Brain stem evoked response suppression during speech production

Auditory brain stem evoked responses (BSERs) to repetitive clicks were recorded in subjects engaged in overt speech, whispering, silent articulation, and covert verbal rehearsal tasks and during a control condition of attending to the clicks. Overt speech and whispering resulted in a significant amplitude reduction of the fifth peak of BSERs without affecting the amplitudes or the latencies of the earlier peaks. These data strongly suggest efferent inhibition of irrelevant auditory input at the level of the upper brain stem.