A psychoacoustic model for the noise masking of plosive bursts

Auditory masking of speech in reverberant multi-talker environments

Auditory localization research needs to be performed in more realistic testing environments to better capture the real-world abilities of listeners and their hearing devices. However, there are significant challenges involved in controlling the audibility of relevant target signals in realistic environments. To understand the important aspects influencing target detection in more complex environments, a reverberant room with a multi-talker background was simulated and presented to the listener in a loudspeaker-based virtual sound environment. Masked thresholds of a short speech stimulus were measured adaptively for multiple target source locations in this scenario. It was found that both distance and azimuth of the target source have a strong influence on the masked threshold. Subsequently, a functional model was applied to analyze the factors influencing target detectability. The model is comprised of an auditory front-end that generates an internal representation of the stimuli in both ears, followed by a decision device combining d' information across time, frequency and both ears. The model predictions of the masked thresholds were overall in very good agreement with the experimental results. An analysis of the model processes showed that head shadow effects, signal spectrum, and reverberation have a strong impact on target audibility in the given scenario.

A quantitative analysis of spectral mechanisms involved in auditory detection of coloration by a single wall reflection

Coloration detection thresholds (CDTs) were measured for a single reflection as a function of spectral content and reflection delay for diotic stimulus presentation. The direct sound was a 320-ms long burst of bandpass-filtered noise with varying lower and upper cut-off frequencies. The resulting threshold data revealed that: (1) sensitivity decreases with decreasing bandwidth and increasing reflection delay and (2) high-frequency components contribute less to detection than low-frequency components. The auditory processes that may be involved in coloration detection (CD) are discussed in terms of a spectrum-based auditory model, which is conceptually similar to the pattern-transformation model of pitch (Wightman, 1973). Hence, the model derives an auto-correlation function of the input stimulus by applying a frequency analysis to an auditory representation of the power spectrum. It was found that, to successfully describe the quantitative behavior of the CDT data, three important mechanisms need to be included: (1) auditory bandpass filters with a narrower bandwidth than classic Gammatone filters, the increase in spectral resolution was here linked to cochlear suppression, (2) a spectral contrast enhancement process that reflects neural inhibition mechanisms, and (3) integration of information across auditory frequency bands.

The temporal effect with notched-noise maskers: analysis in terms of input-output functions

This study examines whether a temporal masking effect may be consistent with a decrease in gain at the masker frequency during the course of the masker. Threshold level of a long-duration notched-noise masker needed to mask a 1- or 4-kHz signal was measured for three conditions: a short-duration signal with a short delay or a long delay from masker onset, and a long-duration signal. The difference between threshold for the long-delay signal and the short-delay signal was defined as the temporal effect. The size of the temporal effect depended on signal frequency, signal level, and masker notch width. Filters estimated from the data had narrower bandwidths for the long-delay condition than for the short-delay condition or the long-duration condition, which seems inconsistent with the hypothesis of a decrease in gain. However, modeling of the data in terms of basilar-membrane input-output functions is consistent with a decrease in gain in the masker frequency region during the course of the masker. For a notch width of 0.0 the results are consistent with a decrease in gain at the signal frequency. For a relative notch width of 0.4, the decrease in gain at the masker frequency may cause a decrease in the suppression of the signal. This decrease in suppression could explain the decrease in filter bandwidth with signal delay.

The relationship between frequency selectivity and overshoot

Under some conditions, threshold for a brief tone is higher at the onset of a broadband masker than it is if it is delayed from the onset of the masker. Evidence suggests that this "overshoot" is related to active processing in the auditory system. The present experiments examined this question, by measuring frequency selectivity under the same conditions in which overshoot was measured. The first experiment demonstrated that the growth of masking with masker level was approximately linear for a 1-kHz signal with or without a precursor (which was identical to the masker), and a 4-kHz signal with a precursor. For the 4-kHz signal with no precursor, an elevation in signal-to-masker ratio was seen at mid masker levels, relative to the other conditions. Frequency selectivity was then measured for a fixed-level signal, with and without a precursor. Relative frequency selectivity was highest for the 4-kHz signal with no precursor, lower for the 1-kHz signal with no precursor, and lowest for the 1- or 4-kHz signal with a precursor. The overshoot results and the frequency selectivity results would be consistent with stronger active processing at 4 kHz than at 1 kHz, and a decrease in active processing following a broadband noise precursor.

Adjustable frequency selectivity of auditory forebrain neurons recorded in a freely moving songbird via radiotelemetry

One of the hearing system's basic properties that determines the detection of signals is its frequency selectivity. In the natural environment, a songbird may achieve an improved detection ability if the neuronal filters of its auditory system could be sharpened to adapt to the spectrum of the background noise. To address this issue, we studied 35 multi-unit clusters in the input layer of the primary auditory forebrain of nine European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Microelectrodes were chronically implanted in this songbird's cortex analogue and the neuronal activity was transmitted from unrestrained birds via a miniature FM transmitter. Frequency tuning curves (FTCs) and inhibitory sidebands were determined by presenting a matrix of frequency-level combinations of pure tones. From each FTC, the characteristic frequency (CF) and several parameters describing the neurons' filter characteristics were derived and compared to the same recording site's filter function while simultaneously stimulating with a continuous CF tone 20 dB above the response threshold. Our results show a significant improvement of frequency selectivity during two-tone stimulation, indicating that spectral filtering in the starling's auditory forebrain depends on the acoustic background in which a signal is presented. Moreover, frequency selectivity was found to be a function of the time over which the stimulus persisted, since FTCs were much sharper and inhibitory sidebands were largely expanded several milliseconds after response onset. Neuronal filter bandwidths during two-tone stimulation in the auditory forebrain are in good agreement with psychoacoustically measured critical bandwidths in the same species. Radiotelemetry proved to be a powerful tool in studying neuronal activity in freely behaving birds.

Variable-duration notched-noise experiments in a broadband noise context

A variable-duration notched-noise experiment was conducted in a noise context. Broadband noise preceded and followed a tone and notched noise of similar duration. Thresholds were measured at four durations (10, 30, 100, and 300 ms), two center frequencies (0.6, 2.0 kHz), and five relative notch widths (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8). At 0.6 kHz, 10-ms thresholds decrease 6 dB across notch widths, while 300-ms thresholds decrease over 35 dB. These trends are similar but less pronounced at 2 kHz. In a second experiment, the short-duration notched noise was replaced with a flat noise which provided an equivalent amount of simultaneous masking and thresholds dropped by as much as 20 dB. A simple combination of simultaneous and nonsimultaneous masking is unable to predict these results. Instead, it appears that the elevated thresholds at short durations are dependent on the spectral shape of the simultaneous masker.