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Schubert E. Liking music with and without sadness: Testing the direct effect hypothesis of pleasurable negative emotion. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0299115. [PMID: 38598421 PMCID: PMC11006140 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Negative emotion evoked in listeners of music can produce intense pleasure, but we do not fully understand why. The present study addressed the question by asking participants (n = 50) to self-select a piece of sadness-evoking music that was loved. The key part of the study asked participants to imagine that the felt sadness could be removed. Overall participants reported performing the task successfully. They also indicated that the removal of the sadness reduced their liking of the music, and 82% of participants reported that the evoked sadness also adds to the enjoyment of the music. The study provided evidence for a "Direct effect hypothesis", which draws on the multicomponent model of emotion, where a component of the negative emotion is experienced as positive during music (and other aesthetic) experiences. Earlier evidence of a mediator, such as 'being moved', as the source of enjoyment was reinterpreted in light of the new findings. Instead, the present study applied a semantic overlap explanation, arguing that sadness primes emotions that share meaning with sadness, such as being-moved. The priming occurs if the overlap in meaning is sufficient. The degree of semantic overlap was defined empirically. The present study therefore suggests that mediator-based explanations need to be treated with caution both as a finding of the study, and because of analytic limitations in earlier research that are discussed in the paper.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emery Schubert
- Empirical Musicology Laboratory, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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2
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Christensen JH, Whiston H, Lough M, Gil-Carvajal JC, Rumley J, Saunders GH. Evaluating Real-World Benefits of Hearing Aids With Deep Neural Network-Based Noise Reduction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study. Am J Audiol 2024; 33:1-12. [PMID: 38354098 DOI: 10.1044/2023_aja-23-00149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Noise reduction technologies in hearing aids provide benefits under controlled conditions. However, differences in their real-life effectiveness are not established. We propose that a deep neural network (DNN)-based noise reduction system trained on naturalistic sound environments will provide different real-life benefits compared to traditional systems. METHOD Real-life listening experiences collected with Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) of participants who used two premium models of hearing aid are compared. One hearing aid model (HA1) used traditional noise reduction; the other hearing aid model (HA2) used DNN-based noise reduction. Participants reported listening experiences several times a day while ambient SPL, SNR, and hearing aid volume adjustments were recorded. Forty experienced hearing aid users completed a total of 3,614 EMAs and recorded 6,812 hr of sound data across two 14-day wear periods. RESULTS Linear mixed-effects analysis document that participants' assessments of ambient noisiness were positively associated with SPL and negatively associated with SNR but were not otherwise affected by hearing aid model. Likewise, mean satisfaction with the two models did not differ. However, individual satisfaction ratings for HA1 were dependent on ambient SNR, which was not the case for HA2. CONCLUSIONS Hearing aids with DNN-based noise reduction resulted in consistent sound satisfaction regardless of the level of background noise compared to hearing aids implementing noise reduction based on traditional statistical models. While the two hearing aid models also differed on other parameters (e.g., shape), these differences are unlikely to explain the difference in how background noise impacts sound satisfaction with the aids. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25114526.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Helen Whiston
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Melanie Lough
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Gabrielle H Saunders
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness, School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
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3
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Cui ME, Herrmann B. Eye Movements Decrease during Effortful Speech Listening. J Neurosci 2023; 43:5856-5869. [PMID: 37491313 PMCID: PMC10423048 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0240-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 06/09/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Hearing impairment affects many older adults but is often diagnosed decades after speech comprehension in noisy situations has become effortful. Accurate assessment of listening effort may thus help diagnose hearing impairment earlier. However, pupillometry-the most used approach to assess listening effort-has limitations that hinder its use in practice. The current study explores a novel way to assess listening effort through eye movements. Building on cognitive and neurophysiological work, we examine the hypothesis that eye movements decrease when speech listening becomes challenging. In three experiments with human participants from both sexes, we demonstrate, consistent with this hypothesis, that fixation duration increases and spatial gaze dispersion decreases with increasing speech masking. Eye movements decreased during effortful speech listening for different visual scenes (free viewing, object tracking) and speech materials (simple sentences, naturalistic stories). In contrast, pupillometry was less sensitive to speech masking during story listening, suggesting pupillometric measures may not be as effective for the assessments of listening effort in naturalistic speech-listening paradigms. Our results reveal a critical link between eye movements and cognitive load, suggesting that neural activity in the brain regions that support the regulation of eye movements, such as frontal eye field and superior colliculus, are modulated when listening is effortful.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Assessment of listening effort is critical for early diagnosis of age-related hearing loss. Pupillometry is most used but has several disadvantages. The current study explores a novel way to assess listening effort through eye movements. We examine the hypothesis that eye movements decrease when speech listening becomes effortful. We demonstrate, consistent with this hypothesis, that fixation duration increases and gaze dispersion decreases with increasing speech masking. Eye movements decreased during effortful speech listening for different visual scenes (free viewing, object tracking) and speech materials (sentences, naturalistic stories). Our results reveal a critical link between eye movements and cognitive load, suggesting that neural activity in brain regions that support the regulation of eye movements are modulated when listening is effortful.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Eric Cui
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, North York, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, North York, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
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4
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Yasmin S, Irsik VC, Johnsrude IS, Herrmann B. The effects of speech masking on neural tracking of acoustic and semantic features of natural speech. Neuropsychologia 2023:108584. [PMID: 37169066 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 04/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Listening environments contain background sounds that mask speech and lead to communication challenges. Sensitivity to slow acoustic fluctuations in speech can help segregate speech from background noise. Semantic context can also facilitate speech perception in noise, for example, by enabling prediction of upcoming words. However, not much is known about how different degrees of background masking affect the neural processing of acoustic and semantic features during naturalistic speech listening. In the current electroencephalography (EEG) study, participants listened to engaging, spoken stories masked at different levels of multi-talker babble to investigate how neural activity in response to acoustic and semantic features changes with acoustic challenges, and how such effects relate to speech intelligibility. The pattern of neural response amplitudes associated with both acoustic and semantic speech features across masking levels was U-shaped, such that amplitudes were largest for moderate masking levels. This U-shape may be due to increased attentional focus when speech comprehension is challenging, but manageable. The latency of the neural responses increased linearly with increasing background masking, and neural latency change associated with acoustic processing most closely mirrored the changes in speech intelligibility. Finally, tracking responses related to semantic dissimilarity remained robust until severe speech masking (-3 dB SNR). The current study reveals that neural responses to acoustic features are highly sensitive to background masking and decreasing speech intelligibility, whereas neural responses to semantic features are relatively robust, suggesting that individuals track the meaning of the story well even in moderate background sound.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Yasmin
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute,The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Vanessa C Irsik
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute,The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute,The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada; School of Communication and Speech Disorders,The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, M6A 2E1, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology,University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Neagu MB, Kressner AA, Relaño-Iborra H, Bækgaard P, Dau T, Wendt D. Investigating the Reliability of Pupillometry as a Measure of
Individualized Listening Effort. Trends Hear 2023; 27:23312165231153288. [PMCID: PMC9947699 DOI: 10.1177/23312165231153288] [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] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Recordings of the pupillary response have been used in numerous studies to assess
listening effort during a speech-in-noise task. Most studies focused on averaged
responses across listeners, whereas less is known about pupil dilation as an
indicator of the individuals’ listening effort. The present study investigated
the reliability of several pupil features as potential indicators of individual
listening effort and the impact of different normalization procedures on the
reliability. The pupil diameters of 31 normal-hearing listeners were recorded
during multiple visits while performing a speech-in-noise task. The
signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the stimuli ranged from
−12 dB to
+4 dB. All listeners
were measured twice at separate visits, and 11 were re-tested at a third visit.
To examine the reliability of the pupil responses across visits, the intraclass
correlation coefficient was applied to the peak and mean pupil dilation and to
the temporal features of the pupil response, extracted using growth curve
analysis. The reliability of the pupillary response was assessed in relation to
SNR and different normalization procedures over multiple visits. The most
reliable pupil features were the traditional mean and peak pupil dilation. The
highest reliability results were obtained when the data were baseline-corrected
and normalized to the individual pupil response range across all visits.
Moreover, the present study results showed only a minor impact of the SNR and
the number of visits on the reliability of the pupil response. Overall, the
results may provide an important basis for developing a standardized test for
pupillometry in the clinic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihaela-Beatrice Neagu
- Department of Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark,Mihaela-Beatrice Neagu, Department of
Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark.
| | - Abigail A. Kressner
- Department of Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark,Copenhagen Hearing and Balance Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
University Hospital, Denmark
| | - Helia Relaño-Iborra
- Department of Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark,Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, DTU Cognitive systems, Denmark
| | - Per Bækgaard
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, DTU Cognitive systems, Denmark
| | - Torsten Dau
- Department of Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark,Copenhagen Hearing and Balance Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
University Hospital, Denmark
| | - Dorothea Wendt
- Department of Health Technology, DTU Hearing Systems, Denmark,Eriksholm Research Centre, Denmark
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Harrison J, Archer-Boyd AW, Francombe J, Pike C, Murphy DT. The relationship between environmental context and attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. Front Psychol 2023; 13:1074320. [PMID: 36726519 PMCID: PMC9885971 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1074320] [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: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Previous research has shown that podcasts are most frequently consumed using mobile listening devices across a wide variety of environmental, situational, and social contexts. To date, no studies have investigated how an individual's environmental context might influence their attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. Improving understanding of the contexts in which episodes of listening take place, and how they might affect listener engagement, could be highly valuable to researchers and producers working in the fields of object-based and personalized media. Methods An online questionnaire on listening habits and behaviors was distributed to a sample of 264 podcast listeners. An exploratory factor analysis was run to identify factors of environmental context that influence attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. Five aspects of podcast listening engagement were also defined and measured across the sample. Results The exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors of environmental context labeled as: outdoors, indoors & at home, evenings, soundscape & at work, and exercise. The aspects of podcast listening engagement provided a comprehensive quantitative account of contemporary podcast listening experiences. Discussion The results presented support the hypothesis that elements of a listener's environmental context can influence their attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. The soundscape & at work factor suggests that some listeners actively choose to consume podcasts to mask disturbing stimuli in their surrounding soundscape. Further analysis suggested that the proposed factors of environmental context were positively correlated with the measured aspects of podcast listening engagement. The results are highly pertinent to the fields of podcast studies, mobile listening experiences, and personalized media, and provide a basis for researchers seeking to explore how other forms of listening context might influence attentional engagement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jay Harrison
- AudioLab, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York, United Kingdom,*Correspondence: Jay Harrison ✉
| | | | - Jon Francombe
- BBC Research and Development, London, United Kingdom
| | - Chris Pike
- BBC Research and Development, London, United Kingdom
| | - Damian T. Murphy
- AudioLab, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
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Irsik VC, Johnsrude IS, Herrmann B. Age-related deficits in dip-listening evident for isolated sentences but not for spoken stories. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5898. [PMID: 35393472 PMCID: PMC8991280 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09805-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Fluctuating background sounds facilitate speech intelligibility by providing speech ‘glimpses’ (masking release). Older adults benefit less from glimpses, but masking release is typically investigated using isolated sentences. Recent work indicates that using engaging, continuous speech materials (e.g., spoken stories) may qualitatively alter speech-in-noise listening. Moreover, neural sensitivity to different amplitude envelope profiles (ramped, damped) changes with age, but whether this affects speech listening is unknown. In three online experiments, we investigate how masking release in younger and older adults differs for masked sentences and stories, and how speech intelligibility varies with masker amplitude profile. Intelligibility was generally greater for damped than ramped maskers. Masking release was reduced in older relative to younger adults for disconnected sentences, and stories with a randomized sentence order. Critically, when listening to stories with an engaging and coherent narrative, older adults demonstrated equal or greater masking release compared to younger adults. Older adults thus appear to benefit from ‘glimpses’ as much as, or more than, younger adults when the speech they are listening to follows a coherent topical thread. Our results highlight the importance of cognitive and motivational factors for speech understanding, and suggest that previous work may have underestimated speech-listening abilities in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa C Irsik
- Department of Psychology & The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.,School of Communication and Speech Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Department of Psychology & The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A1, Canada
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Irsik VC, Johnsrude IS, Herrmann B. Neural Activity during Story Listening Is Synchronized across Individuals Despite Acoustic Masking. J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 34:933-950. [PMID: 35258555 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Older people with hearing problems often experience difficulties understanding speech in the presence of background sound. As a result, they may disengage in social situations, which has been associated with negative psychosocial health outcomes. Measuring listening (dis)engagement during challenging listening situations has received little attention thus far. We recruit young, normal-hearing human adults (both sexes) and investigate how speech intelligibility and engagement during naturalistic story listening is affected by the level of acoustic masking (12-talker babble) at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). In Experiment 1, we observed that word-report scores were above 80% for all but the lowest SNR (-3 dB SNR) we tested, at which performance dropped to 54%. In Experiment 2, we calculated intersubject correlation (ISC) using EEG data to identify dynamic spatial patterns of shared neural activity evoked by the stories. ISC has been used as a neural measure of participants' engagement with naturalistic materials. Our results show that ISC was stable across all but the lowest SNRs, despite reduced speech intelligibility. Comparing ISC and intelligibility demonstrated that word-report performance declined more strongly with decreasing SNR compared to ISC. Our measure of neural engagement suggests that individuals remain engaged in story listening despite missing words because of background noise. Our work provides a potentially fruitful approach to investigate listener engagement with naturalistic, spoken stories that may be used to investigate (dis)engagement in older adults with hearing impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Björn Herrmann
- The University of Western Ontario.,Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.,University of Toronto
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Huet MP, Micheyl C, Gaudrain E, Parizet E. Vocal and semantic cues for the segregation of long concurrent speech stimuli in diotic and dichotic listening-The Long-SWoRD test. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 151:1557. [PMID: 35364949 DOI: 10.1121/10.0007225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
It is not always easy to follow a conversation in a noisy environment. To distinguish between two speakers, a listener must mobilize many perceptual and cognitive processes to maintain attention on a target voice and avoid shifting attention to the background noise. The development of an intelligibility task with long stimuli-the Long-SWoRD test-is introduced. This protocol allows participants to fully benefit from the cognitive resources, such as semantic knowledge, to separate two talkers in a realistic listening environment. Moreover, this task also provides the experimenters with a means to infer fluctuations in auditory selective attention. Two experiments document the performance of normal-hearing listeners in situations where the perceptual separability of the competing voices ranges from easy to hard using a combination of voice and binaural cues. The results show a strong effect of voice differences when the voices are presented diotically. In addition, analyzing the influence of the semantic context on the pattern of responses indicates that the semantic information induces a response bias in situations where the competing voices are distinguishable and indistinguishable from one another.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moïra-Phoebé Huet
- Laboratory of Vibration and Acoustics, National Institute of Applied Sciences, University of Lyon, 20 Avenue Albert Einstein, Villeurbanne, 69100, France
| | | | - Etienne Gaudrain
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics, Centre National de la Recerche Scientifique UMR5292, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, Neurocampus, 95 boulevard Pinel, Bron Cedex, 69675, France
| | - Etienne Parizet
- Laboratory of Vibration and Acoustics, National Institute of Applied Sciences, University of Lyon, 20 Avenue Albert Einstein, Villeurbanne, 69100, France
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