Biomedical subjects

Patrick M Zurek

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick M Zurek.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Auditory target detection in reverberation.

Measurements and theoretical predictions of auditory target detection in simulated reverberant conditions are reported. The target signals were pulsed 1/3-octave bands of noise and the masker signal was a continuous wideband noise. Target and masker signals were passed through a software simulation of a reverberant room with a rigid sphere modeling a listener's head. The location of the target was fixed while the location of the masker was varied in the simulated room. Degree of reverberation was controlled by varying the uniform acoustic absorption of the simulated room's surfaces. The resulting target and masker signals were presented to the listeners over headphones in monaural-left, monaural-right, or binaural listening modes. Changes in detection performance in the monaural listening modes were largely predictable from the changes in target-to-masker ratio in the target band, but with a few dB of extra masking in reverberation. Binaural detection performance was generally well predicted by applying Durlach's [in Foundations of Modern Auditory Theory (Academic, New York, 1972)] equalization-cancellation theory to the direct-plus-reverberant ear signals. Predictions in all cases were based on a statistical description of room acoustics and on acoustic diffraction by a sphere. The success of these detection models in the present well-controlled reverberant conditions suggests that they can be used to incorporate listening mode and source location as factors in speech-intelligibility predictions.

Acoustics↗

PubMed2003

Evaluation of array-processing algorithms for a headband hearing aid.

Several array-processing algorithms were implemented and evaluated with experienced hearing-aid users. The array consisted of four directional microphones mounted broadside on a headband worn on the top of the listener's head. The algorithms included two adaptive array-processing algorithms, one fixed array-processing algorithm, and a reference condition consisting of binaural directional microphones. The algorithms were evaluated under conditions with both one and three independent noise sources. Performance metrics included quantitative speech reception thresholds and qualitative subject preference ratings for ease-of-listening measured using a paired-comparison procedure. On average, the fixed algorithm improved speech reception thresholds by 2 dB, while the adaptive algorithms provided 7-9-dB improvement over the reference condition. Subjects judging ease-of-listening generally preferred all array-processing algorithms over the reference condition. The results suggest that these adaptive algorithms should be evaluated further in more realistic acoustic environments.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Lateralization of two-transient stimuli.

In this study of the precedence effect in binaural hearing, subjects adjusted the interaural delay of a wideband acoustic pointer to match the perceived intracranial position of transient test stimuli presented over headphones. The test stimuli had leading and lagging components (either brief noise bursts or clicks), each with its own interaural delay. In some test conditions, the leading and lagging stimuli were coherent copies of one another, whereas in others, they were independent samples of noise. The duration of the stimuli and the delay from the leading component to the lagging component were also varied. All the stimulus conditions showed a moderate or strong precedence effect (i.e., covariation of perceived lateral position of the composite two-transient stimulus with the interaural delay of the leading component). Predictions of the lateralization data are presented for variants of models based on temporal weighting and/or bandpass correlation. In one model variant, the binaural stimuli are temporally weighted to emphasize the onset and then subjected to bandpass correlation analysis. In another variant, it is assumed that the onset mechanism provides a rough estimate of the initial interaural delay that guides a slower and more focused bandpass correlation analysis. The accuracies of these two model's predictions were equivalent and superior to those of models that either represent leading and lagging cues equally (bandpass correlation with no onset effect) or do not represent lagging cues at all (a complete precedence effect). The results of these analyses show the need for both a strong onset effect and for bandpass correlation analysis and suggest two modeling approaches for achieving that goal.

Auditory Perception↗