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At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Song recognition by children and adolescents with cochlear implants.

PURPOSE: To assess song recognition and pitch perception in prelingually deaf individuals with cochlear implants (CIs). METHOD: Fifteen hearing children (5-8 years) and 15 adults heard different versions of familiar popular songs-original (vocal + instrumental), original instrumental, and synthesized melody versions-and identified the song in a closed-set task (Experiment 1). Ten CI users (8-18 years) and age-matched hearing listeners performed the same task (Experiment 2). Ten CI users (8-19 years) and 10 hearing 8-years-olds were required to detect pitch changes in repeating-tone contexts (Experiment 3). Finally, 8 CI users (6-19 years) and 13 hearing 5-year-olds were required to detect subtle pitch changes in a more challenging melodic context (Experiment 4). RESULTS: CI users performed more poorly than hearing listeners in all conditions. They succeeded in identifying the original and instrumental versions of familiar recorded songs, and they evaluated them favorably, but they could not identify the melody versions. Although CI users could detect a 0.5-semitone change in the simple context, they failed to detect a 1-semitone change in the more difficult melodic context. CONCLUSION: Current implant processors provide insufficient spectral detail for some aspects of music perception, but they do not preclude young implant users' enjoyment of music.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

The interaction of formant frequency and pitch in the perception of voice category and jaw opening in female singers.

This study represents a first step toward understanding the contribution formant frequency makes to the perception of female voice categories. The effects of formant frequency and pitch on the perception of voice category were examined by constructing a perceptual study that used two sets of synthetic stimuli at various pitches throughout the female singing range. The first set was designed to test the effects of systematically varying formants 1 through 4. The second set was designed to test the relative effects of lower frequency formants (F1 and F2) versus higher frequency formants (F3 and F4) through construction of mixed stimuli. Generally, as the frequencies of all four formants decreased, perception of soprano voice category decreased at all but the highest pitch, A5. However, perception of soprano voice category also increased as a function of pitch. Listeners appeared to need agreement between all four formants to perceive voice categories. When upper and lower formants are inconsistent in frequency, listeners were unable to judge voice category, but they could use the inconsistent patterns to form perceptions about degree of jaw opening.

Acoustics↗
PubMed1992

Pitch and voiced/unvoiced determination with an auditory model.

In this paper, an accurate pitch and voiced/unvoiced determination algorithm for speech analysis is described. The algorithm is called AMPEX (auditory model-based pitch extractor) and it performs a temporal analysis of the outputs emerging from a new auditory model. However, in spite of its use of an auditory model, AMPEX should not be regarded as a substitute for any psychophysical theory of human auditory pitch perception. What is mainly described is the design of a computationally efficient auditory model, the perceptually motivated determination of the model parameters, the conception of a reliable pitch extractor for speech analysis, and the elaboration of an experimental procedure for evaluating the performance of such a pitch extractor. In the course of the evaluation experiment several kinds of speech stimuli including clean speech, bandpass-filtered speech, and noisy speech were presented to three different pitch extractors. The experimental results clearly indicate that AMPEX outperforms the best algorithms available.

Auditory Threshold↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The influence of hearing aid nonlinear distortion on two auditory tasks.

A study is reported which examines the influence of hearing aid nonlinear distortion on multitone pitch perception. Normal-hearing subjects produced results indicating that hearing aid-generated harmonic and intermodulation components did significantly affect pitch judgments. Substantial differences in the amount of distortion between the two test aids was not, however, a critical factor. A follow-up study using closed-set intelligibility materials in noise further confirmed that relatively large measurable differences in nonlinear distortion between hearing aids do not seem to have the clinical significance which is often presumed.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Acoustic model investigation of a multiple carrier frequency algorithm for encoding fine frequency structure: implications for cochlear implants.

Current cochlear implants provide frequency resolution through the number of channels. Improving resolution by increasing channels is limited by factors such as the physiological feasibility of increasing the number of electrodes, the inability to increase the number of channels for those already implanted, and the increased possibility of channel interactions reducing channel efficacy. Recent studies have suggested an alternative method: providing a continuum of pitch percepts for each channel based on the frequency content of that channel. This study seeks to determine the frequency resolution necessary for the highest performance gain, which may give some indication of the feasibility for implementation in implants. A discrete set of carrier frequencies, instead of a continuum, are evaluated using an acoustic model to measure speech recognition. Performance increased as the number of available frequencies increased, and substantive improvement was seen with as few as two frequencies per channel. The effect of variable frequency discrimination was also assessed, and the results suggest that frequency modulation can still provide benefits with poor frequency discrimination on some channels. These results suggest that if two or more discriminable frequencies per channel can be generated for cochlear implant subjects then an improvement in speech recognition may be possible.

Acoustics↗
PubMed1983

Evidence for neuronal periodicity detection in the auditory system of the Guinea fowl: implications for pitch analysis in the time domain.

Evidence for periodicity analysis was obtained by recording from 420 single units in the auditory midbrain nucleus (MLD) of awake Guinea fowls (Numida meleagris). The results were compatible with a neuronal correlation model consisting of three main components: an oscillator, an interval multiplier and a coincidence unit. The model makes use of a neuronal time constant in order to measure the periodicities of auditory signals. For 180 units the sequence of spike intervals in response to tone bursts and amplitude modulations (AM) was studied with 10 microseconds resolution. In 69 of these units (38%) amplitude fluctuations like stimulus onset or the modulation cycles produced periodic spike trains resembling damped oscillations. The periods of these oscillations did not correspond to either the best frequency (BF) of these units or the periodicities of the stimuli. They were interpreted as multiples of a neuronal time constant, tau 1 = 0.4 ms, probably a minimal synaptic delay. These units were tuned to AM-signals with particular combinations of the modulation frequency, fm, and the carrier frequency, fc. The corresponding periods tau m and tau c were related to the intrinsic oscillation by a periodicity equation: m X tau m + n X tau c = 1 X tau 1, where a few small integers for m, n and 1 were adequate to describe all observed properties of a unit. Variation of fm or fc shifted the phase delays of the coupled spike activities proportional to m X tau m or n X tau c, respectively. These effects were explained by coincidence of neuronal activity phase coupled to fc, with intrinsic oscillations triggered by the fm-cycles. The coincidence condition at the level of the recorded units was given by the periodicity equation. Psychophysical experiments using AM-signals indicated that the described mechanisms, together with the same neuronal time constant, tau 1, are adequate to explain pitch perception in humans.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

The pitch of short-duration fundamental frequency glissandos.

Pitch perception for short-duration fundamental frequency (F0) glissandos was studied. In the first part, new measurements using the method of adjustment are reported. Stimuli were F0 glissandos centered at 220 Hz. The parameters under study were: F0 glissando extents (0, 0.8, 1.5, 3, 6, and 12 semitones, i.e., 0, 10.17, 18.74, 38.17, 76.63, and 155.56 Hz), F0 glissando durations (50, 100, 200, and 300 ms), F0 glissando directions (rising or falling), and the extremity of F0 glissandos matched (beginning or end). In the second part, the main results are discussed: (1) perception seems to correspond to an average of the frequencies present in the vicinity of the extremity matched; (2) the higher extremities of the glissando seem more important; (3) adjustments at the end are closer to the extremities than adjustments at the beginning. In the third part, numerical models accounting for the experimental data are proposed: a time-average model and a weighted time-average model. Optimal parameters for these models are derived. The weighted time-average model achieves a 94% accurate prediction rate for the experimental data. The numerical model is successful in predicting the pitch of short-duration F0 glissandos.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Pitch processing in the human brain is influenced by language experience.

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used in a cross-linguistic study to compare pitch processing in native speakers of English, a nontone language, with those of Thai, a tone language. When discriminating pitch patterns in Thai words, only the Thai subjects showed activation in the left frontal operculum. Activation of this region near the classically defined Broca's area suggests that the brain recognizes functional properties, rather than simply acoustic properties, of complex auditory cues in accessing language-specific mechanisms in pitch perception.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1983

Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low-frequency hearing loss.

Psychoacoustical tuning curves and interaural pitch matches were measured in a listener with a unilateral, moderately severe hearing loss of primarily cochlear origin below 2 kHz. The psychoacoustical tuning curves, measured in a simultaneous-masking paradigm, were obtained at 1 kHz for probe levels of 4.5-, 7-, and 13-dB SL in the impaired ear, and 7-dB SL in the impaired ear, and 7-dB SL in the normal ear. Results show that as the level of the probe increased from 4.5- to 13-dB SL in the impaired ear, (1) the frequency location of the tip of the tuning curve decreased from approximately 2.85 to 2.20 kHz and (2) the lowest level of the masker required to just mask the probe increased from 49- to 83-dB SPL. The tuning curve in the normal ear was comparable to data from other normal listeners. The interaural pitch matches were measured from 0.5 to 6 kHz at 10-dB SL in the impaired ear and approximately 15- to 20-dB SL in the normal ear. Results show reasonable identity matches (e.g., a 500-Hz tone in the impaired ear was matched close to a 500-Hz tone in the normal ear), although variability was significantly greater for pitch matches below 2 kHz. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for models of pitch perception.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Modulation rate discrimination for unresolved components: temporal cues related to fine structure and envelope.

The present study investigated the hypothesis that the cues for modulation rate discrimination for unresolved spectral components differ as a function of the spectral region occupied by the stimuli. Specifically, it was hypothesized that when components occupy relatively low spectral regions, phase locking both to the fine structure and to the envelope are useful cues. However, as the spectral region occupied by the components increases, phase locking to the fine structure becomes less robust, whereas phase locking to the envelope remains as a potentially strong cue. Observers were asked to detect a decrease in modulation rate for carrier frequencies between 1500 and 6000 Hz. Both amplitude-modulated (AM) and quasifrequency-modulated (QFM) tones were used in order to produce stimuli having strong and weak envelope cues, respectively. Although there were marked individual differences, the results showed an interaction between modulation type and spectral region, with AM and QFM performance being relatively similar at low spectral region, but with QFM showing a steeper reduction in performance as the spectral region of the carrier frequency increased. Overall, the data are consistent with an interpretation that pitch perception for unresolved components depends upon both fine structure and envelope cues, and that the relative importance of these cues depends upon the spectral region occupied by the stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Effects of interaural frequency difference on binaural fusion evidenced by electrophysiological versus psychoacoustical measures.

The binaural interaction component (BIC=sum of monaural-true binaural) of the auditory brainstem response appears to reflect central binaural fusion/lateralization processes. Auditory middle-latency responses (AMLRs) are more robust and may reflect more completely such binaural processing. The AMLR also demonstrates such binaural interaction. The fusion of dichotically presented tones with an interaural frequency difference (IFD) offers another test of the extent to which electrophysiological and psychoacoustical measures agree. The effect of IFDs on both the BIC of the AMLR and a psychoacoustical measure of binaural fusion thus were examined. The perception of 20-ms tone bursts at/near 500 Hz with increasing IFDs showed, first, a deviated sound image from the center of the head, followed by clearly separate pitch percepts in each ear. Thresholds of detection of sound deviation and separation (i.e., nonfusion) were found to be 57 and 209 Hz, respectively. However, magnitudes of BICs of the AMLR were found to remain nearly. constant for IFDs up to the 400-Hz (limit of range tested), suggesting that the AMLR-BIC does not provide an objective index of this aspect of binaural processing, at least not under the conditions examined. The nature of lateralization due to IFDs and the concept of critical bands for binaural fusion are also discussed. Further research appears warranted to investigate the significance of the lack of effect of IFDs on the AMLR-BIC. Finally, the IFD paradigm itself would seem useful in that it permits determination of the limit for nonfusion of sounds presented binaurally, a limit not accessible via more conventional paradigms involving interaural time, phase, or intensity differences.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1993

Perception of complex sounds by the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea: envelope and fine-structure cues.

1. The envelope periodicity of communication signals is an important feature distinguishing advertisement and aggressive calls for the green treefrog (Hyla cinerea). Envelope periodicity, a cue for periodicity pitch perception in humans, is affected by the fine-structure of the signal, a cue for timbre perception in humans. The present study examined perception of two acoustic features affecting waveform fine-structure--harmonic structure and phase structure--in male green treefrogs. 2. We analyzed evoked vocal responses of male green treefrogs living in laboratory arenas to playbacks of digitally-generated signals resembling either conspecific advertisement or aggressive calls in their first harmonic periodicity. Systematic changes in the harmonic structure of these signals were achieved by varying the harmonic relations between frequency components in the signals, and changes in phase structure were achieved by varying the starting phases of harmonically-related components. 3. Calling was significantly influenced by the first harmonic periodicity of the signals. Males vocalized more to signals with the periodicity of the advertisement than the aggressive call. There were no differences in response to harmonic and inharmonic signals with similar spectral content. Phase structure did not significantly influence vocal responses. 4. These results suggest that the fine-structure ("timbre") of complex acoustic signals is not a significant feature guiding behavior tested using a communication response in this species.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1978

Strength of the pitches associated with ripple noise.

A discrimination procedure was used to measure the pitch strength of the repetition pitches associated with comb-filtered or ripple noise. Pitch strength was measured as a function of overall ripple noise level, the repetition pitch of the noise, and as a function of the center frequency of 1/3-octave bandpass filtered noise. In addition, other experiments were conducted to help determine which parameters should be used in measuring pitch strength when the discrimination procedure is employed. Pitch strength was strongest for pitches of approximately 500 Hz. The stimuli had essentially no pitch strength for pitches below 50 and above 2000 Hz. The strongest pitches were obtained when 1/3-octave filters were placed in a frequency region cented at four times the repetition pitch. Filtering at other center frequencies resulted in a large decrease in pitch strength. These results are consistent with assumptions concerning the dominant region for pitch perception of complex stimuli. The results are also discussed in terms of processing information from reflected sound sources.

Auditory Threshold↗
PubMed1986

Perception of missing fundamental by a species of songbird (Sturnus vulgaris).

Two experiments investigated whether a species of songbird perceives missing fundamentals in sounds containing complex frequencies. In Experiment 1, European starlings were trained to discriminate between two sinusoids. This discrimination persisted when the sinusoids were replaced with waveforms composed solely of four consecutive higher harmonics of the training frequencies. In Experiment 2, starlings trained to discriminate between two complex frequencies consisting of sets of higher harmonics transferred the discrimination to the sinusoidal fundamentals. The results demonstrate that starlings can perceive harmonic or periodic structure, and show that a species of songbird can use harmonic structure to gain information about its auditory environment. The findings, together with those obtained from fish and mammals, suggest that periodicity pitch perception may be a general process in vertebrate hearing.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Acoustic to electric pitch comparisons in cochlear implant subjects with residual hearing.

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency-position function resulting from electric stimulation of electrodes in cochlear implant subjects with significant residual hearing in their nonimplanted ear. Six cochlear implant users compared the pitch of the auditory sensation produced by stimulation of an intracochlear electrode to the pitch of acoustic pure tones presented to their contralateral nonimplanted ear. Subjects were implanted with different Clarion electrode arrays, designed to lie close to the inner wall of the cochlea. High-resolution radiographs were used to determine the electrode positions in the cochlea. Four out of six subjects presented electrode insertions deeper than 450 degrees . We used a two-interval (one acoustic, one electric), two-alternative forced choice protocol (2I-2AFC), asking the subject to indicate which stimulus sounded the highest in pitch. Pure tones were used as acoustic stimuli. Electric stimuli consisted of trains of biphasic pulses presented at relatively high rates [higher than 700 pulses per second (pps)]. First, all electric stimuli were balanced in loudness across electrodes. Second, acoustic pure tones, chosen to approximate roughly the pitch sensation produced by each electrode, were balanced in loudness to electric stimuli. When electrode insertion lengths were used to describe electrode positions, the pitch sensations produced by electric stimulation were found to be more than two octaves lower than predicted by Greenwood's frequency-position function. When insertion angles were used to describe electrode positions, the pitch sensations were found about one octave lower than the frequency-position function of a normal ear. The difference found between both descriptions is because of the fact that these electrode arrays were designed to lie close to the modiolus. As a consequence, the site of excitation produced at the level of the organ of Corti corresponds to a longer length than the electrode insertion length, which is used in Greenwood's function. Although exact measurements of the round window position as well as the length of the cochlea could explain the remaining one octave difference found when insertion angles were used, physiological phenomena (e.g., stimulation of the spiral ganglion cells) could also create this difference. From these data, analysis filters could be determined in sound coding strategies to match the pitch percepts elicited by electrode stimulation. This step might be of main importance for music perception and for the fitting of bilateral cochlear implants.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1997

Cochlear mechanisms of frequency and intensity coding. I. The place code for pitch.

In the past, several researchers have reported a substantial shift in the peak of the tone-evoked excitation pattern toward the base of the cochlea following an increase in the SPL of the stimulating tone. Evidence for such peak shifts has been found in the responses of auditory nerve fibers, cochlear microphonics, and the responses of outer hair cells and supporting cells in the cochlea, as well as in basilar membrane vibration measurements, and indirectly, in psychophysical data. However, direct evidence for such a peak shift in inner hair cell (IHC) responses has been relatively sparse. If the peak shift is preserved in the information conveyed to the auditory nerve fibers by the IHCs, the classical 'place theory' for frequency coding in the cochlea requires modification. In this study, the nature and extent of the SPL-dependent peak shift is examined with the help of recordings in the IHCs and other cells of the organ of Corti in the 0.5-2.5 kHz region of the Mongolian gerbil cochlea. It is demonstrated that the peak shift is a universal phenomenon in the diverse cell types in this region of the cochlea. Most importantly, a large SPL-dependent peak shift is demonstrated in IHC responses. On the other hand, the recordings indicate that the apical cutoff of the spatial excitation pattern is SPL-independent. We conclude, therefore, that the place theory of pitch perception must be abandoned or at least modified.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Sustained magnetic fields reveal separate sites for sound level and temporal regularity in human auditory cortex.

Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate the relationship between the sustained magnetic field in auditory cortex and the perception of periodic sounds. The response to regular and irregular click trains was measured at three sound intensities. Two separate sources were isolated adjacent to primary auditory cortex: One, located in lateral Heschl's gyrus, was particularly sensitive to regularity and largely insensitive to sound level. The second, located just posterior to the first in planum temporale, was particularly sensitive to sound level and largely insensitive to regularity. This double dissociation to the same stimuli indicates that the two sources represent separate mechanisms; the first would appear to be involved with pitch perception and the second with loudness. The delay of the offset of the sustained field was found to increase with interclick interval up to 200 ms at least, which suggests that the sustained field offset represents a sophisticated offset-monitoring mechanism rather than simply the cessation of stimulation.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2003

How we hear what is not there: a neural mechanism for the missing fundamental illusion.

How the brain estimates the pitch of a complex sound remains unsolved. Complex sounds are composed of more than one tone. When two tones occur together, a third lower pitched tone is often heard. This is referred to as the "missing fundamental illusion" because the perceived pitch is a frequency (fundamental) for which there is no actual source vibration. This phenomenon exemplifies a larger variety of problems related to how pitch is extracted from complex tones, music and speech, and thus has been extensively used to test theories of pitch perception. A noisy nonlinear process is presented here as a candidate neural mechanism to explain the majority of reported phenomenology and provide specific quantitative predictions. The two basic premises of this model are as follows: (I) The individual tones composing the complex tones add linearly producing peaks of constructive interference whose amplitude is always insufficient to fire the neuron (II): The spike threshold is reached only with noise, which naturally selects the maximum constructive interferences. The spacing of these maxima, and consequently the spikes, occurs at a rate identical to the perceived pitch for the complex tone. Comparison with psychophysical and physiological data reveals a remarkable quantitative agreement not dependent on adjustable parameters. In addition, results from numerical simulations across different models are consistent, suggesting relevance to other sensory modalities.

Action Potentials↗