The purpose of the present study was to investigate the responsiveness of the pitch-shift reflex to small magnitude stimuli and voice fundamental frequency (F0) level. English speakers received pitch-shifted voice feedback (±10, 20, 30, 40, and 50cents, 200ms duration) during vowel phonations at a high and a low F0 level. Mean pitch-shift response magnitude increased as a function of pitch-shift stimulus magnitude, but when expressed as a percent of stimulus magnitude, declined from 100% with ±10cents to 37% with ±50cents stimuli. Response magnitudes were larger and latencies were shorter with a high F0 level (16cents;130ms) compared to a low F0 level (13cents;152ms). Data from the present study demonstrate that vocal response magnitudes are equal to small perturbation magnitudes, and they are larger and faster with a high F0 voice. These results suggest that the audio-vocal system is optimally suited for compensating for small pitch rather than larger perturbations. Data also suggest the sensitivity of the audio-vocal system to voice perturbation may vary with F0 level.

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