Larger Pre-Speech Auditory Modulation Is Associated With Smaller Corrective Responses To Auditory Errors

Abstract Purpose During speech planning, the brain predicts the auditory consequences of its movements and modulates the auditory system—a process called pre-speech auditory modulation (PSAM). We investigated the link between PSAM and behavioral error correction and determined how aging influences these mechanisms. Methods Seventeen young adults (18–32 years) and 13 older adults (50–85 years) performed a speaking task involving auditory feedback perturbations and a silent reading control. We measured electrophysiological responses (N1/P2) to auditory probes during speech planning and correlated these modulations with the magnitude of participants’ subsequent behavioral corrective responses. Results Both groups showed significant modulation of N1 and P2. However, N1 modulation correlated with corrective responses only in young adults. Older adults showed reduced behavioral corrections and smaller, delayed P2 components. Despite these age-related behavioral differences and the loss of the modulation-correction correlation, older adults maintained modulation magnitudes comparable to those of younger adults. Conclusions N1 modulation serves as a neural index of the brain’s predictive processes during speech planning. Aging appears to selectively disrupt the integration of these signals into motor output rather than the internal generation of the predictions themselves.