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PubMed2002

Temporal weighting in sound localization.

The dynamics of sound localization were studied using a free-field direct localization task (pointing to sound sources) and an observer-weighting analysis that assessed the relative influence of each click in a click-train stimulus. In agreement with previous studies of the precedence effect and binaural adaptation, weighting functions showed increased influence of the onset click when the interclick interval (ICI) was short (<5 ms). For longer ICIs, all clicks in a train contributed roughly the same amount to listeners' localization responses. Finally, when a short gap was introduced in the middle of a train, the influence of the click immediately following the gap increased, in agreement with the "restarting" results obtained by Hafter and Buell [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 806-812 (1990)].

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Effects of low pass filtering on the intelligibility of speech in noise for people with and without dead regions at high frequencies.

People with high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss differ in the benefit they gain from amplification of high frequencies when listening to speech. Using vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) stimuli in quiet that were amplified and then low pass filtered with various cutoff frequencies, Vickers et aL [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1164-1175 (2001)] found that the benefit from amplification of high-frequency components was related to the presence or absence of a cochlear dead region at high frequencies. For hearing-impaired subjects without dead regions, performance improved with increasing cutoff frequency up to 7.5 kHz (the highest value tested). Subjects with high-frequency dead regions showed no improvement when the cutoff frequency was increased above about 1.7 times the edge frequency of the dead region. The present study was similar to that of Vickers et al. but used VCV stimuli presented in background noise. Ten subjects with high-frequency hearing loss, including eight from the study of Vickers et al., were tested. Five had dead regions starting below 2 kHz, and five had no dead regions. Speech stimuli at a nominal level of 65 dB were mixed with spectrally matched noise, amplified according to the "Cambridge" prescriptive formula for each subject and then low pass filtered. The noise level was chosen separately for each subject to give a moderate reduction in intelligibility relative to listening in quiet. For subjects without dead regions, performance generally improved with increasing cutoff frequency up to 7.5 kHz, on average more so in noise than in quiet. For most subjects with dead regions, performance improved with cutoff frequency up to 1.5-2 times the edge frequency of the dead region, but hardly changed with further increases. Calculations of speech audibility using a modified version of the articulation index showed that application of the Cambridge formula was at least partially successful in making high-frequency components of the speech audible for subjects with dead regions, and that such subjects often failed to benefit from increased audibility of the speech at high frequencies.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Interaural level differences and the level-meter model.

The interaural level difference (ILD) plays a significant role in sound localization. However, the definition of ILD for noise is open to some interpretation because it is not obvious how to deal with the inevitable level fluctuations. In this article, the ILD is interpreted as an energylike (time-integrated) measure of stimulus level, independent of other stimulus details-particularly interaural correlation. This concept is called the "level-meter model." The model was tested by measuring human ILD thresholds for noise stimuli that were interaurally correlated, or anticorrelated, or uncorrelated. An additional test (not involving lateralization) measured the threshold for level discrimination based on loudness. According to the level-meter model, all four thresholds should be the same. The experimental results showed that the predictions of the level-meter model held good to within about half a dB, although thresholds for level discrimination were systematically higher than ILDs. Among the ILDs themselves, thresholds were slightly higher for uncorrelated noise. The latter result could be explained by replacing the level-meter model with a loudness-meter model, incorporating temporal integration. The same model accounted for the bandwidth dependence of the threshold.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

An adaptive procedure for categorical loudness scaling.

In this study, an adaptive procedure for categorical loudness scaling is introduced and evaluated. The procedure adjusts the presentation levels to the subject's individual auditory dynamic range without employing any premeasurement and presents levels in randomized order. The procedure has been named "Oldenburg-ACALOS" (Oldenburg-Adaptive CAtegorical LOudness Scaling). It was evaluated using repeated measurements with ten subjects with normal hearing and ten subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment. The results of this investigation revealed that the adaptive procedure provides greater reliability, while being more time efficient than a reference procedure that uses constant stimuli.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2002

Effect of modulator asynchrony of sinusoidal and noise modulators on frequency and amplitude modulation detection interference.

The effect on modulation detection interference (MDI) of timing of gating of the modulation of target and interferer, with synchronously gated carriers, was investigated in three experiments. In a two-interval, two-alternative forced choice adaptive procedure, listeners had to detect 15 Hz sinusoidal amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM) imposed for 200 ms in the temporal center of a 600 ms target sinusoidal carrier. In the first experiment, 15 Hz sinusoidal FM was imposed in phase on both target and interferer carriers. Thresholds were lower for nonoverlapping than for synchronous modulation of target and interferer, but MDI still occurred for the former. Thresholds were significantly higher when the modulators were gated synchronously than when the interferer modulator was gated on before and off after that of the target. This contrasts with the findings of Oxenham and Dau [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 402-408 (2001)], who reported no effect of modulation asynchrony on AM detection thresholds, using a narrowband noise modulator. Using FM, experiment 2 showed that for temporally overlapping modulation of target and interferer, modulator asynchrony had no significant effect when the interferer was modulated by a narrowband noise. Experiment 3 showed that, for AM, synchronous gating of modulation of the target and interferer produced lower thresholds than asynchronous gating, especially for sinusoidal modulation of the interferer. Results are discussed in terms of specific cues available for periodic modulation, and differences between perceptual grouping on the basis of common AM and FM.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Within-ear and across-ear interference in a cocktail-party listening task.

Although many researchers have shown that listeners are able to selectively attend to a target speech signal when a masking talker is present in the same ear as the target speech or when a masking talker is present in a different ear than the target speech, little is known about selective auditory attention in tasks with a target talker in one ear and independent masking talkers in both ears at the same time. In this series of experiments, listeners were asked to respond to a target speech signal spoken by one of two competing talkers in their right (target) ear while ignoring a simultaneous masking sound in their left (unattended) ear. When the masking sound in the unattended ear was noise, listeners were able to segregate the competing talkers in the target ear nearly as well as they could with no sound in the unattended ear. When the masking sound in the unattended ear was speech, however, speech segregation in the target ear was substantially worse than with no sound in the unattended ear. When the masking sound in the unattended ear was time-reversed speech, speech segregation was degraded only when the target speech was presented at a lower level than the masking speech in the target ear. These results show that within-ear and across-ear speech segregation are closely related processes that cannot be performed simultaneously when the interfering sound in the unattended ear is qualitatively similar to speech.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Evidence of upward spread of suppression in DPOAE measurements.

Measurements of DPOAE level in the presence of a suppressor were used to describe a pattern that is qualitatively similar to population studies in the auditory nerve and to behavioral studies of upward spread of masking. DPOAEs were measured in the presence of a suppressor (f3) fixed at either 2.1 or 4.2 kHz, and set to each of seven levels (L3) from 20 to 80 dB SPL. In the presence of a fixed f3 and L3 combination, f2 was varied from about 1 oct below to at least 1/2 oct above f3, while L2 was set to each of 6 values (20-70 dB SPL). L1 was set according to the equation L1 = 0.4L2 + 39 [Janssen et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 3418-3430 (1998)]. At each L2, L1 combination, DPOAE level was measured in a control condition in which no suppressor was presented. Data were converted into decrements (the amount of suppression, in dB) by subtracting the DPOAE level in the presence of each suppressor from the DPOAE level in the corresponding control condition. Plots of DPOAE decrements as a function of f2 showed maximum suppression when f2 approximately = f3. As L3 increased, the suppressive effect spread more towards higher f2 frequencies, with less spread towards lower frequencies relative to f3. DPOAE decrement versus L3 functions had steeper slopes when f2 > f3, compared to the slopes when f2 < f3. These data are consistent with other findings that have shown that response growth for a characteristic place (CP) or frequency (CF) depends on the relation between CP or CF and driver frequency, with steeper slopes when driver frequency is less than CF and shallower slopes when driver frequency is greater than CF. For a fixed amount of suppression (3 dB), L3 and L2 varied nearly linearly for conditions in which f3 approximately = f2, but grew more rapidly for conditions in which f3 < f2, reflecting the basal spread of excitation to the suppressor. The present data are similar in form to the results observed in population studies from the auditory nerve of lower animals and in behavioral masking studies in humans.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

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↗
PubMed2003

Effect of current stimulus on in vivo cochlear mechanics.

In this paper, the influence of direct current stimulation on the acoustic impulse response of the basilar membrane (BM) is studied. A positive current applied in the scala vestibuli relative to a ground electrode in the scala tympani is found to enhance gain and increase the best frequency at a given location on the BM. An opposite effect is found for a negative current. Also, the amplitude of low-frequency cochlear microphonic at high sound levels is found to change with the concurrent application of direct current stimulus. BM vibrations in response to pure tone acoustic excitation are found to possess harmonics whose levels relative to the fundamental increase with the application of positive current and decrease with the application of negative current. A model for outer hair cell activity that couples changes in length and stiffness to transmembrane potential is used to interpret the results of these experiments and others in the literature. The importance of the in vivo mechanical and electrical loading is emphasized. Simulation results show the somewhat paradoxical finding that for outer hair cells under tension, hyperpolarization causes shortening of the cell length due to the dominance of voltage dependent stiffness changes.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2003

Factors contributing to bone conduction: the outer ear.

The ear canal sound pressure and the malleus umbo velocity with bone conduction (BC) stimulation were measured in nine ears from five cadaver heads in the frequency range 0.1 to 10 kHz. The measurements were conducted with both open and occluded ear canals, before and after resection of the lower jaw, in a canal with the cartilage and soft tissues removed, and with the tympanic membrane (TM) removed. The sound pressure was about 10 dB greater in an intact ear canal than when the cartilage part of the canal had been removed. The occlusion effect was close to 20 dB for the low frequencies in an intact ear canal; this effect diminished with sectioning of the canal. At higher frequencies, the resonance properties of the ear canal determined the effect of occluding the ear canal. Sectioning of the lower jaw did not significantly alter the sound pressure in the ear canal. The sound radiated from the TM into the ear canal was investigated in four temporal bone specimens; this sound is significantly lower than the sound pressure in an intact ear canal with BC stimulation. The malleus umbo velocity with air conduction stimulation was investigated in nine temporal bone specimens and compared with the umbo velocity obtained with BC stimulation in the cadaver heads. The results show that for a normal open ear canal, the sound pressure in the ear canal with BC stimulation is not significant for BC hearing. At threshold levels and for frequencies below 2 kHz, the sound in the ear canal caused by BC stimulation is about 10 dB lower than air conduction hearing thresholds; this difference increases at higher frequencies. However, with the ear canal occluded, BC hearing is dominated by the sound pressure in the outer ear canal for frequencies between 0.4 and 1.2 kHz.

Auditory Threshold↗
PubMed2003

The importance of cochlear processing for the formation of auditory brainstem and frequency following responses.

A model for the generation of auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and frequency following responses (FFRs) is presented. The model is based on the concept introduced by Goldstein and Kiang [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 30, 107-114 (1958)] that evoked potentials recorded at remote electrodes can theoretically be given by convolution of an elementary unit waveform (unitary response) with the instantaneous discharge rate function for the corresponding unit. In the present study, the nonlinear computational auditory-nerve model recently developed by Heinz et al. [ARLO 2(3), 91-96 (2001)] was used to calculate the instantaneous discharge rate ri(t) for fibers i in the frequency range from 0.1 and 10 kHz. The summed activity across frequency was convolved with a unitary response which is assumed to reflect contributions from different cell populations within the auditory brainstem, recorded at a given pair of electrodes on the scalp. Predicted potential patterns are compared with experimental data for a number of stimulus and level conditions. Clicks, chirps as defined in Dau et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 1530-1540 (2000)], long-duration stimuli comprising the chirp, as well as tones and slowly varying tonal sweeps were considered. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the effects of the basilar-membrane traveling wave and auditory-nerve processing for the formation of ABR and FFR. Specifically, the results support the hypothesis that the FFR to low-frequency tones represents synchronized activity mainly stemming from mid- and high-frequency units at more basal sites, and not from units tuned to frequencies around the signal frequency.

Auditory Pathways↗
PubMed2003

Evaluation of array-processing algorithms for a headband hearing aid.

Several array-processing algorithms were implemented and evaluated with experienced hearing-aid users. The array consisted of four directional microphones mounted broadside on a headband worn on the top of the listener's head. The algorithms included two adaptive array-processing algorithms, one fixed array-processing algorithm, and a reference condition consisting of binaural directional microphones. The algorithms were evaluated under conditions with both one and three independent noise sources. Performance metrics included quantitative speech reception thresholds and qualitative subject preference ratings for ease-of-listening measured using a paired-comparison procedure. On average, the fixed algorithm improved speech reception thresholds by 2 dB, while the adaptive algorithms provided 7-9-dB improvement over the reference condition. Subjects judging ease-of-listening generally preferred all array-processing algorithms over the reference condition. The results suggest that these adaptive algorithms should be evaluated further in more realistic acoustic environments.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Psychophysical evidence for auditory compression at low characteristic frequencies.

Psychophysical estimates of compression often assume that the basilar-membrane response to frequencies well below characteristic frequency (CF) is linear. Two techniques for estimating compression are described here that do not depend on this assumption at low CFs. In experiment 1, growth of forward masking was measured for both on- and off-frequency pure-tone maskers for pure-tone signals at 250, 500, and 4000 Hz. The on- and off-frequency masking functions at 250 and 500 Hz were just as shallow as the on-frequency masking function at 4000 Hz. In experiment 2, the forward masker level required to mask a fixed low-level signal was measured as a function of the masker-signal interval. The slopes of these functions did not differ between signal frequencies of 250 and 4000 Hz for the on-frequency maskers. At 250 Hz, the slope for the 150-Hz masker was almost as steep as that for the on-frequency masker, whereas at 4000 Hz the slope for the 2400-Hz masker was much shallower than that for the on-frequency masker. The results suggest that there is substantial compression, of around 0.2-0.3 dB/dB, at low CFs in the human auditory system. Furthermore, the results suggest that at low CFs compression does not vary greatly with stimulation frequency relative to CF.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Effects of peripheral nonlinearity on psychometric functions for forward-masked tones.

Psychometric functions (PFs) for forward-masked tones were obtained for conditions in which signal level was varied to estimate threshold at several masker levels (variable-signal condition), and in which masker level was varied to estimate threshold at several signal levels (variable-masker condition). The changes in PF slope across combinations of masker frequency, masker level, and signal delay were explored in three experiments. In experiment 1, a 2-kHz, 10-ms tone was masked by a 50, 70 or 90 dB SPL, 20-ms on-frequency forward masker, with signal delays of 2, 20, or 40 ms, in a variable-signal condition. PF slopes decreased in conditions where signal threshold was high. In experiments 2 and 3, the signal was a 4-kHz, 10-ms tone, and the masker was either a 4- or 2.4-kHz, 200-ms tone. In experiment 2, on-frequency maskers were presented at 30 to 90 dB SPL in 10-dB steps and off-frequency maskers were presented at 60 to 90 dB SPL in 10-dB steps, with signal delays of 0, 10, or 30 ms, in a variable-signal condition. PF slopes decreased as signal level increased, and this trend was similar for on- and off-frequency maskers. In experiment 3, variable-masker conditions with on- and off-frequency maskers and 0-ms signal delay were presented. In general, the results were consistent with the hypothesis that peripheral nonlinearity is reflected in the PF slopes. The data also indicate that masker level plays a role independent of signal level, an effect that could be accounted for by assuming greater internal noise at higher stimulus levels.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Spectral shape discrimination by hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners.

The ability to discriminate between sounds with different spectral shapes was evaluated for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Listeners discriminated between a standard stimulus and a signal stimulus in which half of the standard components were decreased in level and half were increased in level. In one condition, the standard stimulus was the sum of six equal-amplitude tones (equal-SPL), and in another the standard stimulus was the sum of six tones at equal sensation levels re: audiometric thresholds for individual subjects (equal-SL). Spectral weights were estimated in conditions where the amplitudes of the individual tones were perturbed slightly on every presentation. Sensitivity was similar in all conditions for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. The presence of perturbation and equal-SL components increased thresholds for both groups, but only small differences in weighting strategy were measured between the groups depending on whether the equal-SPL or equal-SL condition was tested. The average data suggest that normal-hearing listeners may rely more on the central components of the spectrum whereas hearing-impaired listeners may have been more likely to use the edges. However, individual weighting functions were quite variable, especially for the HI listeners, perhaps reflecting difficulty in processing changes in spectral shape due to hearing loss. Differences in weighting strategy without changes in sensitivity suggest that factors other than spectral weights, such as internal noise or difficulty encoding a reference stimulus, also may dominate performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

A practical method of predicting the loudness of complex electrical stimuli.

The output of speech processors for multiple-electrode cochlear implants consists of current waveforms with complex temporal and spatial patterns. The majority of existing processors output sequential biphasic current pulses. This paper describes a practical method of calculating loudness estimates for such stimuli, in addition to the relative loudness contributions from different cochlear regions. The method can be used either to manipulate the loudness or levels in existing processing strategies, or to control intensity cues in novel sound processing strategies. The method is based on a loudness model described by McKay et al [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1514-1524 (2001)] with the addition of the simplifying approximation that current pulses falling within a temporal integration window of several milliseconds' duration contribute independently to the overall loudness of the stimulus. Three experiments were carried out with six implantees who use the CI24M device manufactured by Cochlear Ltd. The first experiment validated the simplifying assumption, and allowed loudness growth functions to be calculated for use in the loudness prediction method. The following experiments confirmed the accuracy of the method using multiple-electrode stimuli with various patterns of electrode locations and current levels.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Investigations of the precedence effect in budgerigars: effects of stimulus type, intensity, duration, and location.

Auditory experiments on the localization of sounds in the presence of reflections, or echoes, that arrive later and from different directions are important to understanding hearing in natural environments. The perceived location of the auditory image can change with the time delay between the presentations of a leading and lagging sound. These changes in perceived location, encompassing the precedence effect, have been examined behaviorally or physiologically in humans and a number of animals. Here, these results are extended to include budgerigars. Behavioral methods were used to measure the discrimination performance between a stimulus presented at + and - 90 degrees azimuth with a delay (left-right), from the same two stimuli presented with the opposite delay (right-left). At short delays, where humans experience summing localization, budgerigars have difficulty discriminating between the two presentation types. With increasing delays, where humans experience localization dominance, budgerigars show improved discrimination performance. At even longer delays, where echo thresholds are found in humans, discrimination performance worsens again. The shapes of the discrimination functions are affected by the intensity, locations, and durations of the stimuli, and are subject to a buildup effect. These results show that budgerigars exhibit the phases of the precedence effect similar to humans and other animals.

Animal Communication↗