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Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Nov 2023A major barrier to the clinical application of psychophysical testing of central auditory processes is the time required to obtain precise estimates of different...
A major barrier to the clinical application of psychophysical testing of central auditory processes is the time required to obtain precise estimates of different listening abilities. In this study, we validate a novel adaptive scan (AS) method of threshold estimation that is designed to adapt on a range of values around threshold rather than on a single threshold value. This method has the advantage of providing the listener with greater familiarity with the stimulus characteristics near threshold while maintaining precise measurement and increasing time-efficiency. Additionally, we explore the time-efficiency of AS through comparison with two more conventional adaptive algorithms and the method of constant stimuli in two common psychophysical tasks: the detection of a gap in noise and the detection of a tone in noise. Seventy undergraduates without hearing complaints were tested using all four methods. The AS method provided similar threshold estimates with similar precision to those from the other adaptive methods and, thus, it is a valid adaptive method of psychophysical testing. We also provide an analysis of the AS method based on precision metrics to propose a shortened version of the algorithm that maximizes the time/precision tradeoff and can achieve similar thresholds to the adaptive methods tested in the validation. This work lays the foundation for using AS across a wide variety of psychophysical assessments and experimental situations where different levels of precision and/or time-efficiency may be required.
Topics: Humans; Auditory Threshold; Psychoacoustics; Noise; Time Factors; Algorithms
PubMed: 37349625
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02743-z -
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 -
Neurobiology of Language (Cambridge,... 2022Recent mechanistic models argue for a key role of rhythm processing in both speech production and speech perception. Patients with the non-fluent variant (NFV) of...
Recent mechanistic models argue for a key role of rhythm processing in both speech production and speech perception. Patients with the non-fluent variant (NFV) of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) with apraxia of speech (AOS) represent a specific study population in which this link can be examined. Previously, we observed impaired rhythm processing in NFV with AOS. We hypothesized that a shared neurocomputational mechanism structures auditory input (sound and speech) and output (speech production) in time, a "temporal scaffolding" mechanism. Since considerable white matter damage is observed in NFV, we test here whether white matter changes are related to impaired rhythm processing. Forty-seven participants performed a psychoacoustic test battery: 12 patients with NFV and AOS, 11 patients with the semantic variant of PPA, and 24 cognitively intact age- and education-matched controls. Deformation-based morphometry was used to test whether white matter volume correlated to rhythmic abilities. In 34 participants, we also obtained tract-based metrics of the left Aslant tract, which is typically damaged in patients with NFV. Nine out of 12 patients with NFV displayed impaired rhythmic processing. Left frontal white matter atrophy adjacent to the supplementary motor area (SMA) correlated with poorer rhythmic abilities. The structural integrity of the left Aslant tract also correlated with rhythmic abilities. A colocalized and perhaps shared white matter substrate adjacent to the SMA is associated with impaired rhythmic processing and motor speech impairment. Our results support the existence of a temporal scaffolding mechanism structuring perceptual input and speech output.
PubMed: 37215340
DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00075 -
Noise & Health 2023The goal is to implement the developed speech material in a hearing test to assess auditory fitness for duty (AFFD), specifically in areas where the intelligibility of...
OBJECTIVE
The goal is to implement the developed speech material in a hearing test to assess auditory fitness for duty (AFFD), specifically in areas where the intelligibility of spoken commands is essential.
DESIGN
In study 1, a speech corpus with equal intelligibility was constructed using constant stimuli to test each target word's psychometric functions. Study 2 used an adaptive interleaving procedure to maximize equalized terms. Study 3 used Monte Carlo simulations to determine speech test accuracy.
STUDY SAMPLE
Study 1 (n = 24) and study 2 (n = 20) were completed by civilians with normal hearing. Study 3 ran 10,000 simulations per condition across various conditions varying in slopes and speech recognition thresholds (SRTs).
RESULTS
Studies 1 and 2 produced three 8-word wordlists. The mean, standard deviation in dB SNR is -13.1 1.2 for wordlist 1, -13.7 1.6 for wordlist 2, and -13.7 1.3 for wordlist 3, with word SRTs within 3.4 dB SNR. Study 3 revealed that a 6 dB SNR range is appropriate for equally understandable speech using a closed-set adaptive technique.
CONCLUSION
The developed speech corpus may be used in an AFFD measure. Concerning the homogeneity of the speech in noise test material, care should be taken when generalizing and using ranges and standard deviations from multiple tests.
Topics: Auditory Threshold; Hearing Tests; Reproducibility of Results; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception; Speech Reception Threshold Test; Humans
PubMed: 37203127
DOI: 10.4103/nah.nah_69_22 -
Ear and HearingUnderstanding speech-in-noise (SiN) is a complex task that recruits multiple cortical subsystems. Individuals vary in their ability to understand SiN. This cannot be...
OBJECTIVES
Understanding speech-in-noise (SiN) is a complex task that recruits multiple cortical subsystems. Individuals vary in their ability to understand SiN. This cannot be explained by simple peripheral hearing profiles, but recent work by our group ( Kim et al. 2021 , Neuroimage ) highlighted central neural factors underlying the variance in SiN ability in normal hearing (NH) subjects. The present study examined neural predictors of SiN ability in a large cohort of cochlear-implant (CI) users.
DESIGN
We recorded electroencephalography in 114 postlingually deafened CI users while they completed the California consonant test: a word-in-noise task. In many subjects, data were also collected on two other commonly used clinical measures of speech perception: a word-in-quiet task (consonant-nucleus-consonant) word and a sentence-in-noise task (AzBio sentences). Neural activity was assessed at a vertex electrode (Cz), which could help maximize eventual generalizability to clinical situations. The N1-P2 complex of event-related potentials (ERPs) at this location were included in multiple linear regression analyses, along with several other demographic and hearing factors as predictors of SiN performance.
RESULTS
In general, there was a good agreement between the scores on the three speech perception tasks. ERP amplitudes did not predict AzBio performance, which was predicted by the duration of device use, low-frequency hearing thresholds, and age. However, ERP amplitudes were strong predictors for performance for both word recognition tasks: the California consonant test (which was conducted simultaneously with electroencephalography recording) and the consonant-nucleus-consonant (conducted offline). These correlations held even after accounting for known predictors of performance including residual low-frequency hearing thresholds. In CI-users, better performance was predicted by an increased cortical response to the target word, in contrast to previous reports in normal-hearing subjects in whom speech perception ability was accounted for by the ability to suppress noise.
CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate a neurophysiological correlate of SiN performance, thereby revealing a richer profile of an individual's hearing performance than shown by psychoacoustic measures alone. These results also highlight important differences between sentence and word recognition measures of performance and suggest that individual differences in these measures may be underwritten by different mechanisms. Finally, the contrast with prior reports of NH listeners in the same task suggests CI-users performance may be explained by a different weighting of neural processes than NH listeners.
Topics: Humans; Cochlear Implants; Speech; Individuality; Cochlear Implantation; Noise; Speech Perception
PubMed: 37144890
DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001357 -
International Journal of Environmental... Apr 2023(1) Background: Poor sleep and fragmented sleep are associated with several chronic conditions. Tinnitus is an auditory symptom that often negatively combines with poor... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
(1) Background: Poor sleep and fragmented sleep are associated with several chronic conditions. Tinnitus is an auditory symptom that often negatively combines with poor sleep and has been associated with sleep impairment and sleep apnea. The relationship between tinnitus psychoacoustic characteristics and sleep is still poorly explored, notably for a particular subgroup of patients, for whom the perceived loudness of their tinnitus is highly modulated by sleep. (2) Methods: For this observational prospective study, 30 subjects with tinnitus were recruited, including 15 "sleep intermittent tinnitus" subjects, who had reported significant modulations of tinnitus loudness related to night sleep and naps, and a control group of 15 subjects displaying constant non-sleep-modulated tinnitus. The control group had matching age, gender, self-reported hearing loss grade and tinnitus impact on quality of life with the study group. All patients underwent a polysomnography (PSG) assessment for one complete night and then were asked to fill in a case report form, as well as a report of tinnitus loudness before and after the PSG. (3) Results: "Sleep Intermittent tinnitus" subjects had less Stage 3 sleep ( < 0.01), less Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) Sleep ( < 0.05) and more Stage 2 sleep ( < 0.05) in proportion and duration than subjects from the control group. In addition, in the "sleep Intermittent tinnitus" sample, a correlation was found between REM sleep duration and tinnitus overnight modulation ( < 0.05), as well as tinnitus impact on quality of life ( < 0.05). These correlations were not present in the control group. (4) Conclusions: This study suggests that among the tinnitus population, patients displaying sleep-modulated tinnitus have deteriorated sleep quality. Furthermore, REM sleep characteristics may play a role in overnight tinnitus modulation. Potential pathophysiological explanations accounting for this observation are hypothesized and discussed.
Topics: Humans; Sleep, REM; Quality of Life; Tinnitus; Prospective Studies; Sleep
PubMed: 37107791
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20085509 -
JASA Express Letters Apr 2023A listener's judgement on the perceptual distance between two sounds usually draws on their psychoacoustic difference, but can also be subject to L1-specific perception....
A listener's judgement on the perceptual distance between two sounds usually draws on their psychoacoustic difference, but can also be subject to L1-specific perception. This study investigates the interplay between these two aspects when evaluating the perceptual distance of sound pairs. Mandarin and English listeners rated the perceptual distance of consonant-vowel pairs corresponding to sequences legal or illegal in their L1s. The results suggested that a similarity rating task can provide a finer assessment of distinctiveness between sound pairs as compared to a discrimination task. The results also showed how psychoacoustic perception may interact with L1-specific perception in this process.
Topics: Psychoacoustics; Speech Perception; Phonetics; Sound
PubMed: 37096893
DOI: 10.1121/10.0017771 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Apr 2023Physiological and psychoacoustic studies of the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) in humans have often relied on long duration elicitors (>100 ms). This is largely...
Physiological and psychoacoustic studies of the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) in humans have often relied on long duration elicitors (>100 ms). This is largely due to previous research using otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) that found multiple MOCR time constants, including time constants in the 100s of milliseconds, when elicited by broadband noise. However, the effect of the duration of a broadband noise elicitor on similar psychoacoustic tasks is currently unknown. The current study measured the effects of ipsilateral broadband noise elicitor duration on psychoacoustic gain reduction estimated from a forward-masking paradigm. Analysis showed that both masker type and elicitor duration were significant main effects, but no interaction was found. Gain reduction time constants were ∼46 ms for the masker present condition and ∼78 ms for the masker absent condition (ranging from ∼29 to 172 ms), both similar to the fast time constants reported in the OAE literature (70-100 ms). Maximum gain reduction was seen for elicitor durations of ∼200 ms. This is longer than the 50-ms duration which was found to produce maximum gain reduction with a tonal on-frequency elicitor. Future studies of gain reduction may use 150-200 ms broadband elicitors to maximally or near-maximally stimulate the MOCR.
Topics: Humans; Psychoacoustics; Cochlea; Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous; Reflex; Time Factors; Acoustic Stimulation; Perceptual Masking
PubMed: 37092950
DOI: 10.1121/10.0017925 -
Laryngoscope Investigative... Apr 2023This study aimed to understand the demographics, clinical characteristics, and psychoacoustic status of subjective tinnitus patients to explore the factors associated...
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to understand the demographics, clinical characteristics, and psychoacoustic status of subjective tinnitus patients to explore the factors associated with acute and chronic tinnitus in the general hospitals of Shanghai.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the clinical characteristics and psychoacoustic status of subjective tinnitus patients with history greater than 1 month. Data were collected during January 2021 and January 2022 from eight general hospitals in five districts of Shanghai, China. All patients accepted questionnaires and acoustic examination, then SPSS 22.0 and GraphPad Prism 8.0.2 were applied for data analysis.
RESULTS
Among the 359 tinnitus patients, 126 cases were diagnosed with acute tinnitus, 58 cases were subacute tinnitus, and 175 cases were chronic tinnitus. Patients with acute and chronic tinnitus differed in terms of side of tinnitus, hearing loss, frequency of tinnitus, severity of tinnitus, anxiety, depression, and sleep status. Different characteristics were included in the multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis. Persistent tinnitus (OR = 2.00, = .008), high frequency hearing loss (OR = 4.77, < .001), depression (OR = 1.23, < .001) were found to be positively associated with the course of tinnitus. Unilateral tinnitus (OR = 0.48, = .003), mild (OR = 0.29, = .001) and moderate (OR = 0.46, = .038) hearing loss, VAS scores (OR = 0.82, = .032), anxiety (OR = 0.81, < .001), THI scores (OR = 0.98, = .002), and sleep disorders (OR = 0.94, = .025) were found to be negatively associated with the course of tinnitus.
CONCLUSION
Patients with acute tinnitus were at greater risk for anxiety, sleep disturbances, and exacerbation of tinnitus perception, and those with chronic tinnitus were at greater risk for depression.
LAY SUMMARY
Our study demonstrated that patients with acute tinnitus were at greater risk for anxiety, sleep disturbances, and exacerbation of tinnitus perception, and those with chronic tinnitus were at greater risk for depression.
PubMed: 37090863
DOI: 10.1002/lio2.1037 -
PloS One 2023Several studies have addressed motor coordination in dance, but few have addressed the influence of musical context on micro-timing during sensorimotor synchronization...
Several studies have addressed motor coordination in dance, but few have addressed the influence of musical context on micro-timing during sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) in classical ballet. In this study, we analyze the Promenade in Arabesque of the Odile variations, first as a dance-music fragment non-embedded in a musical context, then as a dance-music fragment embedded in a musical context at two different instances. Given the musical structure of the fragments, there are repeats of patterns between and within the fragments. Four dancers were invited to perform the three fragments in twelve successive performances. The beats of the music were extracted and compared with the timing of the dancers' heel movements, using circular-linear smooth regression modelling, and circular statistics. The results reveal an effect of repeat within fragments, and an effect of musical context between fragments, on micro-timing anticipation in SMS. The methodology offers a framework for future work on dynamical aspects of SMS.
Topics: Dancing; Music; Movement
PubMed: 37071622
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284387