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PubMed2001

The amplitude-modulation following response in young and aged human subjects.

The amplitude-modulation following response (AMFR) is a steady-state auditory response which may be an objective measure of intensity discrimination. Aged subjects with normal hearing have poorer intensity discrimination for low-frequency tones measured behaviorally, which would predict poorer AMFRs for low-frequency carriers. Experiment 1 was designed to assess age-related differences in AMFR characteristics. Response amplitudes were not significantly different among the young and aged groups for either carrier frequency (520 or 4000 Hz) or modulation depth (0--100%). Response phase did not vary systematically among groups. These results suggest that the AMFR may not be directly comparable to behavioral measures of intensity discrimination in aged subjects with normal hearing. To assess the contribution of high-frequency hearing loss on the AMFR in aged subjects, Experiment 2 compared AMFR amplitudes in aged subjects and in young subjects under the condition of high-pass masking. The amplitude of the AMFR was reduced at 520 Hz for both aged subjects and masked young subjects compared to unmasked young subjects, suggesting that reduced amplitudes in aged subjects with high-frequency hearing loss were associated with threshold elevations. Furthermore, the results suggest that the base of the cochlea contributes to the AMFR for low carrier frequencies.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1990

The role of knowledge-based expectations in music perception: evidence from musical restoration.

The perceptual restoration of musical sounds was investigated in 5 experiments with Samuel's (1981a) discrimination methodology. Restoration in familiar melodies was compared to phonemic restoration in Experiment 1. In the remaining experiments, we examined the effect of expectations (generated by familiarity, predictability, and musical schemata) on musical restoration. We investigated restoration in melodies by comparing familiar and unfamiliar melodies (Experiment 2), as well as unfamiliar melodies varying in tonal and rhythmic predictability (Experiment 3). Expectations based on both familiarity and predictability were found to reduce restoration at the melodic level. Restoration at the submelodic level was investigated with scales and chords in Experiments 4 and 5. At this level, key-based expectations were found to increase restoration. Implications for music perception, as well as similarities between restoration in music and speech, are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Auditory P300 does not differentiate borderline personality disorder from schizotypal personality disorder.

The P300 response to an auditory two-tone discrimination task has previously been reported to have prolonged latency and reduced amplitude in schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. In this study, P300 was recorded from 23 subjects with borderline personality disorder, 12 subjects fulfilling criteria for both borderline and schizotypal personality, and 11 subjects with schizotypal personality. The mean P300 latency was similar in each of these groups and was significantly longer than in 32 patients with neuroses and other personality disorders and 74 nonpatient controls. These findings suggest that borderline and schizotypal patients share a similar abnormality in auditory stimulus evaluation and question whether or not these disorders are separate.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Auditory temporal perception of children with left or right brain lesions.

Twenty left and 12 right brain lesioned children were administered Tallal's Repetition Task in which they were required to discriminate, associate and sequence two nonverbal auditory stimuli. Unlike adults with left hemisphere injury or children with developmental language disorders previously described by Tallal, neither left nor right brain-lesioned children differ significantly from control subjects matched by age, sex, race and social class. These results contrast with earlier reports of impaired spoken syntax and delayed lexical retrieval among many of these same left lesioned children, suggesting that prelinguistic auditory processing and higher language deficits may be dissociable among young left hemisphere impaired children. The findings demonstrate that the higher level language deficits seen in the left brain lesioned children cannot be attributed to difficulty in more preliminary analyses of the acoustic stimuli.

Auditory Pathways↗
PubMed1992

Informational processing of complex sound. III: interference.

In this study, theoretical results from information theory and detection theory are applied to provide a formal analysis of the interaction of target and context uncertainty on the discrimination of brief multitone sequences. The experiments employ a sample-discrimination task in which the performance of an ideal observer is held constant while the relative variability of the target sigmaT and context sigmaC is varied. Listener performance in these experiments was less than ideal but increased monotonically with sigmaT/sigmaC whether the task was to discriminate the frequency or the intensity of the target. Performance was also constant for a constant sigmaT/sigmaC regardless of the target's position in the sequence. The results are consistent with a class of models in which the decision variable is a weighted sum of the tone values comprising the sequence. Weighting functions computed from the trial-by-trial date suggest that limits in performance result from trial-by-trial variability in the weights. The decision variable also serves as the basis for an analysis in which performance is linearly related to the information rate of the context independent of target position or task. In this analysis, target and context uncertainty contribute additively to the overall uncertainty associated with the decision variable.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Relation between tone and speech perception in noise-induced hearing loss--determination of characteristics].

The relation between tone and speech hearing in noise-induced hearing loss is argued controversely. Important publications according to which close correlations between both audiological methods are extensively supposed, are listed initially. Own research results that have already been published otherwise are introduced briefly. After that--with the help of discrimination functions on the monosyllable level--a correct order of the audibility is possible with a high hit share. The incorrect empirical adaptation of the hearing loss tables can be improved upon by quadratic optimation. Simultaneously, the polynomic functions calculated with the help of the quadratic optimation show frequency-specific characteristics. After addition of these functions one gets a virtual characteristic--tone and speech hearing--with a general character for noise-induced hearing loss. We believe that we have found by this mathematical method a new way for the solution of this difficult complex of questions. Our opinion is that the procedure mentioned above is also suitable for other types of hearing disturbances and for other languages.

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗
PubMed2003

A comparison of psychophysical procedures for level-discrimination thresholds.

Five different psychophysical procedures were used to measure level-discrimination (also called intensity discrimination) thresholds for 1-kHz tones at two levels (30 and 90 dB SPL) and two durations (10 and 500 ms). The procedures were the classic transformed up-down staircase method with a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) paradigm (UPD), 15- and 50-trial implementations of the method of maximum likelihood (MML) with a cued yes-no paradigm, and 18-trial implementations of ZEST using both cued yes-no and 2AFC paradigms. Results obtained from nine normal listeners show that estimates of level-discrimination thresholds for the four conditions are similar across all five procedures when different points of convergence are accounted for. The variance of threshold estimates within listener and condition was smallest for UPD, largest for the MML with 15 trials, and statistically indistinguishable among the others. The sweat factors ranged from 5.5 for MML with 50 trials to about 1.4 for UPD and ZEST. Simulations show that ideal performance of procedures may be far from real-life experience and that these deviations are likely to depend on complex interactions between listener behavior and parameter choices used for implementing the procedures. Therefore, empirical verification is important for judging the effectiveness of psychophysical procedures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Dissociation of the mismatch negativity and processing negativity attentional waveforms with nitrous oxide.

In Näätänen's model of early attention, the role of arousal in influencing the permanent feature detection system (indexed by mismatch negativity [MMN]) and the temporary feature-detection system (indexed by processing negativity [PN]) is unclear. To address this question, we investigated the effects of the anesthetic gas nitrous oxide (N2O) on the MMN and PN. Ten subjects performed a dichotic listening task in which discrimination difficulty and breathing mixture (air or 25% N2O) were manipulated factorially. MMN, PN, N1 and P300 at Fz, Cz, and Pz, as well as reaction time (RT), were measured. N2O had no effect on the PN, but decreased MMN amplitude. As expected, N2O decreased the amplitude of the N1 and P300 and increased the latency of the P300 and RT. The dissociation of MMN and PN by N2O suggests that this agent decreases the ability to detect automatic stimulus change without affecting voluntary selective attention. We interpret these results as indicating that arousal has multidimensional effects on early attentional mechanisms. These dimensions can be differentiated chemically by neurotransmitters in the reticular formation of the brain.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Auditory temporal resolution in birds: discrimination of harmonic complexes.

The ability of three species of birds to discriminate among selected harmonic complexes with fundamental frequencies varying from 50 to 1000 Hz was examined in behavioral experiments. The stimuli were synthetic harmonic complexes with waveform shapes altered by component phase selection, holding spectral and intensive information constant. Birds were able to discriminate between waveforms with randomly selected component phases and those with all components in cosine phase, as well as between positive and negative Schroeder-phase waveforms with harmonic periods as short as 1-2 ms. By contrast, human listeners are unable to make these discriminations at periods less than about 3-4 ms. Electrophysiological measures, including cochlear microphonic and compound action potential measurements to the same stimuli used in behavioral tests, showed differences between birds and gerbils paralleling, but not completely accounting for, the psychophysical differences observed between birds and humans. It appears from these data that birds can hear the fine temporal structure in complex waveforms over very short periods. These data show birds are capable of more precise temporal resolution for complex sounds than is observed in humans and perhaps other mammals. Physiological data further show that at least part of the mechanisms underlying this high temporal resolving power resides at the peripheral level of the avian auditory system.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Detection and recognition of pure tones in noise.

We examine the predictions of a new theorem relating signal identification (specifying a signal as a particular member of a set of potential signals) to signal detection (discriminating the presence of a signal). The theorem, derived in the context of signal-detection theory, requires that the signals be equally detectable and orthogonal. Our sinusoidal signals are partially masked by noise and their intensities adjusted to produce equal-signal detectability; we do not examine this assumption of the theorem. The theorem generally provides a reasonably accurate description of recognition performance for two-signal and four-signal conditions and is equally accurate for both the Yes-No and category-rating procedures. In a preliminary investigation of the orthogonality assumption, we varied the frequency separation between two signals. When the frequency separation between two signals is small (20 Hz near 1 kHz), the theorem fails to provide a good description of performance.

Humans↗
PubMed2003

Auditory processing studied prospectively in two hemidecorticectomy patients.

Auditory processing of speech and nonspeech sounds was studied prospectively in two hemidecorticectomy patients (ages 10-11 years) with Rasmussen's syndrome. We tested auditory word recognition under four listening conditions: in quiet, in noise, after acoustic filtering, and dichotically. Recognition of environmental sounds and discrimination of tones and digitized syllables were also tested. Presurgical testing confirmed normal processing of speech and nonspeech, for both patients, under all listening conditon. One year after surgery, both patients demonstrated intact recognition of words and environmental sounds in quiet but impaired word recognition in noise. The left hemidecorticectomy patient also demonstrated impaired recognition of low-pass filtered words. These findings suggest that either hemisphere can process speech or nonspeech sounds in quiet, whereas both hemispheres are needed to process speech in background noise. Hemispheric contributions to processing speech in noise appear to differ, with the left hemisphere compensating for loss of phonologic information and the right hemisphere compensating for increased attention demands.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1991

Abnormalities in event-related potentials, N100, P200, P300 and slow wave in schizophrenia.

Event-related potentials were recorded in 54 schizophrenics and 88 age-matched controls during a two-tone discrimination (odd ball) task. All the subjects were free from medication. In the schizophrenics, the mean amplitudes of the N100, P300 and Slow Wave latency ranges were decreased, and the amplitude of the P200 latency range was greater than that for the controls. These reductions and the increase were found both for the ERPs elicited by rare target stimuli and for those elicited by frequent nontarget stimuli. The peak latency of N200 to rare stimuli was more prolonged in the schizophrenics than in the controls. This finding confirms the prolongation of N200 latency that Brecher et al. (1987) found for a different visual stimuli task. Neither the N100 nor P300 latency differed between the two groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Japanese monkeys perceive sensory consonance of chords.

Consonance/dissonance affects human perception of chords from early stages of development [e.g., Schellenberg and Trainor, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100, 3321-3328 (1996)]. To examine whether consonance has some role in audition of nonhumans, three Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) were trained to discriminate simultaneous two-tone complexes (chords). The task was serial discrimination (AX procedure) with repetitive presentation of background stimuli. Each tone in a chord was comprised of six harmonics, and chords with complex ratios of fundamental frequency (e.g., frequency ratio of 8:15 in major seventh) resulted in dissonance. The chords were transposed for each presentation to make monkeys attend to cues other than the absolute frequency of a component tone. Monkeys were initially trained to detect changes from consonant (octave) to dissonant (major seventh). Following the successful acquisition of the task, transfer tests with novel chords were conducted. In these transfer tests, the performances with detecting changes from consonant to dissonant chords (perfect fifth to major seventh; perfect fourth to major seventh) were better than those with detecting reverse changes. These results suggested that the consonance of chords affected the performances of monkeys.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Effects of sensorineural hearing loss on interaural discrimination and virtual localization.

Cross-frequency binaural processing was investigated in listeners with normal hearing (NH) and with bilateral high-frequency sensorineural hearing impairment (IH). In experiment 1 just-noticeable-differences for interaural time and interaural intensity were measured using 1/3-octave narrow-band noises (NBNs) centered at 0.5 and 4 kHz. These stimuli were presented in isolation and in different cross-frequency interaural combinations. IH listeners displayed the best interaural time discrimination when the 0.5-kHz NBN was dichotic and the best intensity discrimination when both bands were dichotic. Both NH listeners (time) and IH listeners (time and intensity) displayed the poorest interaural discrimination when the NBNs were presented simultaneously with interaural differences in only the 4-kHz NBN (0.5 kHz NBN dichotic). Localization accuracy was measured in experiment 2 using the 0.5- and 4-kHz NBNs in isolation and with 0.5-kHz target/4-kHz interferer and 4-kHz target/0.5-kHz interferer conditions. Best localization of NH and IH subjects was seen for the 0.5-kHz target, with or without an interferer. Poorest localization of IH subjects was observed for the 4-kHz target and 0.5-kHz interferer. Results suggest that for these IH subjects, localization is most difficult when they are forced to rely on interaural information in a higher-frequency region with conflicting interaural information at low frequencies.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Functional lateralization for auditory temporal processing in male and female rats.

In 3 studies adult male rats showed significantly better discrimination of tone sequences with the right ear than with the left ear. This result parallels similar findings of left-hemisphere specialization for auditory temporal processing in humans and nonhuman primates. Furthermore, because clinical evidence supports a link between specialization of the left hemisphere for auditory temporal processing and for speech processing, these results may reflect evolutionary precursors to left-hemisphere language specialization. Because male rats showed a stronger ear advantage than female rats, the findings may relate to evidence of a stronger right ear advantage in men than in women. Finally, results suggest that neonatal handling enhances lateralization for auditory temporal processing in both sexes. Combined results implicate neuroendocrine mechanisms as important factors in the development of lateralization for auditory temporal processing.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The discrimination of temporal fine structure in call-like harmonic sounds by birds.

Thresholds for discriminating changes in the temporal fine structure of call-like, harmonic sounds were measured in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). Birds could detect changes in periods as short as 1.225 ms at near 100% accuracy even when spectral and envelope cues were identical, as in time-reversed stimuli. Humans performed poorly on such stimuli, paralleling results from previous studies. Bird thresholds were in the range of those reported in neurophysiological studies of the songbird high vocal center (HVC) to temporally modified conspecific songs. Taken together, these results show that birds can hear differences in temporal fine structure in their natural vocalizations that go beyond human capabilities, but whether these abilities have communicative relevance remains to be seen.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Intensity perception XI. Experimental results on the relation of intensity resolution to loudness matching.

According to a recent extension of our theory of intensity perception [Lim et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am 62, 1256-1267 (1977)], two stimuli are matched in loudness if and only if their intensities divide the respective dynamic ranges proportionally in terms of just noticeable differences. This study reports results of intensity discrimination and loudness matching experiments designed to test this prediction. Data were obtained over most of the dynamic range for three different types of sounds: a 1000-Hz tone in quiet, a 1000-Hz tone partially masked by a 2-octave band of noise, and spectrally flat wide-band noise. Of the five subjects tested, three produced results that had sufficient internal consistency to be useful for testing the predictions. For these subjects, the data and the theory were found to be reasonably consistent. Comparison with other studies, however, reveals that loudness matching results vary with matching paradigm by an amount that is significant with respect to the task of evaluating the theory. Hence, a rigorous test of the theory requires an improved understanding of the effects of matching paradigm.

Humans↗
PubMed1989

Timing light and tone signals in pigeons.

Pigeons' ability to time light and tone stimuli was examined in four experiments. In Experiment 1, two groups of pigeons were trained to discriminate between 2- and 8-s durations of lights or tones and then were transferred to reversal or nonreversal discriminations in the alternate modality. Pigeons learned the light discrimination faster than the tone discrimination and showed immediate positive intermodal transfer from tone to light but not from light to tone. In Experiments 2-4, the peak procedure was used to study birds' timing of 15- and 30-s fixed-interval light and tone signals. Peak times on empty trials under baseline conditions closely approximated the length of fixed-interval signals. When pigeons were tested with time-outs and intermodal switches introduced midway through an empty trial, they tended to reset the timing mechanism and begin timing again from 0 s. With both estimation and production procedures, pigeons were less accurate when timing the tone stimuli than when timing the light stimuli. A comparison of these data with data from timing experiments with rats suggests several possible differences in timing processes between pigeons and rats.

Animals↗