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Rick L Jenison

Publications and source records attributed to Rick L Jenison.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

The effect of trajectory on the auditory motion aftereffect.

The auditory motion aftereffect (aMAE) can be induced in listeners after repeated presentation of a horizontally moving sound source. Aftereffects have also been found for the individual acoustic consequences of source motion such as amplitude or frequency modulations (AM, FM). No study, however, has investigated whether combining these changes would enhance the magnitude of the aMAE, which has appeared otherwise weak relative to its visual counterpart. AM, FM and binaural changes can occur simultaneously when sources move along common translational trajectories rather than the restricted rotational paths used in previous adaptation studies. This raises the question whether the observed weakness of the aMAE is due to the improper stimulation of units responsive to the entire macrostructure induced by translational motion. The hypothesis is tested here that if integrated motion detectors exist, then including lawful amplitude and frequency changes in adapting stimuli may enhance aftereffects. Though results indicate that interaurally moving stimuli in general induce an aMAE, the acoustic macrostructure of translational motion does not appear to increase the aftereffect. A simple cross-correlation model is used to illustrate that such acoustic modulations may allow brainstem auditory centers time to recover from adaptation to translational motion.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Directional sensitivity of neurons in the primary auditory (AI) cortex: effects of sound-source intensity level.

Transient sounds were delivered from different directions in virtual acoustic space while recording from single neurons in primary auditory cortex (AI) of cats under general anesthesia. The intensity level of the sound source was varied parametrically to determine the operating characteristics of the spatial receptive field. The spatial receptive field was constructed from the onset latency of the response to a sound at each sampled direction. Spatial gradients of response latency composing a receptive field are due partially to a systematic co-dependence on sound-source direction and intensity level. Typically, at any given intensity level, the distribution of response latency within the receptive field was unimodal with a range of approximately 3-4 ms, although for some cells and some levels, the spread could be as much as 20 or as little as 2 ms. Response latency, averaged across directions, differed among neurons for the same intensity level, and also differed among intensity levels for the same neuron. Generally, increases in intensity level resulted in decreases in the mean and variance, which follows an inverse Gaussian distribution. Receptive field models, based on response latency, are developed using multiple parameters (azimuth, elevation, intensity), validated with Monte Carlo simulation, and their spatial filtering described using spherical harmonic analysis. Observations from an ensemble of modeled receptive fields are obtained by linking the inverse Gaussian density to the probabilistic inverse problem of estimating sound-source direction and intensity. Upper bounds on acuity is derived from the ensemble using Fisher information, and the predicted patterns of estimation errors are related to psychophysical performance.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Likelihood approaches to sensory coding in auditory cortex.

Likelihood methods began their evolution in the early 1920s with R A Fisher, and have developed into a rich framework for inferential statistics. This framework offers tools for the analysis of the differential geometry of the full likelihood function based on observed data. We examine likelihood functions derived from inverse Gaussian (IG) probability density models of cortical ensemble responses of single units. Specifically, we investigate the problem of sound localization from the observation of an ensemble of neural responses recorded from the primary (Al) field of the auditory cortex. The problem is framed as a probabilistic inverse problem with multiple sources of ambiguity. Observed and expected Fisher information are defined for the IG cortical ensemble likelihood functions. Receptive field functions of multiple acoustic parameters are constructed and linked to the IG density. The impact of estimating multiple acoustic parameters related to the direction of a sound is discussed, and the implications of eliminating nuisance parameters are considered. We examine the degree of acuity afforded by a small ensemble of cortical neurons for locating sounds in space, and show the predicted patterns of estimation errors, which tend to follow psychophysical performance.

Acoustic Stimulation↗