Some electrophysiological factors in volley-pitch perception by electrical stimulation. In: Sensorineural hearing loss.
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Factors affecting the duration effect in pitch perception for unresolved complex tones.
Previous research has shown that fundamental frequency (F0) discrimination thresholds for complex tones containing unresolved harmonics decrease as the duration of the tone increases [White and Plack, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 2051-2063 (1998)]. In this paper F0 discrimination was measured as a function of duration for complexes with F0s of 62.5, 125, and 250 Hz, bandpass filtered into two spectral regions (2750-3750 and 5500-7500 Hz). The harmonics were summed either in sine phase (SINE) or with alternating sine-cosine phase (ALT), which affects the envelope of the waveform and the pitch of the complex. Tone duration was 20, 40, 80, and 160 ms. The improvement in F0 discrimination with duration increased with decreasing F0. When harmonics where spectrally filtered between 2750 and 3750 Hz, for complexes with an F0 of 62.5 Hz, F0 discrimination thresholds decreased from approximately 30% for a 20-ms tone to approximately 3% for a 160-ms tone. For complexes with an F0 of 250 Hz, thresholds decreased from 3% for a 20-ms tone to 1% for a 160-ms tone: a lower envelope repetition rate led to a larger change in performance with increasing duration. The phase manipulation also affected the size of the duration effect, in that the effect was less for an ALT complex compared to a SINE complex with the same F0, consistent with the change in envelope repetition rate. Overall, the results suggest that for unresolved complex tones it is primarily envelope repetition rate, not spectral region, that determines both the F0 discrimination threshold and the size of the duration effect.
Adult↗
Electrical stimulation of the superior olivary complex can produce cortical evoked potential and behavioral discrimination correlates of pitch perception in the rat.
Patterned electrical stimulation of the superior olivary complex (SOC) which simulated the neural frequency following response (FFR) extracellular potential was used as a stimulus in behavioral frequency discrimination and cortical evoked potential studies. Behavioral judgments of SOC stimulation frequency were found to be as accurate as those obtained for 80 dB acoustic stimuli within the spectral band of the FFR (200 to 3800 Hz). Cortical evoked potentials elicited by acoustic and electrical stimulation of the SOC were then compared for preservation of waveform similarity. Frequency dependent similarity was observed in slow wave events elicited by stimuli with frequencies in the FFR band. A 3 msec time lag was found between acoustic and SOC stimulation produced waveforms which can be accounted for by forward stimulation of the auditory pathway. Our study supports the idea that integrated extracellular waveforms of the FFR index low frequency representations in the auditory brainstem, perhaps by selecting patches of SOC cell transmembrane potential changes. Because bilateral cochlear damage did not prevent behavioral discrimination of SOC electrical stimulation, feedback to the ear is not necessary for perceptual significance of simulated FFR extracellular field potentials in the SOC.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Effect of auditory neocortex ablation on pitch perception in the cat.
Cats which received one- or two-stage bilateral ablations of auditory cortex were compared to unoperated cats on a test involving the discrimination of increases (1.2 kHz) from decreases (0.8 kHZ) in the frequency of ongoing 1.0-kHz tone pulses. Whereas two-stage cats exhibited more evidence of postoperative retention for the original task than did one-stage cats, both groups relearned the discrimination in approximately the same number of trials as normal cats. Individual differences in difficulty of relearning apparently reflected the degree of undercutting of the polysensory association areas of the suprasylvian and lateral gyri. Following retraining, all cats received two discrimination transfer tests. The first test was identical to the original dis crimination problem in all respects except that different frequency values were substituted for the original set (i.e., 1.6-kHz tones alternating with either 2.0- or 1.2-kHz signals). Whereas both unoperated and two-stage cats had difficulty discriminating the new positive from negative trials, the one-stage cats exhibited a significant tendency to continue responding to changes invoving 1.2-kHz tones in the same manner as in the original discrimination task. In the second test the cats were asked to discriminate the original 1.2- and 0.8-kHz tones against a silent background. Both operated and unoperated cats performed significantly above chance on this test. These results suggest that the cats solved the original discrimination on the basis of absolute frequency cues rather than the directionality of frequency changes. The significance of these findings are discussed in relation to current concepts of the functional capacity of auditory decorticate animals.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
[Differences between right and left ears for pitch perception].
We define here tonal melodies and spectral melodies: For sounds containing only octaves, the former correspond to fundamental frequency variations and the latter to spectral envelope variations. In this paper we give statistical results of judgements showing that tonal melodies are better perceived by the right ear. Conversely the left ear is more able to recognize spectral melodies.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Neuronal mechanisms underlying the perception of pitch and harmony.
Temporal processing of periodic acoustic signals in the auditory brain stem provides an explanation for pitch perception and the natural preference of our hearing system for harmonic relationships in music. Experimental evidence is reviewed for a corresponding neuronal model of correlation analysis and the spatial representation of pitch information along the second neural axis of the auditory system.
Animals↗
Influence of tonal context and timbral variation on perception of pitch.
In this study, spectral timbre's effect on pitch perception is examined in varying contexts. In two experiments, subjects detected pitch deviations of tones differing in brightness in an isolated context in which they compared two tones, in a tone-series context in which they judged whether the last tone of a simple sequence was in or out of tune, and in a melodic context in which they determined whether the last note of familiar melodies was in or out of tune. Timbre influenced pitch judgments in all the conditions, but increasing tonal context allowed the subjects to extract pitch information more accurately. This appears to be due to two factors: (1) The presence of extra tones creates a stronger reference point from which to judge pitch, and (2) the melodies' tonal structure gives more cues that facilitate pitch extraction, even in the face of conflicting spectral information.
Adult↗
On the role of spatial and temporal cues in the perception of the pitch of complex tones.
This paper describes a new approach to pitch perception. It focuses attention on the slight difference between the pitch of complex tone and the pitch of a pure tone with the same (fundamental) frequency. This approach is based on the assumption that pitch perception is based on both spatial and temporal cue analysis. In this study, the values provided by the temporal cue are calculated from physiological data from the auditory nerve fibers. The possible ratios of the pitch of complex tones relative to the pitch of pure tones at various frequencies are predicted. Psychophysical experimental results strongly support this prediction. In addition, another experiment suggests that the above psychophysical effect is not based upon a mutual masking effect in the spatial domain.
Cues↗
Speech perception with mono- and quadrupolar electrode configurations: a crossover study.
OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of two multipolar electrode configurations on speech perception, pitch perception, and the intracochlear electrical field. STUDY DESIGN: Crossover design; within subject. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS: Eight experienced adult cochlear implant users. INTERVENTION: Each subject used each of three experimental processors for 3 weeks. The following processors were compared that differed only in electrode configuration: 1) monopolar; 2) hybrid quadrupolar, in which half of the current returned to the extracochlear reference electrode and half to two electrodes immediately to the left and right of the active electrode; and 3) flat tripolar +2, which directed all the current to four reference electrodes (two on each side), separated from the active electrode by two inactive electrodes. All the processors used the standard Advanced Bionics HiRes speech-processing strategy, 12 channels, 1,220 pulses per second per channel, and with a pulse width of 33 (micros/phase). RESULTS: The monopolar processors had the largest stimulation efficiency and the smallest dynamic range in linear current units. The reverse was true of flat tripolar +2 processor, whereas the hybrid quadrupolar processor fell in between. Insufficient loudness growth prevented the use of the flat tripolar +2 processor in three subjects. Word recognition did not differ between the clinically used 16-channel monopolar processor and the experimental monopolar processor, regardless of the differences in the number of channels, pulse rate, and duration of experience. Word recognition with the flat tripolar +2 processor was significantly poorer than with the monopolar and hybrid quadrupolar processors; monopolar and quadrupolar processors did not differ. There was no significant interaction between processor type and competing noise type (stationary or fluctuating), but performance at the higher level of fluctuating noise was best with the hybrid quadrupolar processor in almost all the subjects. Pitch scaling showed ceiling performance in five subjects and differed between processors in the two other subjects with imperfect tonotopy. Intracochlear current spread was considerable with the monopolar configuration; it was reduced with the hybrid quadrupolar configuration and virtually absent beyond the active electrodes with the tripolar configuration. CONCLUSION: More confined configurations reduced the longitudinal width of the electrical field, which was expected to enhance channel separation, but no improvement in word recognition was found. More research is needed to test confined configurations that have enhanced efficiency and to evaluate the fundamental effects of configuration on channel discriminability.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Accuracy and consistency of absolute pitch.
The accuracy and consistency of absolute pitch (AP) judgments have been measured on three subjects in two longitudinal studies separated by twenty years. The drifts and cyclical variations observed in the earlier study still persisted, and an investigation of two other subjects, one of whom was first studied forty years ago, suggests that they might undergo similar cyclical variations in their pitch perception. Pitch judgments also varied during the day. The detailed observations of these nonrandom fluctuations have been used to determine a value for the underlying consistency of the AP estimates. When the effects of the daytime variations and longer-term drifts were removed, the values for this consistency, as measured by the standard deviation, were calculated to be 3.1, 3.4, 3.7, 4.4, and 4.5 Hz for the five subjects. When an oscillator was used to produce the estimate, the consistency of the judgments was observed to depend on the accuracy of those judgments.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Perception of pitch location within a speaker's F0 range.
Fundamental frequency (F0) is used for many purposes in speech, but its linguistic significance is based on its relation to the speaker's range, not its absolute value. While it may be that listeners can gauge a specific pitch relative to a speaker's range by recognizing it from experience, whether they can do the same for an unfamiliar voice is an open question. The present experiment explored that question. Twenty native speakers of English (10 male, 10 female) produced the vowel /a/ with a spoken (not sung) voice quality at varying pitches within their own ranges. Listeners then judged, without familiarization or context, where each isolated F0 lay within each speaker's range. Correlations were high both for the entire range (0.721) and for the range minus the extremes (0.609). Correlations were somewhat higher when the F0s were related to the range of all the speakers, either separated by sex (0.830) or pooled (0.848), but several factors discussed here may help account for this pattern. Regardless, the present data provide strong support for the hypothesis that listeners are able to locate an F0 reliably within a range without external context or prior exposure to a speaker's voice.
Adult↗
Training improves acoustic pattern perception.
Pitch changes that occur in speech and melodies can be described in terms of contour patterns of rises and falls in pitch and the actual pitches at each point in time. This study investigates whether training can improve the perception of these different features. One group of ten adults trained on a pitch-contour discrimination task, a second group trained on an actual-pitch discrimination task, and a third group trained on a contour comparison task between pitch sequences and their visual analogs. A fourth group did not undergo training. It was found that training on pitch sequence comparison tasks gave rise to improvements in pitch-contour perception. This occurred irrespective of whether the training task required the discrimination of contour patterns or the actual pitch details. In contrast, none of the training tasks were found to improve the perception of the actual pitches in a sequence. The results support psychological models of pitch processing where contour processing is an initial step before actual pitch details are analyzed. Further studies are required to determine whether pitch-contour training is effective in improving speech and melody perception.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Some systematic observations on monaural diplacusis.
Anomalies of monaural pitch perception, including pitch changes with level, roughness and beats, were mapped in the intensity-frequency plane by a listener using continuous-tone stimulation between approximately 1 900 and 2 750 Hz. A narrow region characterized by rapid threshold adaptation was also mapped between approximately 2 590 and 2 690 Hz. In the procedure used to localize the internally generated tones, which were interacting with the externally presented single tones to produce beats, the listener adjusted the frequency of a signal presented to this right ear so that the beat rate heard there was the same as a criterion beat rate produced by two external tones in his left ear. A plot in the intensity-frequency plane of adjustments for a constant-beat rate revealed a remarkable correspondence to the region of adaptation (between 2 590 and 2 690 Hz) in that the former curve was simply shifted in frequency away from the latter by an amount equal to the two-tone interval producing the beat rate. Thus, the locations of 'internal tones' correspond predictably to both the lower and upper-frequency boundaries of the region of adaptation. Pitch changes, as a function of signal level, at frequencies below the region of adaptation were also investigated and appear to reflect a change from interaction to cessation of interaction between the signal and the region of adaptation. The locus of these pitch-related abnormalities, over a broad range of frequencies, points to interaction between that range and a smaller-frequency region where abrupt transitions in sensitivity occur.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Effect of music training on monaural perception of pitch and rhythm.
A monaural study of music perception was conducted on 77 right-handed subjects from a university population. The musical ability of each subject was classified in two ways, according to years of training and by total score for three tests of musical achievement [melody (sequence and excerpt), harmony, and rhythm]. Analysis indicated that subjects with more years of training showed a right-car dominance for recognition of excerpts but those with high scores had no such dominance. Both groups with either low scores or no formal training had a right-ear dominance for recognition of sequences. Correlations of scores from each ear within subjects and between tests indicated that perception of pitch tended to be more accurate in the same car. For all classifications of subjects no ear dominance was found for harmony and rhythm tests. These results suggest that the measurement of hemispheric asymmetry of music perception is dependent upon the criteria chosen for classification of subjects, in this case, training and achievement.
Adult↗
Effects of language experience and stimulus complexity on the categorical perception of pitch direction.
Whether or not categorical perception results from the operation of a special, language-specific, speech mode remains controversial. In this cross-language (Mandarin Chinese, English) study of the categorical nature of tone perception, we compared native Mandarin and English speakers' perception of a physical continuum of fundamental frequency contours ranging from a level to rising tone in both Mandarin speech and a homologous (nonspeech) harmonic tone. This design permits us to evaluate the effect of language experience by comparing Chinese and English groups; to determine whether categorical perception is speech-specific or domain-general by comparing speech to nonspeech stimuli for both groups; and to examine whether categorical perception involves a separate categorical process, distinct from regions of sensory discontinuity, by comparing speech to nonspeech stimuli for English listeners. Results show evidence of strong categorical perception of speech stimuli for Chinese but not English listeners. Categorical perception of nonspeech stimuli was comparable to that for speech stimuli for Chinese but weaker for English listeners, and perception of nonspeech stimuli was more categorical for English listeners than was perception of speech stimuli. These findings lead us to adopt a memory-based, multistore model of perception in which categorization is domain-general but influenced by long-term categorical representations.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
The role of the insular cortex in pitch pattern perception: the effect of linguistic contexts.
Auditory pitch patterns are significant ecological features to which nervous systems have exquisitely adapted. Pitch patterns are found embedded in many contexts, enabling different information-processing goals. Do the psychological functions of pitch patterns determine the neural mechanisms supporting their perception, or do all pitch patterns, regardless of function, engage the same mechanisms? This issue is pursued in the present study by using 150-water positron emission tomography to study brain activations when two subject groups discriminate pitch patterns in their respective native languages, one of which is a tonal language and the other of which is not. In a tonal language, pitch patterns signal lexical meaning. Native Mandarin-speaking and English-speaking listeners discriminated pitch patterns embedded in Mandarin and English words and also passively listened to the same stimuli. When Mandarin listeners discriminated pitch embedded in Mandarin lexical tones, the left anterior insular cortex was the most active. When they discriminated pitch patterns embedded in English words, the homologous area in the right hemisphere activated as it did in English-speaking listeners discriminating pitch patterns embedded in either Mandarin or English words. These results support the view that neural responses to physical acoustic stimuli depend on the function of those stimuli and implicate anterior insular cortex in auditory processing, with the left insular cortex especially responsive to linguistic stimuli.
Adolescent↗
Perception of pitch contours in single words in alaryngeal speech.
The perception and production of pitch contours were investigated in single words produced by two groups of alaryngeal speakers: tracheo-oesophageal (TE) and oesophageal (E) speakers. High quality tape-recordings of three tonal patterns by four oesophageal and eight tracheo-oesophageal speakers in monosyllabic words were judged by a group of six speech and language therapy listeners. The results indicated that tonal patterns can be produced with a relatively high level of reliability for both speaker groups. Some individual speakers from both groups approached predicted normal levels. These findings emphasise the importance of providing the opportunity for patients to acquire either of these speech modes in alaryngeal rehabilitation, rather than simply being provided with an artificial larynx, particularly in countries where tone languages are used. The high variability between groups also suggests that other variables apart from alaryngeal speech mode may be relevant in determining ability to signal tonal patterns.
Humans↗
Listening experience with iterated rippled noise alters the perception of 'pitch' strength of complex sounds in the chinchilla.
Behavioral responses obtained from chinchillas trained to discriminate a cosine-phase harmonic tone complex from wideband noise indicate that the perception of 'pitch' strength in chinchillas is largely influenced by periodicity information in the stimulus envelope. The perception of 'pitch' strength was examined in chinchillas in a stimulus generalization paradigm after animals had been retrained to discriminate infinitely iterated rippled noise from wideband noise. Retrained chinchillas gave larger behavioral responses to test stimuli having strong fine structure periodicity, but weak envelope periodicity. That is, chinchillas learn to use the information in the fine structure and consequently, their perception of 'pitch' strength is altered. Behavioral responses to rippled noises having similar periodicity strengths, but large spectral differences were also tested. Responses to these rippled noises were similar, suggesting a temporal analysis can be used to account for the behavior. Animals were then retested using the cosine-phase harmonic tone complex as the expected signal stimulus. Generalization gradients returned to those obtained originally in the naïve condition, suggesting that chinchillas do not remain "fine structure listeners," but rather revert back to being "envelope listeners" when the periodicity strength in the envelope of the expected stimulus is high.
Acoustic Stimulation↗