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Fan L, Kong L, Li L, Qu T. Sensitivity to a Break in Interaural Correlation in Frequency-Gliding Noises. Front Psychol 2021; 12:692785. [PMID: 34220654 PMCID: PMC8247655 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.692785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
This study was to investigate whether human listeners are able to detect a binaurally uncorrelated arbitrary-noise fragment embedded in binaurally identical arbitrary-noise markers [a break in correlation, break in interaural correlation (BIAC)] in either frequency-constant (frequency-steady) or frequency-varied (unidirectionally frequency gliding) noise. Ten participants with normal hearing were tested in Experiment 1 for up-gliding, down-gliding, and frequency-steady noises. Twenty-one participants with normal hearing were tested in Experiment 2a for both up-gliding and frequency-steady noises. Another nineteen participants with normal hearing were tested in Experiment 2b for both down-gliding and frequency-steady noises. Listeners were able to detect a BIAC in the frequency-steady noise (center frequency = 400 Hz) and two types of frequency-gliding noises (center frequency: between 100 and 1,600 Hz). The duration threshold for detecting the BIAC in frequency-gliding noises was significantly longer than that in the frequency-steady noise (Experiment 1), and the longest interaural delay at which a duration-fixed BIAC (200 ms) in frequency-gliding noises could be detected was significantly shorter than that in the frequency-steady noise (Experiment 2). Although human listeners can detect a BIAC in frequency-gliding noises, their sensitivity to a BIAC in frequency-gliding noises is much lower than that in frequency-steady noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Langchen Fan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Department of Machine Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Lingzhi Kong
- Language Pathology and Brain Science MEG Lab, School of Communication Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
| | - Liang Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Department of Machine Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Tianshu Qu
- Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Department of Machine Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing, China
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2
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Klein-Hennig M, Dietz M, Hohmann V. Combination of binaural and harmonic masking release effects in the detection of a single component in complex tones. Hear Res 2018; 359:23-31. [PMID: 29310976 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2017.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2015] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Both harmonic and binaural signal properties are relevant for auditory processing. To investigate how these cues combine in the auditory system, detection thresholds for an 800-Hz tone masked by a diotic (i.e., identical between the ears) harmonic complex tone were measured in six normal-hearing subjects. The target tone was presented either diotically or with an interaural phase difference (IPD) of 180° and in either harmonic or "mistuned" relationship to the diotic masker. Three different maskers were used, a resolved and an unresolved complex tone (fundamental frequency: 160 and 40 Hz) with four components below and above the target frequency and a broadband unresolved complex tone with 12 additional components. The target IPD provided release from masking in most masker conditions, whereas mistuning led to a significant release from masking only in the diotic conditions with the resolved and the narrowband unresolved maskers. A significant effect of mistuning was neither found in the diotic condition with the wideband unresolved masker nor in any of the dichotic conditions. An auditory model with a single analysis frequency band and different binaural processing schemes was employed to predict the data of the unresolved masker conditions. Sensitivity to modulation cues was achieved by including an auditory-motivated modulation filter in the processing pathway. The predictions of the diotic data were in line with the experimental results and literature data in the narrowband condition, but not in the broadband condition, suggesting that across-frequency processing is involved in processing modulation information. The experimental and model results in the dichotic conditions show that the binaural processor cannot exploit modulation information in binaurally unmasked conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Klein-Hennig
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Universität Oldenburg, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Mathias Dietz
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Universität Oldenburg, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Volker Hohmann
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Universität Oldenburg, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
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Dietz M, Lestang JH, Majdak P, Stern RM, Marquardt T, Ewert SD, Hartmann WM, Goodman DFM. A framework for testing and comparing binaural models. Hear Res 2017; 360:92-106. [PMID: 29208336 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2017.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2017] [Revised: 11/03/2017] [Accepted: 11/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Auditory research has a rich history of combining experimental evidence with computational simulations of auditory processing in order to deepen our theoretical understanding of how sound is processed in the ears and in the brain. Despite significant progress in the amount of detail and breadth covered by auditory models, for many components of the auditory pathway there are still different model approaches that are often not equivalent but rather in conflict with each other. Similarly, some experimental studies yield conflicting results which has led to controversies. This can be best resolved by a systematic comparison of multiple experimental data sets and model approaches. Binaural processing is a prominent example of how the development of quantitative theories can advance our understanding of the phenomena, but there remain several unresolved questions for which competing model approaches exist. This article discusses a number of current unresolved or disputed issues in binaural modelling, as well as some of the significant challenges in comparing binaural models with each other and with the experimental data. We introduce an auditory model framework, which we believe can become a useful infrastructure for resolving some of the current controversies. It operates models over the same paradigms that are used experimentally. The core of the proposed framework is an interface that connects three components irrespective of their underlying programming language: The experiment software, an auditory pathway model, and task-dependent decision stages called artificial observers that provide the same output format as the test subject.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathias Dietz
- National Centre for Audiology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
| | - Jean-Hugues Lestang
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Piotr Majdak
- Institut für Schallforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria
| | | | | | - Stephan D Ewert
- Medizinische Physik, Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | | | - Dan F M Goodman
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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Kong L, Xie Z, Lu L, Qu T, Wu X, Yan J, Li L. Similar Impacts of the Interaural Delay and Interaural Correlation on Binaural Gap Detection. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0126342. [PMID: 26125970 PMCID: PMC4488353 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2014] [Accepted: 04/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The subjective representation of the sounds delivered to the two ears of a human listener is closely associated with the interaural delay and correlation of these two-ear sounds. When the two-ear sounds, e.g., arbitrary noises, arrive simultaneously, the single auditory image of the binaurally identical noises becomes increasingly diffuse, and eventually separates into two auditory images as the interaural correlation decreases. When the interaural delay increases from zero to several milliseconds, the auditory image of the binaurally identical noises also changes from a single image to two distinct images. However, measuring the effect of these two factors on an identical group of participants has not been investigated. This study examined the impacts of interaural correlation and delay on detecting a binaurally uncorrelated fragment (interaural correlation = 0) embedded in the binaurally correlated noises (i.e., binaural gap or break in interaural correlation). We found that the minimum duration of the binaural gap for its detection (i.e., duration threshold) increased exponentially as the interaural delay between the binaurally identical noises increased linearly from 0 to 8 ms. When no interaural delay was introduced, the duration threshold also increased exponentially as the interaural correlation of the binaurally correlated noises decreased linearly from 1 to 0.4. A linear relationship between the effect of interaural delay and that of interaural correlation was described for listeners participating in this study: a 1 ms increase in interaural delay appeared to correspond to a 0.07 decrease in interaural correlation specific to raising the duration threshold. Our results imply that a tradeoff may exist between the impacts of interaural correlation and interaural delay on the subjective representation of sounds delivered to two human ears.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingzhi Kong
- Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, PR China
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Zilong Xie
- Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, PR China
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
| | - Lingxi Lu
- Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, PR China
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
| | - Tianshu Qu
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
| | - Xihong Wu
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
| | - Jun Yan
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Liang Li
- Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, PR China
- Speech and Hearing Research Center, Key Laboratory on Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, PR China
- * E-mail:
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Gaudrain E, Carlyon RP. Using Zebra-speech to study sequential and simultaneous speech segregation in a cochlear-implant simulation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2013; 133:502-518. [PMID: 23297922 PMCID: PMC3785145 DOI: 10.1121/1.4770243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have suggested that cochlear implant users may have particular difficulties exploiting opportunities to glimpse clear segments of a target speech signal in the presence of a fluctuating masker. Although it has been proposed that this difficulty is associated with a deficit in linking the glimpsed segments across time, the details of this mechanism are yet to be explained. The present study introduces a method called Zebra-speech developed to investigate the relative contribution of simultaneous and sequential segregation mechanisms in concurrent speech perception, using a noise-band vocoder to simulate cochlear implants. One experiment showed that the saliency of the difference between the target and the masker is a key factor for Zebra-speech perception, as it is for sequential segregation. Furthermore, forward masking played little or no role, confirming that intelligibility was not limited by energetic masking but by across-time linkage abilities. In another experiment, a binaural cue was used to distinguish the target and the masker. It showed that the relative contribution of simultaneous and sequential segregation depended on the spectral resolution, with listeners relying more on sequential segregation when the spectral resolution was reduced. The potential of Zebra-speech as a segregation enhancement strategy for cochlear implants is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Etienne Gaudrain
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, CB2 7EF Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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Hall JW, Buss E, Grose JH. Masked detection and discrimination of tone sequences under conditions of monaural and binaural masking release. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2011; 129:1482-1489. [PMID: 21428512 PMCID: PMC3078027 DOI: 10.1121/1.3552885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2010] [Revised: 01/07/2011] [Accepted: 01/15/2011] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Experiment 1 examined detection and discrimination of monaural four-tone sequences composed of 400-, 500-, and 625-Hz sinusoids. In the baseline conditions, the masker was monaural composed of 25-Hz-wide bands of random noise centered on 320, 400, 500, 625, and 781 Hz. In the binaural masking release conditions, the noise was presented diotically. In the monaural masking release conditions, the noise was presented to the same ear as the signal, but it was comodulated. Tones had half-amplitude durations of 30, 60, or 150 ms. There was no delay between successive tones, so the rate of frequency change depended on tone duration. Listeners discriminated between sequences composed of 500-400-625-500 Hz and 500-625-400-500 Hz. Discrimination results were poor for rapid sequences in both monaural and binaural masking release conditions relative to baseline conditions. Results from experiment 2 indicated that poor discrimination for rapid sequences could also occur in the baseline conditions, provided that the frequency separation among tonal components was small. Sluggish processing in the present paradigm was not restricted to conditions relying on binaural cues. It is argued that sluggishness may reflect a long temporal window in monaural and binaural masking release conditions or an interaction between poor cue quality and task difficulty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph W Hall
- Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 170 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7070, USA.
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Sensitivity of the Human Binaural Cortical Steady State Response to Interaural Level Differences. Ear Hear 2011; 32:114-20. [DOI: 10.1097/aud.0b013e3181ec5d7a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Buss E, Hall Iii JW. Effects of non-simultaneous masking on the binaural masking level difference. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2011; 129:907-919. [PMID: 21361448 PMCID: PMC3070997 DOI: 10.1121/1.3514528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2010] [Revised: 10/08/2010] [Accepted: 10/17/2010] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
The present study sought to clarify the role of non-simultaneous masking in the binaural masking level difference for maskers that fluctuate in level. In the first experiment the signal was a brief 500-Hz tone, and the masker was a bandpass noise (100-2000 Hz), with the initial and final 200-ms bursts presented at 40-dB spectrum level and the inter-burst gap presented at 20-dB spectrum level. Temporal windows were fitted to thresholds measured for a range of gap durations and signal positions within the gap. In the second experiment, individual differences in out of phase (NoSπ) thresholds were compared for a brief signal in a gapped bandpass masker, a brief signal in a steady bandpass masker, and a long signal in a narrowband (50-Hz-wide) noise masker. The third experiment measured brief tone detection thresholds in forward, simultaneous, and backward masking conditions for a 50- and for a 1900-Hz-wide noise masker centered on the 500-Hz signal frequency. Results are consistent with comparable temporal resolution in the in phase (NoSo) and NoSπ conditions and no effect of temporal resolution on individual observers' ability to utilize binaural cues in narrowband noise. The large masking release observed for a narrowband noise masker may be due to binaural masking release from non-simultaneous, informational masking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Buss
- Department of Otolaryngology∕Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
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Plack CJ, Turgeon M, Lancaster S, Carlyon RP, Gockel HE. Frequency discrimination duration effects for Huggins pitch and narrowband noise (L). THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2011; 129:1-4. [PMID: 21302981 PMCID: PMC3334503 DOI: 10.1121/1.3518745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Frequency difference limens (FDLs) were measured for Huggins pitch (HP) stimuli, consisting of a 30-Hz wide band of interaurally decorrelated noise in a diotic low-pass noise and for 30-Hz wide bands of diotic narrowband noise presented in a diotic low-pass noise background. FDLs at a 400-ms duration for the two stimulus types were equated by adjusting the level of the narrowband noise relative to the background. The effects of duration on the FDLs were then measured for center frequencies of 300, 600, and 900 Hz. Although the results were compromised by floor effects at 900 Hz, at 300 and 600 Hz, the duration effects were very similar for the HP and narrowband noise stimuli, with a large improvement in performance between 100 and 400 ms. In contrast to previous results for pure tones, the effect of duration was independent of frequency. The results suggest that: (1) Binaural and monaural pitches may be processed using a common mechanism; (2) discrimination performance for HP and low-sensation-level narrowband noise stimuli is not determined by the number of waveform periods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Plack
- Human Communication and Deafness Division, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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Abstract
In contrast to the transient (N1-P2) and steady-state (<20 Hz) cortical responses, neither the transient (auditory brain stem response) nor the steady-state (80 Hz) brain stem responses show the binaural masking level difference (BMLD). This study determined behavioral and 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR) BMLDs for both signal and noise interaural inversions. Results showed clear behavioral BMLD but no 40-Hz ASSR BMLD. However, ASSR amplitudes were significantly smaller in dichotic compared with diotic conditions. Thus, although 40-Hz ASSR thresholds do not reflect the BMLD, the amplitude suppression under dichotic conditions may be a precursor to the subsequent <20-Hz ASSR and behavioral BMLDs.
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