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Andéol G, Paraouty N, Giraudet F, Wallaert N, Isnard V, Moulin A, Suied C. Predictors of Speech-in-Noise Understanding in a Population of Occupationally Noise-Exposed Individuals. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:416. [PMID: 38927296 PMCID: PMC11200776 DOI: 10.3390/biology13060416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2024] [Revised: 05/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
Understanding speech in noise is particularly difficult for individuals occupationally exposed to noise due to a mix of noise-induced auditory lesions and the energetic masking of speech signals. For years, the monitoring of conventional audiometric thresholds has been the usual method to check and preserve auditory function. Recently, suprathreshold deficits, notably, difficulties in understanding speech in noise, has pointed out the need for new monitoring tools. The present study aims to identify the most important variables that predict speech in noise understanding in order to suggest a new method of hearing status monitoring. Physiological (distortion products of otoacoustic emissions, electrocochleography) and behavioral (amplitude and frequency modulation detection thresholds, conventional and extended high-frequency audiometric thresholds) variables were collected in a population of individuals presenting a relatively homogeneous occupational noise exposure. Those variables were used as predictors in a statistical model (random forest) to predict the scores of three different speech-in-noise tests and a self-report of speech-in-noise ability. The extended high-frequency threshold appears to be the best predictor and therefore an interesting candidate for a new way of monitoring noise-exposed professionals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillaume Andéol
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, 1 Place Valérie André, 91220 Brétigny sur Orge, France; (V.I.); (C.S.)
| | - Nihaad Paraouty
- iAudiogram—My Medical Assistant SAS, 51100 Reims, France; (N.P.); (N.W.)
| | - Fabrice Giraudet
- Department of Neurosensory Biophysics, INSERM U1107 NEURO-DOL, School of Medecine, Université Clermont Auvergne, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France;
| | - Nicolas Wallaert
- iAudiogram—My Medical Assistant SAS, 51100 Reims, France; (N.P.); (N.W.)
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), 75005 Paris, France
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rennes University Hospital, 35000 Rennes, France
| | - Vincent Isnard
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, 1 Place Valérie André, 91220 Brétigny sur Orge, France; (V.I.); (C.S.)
| | - Annie Moulin
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, CRNL Inserm U1028—CNRS UMR5292—UCBLyon1, Perception Attention Memory Team, Bâtiment 452 B, 95 Bd Pinel, 69675 Bron Cedex, France;
| | - Clara Suied
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, 1 Place Valérie André, 91220 Brétigny sur Orge, France; (V.I.); (C.S.)
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Regev J, Relaño-Iborra H, Zaar J, Dau T. Disentangling the effects of hearing loss and age on amplitude modulation frequency selectivity. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2024; 155:2589-2602. [PMID: 38607268 DOI: 10.1121/10.0025541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
The processing and perception of amplitude modulation (AM) in the auditory system reflect a frequency-selective process, often described as a modulation filterbank. Previous studies on perceptual AM masking reported similar results for older listeners with hearing impairment (HI listeners) and young listeners with normal hearing (NH listeners), suggesting no effects of age or hearing loss on AM frequency selectivity. However, recent evidence has shown that age, independently of hearing loss, adversely affects AM frequency selectivity. Hence, this study aimed to disentangle the effects of hearing loss and age. A simultaneous AM masking paradigm was employed, using a sinusoidal carrier at 2.8 kHz, narrowband noise modulation maskers, and target modulation frequencies of 4, 16, 64, and 128 Hz. The results obtained from young (n = 3, 24-30 years of age) and older (n = 10, 63-77 years of age) HI listeners were compared to previously obtained data from young and older NH listeners. Notably, the HI listeners generally exhibited lower (unmasked) AM detection thresholds and greater AM frequency selectivity than their NH counterparts in both age groups. Overall, the results suggest that age negatively affects AM frequency selectivity for both NH and HI listeners, whereas hearing loss improves AM detection and AM selectivity, likely due to the loss of peripheral compression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Regev
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | - Helia Relaño-Iborra
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | - Johannes Zaar
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
- Eriksholm Research Centre, Snekkersten, 3070, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
- Copenhagen Hearing and Balance Center, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
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Regev J, Zaar J, Relaño-Iborra H, Dau T. Age-related reduction of amplitude modulation frequency selectivity. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 153:2298. [PMID: 37092934 DOI: 10.1121/10.0017835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The perception of amplitude modulations (AMs) has been characterized by a frequency-selective process in the temporal envelope domain and simulated in computational auditory processing and perception models using a modulation filterbank. Such AM frequency-selective processing has been argued to be critical for the perception of complex sounds, including speech. This study aimed at investigating the effects of age on behavioral AM frequency selectivity in young (n = 11, 22-29 years) versus older (n = 10, 57-77 years) listeners with normal hearing, using a simultaneous AM masking paradigm with a sinusoidal carrier (2.8 kHz), target modulation frequencies of 4, 16, 64, and 128 Hz, and narrowband-noise modulation maskers. A reduction of AM frequency selectivity by a factor of up to 2 was found in the older listeners. While the observed AM selectivity co-varied with the unmasked AM detection sensitivity, the age-related broadening of the masked threshold patterns remained stable even when AM sensitivity was similar across groups for an extended stimulus duration. The results from the present study might provide a valuable basis for further investigations exploring the effects of age and reduced AM frequency selectivity on complex sound perception as well as the interaction of age and hearing impairment on AM processing and perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Regev
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | - Johannes Zaar
- Eriksholm Research Centre, Snekkersten, 3070, Denmark
| | - Helia Relaño-Iborra
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
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Shehabi AM, Prendergast G, Plack CJ. The Relative and Combined Effects of Noise Exposure and Aging on Auditory Peripheral Neural Deafferentation: A Narrative Review. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:877588. [PMID: 35813954 PMCID: PMC9260498 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.877588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal studies have shown that noise exposure and aging cause a reduction in the number of synapses between low and medium spontaneous rate auditory nerve fibers and inner hair cells before outer hair cell deterioration. This noise-induced and age-related cochlear synaptopathy (CS) is hypothesized to compromise speech recognition at moderate-to-high suprathreshold levels in humans. This paper evaluates the evidence on the relative and combined effects of noise exposure and aging on CS, in both animals and humans, using histopathological and proxy measures. In animal studies, noise exposure seems to result in a higher proportion of CS (up to 70% synapse loss) compared to aging (up to 48% synapse loss). Following noise exposure, older animals, depending on their species, seem to either exhibit significant or little further synapse loss compared to their younger counterparts. In humans, temporal bone studies suggest a possible age- and noise-related auditory nerve fiber loss. Based on the animal data obtained from different species, we predict that noise exposure may accelerate age-related CS to at least some extent in humans. In animals, noise-induced and age-related CS in separation have been consistently associated with a decreased amplitude of wave 1 of the auditory brainstem response, reduced middle ear muscle reflex strength, and degraded temporal processing as demonstrated by lower amplitudes of the envelope following response. In humans, the individual effects of noise exposure and aging do not seem to translate clearly into deficits in electrophysiological, middle ear muscle reflex, and behavioral measures of CS. Moreover, the evidence on the combined effects of noise exposure and aging on peripheral neural deafferentation in humans using electrophysiological and behavioral measures is even more sparse and inconclusive. Further research is necessary to establish the individual and combined effects of CS in humans using temporal bone, objective, and behavioral measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adnan M. Shehabi
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
- Department of Audiology and Speech Therapy, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine
| | - Garreth Prendergast
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher J. Plack
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
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Lentz JJ, Humes LE, Kidd GR. Differences in Auditory Perception Between Young and Older Adults When Controlling for Differences in Hearing Loss and Cognition. Trends Hear 2022; 26:23312165211066180. [PMID: 34989641 PMCID: PMC8753078 DOI: 10.1177/23312165211066180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This study was designed to examine age effects on various auditory perceptual skills using a large group of listeners (155 adults, 121 aged 60-88 years and 34 aged 18-30 years), while controlling for the factors of hearing loss and working memory (WM). All subjects completed 3 measures of WM, 7 psychoacoustic tasks (24 conditions) and a hearing assessment. Psychophysical measures were selected to tap phenomena thought to be mediated by higher-level auditory function and included modulation detection, modulation detection interference, informational masking (IM), masking level difference (MLD), anisochrony detection, harmonic mistuning, and stream segregation. Principal-components analysis (PCA) was applied to each psychoacoustic test. For 6 of the 7 tasks, a single component represented performance across the multiple stimulus conditions well, whereas the modulation-detection interference (MDI) task required two components to do so. The effect of age was analyzed using a general linear model applied to each psychoacoustic component. Once hearing loss and WM were accounted for as covariates in the analyses, estimated marginal mean thresholds were lower for older adults on tasks based on temporal processing. When evaluated separately, hearing loss led to poorer performance on roughly 1/2 the tasks and declines in WM accounted for poorer performance on 6 of the 8 psychoacoustic components. These results make clear the need to interpret age-group differences in performance on psychoacoustic tasks in light of cognitive declines commonly associated with aging, and point to hearing loss and cognitive declines as negatively influencing auditory perceptual skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer J. Lentz
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Larry E. Humes
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Gary R. Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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Kwak C, Seo JH, Oh Y, Han W. Efficacy of the Digit-in-Noise Test: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Audiol Otol 2021; 26:10-21. [PMID: 34775699 PMCID: PMC8755436 DOI: 10.7874/jao.2021.00416] [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: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Objectives Although the digit-in-noise (DIN) test is simple and quick, little is known about its key factors. This study explored the considerable components of the DIN test through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Materials and Methods After six electronic journal databases were screened, 14 studies were selected. For the meta-analysis, standardized mean difference was used to calculate effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals. Results The overall result of the meta-analysis showed an effect size of 2.224. In a subgroup analysis, the patient’s hearing status was found to have the highest effect size, meaning that the DIN test was significantly sensitive to screen for hearing loss. In terms of the length of the presenting digits, triple digits had lower speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) than single or pairs of digits. Among the types of background noise, speech-spectrum noise provided lower SRTs than multi-talker babbling. Regarding language variance, the DIN test showed better performance in the patient’s native language(s) than in other languages. Conclusions When uniformly developed and well validated, the DIN test can be a universal tool for hearing screening.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chanbeom Kwak
- Division of Speech Pathology and Audiology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.,Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
| | - Jae-Hyun Seo
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
| | - Yonghee Oh
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Woojae Han
- Division of Speech Pathology and Audiology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.,Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
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Attia S, King A, Varnet L, Ponsot E, Lorenzi C. Double-pass consistency for amplitude- and frequency-modulation detection in normal-hearing listeners. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 150:3631. [PMID: 34852611 DOI: 10.1121/10.0006811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) provide crucial auditory information. If FM is encoded as AM, it should be possible to give a unified account of AM and FM perception both in terms of response consistency and performance. These two aspects of behavior were estimated for normal-hearing participants using a constant-stimuli, forced-choice detection task repeated twice with the same stimuli (double pass). Sinusoidal AM or FM with rates of 2 or 20 Hz were applied to a 500-Hz pure-tone carrier and presented at detection threshold. All stimuli were masked by a modulation noise. Percent agreement of responses across passes and percent-correct detection for the two passes were used to estimate consistency and performance, respectively. These data were simulated using a model implementing peripheral processes, a central modulation filterbank, an additive internal noise, and a template-matching device. Different levels of internal noise were required to reproduce AM and FM data, but a single level could account for the 2- and 20-Hz AM data. As for FM, two levels of internal noise were needed to account for detection at slow and fast rates. Finally, the level of internal noise yielding best predictions increased with the level of the modulation-noise masker. Overall, these results suggest that different sources of internal variability are involved for AM and FM detection at low audio frequencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Attia
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs (CNRS 8248), Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Andrew King
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs (CNRS 8248), Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Léo Varnet
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs (CNRS 8248), Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Emmanuel Ponsot
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs (CNRS 8248), Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs (CNRS 8248), Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
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Carcagno S, Plack CJ. Effects of age on psychophysical measures of auditory temporal processing and speech reception at low and high levels. Hear Res 2020; 400:108117. [PMID: 33253994 PMCID: PMC7812372 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Revised: 10/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
We found little evidence of greater age-related hearing declines at high sound levels. There are age-related temporal-processing declines independent of hearing loss. No evidence of age-related speech-reception deficits independent of hearing loss.
Age-related cochlear synaptopathy (CS) has been shown to occur in rodents with minimal noise exposure, and has been hypothesized to play a crucial role in age-related hearing declines in humans. It is not known to what extent age-related CS occurs in humans, and how it affects the coding of supra-threshold sounds and speech in noise. Because in rodents CS affects mainly low- and medium-spontaneous rate (L/M-SR) auditory-nerve fibers with rate-level functions covering medium-high levels, it should lead to greater deficits in the processing of sounds at high than at low stimulus levels. In this cross-sectional study the performance of 102 listeners across the age range (34 young, 34 middle-aged, 34 older) was assessed in a set of psychophysical temporal processing and speech reception in noise tests at both low, and high stimulus levels. Mixed-effect multiple regression models were used to estimate the effects of age while partialing out effects of audiometric thresholds, lifetime noise exposure, cognitive abilities (assessed with additional tests), and musical experience. Age was independently associated with performance deficits on several tests. However, only for one out of 13 tests were age effects credibly larger at the high compared to the low stimulus level. Overall these results do not provide much evidence that age-related CS, to the extent to which it may occur in humans according to the rodent model of greater L/M-SR synaptic loss, has substantial effects on psychophysical measures of auditory temporal processing or on speech reception in noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuele Carcagno
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, United Kingdom.
| | - Christopher J Plack
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, United Kingdom; Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, University of Manchester, Academic Health Science Centre, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
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Whiteford KL, Kreft HA, Oxenham AJ. The role of cochlear place coding in the perception of frequency modulation. eLife 2020; 9:58468. [PMID: 32996463 PMCID: PMC7556860 DOI: 10.7554/elife.58468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural sounds convey information via frequency and amplitude modulations (FM and AM). Humans are acutely sensitive to the slow rates of FM that are crucial for speech and music. This sensitivity has long been thought to rely on precise stimulus-driven auditory-nerve spike timing (time code), whereas a coarser code, based on variations in the cochlear place of stimulation (place code), represents faster FM rates. We tested this theory in listeners with normal and impaired hearing, spanning a wide range of place-coding fidelity. Contrary to predictions, sensitivity to both slow and fast FM correlated with place-coding fidelity. We also used incoherent AM on two carriers to simulate place coding of FM and observed poorer sensitivity at high carrier frequencies and fast rates, two properties of FM detection previously ascribed to the limits of time coding. The results suggest a unitary place-based neural code for FM across all rates and carrier frequencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly L Whiteford
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States
| | - Heather A Kreft
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States
| | - Andrew J Oxenham
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States
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Thoret E, Varnet L, Boubenec Y, Férriere R, Le Tourneau FM, Krause B, Lorenzi C. Characterizing amplitude and frequency modulation cues in natural soundscapes: A pilot study on four habitats of a biosphere reserve. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 147:3260. [PMID: 32486802 DOI: 10.1121/10.0001174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 04/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Natural soundscapes correspond to the acoustical patterns produced by biological and geophysical sound sources at different spatial and temporal scales for a given habitat. This pilot study aims to characterize the temporal-modulation information available to humans when perceiving variations in soundscapes within and across natural habitats. This is addressed by processing soundscapes from a previous study [Krause, Gage, and Joo. (2011). Landscape Ecol. 26, 1247] via models of human auditory processing extracting modulation at the output of cochlear filters. The soundscapes represent combinations of elevation, animal, and vegetation diversity in four habitats of the biosphere reserve in the Sequoia National Park (Sierra Nevada, USA). Bayesian statistical analysis and support vector machine classifiers indicate that: (i) amplitude-modulation (AM) and frequency-modulation (FM) spectra distinguish the soundscapes associated with each habitat; and (ii) for each habitat, diurnal and seasonal variations are associated with salient changes in AM and FM cues at rates between about 1 and 100 Hz in the low (<0.5 kHz) and high (>1-3 kHz) audio-frequency range. Support vector machine classifications further indicate that soundscape variations can be classified accurately based on these perceptually inspired representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Etienne Thoret
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 75005, France
| | - Léo Varnet
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 75005, France
| | - Yves Boubenec
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 75005, France
| | - Régis Férriere
- Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, CNRS, INSERM Paris, 75005, France
| | - François-Michel Le Tourneau
- International Center for Interdisciplinary Global Environmental Studies (iGLOBES), UMI 3157 CNRS, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
| | - Bernie Krause
- Wild Sanctuary, P.O. Box 536, Glen Ellen, California 95442, USA
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm Paris, 75005, France
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11
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Ewert SD, Paraouty N, Lorenzi C. A two‐path model of auditory modulation detection using temporal fine structure and envelope cues. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 51:1265-1278. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2017] [Revised: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stephan D. Ewert
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All Universität Oldenburg 26111 Oldenburg Germany
| | - Nihaad Paraouty
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure CNRS PSL Research University Paris France
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure CNRS PSL Research University Paris France
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12
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Henry KS, Amburgey KN, Abrams KS, Carney LH. Identifying cues for tone-in-noise detection using decision variable correlation in the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus). THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 147:984. [PMID: 32113293 PMCID: PMC7010520 DOI: 10.1121/10.0000621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Revised: 01/02/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies evaluated cues for masked tone detection using reproducible noise waveforms. Human results founded on this approach suggest that tone detection is based on combined energy and envelope (ENV) cues, but detection cues in nonhuman species are less clear. Decision variable correlation (DVC) was used to evaluate tone-in-noise detection cues in the budgerigar, an avian species with human-like behavioral sensitivity to many complex sounds. DVC quantifies a model's ability to predict trial-by-trial variance in behavioral responses. Budgerigars were behaviorally conditioned to detect 500-Hz tones in wideband (WB; 100-3000 Hz) and narrowband (NB; 452-552 Hz) noise. Behavioral responses were obtained using a single-interval, two-alternative discrimination task and two-down, one-up adaptive tracking procedures. Tone-detection thresholds in WB noise were higher than human thresholds, putatively due to broader peripheral frequency tuning, whereas NB thresholds were within ∼1 dB of human results. Budgerigar average hit and false-alarm rates across noise waveforms were consistent, highly correlated across subjects, and correlated to human results. Trial-by-trial behavioral results in NB noise were best explained by a model combining energy and ENV cues. In contrast, WB results were better predicted by ENV-based or multiple-channel energy detector models. These results suggest that budgerigars and humans use similar cues for tone-in-noise detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth S Henry
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
| | - Kassidy N Amburgey
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
| | - Kristina S Abrams
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
| | - Laurel H Carney
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
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13
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Parthasarathy A, Hancock KE, Bennett K, DeGruttola V, Polley DB. Bottom-up and top-down neural signatures of disordered multi-talker speech perception in adults with normal hearing. eLife 2020; 9:e51419. [PMID: 31961322 PMCID: PMC6974362 DOI: 10.7554/elife.51419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2019] [Accepted: 12/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In social settings, speech waveforms from nearby speakers mix together in our ear canals. Normally, the brain unmixes the attended speech stream from the chorus of background speakers using a combination of fast temporal processing and cognitive active listening mechanisms. Of >100,000 patient records,~10% of adults visited our clinic because of reduced hearing, only to learn that their hearing was clinically normal and should not cause communication difficulties. We found that multi-talker speech intelligibility thresholds varied widely in normal hearing adults, but could be predicted from neural phase-locking to frequency modulation (FM) cues measured with ear canal EEG recordings. Combining neural temporal fine structure processing, pupil-indexed listening effort, and behavioral FM thresholds accounted for 78% of the variability in multi-talker speech intelligibility. The disordered bottom-up and top-down markers of poor multi-talker speech perception identified here could inform the design of next-generation clinical tests for hidden hearing disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aravindakshan Parthasarathy
- Eaton-Peabody LaboratoriesMassachusetts Eye and Ear InfirmaryBostonUnited States
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck SurgeryHarvard Medical SchoolBostonUnited States
| | - Kenneth E Hancock
- Eaton-Peabody LaboratoriesMassachusetts Eye and Ear InfirmaryBostonUnited States
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck SurgeryHarvard Medical SchoolBostonUnited States
| | - Kara Bennett
- Bennett Statistical Consulting IncBallstonUnited States
| | - Victor DeGruttola
- Department of BiostatisticsHarvard TH Chan School of Public HealthBostonUnited States
| | - Daniel B Polley
- Eaton-Peabody LaboratoriesMassachusetts Eye and Ear InfirmaryBostonUnited States
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck SurgeryHarvard Medical SchoolBostonUnited States
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14
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Halliday LF, Rosen S, Tuomainen O, Calcus A. Impaired frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure, but not envelope cues, in children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2019; 146:4299. [PMID: 31893709 DOI: 10.1121/1.5134059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2019] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Psychophysical thresholds were measured for 8-16 year-old children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL; N = 46) on a battery of auditory processing tasks that included measures designed to be dependent upon frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) or envelope cues. Children with MMHL who wore hearing aids were tested in both unaided and aided conditions, and all were compared to a group of normally hearing (NH) age-matched controls. Children with MMHL performed more poorly than NH controls on tasks considered to be dependent upon frequency selectivity, sensitivity to TFS, and speech discrimination (/bɑ/-/dɑ/), but not on tasks measuring sensitivity to envelope cues. Auditory processing deficits remained regardless of age, were observed in both unaided and aided conditions, and could not be attributed to differences in nonverbal IQ or attention between groups. However, better auditory processing in children with MMHL was predicted by better audiometric thresholds and, for aided tasks only, higher levels of maternal education. These results suggest that, as for adults with MMHL, children with MMHL may show deficits in frequency selectivity and sensitivity to TFS, but sensitivity to the envelope may remain intact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorna F Halliday
- Speech, Hearing, and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom
| | - Stuart Rosen
- Speech, Hearing, and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom
| | - Outi Tuomainen
- Speech, Hearing, and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom
| | - Axelle Calcus
- Speech, Hearing, and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom
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15
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Moore BCJ, Sęk AP. Discrimination of the phase of amplitude modulation applied to different carriers: Effects of modulation rate and modulation depth for young and older subjects. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2019; 146:1696. [PMID: 31590555 DOI: 10.1121/1.5126515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2019] [Accepted: 08/24/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The discrimination of amplitude modulation (AM) from frequency modulation (FM) of a 1000-Hz carrier, with equally detectable AM and FM, is better for a 2-Hz than for a 10-Hz modulation rate. This might reflect greater sensitivity to temporal fine structure for low than for high rates. Alternatively, AM-FM discrimination may depend on comparing fluctuations in excitation level on the two sides of the excitation pattern, which are in phase for AM and out of phase for FM. Discrimination of the relative phase of fluctuations might worsen with increasing rate, which could account for the effect of rate on AM-FM discrimination. To test this, discrimination of the phase of AM applied to two sinusoidal carriers was assessed, with a band of noise between the two carriers to prevent use of within-channel cues. Young and older subjects with normal hearing were tested. Performance was almost constant for AM rates from 2 to 10 Hz, but worsened at 20 Hz. Performance was near chance for AM depths near the detection threshold. The results suggest that the superior AM-FM discrimination at 2 Hz cannot be explained in terms of comparison of the phase of fluctuations on the two sides of the excitation pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian C J Moore
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England
| | - Aleksander P Sęk
- Institute of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
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16
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Hoover EC, Kinney BN, Bell KL, Gallun FJ, Eddins DA. A Comparison of Behavioral Methods for Indexing the Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure Cues. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:2018-2034. [PMID: 31145649 PMCID: PMC6808371 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-h-18-0217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Revised: 12/20/2018] [Accepted: 02/13/2019] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Growing evidence supports the inclusion of perceptual tests that quantify the processing of temporal fine structure (TFS) in clinical hearing assessment. Many tasks have been used to evaluate TFS in the laboratory that vary greatly in the stimuli used and whether the judgments require monaural or binaural comparisons of TFS. The purpose of this study was to compare laboratory measures of TFS for inclusion in a battery of suprathreshold auditory tests. A subset of available TFS tasks were selected on the basis of potential clinical utility and were evaluated using metrics that focus on characteristics important for clinical use. Method TFS measures were implemented in replication of studies that demonstrated clinical utility. Monaural, diotic, and dichotic measures were evaluated in 11 young listeners with normal hearing. Measures included frequency modulation (FM) tasks, harmonic frequency shift detection, interaural phase difference (TFS-low frequency), interaural time difference (ITD), monaural gap duration discrimination, and tone detection in noise with and without a difference in interaural phase (N0S0, N0Sπ). Data were compared with published results and evaluated with metrics of consistency and efficiency. Results Thresholds obtained were consistent with published data. There was no evidence of predictive relationships among the measures consistent with a homogenous group. The most stable tasks across repeated testing were TFS-low frequency, diotic and dichotic FM, and N0Sπ. Monaural and diotic FM had the lowest normalized variance and were the most efficient accounting for differences in total test duration, followed by ITD. Conclusions Despite a long stimulus duration, FM tasks dominated comparisons of consistency and efficiency. Small differences separated the dichotic tasks FM, ITD, and N0Sπ. Future comparisons following procedural optimization of the tasks will evaluate clinical efficiency in populations with impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric C. Hoover
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa
| | - Brianna N. Kinney
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa
| | - Karen L. Bell
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa
| | - Frederick J. Gallun
- National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Portland VA Medical Center, Oregon
- Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland
| | - David A. Eddins
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa
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17
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King A, Varnet L, Lorenzi C. Accounting for masking of frequency modulation by amplitude modulation with the modulation filter-bank concept. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2019; 145:2277. [PMID: 31046322 DOI: 10.1121/1.5094344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Frequency modulation (FM) is assumed to be detected through amplitude modulation (AM) created by cochlear filtering for modulation rates above 10 Hz and carrier frequencies (fc) above 4 kHz. If this is the case, a model of modulation perception based on the concept of AM filters should predict masking effects between AM and FM. To test this, masking effects of sinusoidal AM on sinusoidal FM detection thresholds were assessed on normal-hearing listeners as a function of FM rate, fc, duration, AM rate, AM depth, and phase difference between FM and AM. The data were compared to predictions of a computational model implementing an AM filter-bank. Consistent with model predictions, AM masked FM with some AM-masking-AM features (broad tuning and effect of AM-masker depth). Similar masking was predicted and observed at fc = 0.5 and 5 kHz for a 2 Hz AM masker, inconsistent with the notion that additional (e.g., temporal fine-structure) cues drive slow-rate FM detection at low fc. However, masking was lower than predicted and, unlike model predictions, did not show beating or phase effects. Broadly, the modulation filter-bank concept successfully explained some AM-masking-FM effects, but could not give a complete account of both AM and FM detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew King
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Léo Varnet
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, École normale supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
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18
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Myers BR, Lense MD, Gordon RL. Pushing the Envelope: Developments in Neural Entrainment to Speech and the Biological Underpinnings of Prosody Perception. Brain Sci 2019; 9:brainsci9030070. [PMID: 30909454 PMCID: PMC6468669 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci9030070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2018] [Revised: 03/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/15/2019] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Prosodic cues in speech are indispensable for comprehending a speaker’s message, recognizing emphasis and emotion, parsing segmental units, and disambiguating syntactic structures. While it is commonly accepted that prosody provides a fundamental service to higher-level features of speech, the neural underpinnings of prosody processing are not clearly defined in the cognitive neuroscience literature. Many recent electrophysiological studies have examined speech comprehension by measuring neural entrainment to the speech amplitude envelope, using a variety of methods including phase-locking algorithms and stimulus reconstruction. Here we review recent evidence for neural tracking of the speech envelope and demonstrate the importance of prosodic contributions to the neural tracking of speech. Prosodic cues may offer a foundation for supporting neural synchronization to the speech envelope, which scaffolds linguistic processing. We argue that prosody has an inherent role in speech perception, and future research should fill the gap in our knowledge of how prosody contributes to speech envelope entrainment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brett R Myers
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1215 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
| | - Miriam D Lense
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1215 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, 110 Magnolia Circle, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, 2215 Garland Ave, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
- The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, 1801 Edgehill Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1215 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, 2215 Garland Ave, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
- The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, 1801 Edgehill Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
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19
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McNair SW, Kayser SJ, Kayser C. Consistent pre-stimulus influences on auditory perception across the lifespan. Neuroimage 2019; 186:22-32. [PMID: 30391564 PMCID: PMC6347568 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2018] [Revised: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 10/31/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
As we get older, perception in cluttered environments becomes increasingly difficult as a result of changes in peripheral and central neural processes. Given the aging society, it is important to understand the neural mechanisms constraining perception in the elderly. In young participants, the state of rhythmic brain activity prior to a stimulus has been shown to modulate the neural encoding and perceptual impact of this stimulus - yet it remains unclear whether, and if so, how, the perceptual relevance of pre-stimulus activity changes with age. Using the auditory system as a model, we recorded EEG activity during a frequency discrimination task from younger and older human listeners. By combining single-trial EEG decoding with linear modelling we demonstrate consistent statistical relations between pre-stimulus power and the encoding of sensory evidence in short-latency EEG components, and more variable relations between pre-stimulus phase and subjects' decisions in longer-latency components. At the same time, we observed a significant slowing of auditory evoked responses and a flattening of the overall EEG frequency spectrum in the older listeners. Our results point to mechanistically consistent relations between rhythmic brain activity and sensory encoding that emerge despite changes in neural response latencies and the relative amplitude of rhythmic brain activity with age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven W McNair
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, 62 Hillhead Street, G12 8QB, United Kingdom
| | - Stephanie J Kayser
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany; Cognitive Interaction Technology - Center of Excellence, Bielefeld University, Inspiration 1, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Christoph Kayser
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany; Cognitive Interaction Technology - Center of Excellence, Bielefeld University, Inspiration 1, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
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20
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Grose JH, Buss E, Elmore H. Age-Related Changes in the Auditory Brainstem Response and Suprathreshold Processing of Temporal and Spectral Modulation. Trends Hear 2019; 23:2331216519839615. [PMID: 30977442 PMCID: PMC6463337 DOI: 10.1177/2331216519839615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2018] [Revised: 02/21/2019] [Accepted: 02/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether cochlear synaptopathy can be shown to be a viable basis for age-related hearing difficulties in humans and whether it manifests as deficient suprathreshold processing of temporal and spectral modulation. Three experiments were undertaken evaluating the effects of age on (a) the auditory brainstem response as a function of level, (b) temporal modulation detection as a function of level and background noise, and (c) spectral modulation as a function of level. Across the three experiments, a total of 21 older listeners with near-normal audiograms and 29 young listeners with audiometrically normal hearing participated. The auditory brainstem response experiment demonstrated reduced Wave I amplitudes and concomitant reductions in the amplitude ratios of Wave I to Wave V in the older listener group. These findings were interpreted as consistent with an electrophysiological profile of cochlear synaptopathy. The temporal and spectral modulation detection experiments, however, provided no support for the hypothesis of compromised suprathreshold processing in these domains. This pattern of results suggests that even if cochlear synaptopathy can be shown to be a viable basis for age-related hearing difficulties, then temporal and spectral modulation detection paradigms are not sensitive to its presence.
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Affiliation(s)
- John H. Grose
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Emily Buss
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Hollis Elmore
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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21
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Moore BCJ, Mariathasan S, Sęk AP. Effects of Age and Hearing Loss on the Discrimination of Amplitude and Frequency Modulation for 2- and 10-Hz Rates. Trends Hear 2019; 23:2331216519853963. [PMID: 31250705 PMCID: PMC6600487 DOI: 10.1177/2331216519853963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Detection of frequency modulation (FM) with rate = 10 Hz may depend on conversion of FM to amplitude modulation (AM) in the cochlea, while detection of 2-Hz FM may depend on the use of temporal fine structure (TFS) information. TFS processing may worsen with greater age and hearing loss while AM processing probably does not. A two-stage experiment was conducted to test these ideas while controlling for the effects of detection efficiency. Stage 1 measured psychometric functions for the detection of AM alone and FM alone imposed on a 1-kHz carrier, using 2- and 10-Hz rates. Stage 2 assessed the discrimination of AM from FM at the same modulation rate when the detectability of the AM alone and FM alone was equated. Discrimination was better for the 2-Hz than for the 10-Hz rate for all young normal-hearing subjects and for some older subjects with normal hearing at 1 kHz. Other older subjects with normal hearing showed no clear difference in AM-FM discrimination for the 2- and 10-Hz rates, as was the case for most older hearing-impaired subjects. The results suggest that the ability to use TFS cues is reduced for some older people and most hearing-impaired people.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian C. J. Moore
- Department of Experimental
Psychology, University of Cambridge, England
| | - Sashi Mariathasan
- Department of Experimental
Psychology, University of Cambridge, England
| | - Aleksander P. Sęk
- Faculty of Physics, Institute of
Acoustics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
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22
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Wallaert N, Varnet L, Moore BCJ, Lorenzi C. Sensorineural hearing loss impairs sensitivity but spares temporal integration for detection of frequency modulation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 144:720. [PMID: 30180712 DOI: 10.1121/1.5049364] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
The effect of the number of modulation cycles (N) on frequency-modulation (FM) detection thresholds (FMDTs) was measured with and without interfering amplitude modulation (AM) for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, using a 500-Hz sinusoidal carrier and FM rates of 2 and 20 Hz. The data were compared with FMDTs for normal-hearing (NH) listeners and AM detection thresholds (AMDTs) for NH and HI listeners [Wallaert, Moore, and Lorenzi (2016). J. Acoust. Soc. 139, 3088-3096; Wallaert, Moore, Ewert, and Lorenzi (2017). J. Acoust. Soc. 141, 971-980]. FMDTs were higher for HI than for NH listeners, but the effect of increasing N was similar across groups. In contrast, AMDTs were lower and the effect of increasing N was greater for HI listeners than for NH listeners. A model of temporal-envelope processing based on a modulation filter-bank and a template-matching decision strategy accounted better for the FMDTs at 20 Hz than at 2 Hz for young NH listeners and predicted greater temporal integration of FM than observed for all groups. These results suggest that different mechanisms underlie AM and FM detection at low rates and that hearing loss impairs FM-detection mechanisms, but preserves the memory and decision processes responsible for temporal integration of FM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Wallaert
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Léo Varnet
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 75005 Paris, France
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23
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Paraouty N, Stasiak A, Lorenzi C, Varnet L, Winter IM. Dual Coding of Frequency Modulation in the Ventral Cochlear Nucleus. J Neurosci 2018; 38:4123-4137. [PMID: 29599389 PMCID: PMC6596033 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2107-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2017] [Revised: 03/18/2018] [Accepted: 03/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Frequency modulation (FM) is a common acoustic feature of natural sounds and is known to play a role in robust sound source recognition. Auditory neurons show precise stimulus-synchronized discharge patterns that may be used for the representation of low-rate FM. However, it remains unclear whether this representation is based on synchronization to slow temporal envelope (ENV) cues resulting from cochlear filtering or phase locking to faster temporal fine structure (TFS) cues. To investigate the plausibility of those encoding schemes, single units of the ventral cochlear nucleus of guinea pigs of either sex were recorded in response to sine FM tones centered at the unit's best frequency (BF). The results show that, in contrast to high-BF units, for modulation depths within the receptive field, low-BF units (<4 kHz) demonstrate good phase locking to TFS. For modulation depths extending beyond the receptive field, the discharge patterns follow the ENV and fluctuate at the modulation rate. The receptive field proved to be a good predictor of the ENV responses for most primary-like and chopper units. The current in vivo data also reveal a high level of diversity in responses across unit types. TFS cues are mainly conveyed by low-frequency and primary-like units and ENV cues by chopper and onset units. The diversity of responses exhibited by cochlear nucleus neurons provides a neural basis for a dual-coding scheme of FM in the brainstem based on both ENV and TFS cues.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Natural sounds, including speech, convey informative temporal modulations in frequency. Understanding how the auditory system represents those frequency modulations (FM) has important implications as robust sound source recognition depends crucially on the reception of low-rate FM cues. Here, we recorded 115 single-unit responses from the ventral cochlear nucleus in response to FM and provide the first physiological evidence of a dual-coding mechanism of FM via synchronization to temporal envelope cues and phase locking to temporal fine structure cues. We also demonstrate a diversity of neural responses with different coding specializations. These results support the dual-coding scheme proposed by psychophysicists to account for FM sensitivity in humans and provide new insights on how this might be implemented in the early stages of the auditory pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nihaad Paraouty
- Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing, The Physiological Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs CNRS UMR 8248, École Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Paris, France
| | - Arkadiusz Stasiak
- Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing, The Physiological Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs CNRS UMR 8248, École Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Paris, France
| | - Léo Varnet
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs CNRS UMR 8248, École Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Paris, France
| | - Ian M Winter
- Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing, The Physiological Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and
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24
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Aushana Y, Souffi S, Edeline JM, Lorenzi C, Huetz C. Robust Neuronal Discrimination in Primary Auditory Cortex Despite Degradations of Spectro-temporal Acoustic Details: Comparison Between Guinea Pigs with Normal Hearing and Mild Age-Related Hearing Loss. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2018; 19:163-180. [PMID: 29302822 PMCID: PMC5878150 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-017-0649-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2017] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
This study investigated to which extent the primary auditory cortex of young normal-hearing and mild hearing-impaired aged animals is able to maintain invariant representation of critical temporal-modulation features when sounds are submitted to degradations of fine spectro-temporal acoustic details. This was achieved by recording ensemble of cortical responses to conspecific vocalizations in guinea pigs with either normal hearing or mild age-related sensorineural hearing loss. The vocalizations were degraded using a tone vocoder. The neuronal responses and their discrimination capacities (estimated by mutual information) were analyzed at single recording and population levels. For normal-hearing animals, the neuronal responses decreased as a function of the number of the vocoder frequency bands, so did their discriminative capacities at the single recording level. However, small neuronal populations were found to be robust to the degradations induced by the vocoder. Similar robustness was obtained when broadband noise was added to exacerbate further the spectro-temporal distortions produced by the vocoder. A comparable pattern of robustness to degradations in fine spectro-temporal details was found for hearing-impaired animals. However, the latter showed an overall decrease in neuronal discrimination capacities between vocalizations in noisy conditions. Consistent with previous studies, these results demonstrate that the primary auditory cortex maintains robust neural representation of temporal envelope features for communication sounds under a large range of spectro-temporal degradations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yonane Aushana
- Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences (Neuro-PSI), CNRS UMR 9197, Orsay, France
- Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
- Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
| | - Samira Souffi
- Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences (Neuro-PSI), CNRS UMR 9197, Orsay, France
- Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
- Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
| | - Jean-Marc Edeline
- Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences (Neuro-PSI), CNRS UMR 9197, Orsay, France
- Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
- Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, UMR CNRS 8248, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris Sciences & Lettres Research University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Chloé Huetz
- Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences (Neuro-PSI), CNRS UMR 9197, Orsay, France
- Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
- Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay cedex, France
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Assessing the Role of Place and Timing Cues in Coding Frequency and Amplitude Modulation as a Function of Age. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2017; 18:619-633. [PMID: 28429126 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-017-0624-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2016] [Accepted: 03/29/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural sounds can be characterized by their fluctuations in amplitude and frequency. Ageing may affect sensitivity to some forms of fluctuations more than others. The present study used individual differences across a wide age range (20-79 years) to test the hypothesis that slow-rate, low-carrier frequency modulation (FM) is coded by phase-locked auditory-nerve responses to temporal fine structure (TFS), whereas fast-rate FM is coded via rate-place (tonotopic) cues, based on amplitude modulation (AM) of the temporal envelope after cochlear filtering. Using a low (500 Hz) carrier frequency, diotic FM and AM detection thresholds were measured at slow (1 Hz) and fast (20 Hz) rates in 85 listeners. Frequency selectivity and TFS coding were assessed using forward masking patterns and interaural phase disparity tasks (slow dichotic FM), respectively. Comparable interaural level disparity tasks (slow and fast dichotic AM and fast dichotic FM) were measured to control for effects of binaural processing not specifically related to TFS coding. Thresholds in FM and AM tasks were correlated, even across tasks thought to use separate peripheral codes. Age was correlated with slow and fast FM thresholds in both diotic and dichotic conditions. The relationship between age and AM thresholds was generally not significant. Once accounting for AM sensitivity, only diotic slow-rate FM thresholds remained significantly correlated with age. Overall, results indicate stronger effects of age on FM than AM. However, because of similar effects for both slow and fast FM when not accounting for AM sensitivity, the effects cannot be unambiguously ascribed to TFS coding.
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Wallaert N, Moore BCJ, Ewert SD, Lorenzi C. Sensorineural hearing loss enhances auditory sensitivity and temporal integration for amplitude modulation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2017; 141:971. [PMID: 28253641 DOI: 10.1121/1.4976080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Amplitude-modulation detection thresholds (AMDTs) were measured at 40 dB sensation level for listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (age: 50-64 yr) for a carrier frequency of 500 Hz and rates of 2 and 20 Hz. The number of modulation cycles, N, varied between two and nine. The data were compared with AMDTs measured for young and older normal-hearing listeners [Wallaert, Moore, and Lorenzi (2016). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 139, 3088-3096]. As for normal-hearing listeners, AMDTs were lower for the 2-Hz than for the 20-Hz rate, and AMDTs decreased with increasing N. AMDTs were lower for hearing-impaired listeners than for normal-hearing listeners, and the effect of increasing N was greater for hearing-impaired listeners. A computational model based on the modulation-filterbank concept and a template-matching decision strategy was developed to account for the data. The psychophysical and simulation data suggest that the loss of amplitude compression in the impaired cochlea is mainly responsible for the enhanced sensitivity and temporal integration of temporal envelope cues found for hearing-impaired listeners. The data also suggest that, for AM detection, cochlear damage is associated with increased internal noise, but preserved short-term memory and decision mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Wallaert
- UMR CNRS LSP 8248, Institut d'Etude de la Cognition, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - Stephan D Ewert
- Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, Universität Oldenburg, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Christian Lorenzi
- UMR CNRS LSP 8248, Institut d'Etude de la Cognition, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
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Paraouty N, Lorenzi C. Using individual differences to assess modulation-processing mechanisms and age effects. Hear Res 2017; 344:38-49. [DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2016.10.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2016] [Revised: 10/26/2016] [Accepted: 10/27/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Schlittenlacher J, Moore BCJ. Discrimination of amplitude-modulation depth by subjects with normal and impaired hearing. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2016; 140:3487. [PMID: 27908066 DOI: 10.1121/1.4966117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The loudness recruitment associated with cochlear hearing loss increases the perceived amount of amplitude modulation (AM), called "fluctuation strength." For normal-hearing (NH) subjects, fluctuation strength "saturates" when the AM depth is high. If such saturation occurs for hearing-impaired (HI) subjects, they may show poorer AM depth discrimination than NH subjects when the reference AM depth is high. To test this hypothesis, AM depth discrimination of a 4-kHz sinusoidal carrier, modulated at a rate of 4 or 16 Hz, was measured in a two-alternative forced-choice task for reference modulation depths, mref, of 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7. AM detection was assessed using mref = 0. Ten older HI subjects, and five young and five older NH subjects were tested. Psychometric functions were measured using five target modulation depths for each mref. For AM depth discrimination, the HI subjects performed more poorly than the NH subjects, both at 30 dB sensation level (SL) and 75 dB sound pressure level (SPL). However, for AM detection, the HI subjects performed better than the NH subjects at 30 dB SL; there was no significant difference between the HI and NH groups at 75 dB SPL. The results for the NH subjects were not affected by age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josef Schlittenlacher
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England
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