Search PubMed⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 3958316

Absolute intensity discrimination using two responses.

D M Green·S M von Gierke·T E Hanna
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The observer was asked to judge whether a comparison sound was more or less intense than a standard sound of 60 dB SPL. The sounds were broadband noises of 100-ms duration. The independent variables were the range of intensities used in the set of comparison sounds and the presence or absence of feedback. The main dependent variable was the variability of such judgments, which was measured from the psychometric function. The variability, measured in terms of the Weber function, increased from about 1.5 to 4 dB when the stimulus range changed from 10 to 60 dB. Increases in stimulus range increased the variability of the binary judgments in this task, as they had in previous experiments where multiple responses were required. Feedback improved performance primarily at the largest ranges. Only a small fraction of these changes in variability stems from sequential effects.

Explore related subjects

Acoustic StimulationDiscrimination LearningFeedbackHumansLoudness PerceptionPsychometricsJournal ArticleResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

D M Green, S M von Gierke, T E Hanna. 1986. Absolute intensity discrimination using two responses.. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.393465

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2003

The midlatency auditory evoked potential P50 is abnormal in Huntington's disease.

The P50 (or P1) potential is a midlatency auditory evoked response, believed to be partially generated by the cholinergic pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) neurons that give rise to the ascending reticular activating system (RAS). We compared the P50 potential in 11 Huntington's disease (HD) patients and 13 normal controls using a paired click stimulus paradigm. HD patients exhibited a P50 potential with reduced amplitude and increased latency to the first stimulus of the pair (first P50 potential), suggesting impaired ascending reticular activating system function, which may contribute to sleep disorders seen in HD. Sensory gating, measured as the percent ratio of the second P50 potential amplitude to the first P50 potential amplitude, was reduced at 250 and 500 ms interstimulus intervals (ISI), which may be related to disordered attention and anxiety in HD.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2003

The volumes of song control nuclei, HVC and lMAN, relate to differential behavioral responses of female European starlings to male songs produced within and outside of the breeding season.

In seasonally breeding songbirds, such as European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), male song plays a direct role in immediate mate attraction during, but not outside of, the breeding season. The present experiment was designed to explore whether female starlings would display differential behavioral responses to male song recorded during (spring) and outside of (fall) the breeding season. Recordings of spring and fall male starling songs were broadcast to female starlings from nest boxes in an aviary setting. Females displayed marked elevations in general activity (landing, eating, and drinking) in response to spring compared to fall song, however as a group females did not preferentially land on nest boxes playing spring song. The volume of the song control nucleus HVC was largest in females that landed more often on nest boxes during playbacks of spring song compared to fall song, and the volume of the lateral portions of the magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (lMAN) related positively to the extent to which females directed landings towards nest boxes playing spring rather than fall song. A possible relationship was also detected between female preferences for male spring compared to fall song and the volume of the robust nucleus of the archistriatum. Female responses to spring and fall song did not relate to the volumes of area X, or to estrogen concentrations. These data provide evidence that females attend to and respond behaviorally to seasonal changes in male starling song, and implicate song control nuclei, HVC and lMAN, in female perception and discrimination of male song.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2003

Top-down and bottom-up modulation of language related areas--an fMRI study.

BACKGROUND: One major problem for cognitive neuroscience is to describe the interaction between stimulus and task driven neural modulation. We used fMRI to investigate this interaction in the human brain. Ten male subjects performed a passive listening and a semantic categorization task in a factorial design. In both tasks, words were presented auditorily at three different rates. RESULTS: We found: (i) as word presentation rate increased hemodynamic responses increased bilaterally in the superior temporal gyrus including Heschl's gyrus (HG), the planum temporale (PT), and the planum polare (PP); (ii) compared to passive listening, semantic categorization produced increased bilateral activations in the ventral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG); (iii) hemodynamic responses in the left dorsal IFG increased linearly with increasing word presentation rate only during the semantic categorization task; (iv) in the semantic task hemodynamic responses decreased bilaterally in the insula with increasing word presentation rates; and (v) in parts of the HG the hemodynamic response increased with increasing word presentation rates during passive listening more strongly. CONCLUSION: The observed "rate effect" in primary and secondary auditory cortex is in accord with previous findings and suggests that these areas are driven by low-level stimulus attributes. The bilateral effect of semantic categorization is also in accord with previous studies and emphasizes the role of these areas in semantic operations. The interaction between semantic categorization and word presentation in the left IFG indicates that this area has linguistic functions not present in the right IFG. Finally, we speculate that the interaction between semantic categorization and word presentation rates in HG and the insula might reflect an inhibition of the transfer of unnecessary information from the temporal to frontal regions of the brain.

Acoustic Stimulation↗