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Journal of the Association For Research... Oct 2016Humans often have to focus on a single target sound while ignoring competing maskers in everyday situations. In such conditions, speech intelligibility (SI) is improved...
Humans often have to focus on a single target sound while ignoring competing maskers in everyday situations. In such conditions, speech intelligibility (SI) is improved when a target speaker is spatially separated from a masker (spatial release from making, SRM) compared to situations where both are co-located. Such asymmetric spatial configurations lead to a 'better-ear effect' with improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at one ear. However, maskers often surround the listener leading to more symmetric configurations where better-ear effects are absent in a long-term, wideband sense. Nevertheless, better-ear glimpses distributed across time and frequency persist and were suggested to account for SRM (Brungart and Iyer 2012). Here, speech reception was assessed using symmetric masker configurations while varying the spatio-temporal distribution of potential better-ear glimpses. Listeners were presented with a frontal target and eight single-talker maskers in four different symmetrical spatial configurations. Compared to the reference condition with co-located target and maskers, an SRM of up to 6 dB was observed. The SRM persisted when the frequency range of the maskers above or below 1500 Hz was replaced with stationary speech-shaped noise. Comparison to a recent short-time binaural SI model showed that better-ear glimpses can account for half the observed SRM, while binaural interaction utilizing phase differences is required to explain the other half.
Topics: Computer Simulation; Female; Humans; Male; Noise; Psychoacoustics; Speech Perception; Speech Reception Threshold Test; Young Adult
PubMed: 27412529
DOI: 10.1007/s10162-016-0575-7 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Mar 2009The mammalian orienting response to sounds consists of a gaze shift that can be a combination of head and eye movements. In animals with mobile pinnae, the ears also...
The mammalian orienting response to sounds consists of a gaze shift that can be a combination of head and eye movements. In animals with mobile pinnae, the ears also move. During head movements, vision is stabilized by compensatory rotations of the eyeball within the head because of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). While studying the gaze shifts made by cats to sounds, a previously uncharacterized compensatory movement was discovered. The pinnae exhibited short-latency, goal-directed movements that reached their target while the head was still moving. The pinnae maintained a fixed position in space by counter-rotating on the head with an equal but opposite velocity to the head movement. We call these compensatory ear movements the vestibulo-auricular reflex (VAR) because they shared many kinematic characteristics with the VOR. Control experiments ruled out efference copy of head position signals and acoustic tracking (audiokinetic) of the source as the cause of the response. The VAR may serve to stabilize the auditory world during head movements.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; Cats; Eye Movements; Female; Head Movements; Orientation; Psychoacoustics; Reaction Time; Reflex, Vestibulo-Ocular
PubMed: 19129296
DOI: 10.1152/jn.90977.2008 -
PloS One 2020This study examined how trustworthiness impressions depend on vocal expressive and person characteristics and how their dependence may be explained by acoustical...
This study examined how trustworthiness impressions depend on vocal expressive and person characteristics and how their dependence may be explained by acoustical profiles. Sentences spoken in a range of emotional and conversational expressions by 20 speakers differing in age and sex were presented to 80 age and sex matched listeners who rated speaker trustworthiness. Positive speaker valence but not arousal consistently predicted greater perceived trustworthiness. Additionally, voices from younger as compared with older and female as compared with male speakers were judged more trustworthy. Acoustic analysis highlighted several parameters as relevant for being perceived as trustworthy (i.e., accelerated tempo, low harmonic-to-noise ratio, more shimmer, low fundamental frequency, more jitter, large intensity range) and showed that effects partially overlapped with those for perceived speaker affect, age, but not sex. Specifically, a fast speech rate and a lower harmonic-to-noise ratio differentiated trustworthy from untrustworthy, positive from negative, and younger from older voices. Male and female voices differed in other ways. Together, these results show that a speaker's expressive as well as person characteristics shape trustworthiness impressions and that their effect likely results from a combination of low-level perceptual and higher-order conceptual processes.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adult; Affect; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Anger; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Psychoacoustics; Sex Factors; Singapore; Speech Acoustics; Speech Perception; Trust; Voice; Young Adult
PubMed: 32365066
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232431 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Aug 2001Sensitivity to differences in interaural correlation was measured for 1.3-ERB-wide bands of noise using a 2IFC task at six frequencies: 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1250, and...
Sensitivity to differences in interaural correlation was measured for 1.3-ERB-wide bands of noise using a 2IFC task at six frequencies: 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1250, and 1500 Hz. The sensitivity index, d', was measured for discriminations between a number of fixed pairs of correlation values. Cumulative d' functions were derived for each frequency and condition. The d' for discriminating any two values of correlation may be recovered from the cumulative d' function by the difference between cumulative d''s for these values. Two conditions were employed: the noisebands were either presented in isolation (narrow-band condition) or in the context of broad, contiguous flanking bands of correlated noise (fringed condition). The cumulative d' functions showed greater sensitivity to differences in correlation close to 1 than close to 0 at low frequencies, but this difference was less pronounced in the fringed condition. Also, a more linear relationship was observed when cumulative d' was plotted as a function of the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in dB for each correlation value, rather than directly against correlation. The equivalent SNR was the SNR at which the interaural correlation in an NoS(pi) stimulus would equal the interaural correlation of the noise used in the experiment. The maximum cumulative d' declined above 750 Hz. This decline was steeper for the fringed than for the narrow-band condition. For the narrow-band condition, the total cumulative d' was variable across listeners. All cumulative d' functions were closely fitted using a simple two-parameter function. The complete data sets, averaged across listeners, from the fringed and narrow-band conditions were fitted using functions to describe the changes in these parameters over frequency, in order to produce an interpolated family of curves that describe sensitivity at frequencies between those tested. These curves predict the spectra recovered by the binaural system when complex sounds, such as speech, are masked by noise.
Topics: Attention; Auditory Threshold; Dichotic Listening Tests; Functional Laterality; Humans; Perceptual Masking; Pitch Discrimination; Psychoacoustics
PubMed: 11519570
DOI: 10.1121/1.1383296 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Apr 2018Performance was measured on seven common psychoacoustical tasks for about 75 highly trained subjects. Because some psychoacoustical outcomes varied by race, the subjects...
Performance was measured on seven common psychoacoustical tasks for about 75 highly trained subjects. Because some psychoacoustical outcomes varied by race, the subjects were partitioned into White and Non-White categories for analysis. Sex, race, and menstrual-cycle differences in performance are described in a companion paper [McFadden, Pasanen, Maloney, Leshikar, and Pho (2018). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 143, 2338-2354]. Also measured for all subjects were three types of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs): spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs), and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). The experimental question was whether and how OAEs were correlated with psychoacoustical performance. In accord with past findings, the SOAEs and CEOAEs exhibited substantial sex and race differences, but the DPOAEs did not. Somewhat surprisingly, the correlations between OAEs and psychoacoustical performance were generally weak. No form of OAE was highly correlated with any psychoacoustical task for both sexes within a race category. Thus, there was no compelling evidence that the mechanisms underlying OAEs also contribute systematically to performance in any of the simultaneous or temporal masking tasks studied here. Especially surprising were the weak correlations between OAEs and detection of a tone in the quiet. Apparently individual differences in psychoacoustical performance reside more in post-cochlear (neural) mechanisms than in individual differences in the cochlear ("mechanical") mechanisms underlying the OAEs measured here.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adult; Audiometry; Auditory Pathways; Differential Threshold; Female; Humans; Male; Menstrual Cycle; Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous; Psychoacoustics; Racial Groups; Sex Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 29716248
DOI: 10.1121/1.5030999 -
PloS One 2013The diagnosis of tinnitus relies on self-report. Psychoacoustic measurements of tinnitus pitch and loudness are essential for assessing claims and discriminating true... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
The diagnosis of tinnitus relies on self-report. Psychoacoustic measurements of tinnitus pitch and loudness are essential for assessing claims and discriminating true from false ones. For this reason, the quantification of tinnitus remains a challenging research goal. We aimed to: (1) assess the precision of a new tinnitus likeness rating procedure with a continuous-pitch presentation method, controlling for music training, and (2) test whether tinnitus psychoacoustic measurements have the sensitivity and specificity required to detect people faking tinnitus. Musicians and non-musicians with tinnitus, as well as simulated malingerers without tinnitus, were tested. Most were retested several weeks later. Tinnitus pitch matching was first assessed using the likeness rating method: pure tones from 0.25 to 16 kHz were presented randomly to participants, who had to rate the likeness of each tone to their tinnitus, and to adjust its level from 0 to 100 dB SPL. Tinnitus pitch matching was then assessed with a continuous-pitch method: participants had to match the pitch of their tinnitus to an external tone by moving their finger across a touch-sensitive strip, which generated a continuous pure tone from 0.5 to 20 kHz in 1-Hz steps. The predominant tinnitus pitch was consistent across both methods for both musicians and non-musicians, although musicians displayed better external tone pitch matching abilities. Simulated malingerers rated loudness much higher than did the other groups with a high degree of specificity (94.4%) and were unreliable in loudness (not pitch) matching from one session to the other. Retest data showed similar pitch matching responses for both methods for all participants. In conclusion, tinnitus pitch and loudness reliably correspond to the tinnitus percept, and psychoacoustic loudness matches are sensitive and specific to the presence of tinnitus.
Topics: Adult; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Humans; Loudness Perception; Male; Middle Aged; Pitch Discrimination; Psychoacoustics; Tinnitus
PubMed: 24349414
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082995 -
Trends in Hearing 2022For the realization of auditory augmented reality (AAR), it is important that the room acoustical properties of the virtual elements are perceived in agreement with the... (Review)
Review
For the realization of auditory augmented reality (AAR), it is important that the room acoustical properties of the virtual elements are perceived in agreement with the acoustics of the actual environment. This perceptual matching of room acoustics is the subject reviewed in this paper. Realizations of AAR that fulfill the listeners' expectations were achieved based on pre-characterization of the room acoustics, for example, by measuring acoustic impulse responses or creating detailed room models for acoustic simulations. For future applications, the goal is to realize an online adaptation in (close to) real-time. Perfect physical matching is hard to achieve with these practical constraints. For this reason, an understanding of the essential psychoacoustic cues is of interest and will help to explore options for simplifications. This paper reviews a broad selection of previous studies and derives a theoretical framework to examine possibilities for psychoacoustical optimization of room acoustical matching.
Topics: Acoustics; Augmented Reality; Cues; Humans; Psychoacoustics
PubMed: 35505625
DOI: 10.1177/23312165221092919 -
Perception 1989
Topics: Amplifiers, Electronic; Electronics; Humans; Psychoacoustics; Radio; Sound
PubMed: 2813019
DOI: 10.1068/p180423 -
PloS One 2021Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and auditory middle-latency responses (AMLRs) to a click stimulus were measured in about 100 subjects. Of interest were the sex...
Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and auditory middle-latency responses (AMLRs) to a click stimulus were measured in about 100 subjects. Of interest were the sex differences in those auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), the correlations between the various AEP measures, and the correlations between the AEP measures and measures of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and behavioral performance also measured on the same subjects. Also of interest was how the menstrual cycle affected the various AEP measures. Most ABR measures and several AMLR measures exhibited sex differences, and many of the former were substantial. The sex differences tended to be larger for latency than for amplitude of the waves, and they tended to be larger for a weak click stimulus than for a strong click. The largest sex difference was for Wave-V latency (effect size ~1.2). When subjects were dichotomized into Non-Whites and Whites, the race differences in AEPs were small within sex. However, sex and race interacted so that the sex differences often were larger for the White subjects than for the Non-White subjects, particularly for the latency measures. Contrary to the literature, no AEP measures differed markedly across the menstrual cycle. Correlations between various AEP measures, and between AEP and OAE measures, were small and showed no consistent patterns across sex or race categories. Performance on seven common psychoacoustical tasks was only weakly correlated with individual AEP measures (just as was true for the OAEs also measured on these subjects). AMLR Wave Pa unexpectedly did not show the decrease in latency and increase in amplitude typically observed for AEPs when click level was varied from 40 to 70 dB nHL (normal Hearing Level). For the majority of the measures, the variability of the distribution of scores was greater for the males than for the females.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Audiometry; Auditory Perception; Auditory Threshold; Evoked Potentials, Auditory; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; Female; Hearing; Hearing Tests; Humans; Male; Menstrual Cycle; Psychoacoustics; Race Factors; Reaction Time; Sex Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 33979393
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251363 -
Behavioral Neuroscience Aug 2016Psychophysical experiments seek to measure the limits of perception. While straightforward in humans, in animals they are time consuming. Choosing an appropriate task...
Psychophysical experiments seek to measure the limits of perception. While straightforward in humans, in animals they are time consuming. Choosing an appropriate task and interpreting measurements can be challenging. We investigated the localization of high-frequency auditory signals in noise using an "approach-to-target" task in ferrets, how task performance should be interpreted in terms of perception, and how the measurements relate to other types of tasks. To establish their general ability to localize, animals were first trained to discriminate broadband noise from 12 locations. Subsequently we tested their ability to discriminate between band-limited targets at 2 or 3 more widely spaced locations, in a continuous background noise. The ability to discriminate between 3 possible locations (-90°, 0°, 90°) of a 10-kHz pure tone decreased gradually over a wide range (>30 dB) of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Location discrimination ability was better for wide band noise targets (0.5 and 2 octave). These results were consistent with localization ability limiting performance for pure tones. Discrimination of pure tones at 2 locations (-90/left, 90/right) was robust at positive SNRs, yielding psychometric functions which fell steeply at negative SNRs. Thresholds for discrimination were similar to previous tone-in-noise thresholds measured in ferrets using a yes/no task. Thus, using an approach-to-target task, sound "localization" in noise can reflect detectability or the ability to localize, depending on the stimulus configuration. Signal-detection-theory-based models were able to account for the results when discriminating between pure tones from 2- and 3-source locations. (PsycINFO Database Record
Topics: Animals; Auditory Perception; Ferrets; Humans; Noise; Perceptual Masking; Pitch Discrimination; Psychoacoustics; Sound Localization
PubMed: 27196623
DOI: 10.1037/bne0000143