Processing specificity for human voice stimuli: electrophysiological evidence

Recent neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for localized perceptual specificity in the processing of human voice stimuli, paralleling the spec ificity for human faces. This study attempted to delineate the perceptual f eatures of human voices yielding selective processing, and to characterize its time-course. Electrophysiological recordings revealed a positive potent ial peaking at 320 ms post-stimulus onset, in response to sung tones compar ed with fundamental-frequency-matched instrumental tones, when both categor ies were distracters in an oddball task. This voice-specific response (VSR) evoked under conditions different from those yielding positivity at that l atency in other contexts, indicates the overriding salience of voice stimul i, possibly reflecting the operation of a gating system directing voice sti muli to be processed differently from other acoustic stimuli. NeuroReport 1 2:2653-2657 (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.