1
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Tian S, Cheng YA, Luo H. Rhythm Facilitates Auditory Working Memory via Beta-Band Encoding and Theta-Band Maintenance. Neurosci Bull 2024:10.1007/s12264-024-01289-w. [PMID: 39215886 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-024-01289-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/04/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Rhythm, as a prominent characteristic of auditory experiences such as speech and music, is known to facilitate attention, yet its contribution to working memory (WM) remains unclear. Here, human participants temporarily retained a 12-tone sequence presented rhythmically or arrhythmically in WM and performed a pitch change-detection task. Behaviorally, while having comparable accuracy, rhythmic tone sequences showed a faster response time and lower response boundaries in decision-making. Electroencephalographic recordings revealed that rhythmic sequences elicited enhanced non-phase-locked beta-band (16 Hz-33 Hz) and theta-band (3 Hz-5 Hz) neural oscillations during sensory encoding and WM retention periods, respectively. Importantly, the two-stage neural signatures were correlated with each other and contributed to behavior. As beta-band and theta-band oscillations denote the engagement of motor systems and WM maintenance, respectively, our findings imply that rhythm facilitates auditory WM through intricate oscillation-based interactions between the motor and auditory systems that facilitate predictive attention to auditory sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suizi Tian
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Yu-Ang Cheng
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
| | - Huan Luo
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
- PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
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2
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Szymanek P, Homan M, van Elk M, Hohol M. Effects of expectations and sensory unreliability on voice detection - A preregistered study. Conscious Cogn 2024; 123:103718. [PMID: 38880020 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024]
Abstract
The phenomenon of "hearing voices" can be found not only in psychotic disorders, but also in the general population, with individuals across cultures reporting auditory perceptions of supernatural beings. In our preregistered study, we investigated a possible mechanism of such experiences, grounded in the predictive processing model of agency detection. We predicted that in a signal detection task, expecting less or more voices than actually present would drive the response bias toward a more conservative and liberal response strategy, respectively. Moreover, we hypothesized that including sensory noise would enhance these expectancy effects. In line with our predictions, the findings show that detection of voices relies on expectations and that this effect is especially pronounced in the case of unreliable sensory data. As such, the study contributes to our understanding of the predictive processes in hearing and the building blocks of voice hearing experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piotr Szymanek
- Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
| | - Marek Homan
- Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
| | - Michiel van Elk
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Mateusz Hohol
- Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
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3
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Zhao C, Ong JH, Veic A, Patel AD, Jiang C, Fogel AR, Wang L, Hou Q, Das D, Crasto C, Chakrabarti B, Williams TI, Loutrari A, Liu F. Predictive processing of music and language in autism: Evidence from Mandarin and English speakers. Autism Res 2024; 17:1230-1257. [PMID: 38651566 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
Atypical predictive processing has been associated with autism across multiple domains, based mainly on artificial antecedents and consequents. As structured sequences where expectations derive from implicit learning of combinatorial principles, language and music provide naturalistic stimuli for investigating predictive processing. In this study, we matched melodic and sentence stimuli in cloze probabilities and examined musical and linguistic prediction in Mandarin- (Experiment 1) and English-speaking (Experiment 2) autistic and non-autistic individuals using both production and perception tasks. In the production tasks, participants listened to unfinished melodies/sentences and then produced the final notes/words to complete these items. In the perception tasks, participants provided expectedness ratings of the completed melodies/sentences based on the most frequent notes/words in the norms. While Experiment 1 showed intact musical prediction but atypical linguistic prediction in autism in the Mandarin sample that demonstrated imbalanced musical training experience and receptive vocabulary skills between groups, the group difference disappeared in a more closely matched sample of English speakers in Experiment 2. These findings suggest the importance of taking an individual differences approach when investigating predictive processing in music and language in autism, as the difficulty in prediction in autism may not be due to generalized problems with prediction in any type of complex sequence processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Zhao
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Jia Hoong Ong
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Anamarija Veic
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Aniruddh D Patel
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
- Program in Brain, Mind, and Consciousness, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, Canada
| | - Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Allison R Fogel
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Li Wang
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Qingqi Hou
- Department of Music and Dance, Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, Nanjing, China
| | - Dipsikha Das
- School of Psychology, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK
| | - Cara Crasto
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Bhismadev Chakrabarti
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Tim I Williams
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Ariadne Loutrari
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
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4
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Gal C, Țincaș I, Moca VV, Ciuparu A, Dan EL, Smith ML, Gliga T, Mureșan RC. Randomness impacts the building of specific priors, visual exploration, and perception in object recognition. Sci Rep 2024; 14:8527. [PMID: 38609463 PMCID: PMC11014901 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59089-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Recognising objects is a vital skill on which humans heavily rely to respond quickly and adaptively to their environment. Yet, we lack a full understanding of the role visual information sampling plays in this process, and its relation to the individual's priors. To bridge this gap, the eye-movements of 18 adult participants were recorded during a free-viewing object-recognition task using Dots stimuli1. Participants viewed the stimuli in one of three orders: from most visible to least (Descending), least visible to most (Ascending), or in a randomised order (Random). This dictated the strength of their priors along the experiment. Visibility order influenced the participants' recognition performance and visual exploration. In addition, we found that while orders allowing for stronger priors generally led participants to visually sample more informative locations, this was not the case of Random participants. Indeed, they appeared to behave naïvely, and their use of specific object-related priors was fully impaired, while they maintained the ability to use general, task-related priors to guide their exploration. These findings have important implications for our understanding of perception, which appears to be influenced by complex cognitive processes, even at the basic level of visual sampling during object recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Gal
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Neurodynamics SRL, Str. Sibiului 4, 400229, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK
- Psychology Department, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ioana Țincaș
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Vasile V Moca
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Neurodynamics SRL, Str. Sibiului 4, 400229, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Andrei Ciuparu
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Emanuela L Dan
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Str. G. Barițiu 26-28, 400027, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Marie L Smith
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Teodora Gliga
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Raul C Mureșan
- Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Str. Ploiești 33, 400157, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
- Neurodynamics SRL, Str. Sibiului 4, 400229, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
- STAR-UBB Institute, Babeș-Bolyai University, Str. Mihail Kogălniceanu Nr. 1, 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
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5
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Hu M, Bianco R, Hidalgo AR, Chait M. Concurrent Encoding of Sequence Predictability and Event-Evoked Prediction Error in Unfolding Auditory Patterns. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1894232024. [PMID: 38350998 PMCID: PMC10993036 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1894-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Human listeners possess an innate capacity to discern patterns within rapidly unfolding sensory input. Core questions, guiding ongoing research, focus on the mechanisms through which these representations are acquired and whether the brain prioritizes or suppresses predictable sensory signals. Previous work, using fast auditory sequences (tone-pips presented at a rate of 20 Hz), revealed sustained response effects that appear to track the dynamic predictability of the sequence. Here, we extend the investigation to slower sequences (4 Hz), permitting the isolation of responses to individual tones. Stimuli were 50 ms tone-pips, ordered into random (RND) and regular (REG; a repeating pattern of 10 frequencies) sequences; Two timing profiles were created: in "fast" sequences, tone-pips were presented in direct succession (20 Hz); in "slow" sequences, tone-pips were separated by a 200 ms silent gap (4 Hz). Naive participants (N = 22; both sexes) passively listened to these sequences, while brain responses were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Results unveiled a heightened magnitude of sustained brain responses in REG when compared to RND patterns. This manifested from three tones after the onset of the pattern repetition, even in the context of slower sequences characterized by extended pattern durations (2,500 ms). This observation underscores the remarkable implicit sensitivity of the auditory brain to acoustic regularities. Importantly, brain responses evoked by single tones exhibited the opposite pattern-stronger responses to tones in RND than REG sequences. The demonstration of simultaneous but opposing sustained and evoked response effects reveals concurrent processes that shape the representation of unfolding auditory patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingyue Hu
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
| | - Roberta Bianco
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
- Neuroscience of Perception & Action Lab, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rome 00161, Italy
| | | | - Maria Chait
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
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6
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Haiduk F, Zatorre RJ, Benjamin L, Morillon B, Albouy P. Spectrotemporal cues and attention jointly modulate fMRI network topology for sentence and melody perception. Sci Rep 2024; 14:5501. [PMID: 38448636 PMCID: PMC10917817 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56139-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Speech and music are two fundamental modes of human communication. Lateralisation of key processes underlying their perception has been related both to the distinct sensitivity to low-level spectrotemporal acoustic features and to top-down attention. However, the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processes needs to be clarified. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of acoustics and attention to melodies or sentences to lateralisation in fMRI functional network topology. We used sung speech stimuli selectively filtered in temporal or spectral modulation domains with crossed and balanced verbal and melodic content. Perception of speech decreased with degradation of temporal information, whereas perception of melodies decreased with spectral degradation. Applying graph theoretical metrics on fMRI connectivity matrices, we found that local clustering, reflecting functional specialisation, linearly increased when spectral or temporal cues crucial for the task goal were incrementally degraded. These effects occurred in a bilateral fronto-temporo-parietal network for processing temporally degraded sentences and in right auditory regions for processing spectrally degraded melodies. In contrast, global topology remained stable across conditions. These findings suggest that lateralisation for speech and music partially depends on an interplay of acoustic cues and task goals under increased attentional demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Haiduk
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
| | - Robert J Zatorre
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) - CRBLM, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Lucas Benjamin
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CNRS ERL 9003, INSERM U992, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin Center, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Benjamin Morillon
- Aix Marseille University, Inserm, INS, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France
| | - Philippe Albouy
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) - CRBLM, Montreal, QC, Canada
- CERVO Brain Research Centre, School of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec, QC, Canada
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7
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Belo J, Clerc M, Schön D. The effect of familiarity on neural tracking of music stimuli is modulated by mind wandering. AIMS Neurosci 2023; 10:319-331. [PMID: 38188009 PMCID: PMC10767062 DOI: 10.3934/neuroscience.2023025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 10/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
One way to investigate the cortical tracking of continuous auditory stimuli is to use the stimulus reconstruction approach. However, the cognitive and behavioral factors impacting this cortical representation remain largely overlooked. Two possible candidates are familiarity with the stimulus and the ability to resist internal distractions. To explore the possible impacts of these two factors on the cortical representation of natural music stimuli, forty-one participants listened to monodic natural music stimuli while we recorded their neural activity. Using the stimulus reconstruction approach and linear mixed models, we found that familiarity positively impacted the reconstruction accuracy of music stimuli and that this effect of familiarity was modulated by mind wandering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Belo
- Athena Project Team, INRIA, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France
- Aix Marseille University, Inserm, INS, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France
| | - Maureen Clerc
- Athena Project Team, INRIA, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France
| | - Daniele Schön
- Aix Marseille University, Inserm, INS, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France
- Institute for Language, Communication, and the Brain, Aix-en-Provence, France
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8
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Coy N, Bendixen A, Grimm S, Roeber U, Schröger E. Deviants violating higher-order auditory regularities can become predictive and facilitate behaviour. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:2731-2750. [PMID: 37532882 PMCID: PMC10600044 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02763-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
The human auditory system is believed to represent regularities inherent in auditory information in internal models. Sounds not matching the standard regularity (deviants) elicit prediction error, alerting the system to information not explainable within currently active models. Here, we examine the widely neglected characteristic of deviants bearing predictive information themselves. In a modified version of the oddball paradigm, using higher-order regularities, we set up different expectations regarding the sound following a deviant. Higher-order regularities were defined by the relation of pitch within tone pairs (rather than absolute pitch of individual tones). In a deviant detection task participants listened to oddball sequences including two deviant types following diametrically opposed rules: one occurred mostly in succession (high repetition probability) and the other mostly in isolation (low repetition probability). Participants in Experiment 1 were not informed (naïve), whereas in Experiment 2 they were made aware of the repetition rules. Response times significantly decreased from first to second deviant when repetition probability was high-albeit more in the presence of explicit rule knowledge. There was no evidence of a facilitation effect when repetition probability was low. Significantly more false alarms occurred in response to standards following high compared with low repetition probability deviants, but only in participants aware of the repetition rules. These findings provide evidence that not only deviants violating lower- but also higher-order regularities can inform predictions about auditory events. More generally, they confirm the utility of this new paradigm to gather further insights into the predictive properties of the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Coy
- Wilhelm-Wundt-Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Alexandra Bendixen
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
- Physics of Cognition Lab, Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Urte Roeber
- Wilhelm-Wundt-Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erich Schröger
- Wilhelm-Wundt-Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany
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9
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Tóth B, Velősy PK, Kovács P, Háden GP, Polver S, Sziller I, Winkler I. Auditory learning of recurrent tone sequences is present in the newborn's brain. Neuroimage 2023; 281:120384. [PMID: 37739198 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 08/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The seemingly effortless ability of our auditory system to rapidly detect new events in a dynamic environment is crucial for survival. Whether the underlying brain processes are innate is unknown. To answer this question, electroencephalography was recorded while regularly patterned (REG) versus random (RAND) tone sequences were presented to sleeping neonates. Regular relative to random sequences elicited differential neural responses after only a single repetition of the pattern indicating the existence of an innate capacity of the auditory system to detect auditory sequential regularities. We show that the newborn auditory system accumulates evidence only somewhat longer than the minimum amount determined by the ideal Bayesian observer model (the prediction from a variable-order Markov chain model) before detecting a repeating pattern. Thus, newborns can quickly form representations for regular features of the sound input, preparing the way for learning the contingencies of the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brigitta Tóth
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Péter Kristóf Velősy
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Petra Kovács
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gábor Peter Háden
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Telecommunications and Media Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Silvia Polver
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Istvan Sziller
- Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, DBC - Szent Imre University Teaching Hospital, Budapest, Hungary
| | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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10
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Schröger E, Roeber U, Coy N. Markov chains as a proxy for the predictive memory representations underlying mismatch negativity. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1249413. [PMID: 37771348 PMCID: PMC10525344 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1249413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Events not conforming to a regularity inherent to a sequence of events elicit prediction error signals of the brain such as the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and impair behavioral task performance. Events conforming to a regularity lead to attenuation of brain activity such as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) and behavioral benefits. Such findings are usually explained by theories stating that the information processing system predicts the forthcoming event of the sequence via detected sequential regularities. A mathematical model that is widely used to describe, to analyze and to generate event sequences are Markov chains: They contain a set of possible events and a set of probabilities for transitions between these events (transition matrix) that allow to predict the next event on the basis of the current event and the transition probabilities. The accuracy of such a prediction depends on the distribution of the transition probabilities. We argue that Markov chains also have useful applications when studying cognitive brain functions. The transition matrix can be regarded as a proxy for generative memory representations that the brain uses to predict the next event. We assume that detected regularities in a sequence of events correspond to (a subset of) the entries in the transition matrix. We apply this idea to the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) research and examine three types of MMN paradigms: classical oddball paradigms emphasizing sound probabilities, between-sound regularity paradigms manipulating transition probabilities between adjacent sounds, and action-sound coupling paradigms in which sounds are associated with actions and their intended effects. We show that the Markovian view on MMN yields theoretically relevant insights into the brain processes underlying MMN and stimulates experimental designs to study the brain's processing of event sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erich Schröger
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Urte Roeber
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nina Coy
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany
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11
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Kujala T, Partanen E, Virtala P, Winkler I. Prerequisites of language acquisition in the newborn brain. Trends Neurosci 2023; 46:726-737. [PMID: 37344237 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2023] [Revised: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
Learning to decode and produce speech is one of the most demanding tasks faced by infants. Nevertheless, infants typically utter their first words within a year, and phrases soon follow. Here we review cognitive abilities of newborn infants that promote language acquisition, focusing primarily on studies tapping neural activity. The results of these studies indicate that infants possess core adult auditory abilities already at birth, including statistical learning and rule extraction from variable speech input. Thus, the neonatal brain is ready to categorize sounds, detect word boundaries, learn words, and separate speech streams: in short, to acquire language quickly and efficiently from everyday linguistic input.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teija Kujala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Eino Partanen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Paula Virtala
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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12
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Ringer H, Schröger E, Grimm S. Within- and between-subject consistency of perceptual segmentation in periodic noise: A combined behavioral tapping and EEG study. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14174. [PMID: 36106761 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
It is remarkable that human listeners can perceive periodicity in noise, as the isochronous repetition of a particular noise segment is not accompanied by salient physical cues in the acoustic signal. Previous research suggested that listeners rely on short temporally local and idiosyncratic features to perceptually segment periodic noise sequences. The present study sought to test this assumption by disentangling consistency of perceptual segmentation within and between listeners. Presented periodic noise sequences either consisted of seamless repetitions of a 500-ms segment or of repetitions of a 200-ms segment that were interleaved with 300-ms portions of random noise. Both within- and between-subject consistency was stronger for interleaved (compared with seamless) periodic sequences. The increased consistency likely resulted from reduced temporal jitter of potential features used for perceptual segmentation when the recurring segment was shorter and occurred interleaved with random noise. These results support the notion that perceptual segmentation of periodic noise relies on subtle temporally local features. However, the finding that some specific noise sequences were segmented more consistently across listeners than others challenges the assumption that the features are necessarily idiosyncratic. Instead, in some specific noise samples, a preference for certain spectral features is shared between individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Ringer
- International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erich Schröger
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
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13
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Herrmann B, Maess B, Johnsrude IS. Sustained responses and neural synchronization to amplitude and frequency modulation in sound change with age. Hear Res 2023; 428:108677. [PMID: 36580732 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Perception of speech requires sensitivity to features, such as amplitude and frequency modulations, that are often temporally regular. Previous work suggests age-related changes in neural responses to temporally regular features, but little work has focused on age differences for different types of modulations. We recorded magnetoencephalography in younger (21-33 years) and older adults (53-73 years) to investigate age differences in neural responses to slow (2-6 Hz sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal) modulations in amplitude, frequency, or combined amplitude and frequency. Audiometric pure-tone average thresholds were elevated in older compared to younger adults, indicating subclinical hearing impairment in the recruited older-adult sample. Neural responses to sound onset (independent of temporal modulations) were increased in magnitude in older compared to younger adults, suggesting hyperresponsivity and a loss of inhibition in the aged auditory system. Analyses of neural activity to modulations revealed greater neural synchronization with amplitude, frequency, and combined amplitude-frequency modulations for older compared to younger adults. This potentiated response generalized across different degrees of temporal regularity (sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal), although neural synchronization was generally lower for non-sinusoidal modulation. Despite greater synchronization, sustained neural activity was reduced in older compared to younger adults for sounds modulated both sinusoidally and non-sinusoidally in frequency. Our results suggest age differences in the sensitivity of the auditory system to features present in speech and other natural sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, North York, ON M6A 2E1, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada; Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Burkhard Maess
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Brain Networks Unit, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada; School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
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14
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Thomassen S, Hartung K, Einhäuser W, Bendixen A. Low-high-low or high-low-high? Pattern effects on sequential auditory scene analysis. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 152:2758. [PMID: 36456271 DOI: 10.1121/10.0015054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Sequential auditory scene analysis (ASA) is often studied using sequences of two alternating tones, such as ABAB or ABA_, with "_" denoting a silent gap, and "A" and "B" sine tones differing in frequency (nominally low and high). Many studies implicitly assume that the specific arrangement (ABAB vs ABA_, as well as low-high-low vs high-low-high within ABA_) plays a negligible role, such that decisions about the tone pattern can be governed by other considerations. To explicitly test this assumption, a systematic comparison of different tone patterns for two-tone sequences was performed in three different experiments. Participants were asked to report whether they perceived the sequences as originating from a single sound source (integrated) or from two interleaved sources (segregated). Results indicate that core findings of sequential ASA, such as an effect of frequency separation on the proportion of integrated and segregated percepts, are similar across the different patterns during prolonged listening. However, at sequence onset, the integrated percept was more likely to be reported by the participants in ABA_low-high-low than in ABA_high-low-high sequences. This asymmetry is important for models of sequential ASA, since the formation of percepts at onset is an integral part of understanding how auditory interpretations build up.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Thomassen
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Kevin Hartung
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Einhäuser
- Physics of Cognition Group, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Alexandra Bendixen
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
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15
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Brown JA, Bidelman GM. Familiarity of Background Music Modulates the Cortical Tracking of Target Speech at the "Cocktail Party". Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12101320. [PMID: 36291252 PMCID: PMC9599198 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12101320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Revised: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The "cocktail party" problem-how a listener perceives speech in noisy environments-is typically studied using speech (multi-talker babble) or noise maskers. However, realistic cocktail party scenarios often include background music (e.g., coffee shops, concerts). Studies investigating music's effects on concurrent speech perception have predominantly used highly controlled synthetic music or shaped noise, which do not reflect naturalistic listening environments. Behaviorally, familiar background music and songs with vocals/lyrics inhibit concurrent speech recognition. Here, we investigated the neural bases of these effects. While recording multichannel EEG, participants listened to an audiobook while popular songs (or silence) played in the background at a 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Songs were either familiar or unfamiliar to listeners and featured either vocals or isolated instrumentals from the original audio recordings. Comprehension questions probed task engagement. We used temporal response functions (TRFs) to isolate cortical tracking to the target speech envelope and analyzed neural responses around 100 ms (i.e., auditory N1 wave). We found that speech comprehension was, expectedly, impaired during background music compared to silence. Target speech tracking was further hindered by the presence of vocals. When masked by familiar music, response latencies to speech were less susceptible to informational masking, suggesting concurrent neural tracking of speech was easier during music known to the listener. These differential effects of music familiarity were further exacerbated in listeners with less musical ability. Our neuroimaging results and their dependence on listening skills are consistent with early attentional-gain mechanisms where familiar music is easier to tune out (listeners already know the song's expectancies) and thus can allocate fewer attentional resources to the background music to better monitor concurrent speech material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jane A. Brown
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
| | - Gavin M. Bidelman
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47408, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
- Correspondence:
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16
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Soltanparast S, Toufan R, Talebian S, Pourbakht A. Regularity of background auditory scene and selective attention: a brain oscillatory study. Neurosci Lett 2022; 772:136465. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2022.136465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 01/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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17
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Neubert CR, Förstel AP, Debener S, Bendixen A. Predictability-Based Source Segregation and Sensory Deviance Detection in Auditory Aging. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:734231. [PMID: 34776906 PMCID: PMC8586071 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.734231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
When multiple sound sources are present at the same time, auditory perception is often challenged with disentangling the resulting mixture and focusing attention on the target source. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that background (distractor) sound sources are easier to ignore when their spectrotemporal signature is predictable. Prior evidence suggests that this ability to exploit predictability for foreground-background segregation degrades with age. On a theoretical level, this has been related with an impairment in elderly adults’ capabilities to detect certain types of sensory deviance in unattended sound sequences. Yet the link between those two capacities, deviance detection and predictability-based sound source segregation, has not been empirically demonstrated. Here we report on a combined behavioral-EEG study investigating the ability of elderly listeners (60–75 years of age) to use predictability as a cue for sound source segregation, as well as their sensory deviance detection capacities. Listeners performed a detection task on a target stream that can only be solved when a concurrent distractor stream is successfully ignored. We contrast two conditions whose distractor streams differ in their predictability. The ability to benefit from predictability was operationalized as performance difference between the two conditions. Results show that elderly listeners can use predictability for sound source segregation at group level, yet with a high degree of inter-individual variation in this ability. In a further, passive-listening control condition, we measured correlates of deviance detection in the event-related brain potential (ERP) elicited by occasional deviations from the same spectrotemporal pattern as used for the predictable distractor sequence during the behavioral task. ERP results confirmed neural signatures of deviance detection in terms of mismatch negativity (MMN) at group level. Correlation analyses at single-subject level provide no evidence for the hypothesis that deviance detection ability (measured by MMN amplitude) is related to the ability to benefit from predictability for sound source segregation. These results are discussed in the frameworks of sensory deviance detection and predictive coding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christiane R Neubert
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
| | - Alexander P Förstel
- Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Debener
- Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Alexandra Bendixen
- Cognitive Systems Lab, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
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18
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Herrmann B, Maess B, Johnsrude IS. A neural signature of regularity in sound is reduced in older adults. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 109:1-10. [PMID: 34634748 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Sensitivity to repetitions in sound amplitude and frequency is crucial for sound perception. As with other aspects of sound processing, sensitivity to such patterns may change with age, and may help explain some age-related changes in hearing such as segregating speech from background sound. We recorded magnetoencephalography to characterize differences in the processing of sound patterns between younger and older adults. We presented tone sequences that either contained a pattern (made of a repeated set of tones) or did not contain a pattern. We show that auditory cortex in older, compared to younger, adults is hyperresponsive to sound onsets, but that sustained neural activity in auditory cortex, indexing the processing of a sound pattern, is reduced. Hence, the sensitivity of neural populations in auditory cortex fundamentally differs between younger and older individuals, overresponding to sound onsets, while underresponding to patterns in sounds. This may help to explain some age-related changes in hearing such as increased sensitivity to distracting sounds and difficulties tracking speech in the presence of other sound.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, North York, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Burkhard Maess
- Brain Networks Unit, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
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19
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Jain S, Cherian R, Nataraja NP, Narne VK. The Relationship Between Tinnitus Pitch, Audiogram Edge Frequency, and Auditory Stream Segregation Abilities in Individuals With Tinnitus. Am J Audiol 2021; 30:524-534. [PMID: 34139145 DOI: 10.1044/2021_aja-20-00087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose Around 80%-93% of the individuals with tinnitus have hearing loss. Researchers have found that tinnitus pitch was related to the frequencies of hearing loss, but unclear about the relationship between tinnitus pitch and audiometry edge frequency. The comorbidity of tinnitus and speech perception in noise problems had also been reported, but the relationship between tinnitus pitch and speech perception in noise had seldom been investigated. This study was designed to estimate the relationship between tinnitus pitch, audiogram edge frequency, and speech perception in noise. The speech perception in noise was measured using auditory stream segregation paradigm. Method Thirteen individuals with bilateral mild-to-severe tonal tinnitus and minimal-to-mild cochlear hearing loss were selected. Thirteen individuals with hearing loss without tinnitus were also selected. The audiogram of each participant with tinnitus was matched with that of the participant without tinnitus. Tinnitus pitch of the participants with tinnitus was measured and compared with audiogram edge frequency. The stream segregation thresholds were calculated at the participants' admitted tinnitus pitch and one octave below the tinnitus pitch. The stream segregation thresholds were estimated at fission and fusion boundary using pure-tone stimuli in ABA paradigm. Results High correlation between tinnitus pitch and audiogram edge frequency was noted. Overall stream segregation thresholds were higher for individuals with tinnitus. Higher thresholds indicated poorer stream segregation abilities. Within tinnitus participants, the thresholds were significantly lesser at frequency corresponding to admitted tinnitus pitch than at one octave below the tinnitus pitch. Conclusions The information from this study may be helpful in educating the patients about the relationship between hearing loss and tinnitus. The findings may also account for speech-perception-in-noise difficulties often reported by the individuals with tinnitus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saransh Jain
- Department of Speech and Hearing, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, India
| | - Riya Cherian
- Department of ENT, Sree Gokulam Medical College & Research Foundation, Venjaranmood, India
| | - Nuggehalli P. Nataraja
- Department of Speech and Hearing, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, India
| | - Vijaya Kumar Narne
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India
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20
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Milne AE, Zhao S, Tampakaki C, Bury G, Chait M. Sustained Pupil Responses Are Modulated by Predictability of Auditory Sequences. J Neurosci 2021; 41:6116-6127. [PMID: 34083259 PMCID: PMC8276747 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2879-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain is highly sensitive to auditory regularities and exploits the predictable order of sounds in many situations, from parsing complex auditory scenes, to the acquisition of language. To understand the impact of stimulus predictability on perception, it is important to determine how the detection of predictable structure influences processing and attention. Here, we use pupillometry to gain insight into the effect of sensory regularity on arousal. Pupillometry is a commonly used measure of salience and processing effort, with more perceptually salient or perceptually demanding stimuli consistently associated with larger pupil diameters. In two experiments we tracked human listeners' pupil dynamics while they listened to sequences of 50-ms tone pips of different frequencies. The order of the tone pips was either random, contained deterministic (fully predictable) regularities (experiment 1, n = 18, 11 female) or had a probabilistic regularity structure (experiment 2, n = 20, 17 female). The sequences were rapid, preventing conscious tracking of sequence structure thus allowing us to focus on the automatic extraction of different types of regularities. We hypothesized that if regularity facilitates processing by reducing processing demands, a smaller pupil diameter would be seen in response to regular relative to random patterns. Conversely, if regularity is associated with heightened arousal and attention (i.e., engages processing resources) the opposite pattern would be expected. In both experiments we observed a smaller sustained (tonic) pupil diameter for regular compared with random sequences, consistent with the former hypothesis and confirming that predictability facilitates sequence processing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The brain is highly sensitive to auditory regularities. To appreciate the impact that the presence of predictability has on perception, we need to better understand how a predictable structure influences processing and attention. We recorded listeners' pupil responses to sequences of tones that followed either a predictable or unpredictable pattern, as the pupil can be used to implicitly tap into these different cognitive processes. We found that the pupil showed a smaller sustained diameter to predictable sequences, indicating that predictability eased processing rather than boosted attention. The findings suggest that the pupil response can be used to study the automatic extraction of regularities, and that the effects are most consistent with predictability helping the listener to efficiently process upcoming sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice E Milne
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
| | - Sijia Zhao
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
| | | | - Gabriela Bury
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
| | - Maria Chait
- Ear Institute, University College London, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom
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21
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McAuley JD, Shen Y, Smith T, Kidd GR. Effects of speech-rhythm disruption on selective listening with a single background talker. Atten Percept Psychophys 2021; 83:2229-2240. [PMID: 33782913 PMCID: PMC10612531 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02298-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recent work by McAuley et al. (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 3222-3233, 2020) using the Coordinate Response Measure (CRM) paradigm with a multitalker background revealed that altering the natural rhythm of target speech amidst background speech worsens target recognition (a target-rhythm effect), while altering background speech rhythm improves target recognition (a background-rhythm effect). Here, we used a single-talker background to examine the role of specific properties of target and background sound patterns on selective listening without the complexity of multiple background stimuli. Experiment 1 manipulated the sex of the background talker, presented with a male target talker, to assess target and background-rhythm effects with and without a strong pitch cue to aid perceptual segregation. Experiment 2 used a vocoded single-talker background to examine target and background-rhythm effects with envelope-based speech rhythms preserved, but without semantic content or temporal fine structure. While a target-rhythm effect was present with all backgrounds, the background-rhythm effect was only observed for the same-sex background condition. Results provide additional support for a selective entrainment hypothesis, while also showing that the background-rhythm effect is not driven by envelope-based speech rhythm alone, and may be reduced or eliminated when pitch or other acoustic differences provide a strong basis for selective listening.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
| | - Yi Shen
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Toni Smith
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
| | - Gary R Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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22
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Herrmann B, Araz K, Johnsrude IS. Sustained neural activity correlates with rapid perceptual learning of auditory patterns. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118238. [PMID: 34098064 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Revised: 06/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Repeating structures forming regular patterns are common in sounds. Learning such patterns may enable accurate perceptual organization. In five experiments, we investigated the behavioral and neural signatures of rapid perceptual learning of regular sound patterns. We show that recurring (compared to novel) patterns are detected more quickly and increase sensitivity to pattern deviations and to the temporal order of pattern onset relative to a visual stimulus. Sustained neural activity reflected perceptual learning in two ways. Firstly, sustained activity increased earlier for recurring than novel patterns when participants attended to sounds, but not when they ignored them; this earlier increase mirrored the rapid perceptual learning we observed behaviorally. Secondly, the magnitude of sustained activity was generally lower for recurring than novel patterns, but only for trials later in the experiment, and independent of whether participants attended to or ignored sounds. The late manifestation of sustained activity reduction suggests that it is not directly related to rapid perceptual learning, but to a mechanism that does not require attention to sound. In sum, we demonstrate that the latency of sustained activity reflects rapid perceptual learning of auditory patterns, while the magnitude may reflect a result of learning, such as better prediction of learned auditory patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, M6A 2E1, North York, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 3K7, London, ON, Canada.
| | - Kurdo Araz
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 3K7, London, ON, Canada
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 3K7, London, ON, Canada; School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7 London, ON, Canada
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23
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Wu Z, Bao X, Ding Y, Gao Y, Zhang C, Qu T, Li L. Differences in auditory associative memory between younger adults and older adults. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2021; 29:882-902. [PMID: 34078214 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2021.1932714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Aging impairs visual associative memories. Up to date, little is known about whether aging impairs auditory associative memories. Using the head-related-transfer function to induce perceived spatial locations of auditory phonemes, this study used an audiospatial paired-associates-learning (PAL) paradigm to assess the auditory associative memory for phoneme-location pairs in both younger and older adults. Both aging groups completed the PAL task with various levels of difficulty, which were defined by the number of items to be remembered. The results showed that compared with younger participants' performance, older participants passed fewer stages and had lower capacity of auditory associative memory. For maintaining a single audiospatial pair, no significant behavioral differences between the two aging grous werefound. However, when multiple sound-location pairs were required to be remembered, older adults made more errors and demonstrated a lower working memory capacity than younger adults. Our study indicates aging impairs audiospatial associative learning and memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhemeng Wu
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaohan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yu Ding
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yayue Gao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Changxin Zhang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Tianshu Qu
- Department of Machine Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Liang Li
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavioral and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, China
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24
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Johnson JCS, Marshall CR, Weil RS, Bamiou DE, Hardy CJD, Warren JD. Hearing and dementia: from ears to brain. Brain 2021; 144:391-401. [PMID: 33351095 PMCID: PMC7940169 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The association between hearing impairment and dementia has emerged as a major public health challenge, with significant opportunities for earlier diagnosis, treatment and prevention. However, the nature of this association has not been defined. We hear with our brains, particularly within the complex soundscapes of everyday life: neurodegenerative pathologies target the auditory brain, and are therefore predicted to damage hearing function early and profoundly. Here we present evidence for this proposition, based on structural and functional features of auditory brain organization that confer vulnerability to neurodegeneration, the extensive, reciprocal interplay between 'peripheral' and 'central' hearing dysfunction, and recently characterized auditory signatures of canonical neurodegenerative dementias (Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease and frontotemporal dementia). Moving beyond any simple dichotomy of ear and brain, we argue for a reappraisal of the role of auditory cognitive dysfunction and the critical coupling of brain to peripheral organs of hearing in the dementias. We call for a clinical assessment of real-world hearing in these diseases that moves beyond pure tone perception to the development of novel auditory 'cognitive stress tests' and proximity markers for the early diagnosis of dementia and management strategies that harness retained auditory plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy C S Johnson
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Charles R Marshall
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Rimona S Weil
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Movement Disorders Centre, Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Doris-Eva Bamiou
- UCL Ear Institute and UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute for Health Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Chris J D Hardy
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Jason D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
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25
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Coy N, Bader M, Schröger E, Grimm S. Change detection of auditory tonal patterns defined by absolute versus relative pitch information. A combined behavioural and EEG study. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0247495. [PMID: 33630974 PMCID: PMC7906474 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The human auditory system often relies on relative pitch information to extract and identify auditory objects; such as when the same melody is played in different keys. The current study investigated the mental chronometry underlying the active discrimination of unfamiliar melodic six-tone patterns by measuring behavioural performance and event-related potentials (ERPs). In a roving standard paradigm, such patterns were either repeated identically within a stimulus train, carrying absolute frequency information about the pattern, or shifted in pitch (transposed) between repetitions, so only relative pitch information was available to extract the pattern identity. Results showed that participants were able to use relative pitch to detect when a new melodic pattern occurred. Though in the absence of absolute pitch sensitivity significantly decreased and behavioural reaction time to pattern changes increased. Mismatch-Negativity (MMN), an ERP indicator of auditory deviance detection, was elicited at approximately 206 ms after stimulus onset at frontocentral electrodes, even when only relative pitch was available to inform pattern discrimination. A P3a was elicited in both conditions, comparable in amplitude and latency. Increased latencies but no differences in amplitudes of N2b, and P3b suggest that processing at higher levels is affected when, in the absence of absolute pitch cues, relative pitch has to be extracted to inform pattern discrimination. Interestingly, the response delay of approximately 70 ms on the behavioural level, already fully manifests at the level of N2b. This is in accordance with recent findings on implicit auditory learning processes and suggests that in the absence of absolute pitch cues a slowing of target selection rather than a slowing of the auditory pattern change detection process causes the deterioration in behavioural performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Coy
- Institute of Psychology–Wilhelm Wundt, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Maria Bader
- Institute of Psychology–Wilhelm Wundt, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erich Schröger
- Institute of Psychology–Wilhelm Wundt, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Institute of Psychology–Wilhelm Wundt, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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26
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Hodapp A, Grimm S. Neural signatures of temporal regularity and recurring patterns in random tonal sound sequences. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 53:2740-2754. [PMID: 33481296 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The auditory system is highly sensitive to recurring patterns in the acoustic input - even in otherwise unstructured material, such as white noise or random tonal sequences. Electroencephalography (EEG) research revealed a characteristic negative potential to periodically recurring auditory patterns - a response, which has been interpreted as memory trace-related and specific, rather than as a sign of periodicity-driven entrainment. Here, we aim to disentangle these two possible contributions by investigating the influence of a periodic sound sequence's inherent temporal regularity on event-related potentials. Participants were presented continuous sequences of short tones of random pitch, with some sequences containing a recurring pattern, and asked to indicate whether they heard a repetition. Patterns were either spaced equally across the random sequence (isochronous condition) or with a temporal jitter (jittered condition), which enabled us to differentiate between event-related potentials (and thus processing operations associated with a memory trace for a repeated pattern) and the periodic nature of the repetitions. A negative recurrence-related component could be observed independently of temporal regularity, was pattern-specific, and modulated by across trial repetition of the pattern. Critically, isochronous pattern repetition induced an additional early periodicity-related positive component, which started to build up already before the pattern onset and which was elicited undampedly even when the repeated pattern was occasionally not presented. This positive component likely reflects a sensory driven entrainment process that could be the foundation of a behavioural benefit in detecting temporally regular repetitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Hodapp
- Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
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27
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Swanborough H, Staib M, Frühholz S. Neurocognitive dynamics of near-threshold voice signal detection and affective voice evaluation. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:6/50/eabb3884. [PMID: 33310844 PMCID: PMC7732184 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb3884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Communication and voice signal detection in noisy environments are universal tasks for many species. The fundamental problem of detecting voice signals in noise (VIN) is underinvestigated especially in its temporal dynamic properties. We investigated VIN as a dynamic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) problem to determine the neurocognitive dynamics of subthreshold evidence accrual and near-threshold voice signal detection. Experiment 1 showed that dynamic VIN, including a varying SNR and subthreshold sensory evidence accrual, is superior to similar conditions with nondynamic SNRs or with acoustically matched sounds. Furthermore, voice signals with affective meaning have a detection advantage during VIN. Experiment 2 demonstrated that VIN is driven by an effective neural integration in an auditory cortical-limbic network at and beyond the near-threshold detection point, which is preceded by activity in subcortical auditory nuclei. This demonstrates the superior recognition advantage of communication signals in dynamic noise contexts, especially when carrying socio-affective meaning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huw Swanborough
- Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Staib
- Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sascha Frühholz
- Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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28
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Aman L, Picken S, Andreou LV, Chait M. Sensitivity to temporal structure facilitates perceptual analysis of complex auditory scenes. Hear Res 2020; 400:108111. [PMID: 33333425 PMCID: PMC7812374 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2020] [Revised: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Perception relies on sensitivity to predictable structure in the environment. We used artificial acoustic scenes to investigate this in the auditory modality. Listeners track the temporal structure of multiple concurrent acoustic streams. Sensitivity to predictable structure supports auditory scene analysis, even when scenes are complex. Benefit of regularity observed even when listeners are unaware of the predictable structure.
The notion that sensitivity to the statistical structure of the environment is pivotal to perception has recently garnered considerable attention. Here we investigated this issue in the context of hearing. Building on previous work (Sohoglu and Chait, 2016a; elife), stimuli were artificial ‘soundscapes’ populated by multiple (up to 14) simultaneous streams (‘auditory objects’) comprised of tone-pip sequences, each with a distinct frequency and pattern of amplitude modulation. Sequences were either temporally regular or random. We show that listeners’ ability to detect abrupt appearance or disappearance of a stream is facilitated when scene streams were characterized by a temporally regular fluctuation pattern. The regularity of the changing stream as well as that of the background (non-changing) streams contribute independently to this effect. Remarkably, listeners benefit from regularity even when they are not consciously aware of it. These findings establish that perception of complex acoustic scenes relies on the availability of detailed representations of the regularities automatically extracted from multiple concurrent streams.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucie Aman
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, UK; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Samantha Picken
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, UK
| | - Lefkothea-Vasiliki Andreou
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, UK; Vocational Lyceum of Zakynthos, Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, Zakynthos, Greece
| | - Maria Chait
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, UK.
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29
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de Kerangal M, Vickers D, Chait M. The effect of healthy aging on change detection and sensitivity to predictable structure in crowded acoustic scenes. Hear Res 2020; 399:108074. [PMID: 33041093 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2020] [Revised: 08/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
The auditory system plays a critical role in supporting our ability to detect abrupt changes in our surroundings. Here we study how this capacity is affected in the course of healthy ageing. Artifical acoustic 'scenes', populated by multiple concurrent streams of pure tones ('sources') were used to capture the challenges of listening in complex acoustic environments. Two scene conditions were included: REG scenes consisted of sources characterized by a regular temporal structure. Matched RAND scenes contained sources which were temporally random. Changes, manifested as the abrupt disappearance of one of the sources, were introduced to a subset of the trials and participants ('young' group N = 41, age 20-38 years; 'older' group N = 41, age 60-82 years) were instructed to monitor the scenes for these events. Previous work demonstrated that young listeners exhibit better change detection performance in REG scenes, reflecting sensitivity to temporal structure. Here we sought to determine: (1) Whether 'baseline' change detection ability (i.e. in RAND scenes) is affected by age. (2) Whether aging affects listeners' sensitivity to temporal regularity. (3) How change detection capacity relates to listeners' hearing and cognitive profile (a battery of tests that capture hearing and cognitive abilities hypothesized to be affected by aging). The results demonstrated that healthy aging is associated with reduced sensitivity to abrupt scene changes in RAND scenes but that performance does not correlate with age or standard audiological measures such as pure tone audiometry or speech in noise performance. Remarkably older listeners' change detection performance improved substantially (up to the level exhibited by young listeners) in REG relative to RAND scenes. This suggests that the ability to extract and track the regularity associated with scene sources, even in crowded acoustic environments, is relatively preserved in older listeners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathilde de Kerangal
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK
| | - Deborah Vickers
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK; Cambridge Hearing Group, Clinical Neurosciences Department, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Maria Chait
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK.
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30
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Greenlaw KM, Puschmann S, Coffey EBJ. Decoding of Envelope vs. Fundamental Frequency During Complex Auditory Stream Segregation. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2020; 1:268-287. [PMID: 37215227 PMCID: PMC10158587 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 04/25/2020] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Hearing-in-noise perception is a challenging task that is critical to human function, but how the brain accomplishes it is not well understood. A candidate mechanism proposes that the neural representation of an attended auditory stream is enhanced relative to background sound via a combination of bottom-up and top-down mechanisms. To date, few studies have compared neural representation and its task-related enhancement across frequency bands that carry different auditory information, such as a sound's amplitude envelope (i.e., syllabic rate or rhythm; 1-9 Hz), and the fundamental frequency of periodic stimuli (i.e., pitch; >40 Hz). Furthermore, hearing-in-noise in the real world is frequently both messier and richer than the majority of tasks used in its study. In the present study, we use continuous sound excerpts that simultaneously offer predictive, visual, and spatial cues to help listeners separate the target from four acoustically similar simultaneously presented sound streams. We show that while both lower and higher frequency information about the entire sound stream is represented in the brain's response, the to-be-attended sound stream is strongly enhanced only in the slower, lower frequency sound representations. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that attended sound representations are strengthened progressively at higher level, later processing stages, and that the interaction of multiple brain systems can aid in this process. Our findings contribute to our understanding of auditory stream separation in difficult, naturalistic listening conditions and demonstrate that pitch and envelope information can be decoded from single-channel EEG data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keelin M. Greenlaw
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS)
- The Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM)
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31
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Cai H, Dent ML. Attention capture in birds performing an auditory streaming task. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0235420. [PMID: 32589692 PMCID: PMC7319309 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous animal models have been used to investigate the neural mechanisms of auditory processing in complex acoustic environments, but it is unclear whether an animal’s auditory attention is functionally similar to a human’s in processing competing auditory scenes. Here we investigated the effects of attention capture in birds performing an objective auditory streaming paradigm. The classical ABAB… patterned pure tone sequences were modified and used for the task. We trained the birds to selectively attend to a target stream and only respond to the deviant appearing in the target stream, even though their attention may be captured by a deviant in the background stream. When no deviant appeared in the background stream, the birds experience the buildup of streaming process in a qualitatively similar way as they did in a subjective paradigm. Although the birds were trained to selectively attend to the target stream, they failed to avoid the involuntary attention switch caused by the background deviant, especially when the background deviant was sequentially unpredictable. Their global performance deteriorated more with increasingly salient background deviants, where the buildup process was reset by the background distractor. Moreover, sequential predictability of the background deviant facilitated the recovery of the buildup process after attention capture. This is the first study that addresses the perceptual consequences of the joint effects of top-down and bottom-up attention in behaving animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huaizhen Cai
- Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, United States of America
| | - Micheal L. Dent
- Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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32
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Szalárdy O, Tóth B, Farkas D, Orosz G, Honbolygó F, Winkler I. Linguistic predictability influences auditory stimulus classification within two concurrent speech streams. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13547. [DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Orsolya Szalárdy
- Faculty of Medicine Institute of Behavioural Sciences Semmelweis University Budapest Hungary
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology Research Centre for Natural Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest Hungary
| | - Brigitta Tóth
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology Research Centre for Natural Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest Hungary
| | - Dávid Farkas
- Analytics Development, Performance Management and Analytics, Business Development, Integrated Supply Chain Management, Nokia Business Services, Nokia Operations, Nokia Budapest Hungary
| | - Gábor Orosz
- Department of Psychology Stanford University Stanford CA USA
| | - Ferenc Honbolygó
- Brain Imaging Centre Research Centre for Natural Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest Hungary
- Institute of Psychology ELTE Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary
| | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology Research Centre for Natural Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest Hungary
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33
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Notter MP, Hanke M, Murray MM, Geiser E. Encoding of Auditory Temporal Gestalt in the Human Brain. Cereb Cortex 2020; 29:475-484. [PMID: 29365070 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The perception of an acoustic rhythm is invariant to the absolute temporal intervals constituting a sound sequence. It is unknown where in the brain temporal Gestalt, the percept emerging from the relative temporal proximity between acoustic events, is encoded. Two different relative temporal patterns, each induced by three experimental conditions with different absolute temporal patterns as sensory basis, were presented to participants. A linear support vector machine classifier was trained to differentiate activation patterns in functional magnetic resonance imaging data to the two different percepts. Across the sensory constituents the classifier decoded which percept was perceived. A searchlight analysis localized activation patterns specific to the temporal Gestalt bilaterally to the temporoparietal junction, including the planum temporale and supramarginal gyrus, and unilaterally to the right inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis). We show that auditory areas not only process absolute temporal intervals, but also integrate them into percepts of Gestalt and that encoding of these percepts persists in high-level associative areas. The findings complement existing knowledge regarding the processing of absolute temporal patterns to the processing of relative temporal patterns relevant to the sequential binding of perceptual elements into Gestalt.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P Notter
- Department of Radiology.,Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service.,EEG Brain Mapping Core, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Michael Hanke
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke-University.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Micah M Murray
- Department of Radiology.,Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service.,EEG Brain Mapping Core, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Ophthalmology Department, University of Lausanne and Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Eveline Geiser
- Department of Radiology.,Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service.,McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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34
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Rankin J, Rinzel J. Computational models of auditory perception from feature extraction to stream segregation and behavior. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2019; 58:46-53. [PMID: 31326723 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2019.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/22/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Audition is by nature dynamic, from brainstem processing on sub-millisecond time scales, to segregating and tracking sound sources with changing features, to the pleasure of listening to music and the satisfaction of getting the beat. We review recent advances from computational models of sound localization, of auditory stream segregation and of beat perception/generation. A wealth of behavioral, electrophysiological and imaging studies shed light on these processes, typically with synthesized sounds having regular temporal structure. Computational models integrate knowledge from different experimental fields and at different levels of description. We advocate a neuromechanistic modeling approach that incorporates knowledge of the auditory system from various fields, that utilizes plausible neural mechanisms, and that bridges our understanding across disciplines.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Rankin
- College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, North Park Rd, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK.
| | - John Rinzel
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, 10003 New York, NY, United States; Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer St, 10012 New York, NY, United States
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35
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Kojouharova P, File D, Sulykos I, Czigler I. Visual mismatch negativity and stimulus-specific adaptation: the role of stimulus complexity. Exp Brain Res 2019; 237:1179-1194. [PMID: 30806740 PMCID: PMC6557884 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-019-05494-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2019] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
The present study investigated the function of the brain activity underlying the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) event-related potential (ERP) component. Snowflake patterns (complex stimuli) were presented as deviants and oblique bar patterns (simple stimuli) as standards, and vice versa in a passive oddball paradigm. Control (equiprobable) sequences of either complex shape patterns or oblique bar patterns with various orientations were also presented. VMMN appeared as the difference between the ERP to the oddball deviant and the ERP to the control (deviant minus control ERP difference). Apart from the shorter latency of the vMMN to the oblique bar pattern as deviant, vMMN to both deviants was similar, i.e., there was no amplitude difference. We attributed the function of the brain processes underlying vMMN to the detection of the infrequent stimulus type (also represented in memory) instead of a call for further processing (a possibility for acquiring more precise representation) of the deviant. An unexpected larger adaptation (control minus standard ERP difference) to the snowflake pattern was also obtained. We suggest that this was due to the acquisition of a more elaborate memory representation of the more complex stimulus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petia Kojouharova
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 286, Budapest, 1519, Hungary.
- Doctoral School of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Domonkos File
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 286, Budapest, 1519, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - István Sulykos
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 286, Budapest, 1519, Hungary
| | - István Czigler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 286, Budapest, 1519, Hungary
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36
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Shen Y, Pearson DV. Efficiency in glimpsing vowel sequences in fluctuating makers: Effects of temporal fine structure and temporal regularity. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2019; 145:2518. [PMID: 31046353 PMCID: PMC6491349 DOI: 10.1121/1.5098949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2018] [Revised: 04/02/2019] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Listeners' efficiency in glimpsing the target speech in amplitude-modulated maskers may depend on whether the target is perceptually segregated from the masker and on the temporal predictability of the target. Using synthesized vowel sequences as the target, recognition of vowel sequences in simultaneous amplitude-modulated noise maskers was measured as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the masker modulation rate were systematically varied. In Experiment I (Exp. I), the temporal fine structure of the target was degraded by synthesizing the vowels using iterated rippled noise as the glottal source. In Experiment II (Exp. II), the vowel sequences were constructed so that they were not isochronous, but instead contained randomized intervals between adjacent vowels. Results were compared to the predictions from a dip-listening model based on short-term SNR. The results show no significant facilitative effect of temporal fine structure cues on vowel recognition (Exp. I). The model predictions significantly overestimated vowel-recognition performance in amplitude-modulated maskers when the temporal regularity of the target was degraded (Exp. II), suggesting the influence of temporal regularity on glimpsing efficiency. Furthermore, the overestimations by the model were greater at lower SNRs and selective to moderate masker modulation rates (between 2 and 6 Hz).
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Shen
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
| | - Dylan V Pearson
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
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37
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38
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Auditory predictions shape the neural responses to stimulus repetition and sensory change. Neuroimage 2019; 186:200-210. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2018] [Revised: 11/04/2018] [Accepted: 11/07/2018] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
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39
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Predictive Processes and the Peculiar Case of Music. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:63-77. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 185] [Impact Index Per Article: 37.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2018] [Revised: 10/23/2018] [Accepted: 10/24/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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40
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Rajendran VG, Teki S, Schnupp JWH. Temporal Processing in Audition: Insights from Music. Neuroscience 2018; 389:4-18. [PMID: 29108832 PMCID: PMC6371985 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.10.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2017] [Revised: 10/24/2017] [Accepted: 10/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Music is a curious example of a temporally patterned acoustic stimulus, and a compelling pan-cultural phenomenon. This review strives to bring some insights from decades of music psychology and sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) literature into the mainstream auditory domain, arguing that musical rhythm perception is shaped in important ways by temporal processing mechanisms in the brain. The feature that unites these disparate disciplines is an appreciation of the central importance of timing, sequencing, and anticipation. Perception of musical rhythms relies on an ability to form temporal predictions, a general feature of temporal processing that is equally relevant to auditory scene analysis, pattern detection, and speech perception. By bringing together findings from the music and auditory literature, we hope to inspire researchers to look beyond the conventions of their respective fields and consider the cross-disciplinary implications of studying auditory temporal sequence processing. We begin by highlighting music as an interesting sound stimulus that may provide clues to how temporal patterning in sound drives perception. Next, we review the SMS literature and discuss possible neural substrates for the perception of, and synchronization to, musical beat. We then move away from music to explore the perceptual effects of rhythmic timing in pattern detection, auditory scene analysis, and speech perception. Finally, we review the neurophysiology of general timing processes that may underlie aspects of the perception of rhythmic patterns. We conclude with a brief summary and outlook for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vani G Rajendran
- Auditory Neuroscience Group, University of Oxford, Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, Oxford, UK
| | - Sundeep Teki
- Auditory Neuroscience Group, University of Oxford, Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, Oxford, UK
| | - Jan W H Schnupp
- City University of Hong Kong, Department of Biomedical Sciences, 31 To Yuen Street, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
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Gandras K, Grimm S, Bendixen A. Electrophysiological Correlates of Speaker Segregation and Foreground-Background Selection in Ambiguous Listening Situations. Neuroscience 2018; 389:19-29. [PMID: 28735101 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.07.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2017] [Revised: 07/10/2017] [Accepted: 07/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
In everyday listening environments, a main task for our auditory system is to follow one out of multiple speakers talking simultaneously. The present study was designed to find electrophysiological indicators of two central processes involved - segregating the speech mixture into distinct speech sequences corresponding to the two speakers, and then attending to one of the speech sequences. We generated multistable speech stimuli that were set up to create ambiguity as to whether only one or two speakers are talking. Thereby we were able to investigate three perceptual alternatives (no segregation, segregated - speaker A in the foreground, segregated - speaker B in the foreground) without any confounding stimulus changes. Participants listened to a continuously repeating sequence of syllables, which were uttered alternately by two human speakers, and indicated whether they perceived the sequence as an inseparable mixture or as originating from two separate speakers. In the latter case, they distinguished which speaker was in their attentional foreground. Our data show a long-lasting event-related potential (ERP) modulation starting at 130ms after stimulus onset, which can be explained by the perceptual organization of the two speech sequences into attended foreground and ignored background streams. Our paradigm extends previous work with pure-tone sequences toward speech stimuli and adds the possibility to obtain neural correlates of the difficulty to segregate a speech mixture into distinct streams.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Gandras
- Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
| | - Sabine Grimm
- Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, D-09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
| | - Alexandra Bendixen
- Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany; Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, Chemnitz University of Technology, D-09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
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42
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Paredes-Gallardo A, Innes-Brown H, Madsen SMK, Dau T, Marozeau J. Auditory Stream Segregation and Selective Attention for Cochlear Implant Listeners: Evidence From Behavioral Measures and Event-Related Potentials. Front Neurosci 2018; 12:581. [PMID: 30186105 PMCID: PMC6110823 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of the spatial separation between the stimulating electrodes (electrode separation) in sequential stream segregation was explored in cochlear implant (CI) listeners using a deviant detection task. Twelve CI listeners were instructed to attend to a series of target sounds in the presence of interleaved distractor sounds. A deviant was randomly introduced in the target stream either at the beginning, middle or end of each trial. The listeners were asked to detect sequences that contained a deviant and to report its location within the trial. The perceptual segregation of the streams should, therefore, improve deviant detection performance. The electrode range for the distractor sounds was varied, resulting in different amounts of overlap between the target and the distractor streams. For the largest electrode separation condition, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded under active and passive listening conditions. The listeners were asked to perform the behavioral task for the active listening condition and encouraged to watch a muted movie for the passive listening condition. Deviant detection performance improved with increasing electrode separation between the streams, suggesting that larger electrode differences facilitate the segregation of the streams. Deviant detection performance was best for deviants happening late in the sequence, indicating that a segregated percept builds up over time. The analysis of the ERP waveforms revealed that auditory selective attention modulates the ERP responses in CI listeners. Specifically, the responses to the target stream were, overall, larger in the active relative to the passive listening condition. Conversely, the ERP responses to the distractor stream were not affected by selective attention. However, no significant correlation was observed between the behavioral performance and the amount of attentional modulation. Overall, the findings from the present study suggest that CI listeners can use electrode separation to perceptually group sequential sounds. Moreover, selective attention can be deployed on the resulting auditory objects, as reflected by the attentional modulation of the ERPs at the group level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreu Paredes-Gallardo
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Hamish Innes-Brown
- Department of Medical Bionics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.,Bionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Sara M K Madsen
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jeremy Marozeau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Wen W, Brann E, Di Costa S, Haggard P. Enhanced perceptual processing of self-generated motion: Evidence from steady-state visual evoked potentials. Neuroimage 2018; 175:438-448. [PMID: 29654877 PMCID: PMC5971214 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2017] [Revised: 03/15/2018] [Accepted: 04/09/2018] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
The sense of agency emerges when our voluntary actions produce anticipated or predictable outcomes in the external world. It remains unclear how the sense of control also influences our perception of the external world. The present study examined perceptual processing of self-generated motion versus non-self-generated motion using steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). Participants continuously moved their finger on a touchpad to trigger the movements of two shapes (Experiment 1) or two groups of dots (Experiment 2) on a monitor. Degree of control was manipulated by varying the spatial relation between finger movement and stimulus trajectory across conditions. However, the velocity, onset time, and offset time of visual stimuli always corresponded to participants' finger movement. Stimuli flickered at a frequency of either 7.5 Hz or 10 Hz, thus SSVEPs of these frequencies and their harmonics provided a frequency-tagged measurement of perceptual processing. Participants triggered the motion of all stimuli simultaneously, but had greater levels of control over some stimuli than over others. Their task was to detect a brief colour change on the border(s) of one shape (Experiment 1) or of one group of dots (Experiment 2). Although control over shapes/dots was irrelevant to the visual detection task, we found stronger SSVEPs for stimuli that were under a high level of control, compared with the stimuli that were under a low level of control. Our results suggest that the spatial regularity between self-generated movements and visual input boosted the neural responses underlying perceptual processing. Our results support the preactivation account of sensory attenuation, suggesting that perceptual processing of self-generated events is enhanced rather than inhibited.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen Wen
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK; Department of Precision Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 5-3-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0083, Japan.
| | - Elisa Brann
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
| | - Steven Di Costa
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
| | - Patrick Haggard
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
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Neural Signatures of the Processing of Temporal Patterns in Sound. J Neurosci 2018; 38:5466-5477. [PMID: 29773757 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0346-18.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2018] [Revised: 04/13/2018] [Accepted: 05/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to detect regularities in sound (i.e., recurring structure) is critical for effective perception, enabling, for example, change detection and prediction. Two seemingly unconnected lines of research concern the neural operations involved in processing regularities: one investigates how neural activity synchronizes with temporal regularities (e.g., frequency modulation; FM) in sounds, whereas the other focuses on increases in sustained activity during stimulation with repeating tone-frequency patterns. In three electroencephalography studies with male and female human participants, we investigated whether neural synchronization and sustained neural activity are dissociable, or whether they are functionally interdependent. Experiment I demonstrated that neural activity synchronizes with temporal regularity (FM) in sounds, and that sustained activity increases concomitantly. In Experiment II, phase coherence of FM in sounds was parametrically varied. Although neural synchronization was more sensitive to changes in FM coherence, such changes led to a systematic modulation of both neural synchronization and sustained activity, with magnitude increasing as coherence increased. In Experiment III, participants either performed a duration categorization task on the sounds, or a visual object tracking task to distract attention. Neural synchronization was observed regardless of task, whereas the sustained response was observed only when attention was on the auditory task, not under (visual) distraction. The results suggest that neural synchronization and sustained activity levels are functionally linked: both are sensitive to regularities in sounds. However, neural synchronization might reflect a more sensory-driven response to regularity, compared with sustained activity which may be influenced by attentional, contextual, or other experiential factors.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Optimal perception requires that the auditory system detects regularities in sounds. Synchronized neural activity and increases in sustained neural activity both appear to index the detection of a regularity, but the functional interrelation of these two neural signatures is unknown. In three electroencephalography experiments, we measured both signatures concomitantly while listeners were presented with sounds containing frequency modulations that differed in their regularity. We observed that both neural signatures are sensitive to temporal regularity in sounds, although they functionally decouple when a listener is distracted by a demanding visual task. Our data suggest that neural synchronization reflects a more automatic response to regularity compared with sustained activity, which may be influenced by attentional, contextual, or other experiential factors.
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Skerritt-Davis B, Elhilali M. Detecting change in stochastic sound sequences. PLoS Comput Biol 2018; 14:e1006162. [PMID: 29813049 PMCID: PMC5993325 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2018] [Revised: 06/08/2018] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Our ability to parse our acoustic environment relies on the brain's capacity to extract statistical regularities from surrounding sounds. Previous work in regularity extraction has predominantly focused on the brain's sensitivity to predictable patterns in sound sequences. However, natural sound environments are rarely completely predictable, often containing some level of randomness, yet the brain is able to effectively interpret its surroundings by extracting useful information from stochastic sounds. It has been previously shown that the brain is sensitive to the marginal lower-order statistics of sound sequences (i.e., mean and variance). In this work, we investigate the brain's sensitivity to higher-order statistics describing temporal dependencies between sound events through a series of change detection experiments, where listeners are asked to detect changes in randomness in the pitch of tone sequences. Behavioral data indicate listeners collect statistical estimates to process incoming sounds, and a perceptual model based on Bayesian inference shows a capacity in the brain to track higher-order statistics. Further analysis of individual subjects' behavior indicates an important role of perceptual constraints in listeners' ability to track these sensory statistics with high fidelity. In addition, the inference model facilitates analysis of neural electroencephalography (EEG) responses, anchoring the analysis relative to the statistics of each stochastic stimulus. This reveals both a deviance response and a change-related disruption in phase of the stimulus-locked response that follow the higher-order statistics. These results shed light on the brain's ability to process stochastic sound sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Skerritt-Davis
- Electrical & Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Mounya Elhilali
- Electrical & Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
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Sulykos I, Gaál ZA, Czigler I. Automatic Change Detection in Older and Younger Women: A Visual Mismatch Negativity Study. Gerontology 2018; 64:318-325. [PMID: 29698946 DOI: 10.1159/000488588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2017] [Accepted: 03/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In comparison to controlled (attentional) processing, relatively little is known about the age-related changes of the earlier (preattentive) processes. An event-related potential (ERP) index of preattentive (automatic) visual processing, the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) is a good candidate for analyzing age-related differences in the automatic processing of visual events. OBJECTIVE So far results concerning age-related changes in vMMN have been equivocal. Our aim was to develop a method resulting in a reliable vMMN in a paradigm short enough to use in the applied field. METHODS We investigated an older (mean age: 66.4 years, n = 15) and a younger (mean age: 22.4 years, n = 15) group of healthy women. ERPs were obtained for checkerboard onset patterns in a passive oddball condition (during which participants performed a tracking task). One of the checkerboards was frequent (standard; p = 0.8), and the other was rare (deviant; p = 0.2). RESULTS vMMN emerged over posterior locations in the latency range of 100-300 ms in both age groups. The amplitude of the earlier part of the vMMN was similar in the older and the younger participants, but latency was longer in the older group. The later part of the vMMN was slightly diminished in the elderly. CONCLUSION Automatic detection of violated sequential regularities, reflected by the vMMN, emerged in the two age groups (earlier vMMN). However, detection of stimulus change, a preattentive visual process delayed in the elderly, and identification of the specific change was compromised in the older participants.
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Stilp CE, Kiefte M, Kluender KR. Discovering acoustic structure of novel sounds. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 143:2460. [PMID: 29716264 PMCID: PMC5924381 DOI: 10.1121/1.5031018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2017] [Revised: 03/24/2018] [Accepted: 03/26/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Natural sounds have substantial acoustic structure (predictability, nonrandomness) in their spectral and temporal compositions. Listeners are expected to exploit this structure to distinguish simultaneous sound sources; however, previous studies confounded acoustic structure and listening experience. Here, sensitivity to acoustic structure in novel sounds was measured in discrimination and identification tasks. Complementary signal-processing strategies independently varied relative acoustic entropy (the inverse of acoustic structure) across frequency or time. In one condition, instantaneous frequency of low-pass-filtered 300-ms random noise was rescaled to 5 kHz bandwidth and resynthesized. In another condition, the instantaneous frequency of a short gated 5-kHz noise was resampled up to 300 ms. In both cases, entropy relative to full bandwidth or full duration was a fraction of that in 300-ms noise sampled at 10 kHz. Discrimination of sounds improved with less relative entropy. Listeners identified a probe sound as a target sound (1%, 3.2%, or 10% relative entropy) that repeated amidst distractor sounds (1%, 10%, or 100% relative entropy) at 0 dB SNR. Performance depended on differences in relative entropy between targets and background. Lower-relative-entropy targets were better identified against higher-relative-entropy distractors than lower-relative-entropy distractors; higher-relative-entropy targets were better identified amidst lower-relative-entropy distractors. Results were consistent across signal-processing strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian E Stilp
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, 317 Life Sciences Building, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, USA
| | - Michael Kiefte
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Keith R Kluender
- Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Denham SL, Winkler I. Predictive coding in auditory perception: challenges and unresolved questions. Eur J Neurosci 2018; 51:1151-1160. [PMID: 29250827 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2017] [Revised: 09/03/2017] [Accepted: 11/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Predictive coding is arguably the currently dominant theoretical framework for the study of perception. It has been employed to explain important auditory perceptual phenomena, and it has inspired theoretical, experimental and computational modelling efforts aimed at describing how the auditory system parses the complex sound input into meaningful units (auditory scene analysis). These efforts have uncovered some vital questions, addressing which could help to further specify predictive coding and clarify some of its basic assumptions. The goal of the current review is to motivate these questions and show how unresolved issues in explaining some auditory phenomena lead to general questions of the theoretical framework. We focus on experimental and computational modelling issues related to sequential grouping in auditory scene analysis (auditory pattern detection and bistable perception), as we believe that this is the research topic where predictive coding has the highest potential for advancing our understanding. In addition to specific questions, our analysis led us to identify three more general questions that require further clarification: (1) What exactly is meant by prediction in predictive coding? (2) What governs which generative models make the predictions? and (3) What (if it exists) is the correlate of perceptual experience within the predictive coding framework?
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan L Denham
- School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK
| | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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Paredes-Gallardo A, Madsen SMK, Dau T, Marozeau J. The Role of Temporal Cues in Voluntary Stream Segregation for Cochlear Implant Users. Trends Hear 2018; 22:2331216518773226. [PMID: 29766759 PMCID: PMC5974563 DOI: 10.1177/2331216518773226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2018] [Revised: 03/27/2018] [Accepted: 03/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of temporal cues in sequential stream segregation was investigated in cochlear implant (CI) listeners using a delay detection task composed of a sequence of bursts of pulses (B) on a single electrode interleaved with a second sequence (A) presented on the same electrode with a different pulse rate. In half of the trials, a delay was added to the last burst of the otherwise regular B sequence and the listeners were asked to detect this delay. As a jitter was added to the period between consecutive A bursts, time judgments between the A and B sequences provided an unreliable cue to perform the task. Thus, the segregation of the A and B sequences should improve performance. The pulse rate difference and the duration of the sequences were varied between trials. The performance in the detection task improved by increasing both the pulse rate differences and the sequence duration. This suggests that CI listeners can use pulse rate differences to segregate sequential sounds and that a segregated percept builds up over time. In addition, the contribution of place versus temporal cues for voluntary stream segregation was assessed by combining the results from this study with those from our previous study, where the same paradigm was used to determine the role of place cues on stream segregation. Pitch height differences between the A and the B sounds accounted for the results from both studies, suggesting that stream segregation is related to the salience of the perceptual difference between the sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreu Paredes-Gallardo
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Sara M. K. Madsen
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jeremy Marozeau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Paredes-Gallardo A, Madsen SMK, Dau T, Marozeau J. The Role of Place Cues in Voluntary Stream Segregation for Cochlear Implant Users. Trends Hear 2018; 22:2331216517750262. [PMID: 29347886 PMCID: PMC5777547 DOI: 10.1177/2331216517750262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Sequential stream segregation by cochlear implant (CI) listeners was investigated using a temporal delay detection task composed of a sequence of regularly presented bursts of pulses on a single electrode (B) interleaved with an irregular sequence (A) presented on a different electrode. In half of the trials, a delay was added to the last burst of the regular B sequence, and the listeners were asked to detect this delay. As a jitter was added to the period between consecutive A bursts, time judgments between the A and B sequences provided an unreliable cue to perform the task. Thus, the segregation of the A and B sequences should improve performance. In Experiment 1, the electrode separation and the sequence duration were varied to clarify whether place cues help CI listeners to voluntarily segregate sounds and whether a two-stream percept needs time to build up. Results suggested that place cues can facilitate the segregation of sequential sounds if enough time is provided to build up a two-stream percept. In Experiment 2, the duration of the sequence was fixed, and only the electrode separation was varied to estimate the fission boundary. Most listeners were able to segregate the sounds for separations of three or more electrodes, and some listeners could segregate sounds coming from adjacent electrodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreu Paredes-Gallardo
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
| | - Sara M. K. Madsen
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
| | - Jeremy Marozeau
- Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
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