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The width of the auditory filter in children.
Because young children have poorer auditory temporal resolution than older children, they ought to have, according to the inverse relation between temporal and frequency resolution, narrower auditory filters than older children. Therefore, the auditory filters of two 6-year-olds, two 10-year-olds, and two adults were measured by having them detect a 400-ms sinusoid (500, 1000, or 3000 Hz) centered in a spectral notch in a band of noise. The signal power for 71% correct was determined as a function of notch width with the two-alternative, forced-choice procedure. The principal results showed a significant decrease in signal power with age and a significant interaction between age and notch width. The best-fitting parameters of a model of the auditory filter showed that the filter was significantly wider for the 6-year-olds than for the 10-year-olds or the adults.
Adult↗
Frequency threshold curves and simultaneous masking functions in high-threshold, broadly-tuned, fibres of the guinea pig auditory nerve.
Tuning curves for simultaneous masking were measured electrophysiologically, in single fibres of the auditory nerve. The recordings were made in guinea pigs with cochlear hearing losses. The masking paradigm was an analogy of that used in the determination of psychophysical tuning curves in man. Below the probe frequency, the slope of the masking function was similar to that of the frequency-threshold curve. Here, changes in the slope of the frequency-threshold curve with hearing loss were closely mirrored by changes in the slope of the masking function. Above the probe frequency, however, the masking function for low-threshold fibres had a shallower slope than the frequency-threshold curve. When the high-frequency slope of the frequency-threshold curve became shallower with hearing loss, the changes were not mirrored in the masking function, until the threshold was raised to 70-80 dB SPL. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of cochlear nonlinearity on frequency resolution, and the vulnerability of the nonlinearity.
Animals↗
ON and OFF components of the auditory brainstem response have different frequency- and intensity-specific properties.
When the ear of the mouse is stimulated with a tone burst of sufficiently long duration, a stimulus offset evoked potential is generated which mirrors, in some respects, the onset auditory brainstem response (ABR). The general waveform and interpeak latencies suggest this offset response is generated within the cochlea and auditory brainstem. But when visual detection threshold audiograms are made for these two responses, their shapes are not similar. The onset ABR thresholds reflect the behavioral detection thresholds, being lowest at midfrequency, while the offset thresholds are highest at midfrequency in the normal hearing CBA/J and RB3/bg mice. The LP/J mouse, with a mixed (conductive and sensory) dysfunction, shows a different relationship between its onset and offset thresholds. The onset- and offset-ABRs of the normal mouse also differ from each other in the slopes of their amplitude input-output functions.
Animals↗
Auditory structure and function in the bird middle ear: an evaluation by SEM and capacitive probe.
The anatomic features of the middle ear in five avian species were identified in the scanning electron microscope. Various aspects of the conductive apparatus were quantitatively measured in a number of specimens from each species. These included the tympanic membrane, columella footplate and oval window area; the length of the columella, extra-stapedius and Platner's ligament: and the angular relations between the columella and the tympanic membrane, extra-stapedius and footplate. The velocity vs frequency response curve, measured from the tip of the concave tympanic membrane, and corrected to a constant stimulus level of 100 dB SPL, was obtained for the neonatal chick and parakeet for frequencies between 0.2 and 10.0 kHz with a capacitive probe. In both species this curve resembled a bandpass filter whose best frequency was in the range of 1.5-3.0 kHz. The low and high frequency roll-off was 6 and 16 dB per octave, respectively. Displacement of the TM in the chick was measured at several frequencies between 70 and 120 dB SPL and was found to be linear. The results of displacement measured from the tip of the tympanum and from a location 1.0 mm more central on the drum membrane revealed a large difference in displacement over all frequencies. A comparison between the shape of the audibility curve and the tympanic membrane velocity function in the parakeet revealed that both curves were nearly the same for the mid-range frequency region. These findings add to our understanding of middle-ear function in the avian ear.
Age Factors↗
Growth of suppression in the cochlear potentials.
Measurement of two-tone effects in the cochlear microphonic and summating potential indicates that the growth of suppression is different for these two cochlear potentials. Whereas the CM response to the fundamental is reduced 10 dB for each 10 dB increase in suppressor level, the SP decreases at a faster rate; approximately 20 dB per 10 dB increase. Slopes of functions for the CM response to the second harmonic are similar to those for the dc component. Since these results are consistent with the notion that suppression operates by attenuating the input to the CM generator, they are consonant with a mechanical origin of suppression.
Animals↗
A behavior analysis of absolute pitch: sex, experience, and species.
Absolute pitch (AP) perception refers to the ability to identify, classify, and memorize pitches without use of an external reference pitch. In tests of AP, several species were trained to sort contiguous tones into three or eight frequency ranges, based on correlations between responding to tones in each frequency range and reinforcement. Two songbird species, zebra finches and white-throated sparrows, and a parrot species, budgerigars had highly accurate AP, they discriminated both three and eight ranges with precision. Relative to normally reared songbirds, isolate reared songbirds had impaired AP. Two mammalian species, humans and rats, had equivalent and weak AP, they discriminated three frequency ranges to a lackluster standard and they acquired only a crude discrimination of the lowest and highest of eight frequency ranges. In comparisons with mammals even isolate songbirds had more accurate AP than humans and rats.
Acoustics↗
Stimulus dependence of spectro-temporal receptive fields in cat primary auditory cortex.
The frequency-tuning curve is a static representation of the neuron's sensitivity to stimulus frequency. The temporal aspects of the frequency sensitivity can be captured in the spectro-temporal receptive field (STRF), often presented as the average spectrogram of the stimulus preceding a spike but also as the average frequency-dependent post-stimulus time histogram (PSTH). The temporal envelope of the stimulus produces considerable smoothing, and as a consequence the PSTH representation is finer-grained than the spectrogram representation. Here we compare STRFs for 1/s and 20/s single-frequency stimuli with 120/s steady-state multi-frequency stimuli for 87 recording sites in primary auditory cortex of cats. For the 672 estimated STRFs, which for multi-frequency stimuli were mostly obtained at 55 dB SPL, we found lateral inhibition in 17% of the cases, in 32% post-activation suppression, and in 51% only excitation. In 35% of the recordings the excitatory frequency-tuning curves were very similar for single and multi-frequency stimuli, in the remaining 65% the common finding was the emergence of an intensity independent bandwidth for the multi-frequency stimuli. Comparison of the 20/s and 120/s stimuli showed that the resulting increase in inhibition was strongest in the center of the STRF.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Contextual processing of multidimensional and unidimensional auditory stimuli.
Stimulus context (the distribution of stimulus values) can strongly affect both perception and judgment. In 14 experiments, the method of magnitude estimation revealed 2 fundamentally different kinds of context effect in loudness. An assimilative effect dominated when stimuli varied unidimensionally (in intensity only). But a contrasting, or adaptation-like, effect dominated when stimuli varied multidimensionally (in frequency and intensity). In Experiment 15, direct loudness comparison revealed a potent, adaptational process specific to the signal frequency. Taken together, these and other results are compatible with the view that loudness perception and judgment reflect the net outcome of 2 different contextual processes: a relatively early (though probably not peripheral) process of perceptual adaptation and a later process of response-dependent assimilation.
Adult↗
Ontogeny of the acoustic startle response in C57BL/6J mouse pups.
A cross-sectional design was used to study the development of acoustic startle behavior in C57BL/6J mice from the approximate onset of hearing (12 days) to 17 days of age. Startle incidence and latency were recorded in response to 5-, 7-, 10-, 15-, and 20-kHz tones each presented at 80, 90, and 100 dB (SPL). From 12 to 17 days of age, higher frequency and lower intensity tones became increasingly effective in eliciting the acoustic startle response. In addition, startle latency decreased substantially, and response incidence became more sensitive to changes in tone intensity and tone frequency. This rapid ontogeny of the acoustic startle response closely parallels previously demonstrated neurophysiological development of the mouse pup auditory system.
Aging↗
A dissociation between reaction time to sinusoidal gratings and temporal-order judgment.
The effect of the spatial frequency (SF) of visual gratings on reaction time (RT) and temporal-order judgment (TOJ) was examined in three experiments. In experiment 1 the visual stimuli were vertical sinusoidal gratings with SFs between 2 and 8 cycles deg-1 and the comparison stimulus in the TOJ task was a 2300 Hz tone. Whereas SF had a highly significant effect on RT, it left TOJ completely unaffected. To test whether this dissociation was due to the sharp (high SF) horizontal edges of the gratings, a second experiment was carried out with circular stimuli with no sharp edges. These stimuli did produce an effect of SF on TOJ, but it was significantly smaller than was the effect on RT. In experiment 3 we confirmed that this difference was not due to differences in grating orientation between the first two experiments. These findings (a) solve discrepancies between findings reported in the literature and (b) strongly suggest that RT and TOJ cannot be regarded as converging operations for determining 'visual latency'. This dissociation can best be accounted for by assuming that the output of early stimulus analysis can feed directly into the motor system (direct parameter specification), whereas the conscious representation that is used for TOJ is based on later integrative processes.
Adult↗
Detection of 1st- and 2nd-order temporal-envelope cues in a patient with left superior cortical damage.
This psychophysical study explores the extent to which the auditory cortex is necessary for various aspects of temporal-envelope perception, that is, perception of the slow temporal modulations in amplitude known to be crucial for sound identification. The ability to detect 1st- and 2nd-order sinusoidal amplitude modulation (AM) is evaluated in a single patient showing left-hemisphere damage encroaching the primary and secondary auditory cortices. Here, 1st- and 2nd-order AM refer to (1) sinusoidal variation in the amplitude of a 2 kHz pure tone, and (2) sinusoidal variation in the depth of a 64 Hz AM applied to the 2 kHz pure tone, respectively. The results replicate previous findings by showing that damage to the left auditory cortex results in a selective deficit in auditory sensitivity to the lowest 1St-order AM (i.e., 1st-order AM frequencies < 16 Hz). Moreover, a dissociation is apparent between the ability to detect 1st- and 2nd-order temporal-envelope cues. The patient shows poorer than normal ability to detect 2nd-order AM at low frequencies ranging from 4-23 Hz, but normal ability to detect the high (64 Hz) 1st-order AM carrying these 2nd-order modulations. This result indicates that damage to the left primary and secondary auditory cortices affects the ability to detect temporal variations in the local properties of sounds(such as AM depth). It is also consistent with the idea that, as in vision, central nonlinear mechanisms are involved in the computation of such local (or 2nd-order) temporal properties.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Amplitude and frequency-modulated stimuli activate common regions of human auditory cortex.
Hall et al. (Hall et al., 2002, Cerebral Cortex 12:140-149) recently showed that pulsed frequency-modulated tones generate considerably higher activation than their unmodulated counterparts in non-primary auditory regions immediately posterior and lateral to Heschl's gyrus (HG). Here, we use fMRI to explore the type of modulation necessary to evoke such differential activation. Carrier signals were a single tone and a harmonic-complex tone, with a 300 Hz fundamental, that were modulated at a rate of 5 Hz either in frequency, or in amplitude, to create six stimulus conditions (unmodulated, FM, AM). Relative to the silent baseline, the modulated tones, in particular, activated widespread regions of the auditory cortex bilaterally along the supra-temporal plane. When compared with the unmodulated tones, both AM and FM tones generated significantly greater activation in lateral HG and the planum temporale, replicating the previous findings. These activation patterns were largely overlapping, indicating a common sensitivity to both AM and FM. Direct comparisons between AM and FM revealed a higher magnitude of activation in response to the variation in amplitude than in frequency, plus a small part of the posterolateral region in the right hemisphere whose response was specifically AM-, and not FM-, dependent. The dominant pattern of activation was that of co-localized activation by AM and FM, which is consistent with a common neural code for AM and FM within these brain regions.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Acoustic parameters of snoring sound to compare natural snores with snores during 'steady-state' propofol sedation.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the acoustic similarity between natural and sedation-induced snores. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. SETTING: University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one patients, who had already had overnight snore recordings, completed a pre-operative sleep nasendoscopic examination. Endoscopic examination of the upper aero-digestive tract was performed at sequentially increasing, steady-state sedation levels, using intravenous propofol administered according to a weight/time-based algorithm to predict blood and effect site (tissue) concentrations. At each sedation level at which snoring occurred, snoring sound was recorded. From these samples, snore files, comprising the inspiratory sound of each snore were created. Similarly, from natural snores recorded pre-operatively, snore files, comprising the inspiratory sounds of the first 100 snores with the patient sleeping in a supine position, were also created. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Snore duration (s), loudness (dBA), periodicity (%) and energy ratios for the frequency sub-bands 0-200, 0-250 and 0-400 Hz. RESULTS: Snore loudness increased significantly (P < 0.0001), whilst energy ratios for frequency bands 0-200, 0-250 and 0-400 Hz all decreased significantly as sedation level increased (P < 0.001). A significant difference between natural snoring and snoring induced at the lowest sedation level was shown (P < 0.0001). Endoscopic examination was not tolerated at this sedation level. CONCLUSIONS: The acoustic characteristics of sedation-induced and natural snores are sufficiently different to recommend the need for further research to determine whether the technique of sleep nasendoscopy is, in fact, a valid predictor of outcome of snoring surgery.
Acoustics↗
Systematic distortions of auditory space perception following prolonged exposure to broadband noise.
Perceptual distortions referred to as aftereffects may arise following exposure to an adapting sensory stimulus. The study of aftereffects has a long and distinguished history [Kohler and Wallach, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 88, 269-359 (1944)] and a range of aftereffects have been well described in sensory modalities such as the visual system [Barlow, in Vision: Coding and Efficiency (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990)]. In the visual system these effects have been interpreted as evidence for a population of cells or channels specific for certain features of a stimulus. However there has been relatively little work examining auditory aftereffects, particularly in respect of spatial location. In this study we have examined the effects of a stationary adapting noise stimulus on the subsequent auditory localization in the vicinity of the adapting stimulus. All human subjects in this study were trained to localize short bursts of noise in a darkened anechoic environment. Adaptation was achieved by presenting 4 min of continuous noise at the start of each block of trials and was maintained by a further 15-s noise burst between each trial. The adapting stimulus was located either directly in front of the subject or 30 degrees to the right of the midline. Subjects were required to determine the location of noise burst stimuli (150 ms) in the proximity of the adapting stimulus following each interstimulus period of adaptation. Results demonstrated that following adaptation there was a general radial displacement of perceived sound sources away from the location of the adapting stimulus. These data are more consistent with a channel-based or place-based process of sound localization rather than a simple level-based adaptation model. A simple "distribution shift" model that assumes an array of overlapping spatial channels is advanced to explain the psychophysical data.
Adult↗
The mid-level hump at 2 kHz.
Shortening the duration of a Gaussian-shaped 2-kHz tone-pip causes the intensity-difference limen (DL) to depart from the "near-miss to Weber's law" and swell into a mid-level hump [Nizami et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 2505-2515 (2001)]. For some subjects the size of this hump approaches or exceeds the size reported for longer tones under forward masking, suggesting that forward masking might make little difference to the DL for very brief probes. To test this hypothesis, DLs were determined over 30 to 90 dB SPL for a brief Gaussian-shaped 2-kHz tone-pip. DLs were obtained first without forward masking, then with the pip placed 10 or 100 ms after a 200-ms 2-kHz tone of 50 dB SPL, or 100 ms after a 200-ms 2-kHz tone of 70 dB SPL. DLs inflated significantly under all forward-masking conditions. DLs also enlarged under an 80 dB SPL forward masker at pip delays of 4, 10, 40, and 100 ms. The peaks of the humps obtained under forward masking clustered around a sensation level (SL) that was significantly lower than the average SL for the peaks of the humps obtained without forward masking. Overall, the results do not support the neuronal-recovery-rate model of Zeng et al. [Hear. Res. 55, 223-230 (1991)], but are not incompatible with the Carlyon and Beveridge hypothesis [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 2886-2895 (1993)] that nonsimultaneous maskers corrupt the memory trace evoked by the probe.
Adult↗
Characterizing cochlear mechano-electric transduction with a nonlinear system identification technique: the influence of the middle ear.
Previously a third-order polynomial equation characterizing mechano-electric transduction was obtained from a nonlinear system identification procedure applied to an ear canal acoustic signal and cochlear microphonic (CM/AC). In this paper, we examine the influence of the linearity and frequency response of the intervening middle ear on the nonlinearity, frequency response, and coherence of the third-order polynomial model of mechano-electric transduction (MET). Ear canal sound pressure (AC), cochlear microphonics (CM), and stapes velocity (SV) were simultaneously recorded from Mongolian gerbils. Linear and nonlinear transfer and coherence functions relating stapes velocity to the acoustic signal (SV/AC), CM to the acoustic signal (CM/AC), and CM to the stapes velocity (CM/SV) were computed. The results showed that SV/AC was linear while CM/AC and CM/SV were not, indicating that the nonlinearity of CM/AC was not due to nonlinearity of the middle ear. The frequency response of the linear term of CM/AC was similar to that of ST/AC but differed from that of CM/SV while the cubic term of CM/AC was similar to that of CM/SV. This indicates that the frequency dependence of CM/AC was due to both the middle ear and frequency dependence of the inner ear. Finally the fit of the polynomial model of MET without the middle ear (CM/SV) did not improve from the fit including the middle ear (CM/AC). A cochlear model of the CM indicated that the lack of improvement was due to the limitations of a third-order polynomial equation characterizing the hair cell transducer function.
Animals↗
Improved temporal coding of sinusoids in electric stimulation of the auditory nerve using desynchronizing pulse trains.
Rubinstein et al. [Hearing Res. 127, 108-118 (1999)] suggested that the representation of electric stimulus waveforms in the temporal discharge patterns of auditory-nerve fiber (ANF) might be improved by introducing an ongoing, high-rate, desynchronizing pulse train (DPT). To test this hypothesis, activity of ANFs was studied in acutely deafened, anesthetized cats in response to 10-min-long, 5-kpps electric pulse trains that were sinusoidally modulated for 400 ms every second. Two classes of responses to sinusoidal modulations of the DPT were observed. Fibers that only responded transiently to the unmodulated DPT showed hyper synchronization and narrow dynamic ranges to sinusoidal modulators, much as responses to electric sinusoids presented without a DPT. In contrast, fibers that exhibited sustained responses to the DPT were sensitive to modulation depths as low as 0.25% for a modulation frequency of 417 Hz. Over a 20-dB range of modulation depths, responses of these fibers resembled responses to tones in a healthy ear in both discharge rate and synchronization index. This range is much wider than the dynamic range typically found with electrical stimulation without a DPT, and comparable to the dynamic range for acoustic stimulation. These results suggest that a stimulation strategy that uses small signals superimposed upon a large DPT to encode sounds may evoke temporal discharge patterns in some ANFs that resemble responses to sound in a healthy ear.
Animals↗