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Behavior Research Methods Mar 2024Anonymous web-based experiments are increasingly used in many domains of behavioral research. However, online studies of auditory perception, especially of... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Anonymous web-based experiments are increasingly used in many domains of behavioral research. However, online studies of auditory perception, especially of psychoacoustic phenomena pertaining to low-level sensory processing, are challenging because of limited available control of the acoustics, and the inability to perform audiometry to confirm normal-hearing status of participants. Here, we outline our approach to mitigate these challenges and validate our procedures by comparing web-based measurements to lab-based data on a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. Individual tasks were created using jsPsych, an open-source JavaScript front-end library. Dynamic sequences of psychoacoustic tasks were implemented using Django, an open-source library for web applications, and combined with consent pages, questionnaires, and debriefing pages. Subjects were recruited via Prolific, a subject recruitment platform for web-based studies. Guided by a meta-analysis of lab-based data, we developed and validated a screening procedure to select participants for (putative) normal-hearing status based on their responses in a suprathreshold task and a survey. Headphone use was standardized by supplementing procedures from prior literature with a binaural hearing task. Individuals meeting all criteria were re-invited to complete a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. For the re-invited participants, absolute thresholds were in excellent agreement with lab-based data for fundamental frequency discrimination, gap detection, and sensitivity to interaural time delay and level difference. Furthermore, word identification scores, consonant confusion patterns, and co-modulation masking release effect also matched lab-based studies. Our results suggest that web-based psychoacoustics is a viable complement to lab-based research. Source code for our infrastructure is provided.
Topics: Humans; Psychoacoustics; Hearing; Auditory Perception; Audiometry; Internet; Auditory Threshold; Acoustic Stimulation
PubMed: 37326771
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02101-9 -
The Relationship between Psychoacoustic and Electrophysiological Assessments of Temporal Resolution.Journal of the American Academy of... Mar 2021Temporal resolution is essential to speech acoustic perception. However, it may alter in individuals with auditory disorders, impairing the development of spoken and...
BACKGROUND
Temporal resolution is essential to speech acoustic perception. However, it may alter in individuals with auditory disorders, impairing the development of spoken and written language. The envelope of speech signals contains amplitude modulation (AM) that has critical information. Any problem reducing the listener's sensitivity to these amplitude variations (auditory temporal acuity) is likely to cause speech comprehension problems. The modulation detection threshold (MDT) test is a measure for evaluating temporal resolution. However, this test cannot be used for patients with poor cooperation; therefore, objective evaluation of MDT is essential.
PURPOSE
The main aim of this study is to find the association between the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) and psychoacoustic measurement of MDT at different intensity levels and to assess the amplitude and phase of ASSR as a function of modulation depth.
DESIGN
This was a correlational research.
STUDY SAMPLE
Eighteen individuals (nine males and nine females) with normal hearing sensitivity, aged between 18 and 23 years, participated in this study.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
ASSR was recorded at fixed AM rates and variable AM depths for carrier frequencies of 1,000 and 2,000 Hz with varying intensities. The least AM depth, efficient to evoke an ASSR response, was interpreted as the physiological detection threshold of AM. The ASSR amplitude and phase, as a function of AM depth, were also evaluated at an intensity level of 60 dB hearing level (HL) with modulation rates of 40 and 100 Hz. Moreover, the Natus instrument (Biologic Systems) was used for the electrophysiological measurements. An AC40 clinical audiometer (Intra-acoustic, Denmark) was also used for the psychoacoustic measurement of MDT in a similar setting to ASSR, using the two-alternative forced choice method. Pearson's correlation test and linear regression model and paired -test were used for statistical analyses.
RESULTS
A significant positive correlation was found between psychoacoustic and electrophysiological measurements at a carrier frequency of 1000 Hz, with a modulation rate of 40 Hz at intensity levels of 60 dB HL ( = 0.63, = 0.004), 50 dB HL ( = 0.52, = 0.02). A significant positive correlation was also found at a carrier frequency of 2000 Hz, with a modulation rate of 47 Hz at 60 dB HL ( = 0.55, = 0.01) and 50 dB HL ( = 0.67, = 0.002) and a modulation rate of 97 Hz at 60 dB HL ( = 0.65, = 0.003). Moreover, a significant association was found between the modulation depth and ASSR amplitude and phase increment at carrier frequencies of 1,000 and 2000 Hz, with modulation rates of 40 and 100 Hz.
CONCLUSION
There was a significant correlation between ASSR and behavioral measurement of MDT, even at low intensities with low modulation rates of 40 and 47 Hz. The ASSR amplitude and phase increment was a function of modulation depth increase. The findings of this study can be used as a basis for evaluating the relationship between two approaches in the clinical population.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Adult; Audiometry; Auditory Perception; Auditory Threshold; Female; Hearing Tests; Humans; Male; Psychoacoustics; Young Adult
PubMed: 33873218
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1722983 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Nov 2019What is universal about music, and what varies? We built a corpus of ethnographic text on musical behavior from a representative sample of the world's societies, as well...
What is universal about music, and what varies? We built a corpus of ethnographic text on musical behavior from a representative sample of the world's societies, as well as a discography of audio recordings. The ethnographic corpus reveals that music (including songs with words) appears in every society observed; that music varies along three dimensions (formality, arousal, religiosity), more within societies than across them; and that music is associated with certain behavioral contexts such as infant care, healing, dance, and love. The discography-analyzed through machine summaries, amateur and expert listener ratings, and manual transcriptions-reveals that acoustic features of songs predict their primary behavioral context; that tonality is widespread, perhaps universal; that music varies in rhythmic and melodic complexity; and that elements of melodies and rhythms found worldwide follow power laws.
Topics: Anthropology, Cultural; Auditory Perception; Behavior; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Dancing; Humans; Infant Care; Infant, Newborn; Love; Music; Psychoacoustics; Religion; Singing
PubMed: 31753969
DOI: 10.1126/science.aax0868 -
Memory & Cognition Feb 2022Far transfer rarely occurs, and a recent meta-analysis suggests that music is no exception. The overall effect of musical training on cognition was claimed to be null...
Far transfer rarely occurs, and a recent meta-analysis suggests that music is no exception. The overall effect of musical training on cognition was claimed to be null when considering studies with active control groups or implemented randomization procedures (Sala & Gobet, Memory & Cognition, 48: 1429-1441, 2020). Using the authors' data file and program ( https://osf.io/rquye ), we did not confirm the effect of randomization, and we demonstrated that their conclusion is based in part on the failure to differentiate near and far transfer, with near transfer effect sizes being selectively excluded for the musical training group studies, but not for the active control group studies. Reanalyzing their data file resulted in a significant effect size (g = .234), and also provided new evidence that far-transfer effects of musical training can challenge near-transfer effects of linguistic training. Music is a recreational activity that may be special in allowing for small but statistically significant far-transfer effects.
Topics: Cognition; Humans; Music
PubMed: 34462895
DOI: 10.3758/s13421-021-01226-6 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Aug 2021Purpose Many children with cerebral palsy (CP) are described as having altered vocal quality. The current study utilizes psychoacoustic measures, namely, low-amplitude...
Purpose Many children with cerebral palsy (CP) are described as having altered vocal quality. The current study utilizes psychoacoustic measures, namely, low-amplitude (H1*-H2*) and high-amplitude (H1*-A2*) spectral tilt and cepstral peak prominence (CPP), to identify the vocal fold articulation characteristics in this population. Method Eight children with CP and eight typically developing (TD) peers produced vowel singletons [i, ɑ, u] and a story retell task with the same vowels in the words "beets, Bobby, boots." H1*-H2*, H1*-A2*, and CPP were extracted from each vowel. Results were analyzed with mixed linear models to identify the effect of Group (CP, TD), Task (vowel singleton, story retell), and Vowel [i, ɑ, u] on the dependent variables. Results Children with CP have lower spectral tilt values (H1*-H2* and H1*-A2*) and lower CPP values than their TD peers. For both groups, vowel singletons were associated with lower CPP values as compared to story retell. Finally, the vowel [ɑ] was associated with higher spectral tilt and higher CPP values as compared to [i, u]. Conclusions Children with CP have more constricted and creaky vocal quality due to lower spectral tilt and greater noise. Unlike adults, children demonstrate poorer vocal fold articulation when producing vowel singletons as compared to story retell. Finally, low vowels like [ɑ] seem to be produced with less constriction and noise as compared to high vowels.
Topics: Adult; Cerebral Palsy; Child; Humans; Phonation; Speech Acoustics; Vocal Cords; Voice Quality
PubMed: 34260269
DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00633 -
Cognition Mar 2023Information in speech and music is often conveyed through changes in fundamental frequency (f0), perceived by humans as "relative pitch". Relative pitch judgments are...
Information in speech and music is often conveyed through changes in fundamental frequency (f0), perceived by humans as "relative pitch". Relative pitch judgments are complicated by two facts. First, sounds can simultaneously vary in timbre due to filtering imposed by a vocal tract or instrument body. Second, relative pitch can be extracted in two ways: by measuring changes in constituent frequency components from one sound to another, or by estimating the f0 of each sound and comparing the estimates. We examined the effects of timbral differences on relative pitch judgments, and whether any invariance to timbre depends on whether judgments are based on constituent frequencies or their f0. Listeners performed up/down and interval discrimination tasks with pairs of spoken vowels, instrument notes, or synthetic tones, synthesized to be either harmonic or inharmonic. Inharmonic sounds lack a well-defined f0, such that relative pitch must be extracted from changes in individual frequencies. Pitch judgments were less accurate when vowels/instruments were different compared to when they were the same, and were biased by the associated timbre differences. However, this bias was similar for harmonic and inharmonic sounds, and was observed even in conditions where judgments of harmonic sounds were based on f0 representations. Relative pitch judgments are thus not invariant to timbre, even when timbral variation is naturalistic, and when such judgments are based on representations of f0.
Topics: Humans; Pitch Perception; Music; Pitch Discrimination; Acoustic Stimulation
PubMed: 36495710
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105327 -
Journal of Voice : Official Journal of... Mar 2023Clinical assessment of voice quality (VQ) often uses a combination of sustained phonations and more prolonged and more complex vocalizations. The purpose of this study...
OBJECTIVE
Clinical assessment of voice quality (VQ) often uses a combination of sustained phonations and more prolonged and more complex vocalizations. The purpose of this study was to compare the perceived vocal breathiness and vocal roughness of sustained phonations and connected speech over a wide range of dysphonia severity and to evaluate their relationship with acoustic measures and bioinspired models of breathiness and roughness.
METHODS
VQ dimension-specific single-variable matching task (SVMT) was used to index the perceived breathiness or roughness of five male and five female talkers on the basis of a sustained /a/ phonation and the 5th CAPE-V sentence. Acoustic measures of cepstral peak, autocorrelation peak and psychoacoustic measures of pitch strength, and temporal envelope standard deviation (EnvSD) was used to predict perceived breathiness and roughness judgments obtained from 10 listeners, respectively.
RESULTS
High intra- and inter-listener reliability was observed for sustained phonations and connected speech. Perceived breathiness and roughness of sustained vowels and sentences obtained using SVMT were highly correlated for most dysphonic voices. The pitch strength model of breathiness was able to capture larger amount of perceptual variance compared to cepstral peak in both vowels and sentences. Autocorrelation peak was strongly correlated to perceived roughness in sentences while EnvSD was strongly correlated to perceived roughness in vowels.
CONCLUSIONS
Results provide evidence that perception of VQ via SVMT can be successfully extended to connected speech. Computational models of VQ can be easily adapted to connected speech. Such automated models of VQ perception are valuable due to their computational efficiency and their ability to accurately capture the non-linearities of the human auditory system.
PubMed: 36933971
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.014 -
Journal of Personalized Medicine Aug 2023Mitochondrial diseases (MDs) are heterogeneous genetic disorders characterized by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) defects, involving tissues highly dependent on oxidative...
Mitochondrial diseases (MDs) are heterogeneous genetic disorders characterized by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) defects, involving tissues highly dependent on oxidative metabolism: the inner ear, brain, eye, skeletal muscle, and heart. We describe adult patients with genetically defined MDs, characterizing hearing function and neuroimaging results. We enrolled 34 patients (mean age: 50.02 ± 15 years, range: 18-75 years; 20 females and 14 males) classified in four groups: MELAS, MIDD, PEO, and Encephalopathy/Polyneuropathy. Audiological evaluations included psychoacoustical tests (pure-tone and speech audiometry), electrophysiological tests (Auditory Brainstem Responses, ABRs), and Impedenzometry. Neuroimaging evaluations considered global MRI abnormalities or structural brain changes. In total, 19/34 patients carried the m.3243A > G mutation (6 affected by MELAS, 12 affected by MIDD, and 1 affected by PEO); 11 had an mtDNA deletion (all affected by PEO); 3 had nuclear genes associated with MDs (POLG1 and OPA1); and 1 patient had an mtDNA deletion without an identified nuclear gene defect (affected by PEO). Sensory neural, bilateral, and symmetrical hearing loss was present in 25 patients (73.5%) to different degrees: 9 mild, 9 moderate, 5 severe, and 2 profound. The severe/profound and mild hearing losses were associated with pantonal and high-frequency audiograms, respectively. Instead, moderate hearing losses were associated with both high-frequency (five cases) and pantonal (five cases) audiogram shapes. In addition, 21/25 patients showed a cochlear site of lesion (84%), and 4/25 (16%) showed a retrocochlear site. We found global MRI abnormalities or structural brain changes in 26/30 subjects (86.6%): 21 had white matter abnormalities, 15 had cortical atrophy, 10 had subcortical atrophy, 8 had basal nuclei involvement or cerebellar atrophy, 4 had stroke-like lesions or laminar necrosis, and 1 had cysts or vacuolated lesions. We concluded that genetic alterations are associated with different clinical presentations for both auditory function and neuroradiological findings. There is no fixed relationship between genotype and phenotype for the clinical conditions analyzed.
PubMed: 37763097
DOI: 10.3390/jpm13091329 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Nov 2019Exposure to prolonged or high intensity noise increases the risk for permanent hearing impairment. Over several decades, researchers characterized the nature of harmful... (Review)
Review
Exposure to prolonged or high intensity noise increases the risk for permanent hearing impairment. Over several decades, researchers characterized the nature of harmful noise exposures and worked to establish guidelines for effective protection. Recent laboratory studies, primarily conducted in rodent models, indicate that the auditory system may be more vulnerable to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) than previously thought, driving renewed inquiries into the harmful effects of noise in humans. To bridge the translational gaps between rodents and humans, nonhuman primates (NHPs) may serve as key animal models. The phylogenetic proximity of NHPs to humans underlies tremendous similarity in many features of the auditory system (genomic, anatomical, physiological, behavioral), all of which are important considerations in the assessment and treatment of NIHL. This review summarizes the literature pertaining to NHPs as models of hearing and noise-induced hearing loss, discusses factors relevant to the translation of diagnostics and therapeutics from animals to humans, and concludes with some of the practical considerations involved in conducting NHP research.
Topics: Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced; Humans; Primates; Psychoacoustics; Translational Research, Biomedical
PubMed: 31795680
DOI: 10.1121/1.5132709 -
Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology 2020Tinnitus is characterized by the presence of a sound in the absence of external sound stimulus. In individuals with normal audiometry, it may be associated with auditory...
INTRODUCTION
Tinnitus is characterized by the presence of a sound in the absence of external sound stimulus. In individuals with normal audiometry, it may be associated with auditory attention difficulty, especially in those who report high tinnitus annoyance.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate auditory attention ability in individuals with tinnitus complaint.
METHODS
Cross-sectional analytical observational study. We evaluated 30 volunteers with normal hearing (up to 25dBHL): 15 with tinnitus (test group) and 15 with no complaints (control group), aged between 18-40 years. The volunteers answered the tinnitus handicap inventory questionnaire and a visual analogue scale. Subsequently, a basic audiological evaluation (meatoscopy, tonal and vocal audiometry, and imittanciometry) and psychoacoustic measures of tinnitus (loudness and pitch) were performed. To evaluate auditory attention, the following tests were performed: auditory cognitive evoked potential (P300), central auditory processing tests (dichotic digits test and speech-in-noise test) and sustained auditory attention ability test.
RESULTS
In the tinnitus handicap inventory, individuals with tinnitus had a mean score of 37.78 (±27.05), characterized as moderate degree. In the dichotic digits test (binaural separation), a difference was observed between the groups in both ears. Moreover, there was a difference in the speech-in-noise test in both ears (RE: p=0.044; LE: p=0.019), in P300 (p=0.049) and in total sustained auditory attention ability test (p=0.032). Also, there is a negative correlation between sustained auditory attention ability test, decrease in attentiveness and binaural integration (RE: p=0.044; LE: p=0.048).
CONCLUSIONS
Individuals with tinnitus had a poorer performance compared to the control group regarding auditory attention ability. Therefore, it is inferred that tinnitus is associated with poor performance in selective and sustained auditory attention in the assessed volunteers. These aspects should be considered for the management of patients with tinnitus.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Adult; Attention; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; Psychoacoustics; Tinnitus; Young Adult
PubMed: 30926455
DOI: 10.1016/j.bjorl.2019.01.011