimate (Chang

et al., 2013 and Wolpert et al., 1995). Given that we delivered perturbation to the subjects during mid vocalization, these perturbations are processed next as errors in self-vocalization (Behroozmand et al., 2011 and Liu et al., 2010). As a result, we predicted that STG would serve as a vital region in error detection; therefore, STG would show differences in connectivity when an error was present compared to unperturbed vocalization. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found differences in neural connectivity of the voice network associated with vocal perturbations. Data support the idea that STG plays a crucial role in vocalization and shift processing as evidenced by our model. Our analysis also revealed the emergence of negative pathways that we interpret as feedback loops for during shifted vocalization that are not present with unperturbed productions. Coupling between right STG and left STG in the no shift condition indicated that this path is critical to vocalization. Using a simple effect size computation (r2), one can see that approximately 5% of the variance in the direct relationship between left STG to right STG is accounted for in the no shift model; however, in the shift condition 50% of the variance is accounted for by this pathway.