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Farahbod H, Rogalsky C, Keator LM, Cai J, Pillay SB, Turner K, LaCroix A, Fridriksson J, Binder JR, Middlebrooks JC, Hickok G, Saberi K. Informational Masking in Aging and Brain-lesioned Individuals. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2023; 24:67-79. [PMID: 36471207 PMCID: PMC9971540 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-022-00877-9] [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: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Auditory stream segregation and informational masking were investigated in brain-lesioned individuals, age-matched controls with no neurological disease, and young college-age students. A psychophysical paradigm known as rhythmic masking release (RMR) was used to examine the ability of participants to identify a change in the rhythmic sequence of 20-ms Gaussian noise bursts presented through headphones and filtered through generalized head-related transfer functions to produce the percept of an externalized auditory image (i.e., a 3D virtual reality sound). The target rhythm was temporally interleaved with a masker sequence comprising similar noise bursts in a manner that resulted in a uniform sequence with no information remaining about the target rhythm when the target and masker were presented from the same location (an impossible task). Spatially separating the target and masker sequences allowed participants to determine if there was a change in the target rhythm midway during its presentation. RMR thresholds were defined as the minimum spatial separation between target and masker sequences that resulted in 70.7% correct-performance level in a single-interval 2-alternative forced-choice adaptive tracking procedure. The main findings were (1) significantly higher RMR thresholds for individuals with brain lesions (especially those with damage to parietal areas) and (2) a left-right spatial asymmetry in performance for lesion (but not control) participants. These findings contribute to a better understanding of spatiotemporal relations in informational masking and the neural bases of auditory scene analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haleh Farahbod
- grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Corianne Rogalsky
- grid.215654.10000 0001 2151 2636College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
| | - Lynsey M. Keator
- grid.254567.70000 0000 9075 106XDepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
| | - Julia Cai
- grid.215654.10000 0001 2151 2636College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
| | - Sara B. Pillay
- grid.30760.320000 0001 2111 8460Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA
| | - Katie Turner
- grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Arianna LaCroix
- grid.260024.20000 0004 0627 4571College of Health Sciences, Midwestern University, Glendale, USA
| | - Julius Fridriksson
- grid.254567.70000 0000 9075 106XDepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
| | - Jeffrey R. Binder
- grid.30760.320000 0001 2111 8460Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA
| | - John C. Middlebrooks
- grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA ,grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Otolaryngology, University of California, Irvine, USA ,grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Language Science, University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Gregory Hickok
- grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA ,grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Language Science, University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Kourosh Saberi
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA.
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Gurariy G, Randall R, Greenberg AS. Manipulation of low-level features modulates grouping strength of auditory objects. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2020; 85:2256-2270. [PMID: 32691138 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01391-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2019] [Accepted: 07/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
A central challenge of auditory processing involves the segregation, analysis, and integration of acoustic information into auditory perceptual objects for processing by higher order cognitive operations. This study explores the influence of low-level features on auditory object perception. Participants provided perceived musicality ratings in response to randomly generated pure tone sequences. Previous work has shown that music perception relies on the integration of discrete sounds into a holistic structure. Hence, high (versus low) ratings were viewed as indicative of strong (versus weak) object formation. Additionally, participants rated sequences in which random subsets of tones were manipulated along one of three low-level dimensions (timbre, amplitude, or fade-in) at one of three strengths (low, medium, or high). Our primary findings demonstrate how low-level acoustic features modulate the perception of auditory objects, as measured by changes in musicality ratings for manipulated sequences. Secondarily, we used principal component analysis to categorize participants into subgroups based on differential sensitivities to low-level auditory dimensions, thereby highlighting the importance of individual differences in auditory perception. Finally, we report asymmetries regarding the effects of low-level dimensions; specifically, the perceptual significance of timbre. Together, these data contribute to our understanding of how low-level auditory features modulate auditory object perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gennadiy Gurariy
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Medical College of Wisconsin & Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA
| | - Richard Randall
- School of Music and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
| | - Adam S Greenberg
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Medical College of Wisconsin & Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA
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3
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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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Streaming of Repeated Noise in Primary and Secondary Fields of Auditory Cortex. J Neurosci 2020; 40:3783-3798. [PMID: 32273487 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2105-19.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2019] [Revised: 02/06/2020] [Accepted: 02/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Statistical regularities in natural sounds facilitate the perceptual segregation of auditory sources, or streams. Repetition is one cue that drives stream segregation in humans, but the neural basis of this perceptual phenomenon remains unknown. We demonstrated a similar perceptual ability in animals by training ferrets of both sexes to detect a stream of repeating noise samples (foreground) embedded in a stream of random samples (background). During passive listening, we recorded neural activity in primary auditory cortex (A1) and secondary auditory cortex (posterior ectosylvian gyrus, PEG). We used two context-dependent encoding models to test for evidence of streaming of the repeating stimulus. The first was based on average evoked activity per noise sample and the second on the spectro-temporal receptive field. Both approaches tested whether differences in neural responses to repeating versus random stimuli were better modeled by scaling the response to both streams equally (global gain) or by separately scaling the response to the foreground versus background stream (stream-specific gain). Consistent with previous observations of adaptation, we found an overall reduction in global gain when the stimulus began to repeat. However, when we measured stream-specific changes in gain, responses to the foreground were enhanced relative to the background. This enhancement was stronger in PEG than A1. In A1, enhancement was strongest in units with low sparseness (i.e., broad sensory tuning) and with tuning selective for the repeated sample. Enhancement of responses to the foreground relative to the background provides evidence for stream segregation that emerges in A1 and is refined in PEG.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To interact with the world successfully, the brain must parse behaviorally important information from a complex sensory environment. Complex mixtures of sounds often arrive at the ears simultaneously or in close succession, yet they are effortlessly segregated into distinct perceptual sources. This process breaks down in hearing-impaired individuals and speech recognition devices. By identifying the underlying neural mechanisms that facilitate perceptual segregation, we can develop strategies for ameliorating hearing loss and improving speech recognition technology in the presence of background noise. Here, we present evidence to support a hierarchical process, present in primary auditory cortex and refined in secondary auditory cortex, in which sound repetition facilitates segregation.
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Abstract
The cocktail party problem requires listeners to infer individual sound sources from mixtures of sound. The problem can be solved only by leveraging regularities in natural sound sources, but little is known about how such regularities are internalized. We explored whether listeners learn source "schemas"-the abstract structure shared by different occurrences of the same type of sound source-and use them to infer sources from mixtures. We measured the ability of listeners to segregate mixtures of time-varying sources. In each experiment a subset of trials contained schema-based sources generated from a common template by transformations (transposition and time dilation) that introduced acoustic variation but preserved abstract structure. Across several tasks and classes of sound sources, schema-based sources consistently aided source separation, in some cases producing rapid improvements in performance over the first few exposures to a schema. Learning persisted across blocks that did not contain the learned schema, and listeners were able to learn and use multiple schemas simultaneously. No learning was evident when schema were presented in the task-irrelevant (i.e., distractor) source. However, learning from task-relevant stimuli showed signs of being implicit, in that listeners were no more likely to report that sources recurred in experiments containing schema-based sources than in control experiments containing no schema-based sources. The results implicate a mechanism for rapidly internalizing abstract sound structure, facilitating accurate perceptual organization of sound sources that recur in the environment.
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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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Aggelopoulos NC, Deike S, Selezneva E, Scheich H, Brechmann A, Brosch M. Predictive cues for auditory stream formation in humans and monkeys. Eur J Neurosci 2017; 51:1254-1264. [PMID: 29250854 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13808] [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: 06/16/2017] [Revised: 12/12/2017] [Accepted: 12/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Auditory perception is improved when stimuli are predictable, and this effect is evident in a modulation of the activity of neurons in the auditory cortex as shown previously. Human listeners can better predict the presence of duration deviants embedded in stimulus streams with fixed interonset interval (isochrony) and repeated duration pattern (regularity), and neurons in the auditory cortex of macaque monkeys have stronger sustained responses in the 60-140 ms post-stimulus time window under these conditions. Subsequently, the question has arisen whether isochrony or regularity in the sensory input contributed to the enhancement of the neuronal and behavioural responses. Therefore, we varied the two factors isochrony and regularity independently and measured the ability of human subjects to detect deviants embedded in these sequences as well as measuring the responses of neurons the primary auditory cortex of macaque monkeys during presentations of the sequences. The performance of humans in detecting deviants was significantly increased by regularity. Isochrony enhanced detection only in the presence of the regularity cue. In monkeys, regularity increased the sustained component of neuronal tone responses in auditory cortex while isochrony had no consistent effect. Although both regularity and isochrony can be considered as parameters that would make a sequence of sounds more predictable, our results from the human and monkey experiments converge in that regularity has a greater influence on behavioural performance and neuronal responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikolaos C Aggelopoulos
- Special Lab of Primate Neurobiology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestr. 6, 39118, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Susann Deike
- Special Lab Non-invasive Brain Imaging, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Elena Selezneva
- Special Lab of Primate Neurobiology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestr. 6, 39118, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Henning Scheich
- Emeritus Group Lifelong Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - André Brechmann
- Special Lab Non-invasive Brain Imaging, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Michael Brosch
- Special Lab of Primate Neurobiology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestr. 6, 39118, Magdeburg, Germany.,Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany
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8
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Szabó BT, Denham SL, Winkler I. Computational Models of Auditory Scene Analysis: A Review. Front Neurosci 2016; 10:524. [PMID: 27895552 PMCID: PMC5108797 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2016] [Accepted: 10/28/2016] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Auditory scene analysis (ASA) refers to the process (es) of parsing the complex acoustic input into auditory perceptual objects representing either physical sources or temporal sound patterns, such as melodies, which contributed to the sound waves reaching the ears. A number of new computational models accounting for some of the perceptual phenomena of ASA have been published recently. Here we provide a theoretically motivated review of these computational models, aiming to relate their guiding principles to the central issues of the theoretical framework of ASA. Specifically, we ask how they achieve the grouping and separation of sound elements and whether they implement some form of competition between alternative interpretations of the sound input. We consider the extent to which they include predictive processes, as important current theories suggest that perception is inherently predictive, and also how they have been evaluated. We conclude that current computational models of ASA are fragmentary in the sense that rather than providing general competing interpretations of ASA, they focus on assessing the utility of specific processes (or algorithms) for finding the causes of the complex acoustic signal. This leaves open the possibility for integrating complementary aspects of the models into a more comprehensive theory of ASA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beáta T Szabó
- Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, Pázmány Péter Catholic UniversityBudapest, Hungary; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of SciencesBudapest, Hungary
| | - Susan L Denham
- School of Psychology, University of Plymouth Plymouth, UK
| | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Hungary
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9
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Tóth B, Kocsis Z, Háden GP, Szerafin Á, Shinn-Cunningham BG, Winkler I. EEG signatures accompanying auditory figure-ground segregation. Neuroimage 2016; 141:108-119. [PMID: 27421185 PMCID: PMC5656226 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.07.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2016] [Revised: 07/06/2016] [Accepted: 07/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In everyday acoustic scenes, figure-ground segregation typically requires one to group together sound elements over both time and frequency. Electroencephalogram was recorded while listeners detected repeating tonal complexes composed of a random set of pure tones within stimuli consisting of randomly varying tonal elements. The repeating pattern was perceived as a figure over the randomly changing background. It was found that detection performance improved both as the number of pure tones making up each repeated complex (figure coherence) increased, and as the number of repeated complexes (duration) increased - i.e., detection was easier when either the spectral or temporal structure of the figure was enhanced. Figure detection was accompanied by the elicitation of the object related negativity (ORN) and the P400 event-related potentials (ERPs), which have been previously shown to be evoked by the presence of two concurrent sounds. Both ERP components had generators within and outside of auditory cortex. The amplitudes of the ORN and the P400 increased with both figure coherence and figure duration. However, only the P400 amplitude correlated with detection performance. These results suggest that 1) the ORN and P400 reflect processes involved in detecting the emergence of a new auditory object in the presence of other concurrent auditory objects; 2) the ORN corresponds to the likelihood of the presence of two or more concurrent sound objects, whereas the P400 reflects the perceptual recognition of the presence of multiple auditory objects and/or preparation for reporting the detection of a target object.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brigitta Tóth
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, USA.
| | - Zsuzsanna Kocsis
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gábor P Háden
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ágnes Szerafin
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
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10
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Chang AC, Lutfi R, Lee J, Heo I. A Detection-Theoretic Analysis of Auditory Streaming and Its Relation to Auditory Masking. Trends Hear 2016; 20:20/0/2331216516664343. [PMID: 27641681 PMCID: PMC5029798 DOI: 10.1177/2331216516664343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on hearing has long been challenged with understanding our exceptional ability to hear out individual sounds in a mixture (the so-called cocktail party problem). Two general approaches to the problem have been taken using sequences of tones as stimuli. The first has focused on our tendency to hear sequences, sufficiently separated in frequency, split into separate cohesive streams (auditory streaming). The second has focused on our ability to detect a change in one sequence, ignoring all others (auditory masking). The two phenomena are clearly related, but that relation has never been evaluated analytically. This article offers a detection-theoretic analysis of the relation between multitone streaming and masking that underscores the expected similarities and differences between these phenomena and the predicted outcome of experiments in each case. The key to establishing this relation is the function linking performance to the information divergence of the tone sequences, DKL (a measure of the statistical separation of their parameters). A strong prediction is that streaming and masking of tones will be a common function of DKL provided that the statistical properties of sequences are symmetric. Results of experiments are reported supporting this prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- An-Chieh Chang
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
| | - Robert Lutfi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
| | - Jungmee Lee
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
| | - Inseok Heo
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
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11
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Chang AC, Lutfi RA, Lee J. Auditory streaming of tones of uncertain frequency, level, and duration. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2015; 138:EL504-EL508. [PMID: 26723358 PMCID: PMC4676779 DOI: 10.1121/1.4936981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2015] [Revised: 10/15/2015] [Accepted: 11/20/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Stimulus uncertainty is known to critically affect auditory masking, but its influence on auditory streaming has been largely ignored. Standard ABA-ABA tone sequences were made increasingly uncertain by increasing the sigma of normal distributions from which the frequency, level, or duration of tones were randomly drawn. Consistent with predictions based on a model of masking by Lutfi, Gilbertson, Chang, and Stamas [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134, 2160-2170 (2013)], the frequency difference for which A and B tones formed separate streams increased as a linear function of sigma in tone frequency but was much less affected by sigma in tone level or duration.
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Affiliation(s)
- An-Chieh Chang
- Auditory Behavioral Research Lab, Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA , ,
| | - Robert A Lutfi
- Auditory Behavioral Research Lab, Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA , ,
| | - Jungmee Lee
- Auditory Behavioral Research Lab, Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA , ,
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12
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Winkler I, Schröger E. Auditory perceptual objects as generative models: Setting the stage for communication by sound. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2015; 148:1-22. [PMID: 26184883 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2014] [Revised: 03/03/2015] [Accepted: 05/03/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Communication by sounds requires that the communication channels (i.e. speech/speakers and other sound sources) had been established. This allows to separate concurrently active sound sources, to track their identity, to assess the type of message arriving from them, and to decide whether and when to react (e.g., reply to the message). We propose that these functions rely on a common generative model of the auditory environment. This model predicts upcoming sounds on the basis of representations describing temporal/sequential regularities. Predictions help to identify the continuation of the previously discovered sound sources to detect the emergence of new sources as well as changes in the behavior of the known ones. It produces auditory event representations which provide a full sensory description of the sounds, including their relation to the auditory context and the current goals of the organism. Event representations can be consciously perceived and serve as objects in various cognitive operations.
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Affiliation(s)
- István Winkler
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary; Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary.
| | - Erich Schröger
- Institute for Psychology, University of Leipzig, Germany.
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13
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Shestopalova L, Bőhm TM, Bendixen A, Andreou AG, Georgiou J, Garreau G, Hajdu B, Denham SL, Winkler I. Do audio-visual motion cues promote segregation of auditory streams? Front Neurosci 2014; 8:64. [PMID: 24778604 PMCID: PMC3985028 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2014] [Accepted: 03/19/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
An audio-visual experiment using moving sound sources was designed to investigate whether the analysis of auditory scenes is modulated by synchronous presentation of visual information. Listeners were presented with an alternating sequence of two pure tones delivered by two separate sound sources. In different conditions, the two sound sources were either stationary or moving on random trajectories around the listener. Both the sounds and the movement trajectories were derived from recordings in which two humans were moving with loudspeakers attached to their heads. Visualized movement trajectories modeled by a computer animation were presented together with the sounds. In the main experiment, behavioral reports on sound organization were collected from young healthy volunteers. The proportion and stability of the different sound organizations were compared between the conditions in which the visualized trajectories matched the movement of the sound sources and when the two were independent of each other. The results corroborate earlier findings that separation of sound sources in space promotes segregation. However, no additional effect of auditory movement per se on the perceptual organization of sounds was obtained. Surprisingly, the presentation of movement-congruent visual cues did not strengthen the effects of spatial separation on segregating auditory streams. Our findings are consistent with the view that bistability in the auditory modality can occur independently from other modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lidia Shestopalova
- Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences St.-Petersburg, Russia
| | - Tamás M Bőhm
- Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Hungary ; Department of Telecommunications and Media Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics Budapest, Hungary
| | - Alexandra Bendixen
- Auditory Psychophysiology Lab, Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Andreas G Andreou
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD, USA ; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Julius Georgiou
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Guillaume Garreau
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Botond Hajdu
- Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Hungary
| | - Susan L Denham
- School of Psychology, Cognition Institute, University of Plymouth Plymouth, UK
| | - István Winkler
- Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Hungary ; Department of Cognitive and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged Szeged, Hungary
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14
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Bendixen A. Predictability effects in auditory scene analysis: a review. Front Neurosci 2014; 8:60. [PMID: 24744695 PMCID: PMC3978260 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2014] [Accepted: 03/14/2014] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Many sound sources emit signals in a predictable manner. The idea that predictability can be exploited to support the segregation of one source's signal emissions from the overlapping signals of other sources has been expressed for a long time. Yet experimental evidence for a strong role of predictability within auditory scene analysis (ASA) has been scarce. Recently, there has been an upsurge in experimental and theoretical work on this topic resulting from fundamental changes in our perspective on how the brain extracts predictability from series of sensory events. Based on effortless predictive processing in the auditory system, it becomes more plausible that predictability would be available as a cue for sound source decomposition. In the present contribution, empirical evidence for such a role of predictability in ASA will be reviewed. It will be shown that predictability affects ASA both when it is present in the sound source of interest (perceptual foreground) and when it is present in other sound sources that the listener wishes to ignore (perceptual background). First evidence pointing toward age-related impairments in the latter capacity will be addressed. Moreover, it will be illustrated how effects of predictability can be shown by means of objective listening tests as well as by subjective report procedures, with the latter approach typically exploiting the multi-stable nature of auditory perception. Critical aspects of study design will be delineated to ensure that predictability effects can be unambiguously interpreted. Possible mechanisms for a functional role of predictability within ASA will be discussed, and an analogy with the old-plus-new heuristic for grouping simultaneous acoustic signals will be suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Bendixen
- Auditory Psychophysiology Lab, Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all," European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg Oldenburg, Germany
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