Violinists' Perceptions of and Motor Reactions to Fundamental Frequency Shifts Introduced in Auditory Feedback

During vocalization, compensating motor reactions are observed in response to unnoticed changes of voice fundamental frequency. The occurrence of these reactions was investigated with violin playing, by obtaining violinists' perception thresholds and motor reactions to fundamental frequency shifts in auditory feedback. The data shows that the violinists reacted to fundamental frequency perturbation by fully compensating for the change of fundamental frequency. This reaction also occurred for changes, which were determined to be below the perception threshold.