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Ihlefeld A, Chen YW, Sanes DH. Developmental Conductive Hearing Loss Reduces Modulation Masking Release. Trends Hear 2018; 20:2331216516676255. [PMID: 28215119 PMCID: PMC5318943 DOI: 10.1177/2331216516676255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Hearing-impaired individuals experience difficulties in detecting or understanding speech, especially in background sounds within the same frequency range. However, normally hearing (NH) human listeners experience less difficulty detecting a target tone in background noise when the envelope of that noise is temporally gated (modulated) than when that envelope is flat across time (unmodulated). This perceptual benefit is called modulation masking release (MMR). When flanking masker energy is added well outside the frequency band of the target, and comodulated with the original modulated masker, detection thresholds improve further (MMR+). In contrast, if the flanking masker is antimodulated with the original masker, thresholds worsen (MMR−). These interactions across disparate frequency ranges are thought to require central nervous system (CNS) processing. Therefore, we explored the effect of developmental conductive hearing loss (CHL) in gerbils on MMR characteristics, as a test for putative CNS mechanisms. The detection thresholds of NH gerbils were lower in modulated noise, when compared with unmodulated noise. The addition of a comodulated flanker further improved performance, whereas an antimodulated flanker worsened performance. However, for CHL-reared gerbils, all three forms of masking release were reduced when compared with NH animals. These results suggest that developmental CHL impairs both within- and across-frequency processing and provide behavioral evidence that CNS mechanisms are affected by a peripheral hearing impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antje Ihlefeld
- 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
| | - Yi-Wen Chen
- 2 Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA
| | - Dan H Sanes
- 2 Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA.,3 Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA.,4 Department of Biology, New York University, NY, USA
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Bohlen P, Dylla M, Timms C, Ramachandran R. Detection of modulated tones in modulated noise by non-human primates. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2014; 15:801-21. [PMID: 24899380 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-014-0467-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2014] [Accepted: 05/08/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
In natural environments, many sounds are amplitude-modulated. Amplitude modulation is thought to be a signal that aids auditory object formation. A previous study of the detection of signals in noise found that when tones or noise were amplitude-modulated, the noise was a less effective masker, and detection thresholds for tones in noise were lowered. These results suggest that the detection of modulated signals in modulated noise would be enhanced. This paper describes the results of experiments investigating how detection is modified when both signal and noise were amplitude-modulated. Two monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained to detect amplitude-modulated tones in continuous, amplitude-modulated broadband noise. When the phase difference of otherwise similarly amplitude-modulated tones and noise were varied, detection thresholds were highest when the modulations were in phase and lowest when the modulations were anti-phase. When the depth of the modulation of tones or noise was varied, detection thresholds decreased if the modulations were anti-phase. When the modulations were in phase, increasing the depth of tone modulation caused an increase in tone detection thresholds, but increasing depth of noise modulations did not affect tone detection thresholds. Changing the modulation frequency of tone or noise caused changes in threshold that saturated at modulation frequencies higher than 20 Hz; thresholds decreased when the tone and noise modulations were in phase and decreased when they were anti-phase. The relationship between reaction times and tone level were not modified by manipulations to the nature of temporal variations in the signal or noise. The changes in behavioral threshold were consistent with a model where the brain subtracted noise from signal. These results suggest that the parameters of the modulation of signals and maskers heavily influence detection in very predictable ways. These results are consistent with some results in humans and avians and form the baseline for neurophysiological studies of mechanisms of detection in noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Bohlen
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA,
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Bee MA. Treefrogs as animal models for research on auditory scene analysis and the cocktail party problem. Int J Psychophysiol 2014; 95:216-37. [PMID: 24424243 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2013] [Revised: 11/10/2013] [Accepted: 01/01/2014] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
The perceptual analysis of acoustic scenes involves binding together sounds from the same source and separating them from other sounds in the environment. In large social groups, listeners experience increased difficulty performing these tasks due to high noise levels and interference from the concurrent signals of multiple individuals. While a substantial body of literature on these issues pertains to human hearing and speech communication, few studies have investigated how nonhuman animals may be evolutionarily adapted to solve biologically analogous communication problems. Here, I review recent and ongoing work aimed at testing hypotheses about perceptual mechanisms that enable treefrogs in the genus Hyla to communicate vocally in noisy, multi-source social environments. After briefly introducing the genus and the methods used to study hearing in frogs, I outline several functional constraints on communication posed by the acoustic environment of breeding "choruses". Then, I review studies of sound source perception aimed at uncovering how treefrog listeners may be adapted to cope with these constraints. Specifically, this review covers research on the acoustic cues used in sequential and simultaneous auditory grouping, spatial release from masking, and dip listening. Throughout the paper, I attempt to illustrate how broad-scale, comparative studies of carefully considered animal models may ultimately reveal an evolutionary diversity of underlying mechanisms for solving cocktail-party-like problems in communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark A Bee
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
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Dip listening or modulation masking? Call recognition by green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) in temporally fluctuating noise. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2012; 198:891-904. [PMID: 23069882 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-012-0760-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2012] [Revised: 09/08/2012] [Accepted: 09/13/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Despite the importance of perceptually separating signals from background noise, we still know little about how nonhuman animals solve this problem. Dip listening, an ability to catch meaningful 'acoustic glimpses' of a target signal when fluctuating background noise levels momentarily drop, constitutes one possible solution. Amplitude-modulated noises, however, can sometimes impair signal recognition through a process known as modulation masking. We asked whether fluctuating noise simulating a breeding chorus affects the ability of female green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) to recognize male advertisement calls. Our analysis of recordings of the sounds of green treefrog choruses reveal that their levels fluctuate primarily at rates below 10 Hz. In laboratory phonotaxis tests, we found no evidence for dip listening or modulation masking. Mean signal recognition thresholds in the presence of fluctuating chorus-like noises were never statistically different from those in the presence of a non-fluctuating control. An analysis of statistical effects sizes indicates that masker fluctuation rates, and the presence versus absence of fluctuations, had negligible effects on subject behavior. Together, our results suggest that females listening in natural settings should receive no benefits, nor experience any additional constraints, as a result of level fluctuations in the soundscape of green treefrog choruses.
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Abstract
Twenty years ago, a new conceptual paradigm known as 'receiver psychology' was introduced to explain the evolution of animal communication systems. This paradigm advanced the idea that psychological processes in the receiver's nervous system influence a signal's detectability, discriminability and memorability, and thereby serve as powerful sources of selection shaping signal design. While advancing our understanding of signal diversity, more recent studies make clear that receiver psychology, as a paradigm, has been structured too narrowly and does not incorporate many of the perceptual and cognitive processes of signal reception that operate between sensory transduction and a receiver's response. Consequently, the past two decades of research on receiver psychology have emphasized considerations of signal evolution but failed to ask key questions about the mechanisms of signal reception and their evolution. The primary aim of this essay is to advocate for a broader receiver psychology paradigm that more explicitly includes a research focus on receivers' psychological landscapes. We review recent experimental studies of hearing and sound communication to illustrate how considerations of several general perceptual and cognitive processes will facilitate future research on animal signalling systems. We also emphasize how a rigorous comparative approach to receiver psychology is critical to explicating the full range of perceptual and cognitive processes involved in receiving and responding to signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cory T. Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego
| | - Mark A. Bee
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
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Yin P, Johnson JS, O'Connor KN, Sutter ML. Coding of amplitude modulation in primary auditory cortex. J Neurophysiol 2010; 105:582-600. [PMID: 21148093 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00621.2010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Conflicting results have led to different views about how temporal modulation is encoded in primary auditory cortex (A1). Some studies find a substantial population of neurons that change firing rate without synchronizing to temporal modulation, whereas other studies fail to see these nonsynchronized neurons. As a result, the role and scope of synchronized temporal and nonsynchronized rate codes in AM processing in A1 remains unresolved. We recorded A1 neurons' responses in awake macaques to sinusoidal AM noise. We find most (37-78%) neurons synchronize to at least one modulation frequency (MF) without exhibiting nonsynchronized responses. However, we find both exclusively nonsynchronized neurons (7-29%) and "mixed-mode" neurons (13-40%) that synchronize to at least one MF and fire nonsynchronously to at least one other. We introduce new measures for modulation encoding and temporal synchrony that can improve the analysis of how neurons encode temporal modulation. These include comparing AM responses to the responses to unmodulated sounds, and a vector strength measure that is suitable for single-trial analysis. Our data support a transformation from a temporally based population code of AM to a rate-based code as information ascends the auditory pathway. The number of mixed-mode neurons found in A1 indicates this transformation is not yet complete, and A1 neurons may carry multiplexed temporal and rate codes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pingbo Yin
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California at Davis, 1544 Newton Court, Davis, CA 95618, USA
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Rothe T, Deliano M, Scheich H, Stark H. Segregation of task-relevant conditioned stimuli from background stimuli by associative learning. Brain Res 2009; 1297:143-59. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.08.055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2009] [Revised: 07/25/2009] [Accepted: 08/17/2009] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Buschermöhle M, Feudel U, Freund JA. Enhanced signal detectability in comodulated noise introduced by compression. BIOLOGICAL CYBERNETICS 2008; 99:491-502. [PMID: 18810486 DOI: 10.1007/s00422-008-0255-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2008] [Accepted: 08/29/2008] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Many examples of natural noise show common amplitude modulations at different frequency regions. This kind of noise has been termed comodulated noise and is widely examined in hearing research, where an enhanced detectability of pure tones and narrow noise bands in comodulated noise compared to unmodulated noise is well known as the CMR or CDD effects, respectively. Here it is shown that only one signal processing step, a compressive nonlinearity motivated by the peripheral auditory system, is sufficient to explain a considerable contribution to these effects. Using an analytical approach, the influence of compression on the detectability of periodic and narrow band signals in the presence of unmodulated and comodulated noise is investigated. This theoretical treatment allows for identifying the mechanism leading to improved signal detection. The compressive nonlinearity constitutes an adaptive gain which selectively boosts a stimulus during time spans of inherently increased signal-to-noise ratio and attenuates it during time spans dominated by noise. On average, these time spans are more pronounced in stimuli with comodulated noise than with unmodulated noise, thus giving rise to the observed CMR and CDD effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Buschermöhle
- International Graduate School for Neurosensory Sciences, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
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Bee MA, Micheyl C. The cocktail party problem: what is it? How can it be solved? And why should animal behaviorists study it? J Comp Psychol 2008; 122:235-51. [PMID: 18729652 PMCID: PMC2692487 DOI: 10.1037/0735-7036.122.3.235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 195] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Animals often use acoustic signals to communicate in groups or social aggregations in which multiple individuals signal within a receiver's hearing range. Consequently, receivers face challenges related to acoustic interference and auditory masking that are not unlike the human cocktail party problem, which refers to the problem of perceiving speech in noisy social settings. Understanding the sensory solutions to the cocktail party problem has been a goal of research on human hearing and speech communication for several decades. Despite a general interest in acoustic signaling in groups, animal behaviorists have devoted comparatively less attention toward understanding how animals solve problems equivalent to the human cocktail party problem. After illustrating how humans and nonhuman animals experience and overcome similar perceptual challenges in cocktail-party-like social environments, this article reviews previous psychophysical and physiological studies of humans and nonhuman animals to describe how the cocktail party problem can be solved. This review also outlines several basic and applied benefits that could result from studies of the cocktail party problem in the context of animal acoustic communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark A Bee
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
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Bee MA, Buschermöhle M, Klump GM. Detecting modulated signals in modulated noise: (II) neural thresholds in the songbird forebrain. Eur J Neurosci 2008; 26:1979-94. [PMID: 17897401 DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05805.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Sounds in the real world fluctuate in amplitude. The vertebrate auditory system exploits patterns of amplitude fluctuations to improve signal detection in noise. One experimental paradigm demonstrating these general effects has been used in psychophysical studies of 'comodulation detection difference' (CDD). The CDD effect refers to the fact that thresholds for detecting a modulated, narrowband noise signal are lower when the envelopes of flanking bands of modulated noise are comodulated with each other, but fluctuate independently of the signal compared with conditions in which the envelopes of the signal and flanking bands are all comodulated. Here, we report results from a study of the neural correlates of CDD in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). We manipulated: (i) the envelope correlations between a narrowband noise signal and a masker comprised of six flanking bands of noise; (ii) the signal onset delay relative to masker onset; (iii) signal duration; and (iv) masker spectrum level. Masked detection thresholds were determined from neural responses using signal detection theory. Across conditions, the magnitude of neural CDD ranged between 2 and 8 dB, which is similar to that reported in a companion psychophysical study of starlings [U. Langemann & G.M. Klump (2007) Eur. J. Neurosci., 26, 1969-1978]. We found little evidence to suggest that neural CDD resulted from the across-channel processing of auditory grouping cues related to common envelope fluctuations and synchronous onsets between the signal and flanking bands. We discuss a within-channel model of peripheral processing that explains many of our results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark A Bee
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA.
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