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International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2023Aeroacoustic noise in multiple rotor drones has been increasingly recognized as a crucial issue, while noise reduction is normally associated with a trade-off between...
Aeroacoustic noise in multiple rotor drones has been increasingly recognized as a crucial issue, while noise reduction is normally associated with a trade-off between aerodynamic performance and sound suppression as well as sound quality improvement. Here, we propose an integrated methodology to evaluate both aeroacoustics and psychoacoustics of a single propeller. For a loop-type propeller, an experimental investigation was conducted in association with its aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics via a hover stand test in an anechoic chamber; the psychoacoustic performance was then examined with psychoacoustic annoyance models to evaluate five psychoacoustic metrics comprising loudness, fluctuation strength, roughness, sharpness, and tonality. A comparison of the figure of merit (FM), the overall sound pressure level (OASPL) and psychoacoustic metrics was undertaken among a two-blade propeller, a four-blade propeller, the loop-type propeller, a wide chord loop-type propeller, and a DJI Phantom III propeller, indicating that the loop-type propeller enables a remarkable reduction in OASPL and a noticeable improvement in sound quality while achieving comparable aerodynamic performance. Furthermore, the psychoacoustic analysis demonstrates that the loop-type propeller can improve the psychological response to various noises in terms of the higher-level broadband and lower-level tonal noise components. It is thus verified that the integrated evaluation methodology of aeroacoustics and psychoacoustics can be a useful tool in the design of low-noise propellers in association with multirotor drones.
Topics: Psychoacoustics; Noise; Sound; Acoustics; Benchmarking
PubMed: 36767321
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20031955 -
Audiology Research Jan 2023It is widely established that musicians possess a higher level in certain auditory perceptual abilities when compared to non-musicians. This improvement may be mediated,... (Review)
Review
It is widely established that musicians possess a higher level in certain auditory perceptual abilities when compared to non-musicians. This improvement may be mediated, at least in part, by changes in the cochlear response induced by reflex activation of the olivocochlear efferent system. In this review, we describe and analyze the scientific evidence regarding possible differences in the efferent response in musicians and non-musicians. The main evidence observed is that musicians present a greater robustness of the efferent olivocochlear reflex when measured by suppression of otoacoustic emissions and compared to non-musicians. Analyzing the articles presented in this review, it is possible to point out that the differential role of the efferent effect in musicians is not yet established. There is not enough evidence to support the idea that the olivocochlear system favors comparative changes in the properties of musicians' auditory filters. New studies with psychoacoustic techniques, among others, are needed to measure the effect of the olivocochlear reflex on tuning, gain, compression, or temporal resolution in musicians and non-musicians.
PubMed: 36648928
DOI: 10.3390/audiolres13010007 -
Scientific Reports Jul 2022Groove, understood as an enjoyable compulsion to move to musical rhythms, typically varies along an inverted U-curve with increasing rhythmic complexity (e.g.,...
Groove, understood as an enjoyable compulsion to move to musical rhythms, typically varies along an inverted U-curve with increasing rhythmic complexity (e.g., syncopation, pickups). Predictive coding accounts posit that moderate complexity drives us to move to reduce sensory prediction errors and model the temporal structure. While musicologists generally distinguish the effects of pickups (anacruses) and syncopations, their difference remains unexplored in groove. We used pupillometry as an index to noradrenergic arousal while subjects listened to and rated drumbeats varying in rhythmic complexity. We replicated the inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and groove and showed this is modulated by musical ability, based on a psychoacoustic beat perception test. The pupil drift rates suggest that groovier rhythms hold attention longer than ones rated less groovy. Moreover, we found complementary effects of syncopations and pickups on groove ratings and pupil size, respectively, discovering a distinct predictive process related to pickups. We suggest that the brain deploys attention to pickups to sharpen subsequent strong beats, augmenting the predictive scaffolding's focus on beats that reduce syncopations' prediction errors. This interpretation is in accordance with groove envisioned as an embodied resolution of precision-weighted prediction error.
Topics: Auditory Perception; Brain; Humans; Music; Pupil; Time Perception
PubMed: 35804069
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15763-w -
Hearing Research May 2022The present study establishes the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as a model for investigating the perception of human speech sounds. We report data on the...
The present study establishes the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as a model for investigating the perception of human speech sounds. We report data on the discrimination of logatomes (CVCs - consonant-vowel-consonant combinations with outer consonants /b/, /d/, /s/ and /t/ and central vowels /a/, /aː/, /ɛ/, /eː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ɔ/, /oː/, /ʊ/ and /uː/, VCVs - vowel-consonant-vowel combinations with outer vowels /a/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ and central consonants /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /s/, /t/ and /v/) by gerbils. Four gerbils were trained to perform an oddball target detection paradigm in which they were required to discriminate a deviant CVC or VCV in a sequence of CVC or VCV standards, respectively. The experiments were performed with an ICRA-1 noise masker with speech-like spectral properties, and logatomes of multiple speakers were presented at various signal-to-noise ratios. Response latencies were measured to generate perceptual maps employing multidimensional scaling, which visualize the gerbils' internal maps of the sounds. The dimensions of the perceptual maps were correlated to multiple phonetic features of the speech sounds for evaluating which features of vowels and consonants are most important for the discrimination. The perceptual representation of vowels and consonants in gerbils was similar to that of humans, although gerbils needed higher signal-to-noise ratios for the discrimination of speech sounds than humans. The gerbils' discrimination of vowels depended on differences in the frequencies of the first and second formant determined by tongue height and position. Consonants were discriminated based on differences in combinations of their articulatory features. The similarities in the perception of logatomes by gerbils and humans renders the gerbil a suitable model for human speech sound discrimination.
Topics: Animals; Auditory Perception; Gerbillinae; Humans; Phonetics; Speech; Speech Perception
PubMed: 35276418
DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108472 -
Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America Aug 2020The search for an effective medication that will eliminate tinnitus has a long history. Currently, no drugs exist that universally cure tinnitus. Pharmacologic... (Review)
Review
The search for an effective medication that will eliminate tinnitus has a long history. Currently, no drugs exist that universally cure tinnitus. Pharmacologic interventions that have been investigated can be divided into those that attempt to eliminate the perception of tinnitus, and those that are designed to treat the negative comorbidities associated with tinnitus, thereby mitigating tinnitus' negative impact on quality of life. A third category of drugs can also be considered that addresses an identified pathologic condition that has tinnitus as an associated symptom (for example, Meniere's disease, otosclerosis, migraine-associated vertigo). This third category is not addressed.
Topics: Anxiety; Depression; Humans; Meniere Disease; Neurotransmitter Agents; Otosclerosis; Psychoacoustics; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Tinnitus; Vertigo
PubMed: 32334873
DOI: 10.1016/j.otc.2020.03.009 -
Journal of the Association For Research... Apr 2022Cross-modal plasticity occurs when the function of remaining senses is enhanced following deprivation or loss of a sensory modality. Auditory neural responses are...
Cross-modal plasticity occurs when the function of remaining senses is enhanced following deprivation or loss of a sensory modality. Auditory neural responses are enhanced in the auditory cortex, including increased sensitivity and frequency selectivity, following short-term visual deprivation in adult mice (Petrus et al. Neuron 81:664-673, 2014). Whether or not these visual deprivation-induced neural changes translate into improved auditory perception and performance remains unclear. As an initial investigation of the effects of adult visual deprivation on auditory behaviors, CBA/CaJ mice underwent binocular enucleation at 3-4 weeks old and were tested on a battery of learned behavioral tasks, acoustic startle response (ASR), and prepulse inhibition (PPI) tests beginning at least 2 weeks after the enucleation procedure. Auditory brain stem responses (ABRs) were also measured to screen for potential effects of visual deprivation on non-behavioral hearing function. Control and enucleated mice showed similar tone detection sensitivity and frequency discrimination in a conditioned lick suppression test. Both groups showed normal reactivity to sound as measured by ASR in a quiet background. However, when startle-eliciting stimuli were presented in noise, enucleated mice showed decreased ASR amplitude relative to controls. Control and enucleated mice displayed no significant differences in ASR habituation, PPI tests, or ABR thresholds, or wave morphology. Our findings suggest that while adult-onset visual deprivation induces cross-modal plasticity at the synaptic and circuit levels, it does not substantially influence simple auditory behavioral performance.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; Hearing; Mice; Mice, Inbred CBA; Reflex, Startle
PubMed: 35084628
DOI: 10.1007/s10162-022-00835-5 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Jan 2023Ambient noise in the test environment will impact signal detection during hearing threshold measurements due to psychoacoustic masking effects. Technical standards...
Ambient noise in the test environment will impact signal detection during hearing threshold measurements due to psychoacoustic masking effects. Technical standards specify the maximum permissible ambient noise levels (MPANLs) for use during audiometric testing. MPANLs are dependent on several factors, including transducer characteristics (supra-aural, circumaural, type of ear cushions or earphone enclosures, and insert earphones), the nature of the hearing test being performed (air conduction vs bone conduction and threshold test vs screen at a suprathreshold level), and measurement instrumentation. The nature of the ambient noise (spectrum and constant vs variable) at the test site must be determined and continually accounted for during the boothless hearing test procedure. Ambient noise monitoring procedures are reviewed and examples of ambient noise characteristics in real-world settings, where hearing testing might be performed outside of a sound-treated environment, are provided. Practical considerations are presented, including examples of available tools for ambient noise monitoring, selection of test locations, and transducer attenuation. These are discussed in the context of calculating MPANLs and how best to ensure that ambient noise levels are not negatively impacting the validity of hearing thresholds.
Topics: Auditory Threshold; Noise; Audiometry; Sound; Hearing; Audiometry, Pure-Tone
PubMed: 36732250
DOI: 10.1121/10.0016362 -
Brain Sciences May 2022This study investigated the effect of broadband amplification (125 Hz to 10 kHz) as tinnitus treatment for participants with high-frequency hearing loss and compared...
This study investigated the effect of broadband amplification (125 Hz to 10 kHz) as tinnitus treatment for participants with high-frequency hearing loss and compared these effects with an active placebo condition using band-limited amplification (125 Hz to 3-4 kHz). A double-blinded crossover study. Twenty-three participants with high-frequency (≥3 kHz) hearing loss and chronic tinnitus were included in the study, and 17 completed the full treatment protocol. Two different hearing aid treatments were provided for 3 months each: Broadband amplification provided gain in the frequency range from 125 Hz to 10 kHz and band-limited amplification only provided gain in the low-frequency range (≤3-4 kHz). The effect of the two treatments on tinnitus distress was evaluated with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) questionnaires. The effect of the treatment on tinnitus loudness was evaluated with a visual analog scale (VAS) for loudness and a psychoacoustic loudness measure. Furthermore, the tinnitus annoyance was evaluated with a VAS for annoyance. The tinnitus pitch was evaluated based on the tinnitus likeness spectrum. A statistically significant difference was found between the two treatment groups (broadband vs. band-limited amplification) for the treatment-related change in THI and TFI with respect to the baseline. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was found between the two treatment conditions for the annoyance measure. Regarding the loudness measure, no statistically significant differences were found between the treatments, although there was a trend towards a lower VAS-based loudness measure resulting from the broadband amplification. No changes were observed in the tinnitus pitch between the different conditions. Overall, the results from the present study suggest that tinnitus patients with high-frequency hearing loss can experience a decrease in tinnitus-related distress and annoyance from high-frequency amplification.
PubMed: 35741602
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12060719 -
Zeitschrift Fur Medizinische Physik Aug 2021The various methods of medical imaging are essential for many diagnostic issues in clinical routine, e.g., for the diagnostics and localisation of tumorous diseases, or... (Review)
Review
The various methods of medical imaging are essential for many diagnostic issues in clinical routine, e.g., for the diagnostics and localisation of tumorous diseases, or for the clarification of other lesions in the central nervous system. In addition to these classical roles both positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow for the investigation of functional processes in the human brain, when used in a specific way. The last 25 years have seen great progress, especially with respect to functional MRI, in terms of the available experimental paradigms as well as the data analysis strategies, so that a directed investigation of neurophysiological correlates of psychoacoustic performance is possible. This covers fundamental measures of sound perception like loudness and pitch, specific audiological symptoms like tinnitus, which often accompanies hearing disorders, but it also includes experiments on speech perception or on virtual acoustic environments. One important aspect common to many auditory neuroimaging studies is the central question at what stage in the human auditory pathway the sensory coding of the incoming sound is transformed into a universal and context-dependent perceptual representation, which is the basis for what we hear. This overview summarises findings from the literature as well as a few studies from our lab, to discuss the possibilities and the limits of the adoption of functional neuroimaging methods in audiology. Up to this stage, most auditory neuroimaging studies have investigated basic processes in normal hearing listeners. However, the hitherto existing results suggest that the methods of auditory functional neuroimaging - possibly complemented by electrophysiological methods like EEG and MEG - have a great potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of the processes and the impact of hearing disorders.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Audiology; Auditory Cortex; Functional Neuroimaging; Hearing; Humans
PubMed: 33947621
DOI: 10.1016/j.zemedi.2021.03.003 -
Seminars in Hearing Feb 2023Basic research investigating auditory development often has implications for clinical diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss in children, but it can be challenging to... (Review)
Review
Building on the Academic Legacy of Pat Stelmachowicz and other Pioneers in Developmental Psychoacoustics and Pediatric Audiology: The Children's English/Spanish Speech Recognition Test (ChEgSS).
Basic research investigating auditory development often has implications for clinical diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss in children, but it can be challenging to translate those findings into practice. Meeting that challenge was a guiding principle of Pat Stelmachowicz's research and mentorship. Her example inspired many of us to pursue translational research and motivated the recent development of the Children's English/Spanish Speech Recognition Test (ChEgSS). This test evaluates word recognition in noise or two-talker speech, with target and masker speech produced in either English or Spanish. The test uses recorded materials and a forced-choice response, so the tester need not be fluent in the test language. ChEgSS provides a clinical measure of masked speech recognition outcomes for children who speak English, Spanish, or both, including estimates of performance in noise and two-talker speech, with the goal of maximizing speech and hearing outcomes for children with hearing loss. This article highlights several of Pat's many contributions to pediatric hearing research and describes the motivation and development of ChEgSS.
PubMed: 36970649
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1764135