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Results for “Auditory Perception”

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PubMed2003

Speech perception of Mandarin Chinese speaking young children after cochlear implant use: effect of age at implantation.

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to examine (1). whether the benefit of cochlear implants in Mandarin-speaking congenitally deaf children persists over a 2-year follow-up period, and (2). whether the age of the child at implantation affects the acquisition of speech perception by young deafened children. METHOD: Sixteen congenitally deaf children received implants of Nucleus CI24M devices. Speech perception tests were conducted using the Mandarin Auditory Perception Test Battery at 6-month intervals after connection of the device. We determined the benefit of cochlear implants by monitoring percent correct scores between 12 and 24 months after implantation. Regression analysis was used to correlate the measures of progress and the age at implantation. RESULTS: In the comparison of performance at 12 and 24 months post-connection, subjects performed significantly better at 24 than at 12 months in spondee, vowel, and consonant tests (P<0.05). In phrase and sentence tests, the mean score improved over time with device use, but the difference was not significant (P=0.066 and 0.067, respectively). However, no obvious improvement in average score was found in tone tests (P=0.386). Progress (improvement in speech perception) at 12 and 24 months had moderate negative correlations with age at implantation in spondee, vowel, phrase and sentence tests (P<0.05), but no correlation with age in consonant (P=0.20) and tone tests (P=0.26). CONCLUSION: The result, in accordance with the reports on Western language-speaking children, showed cochlear implants increasingly benefit Mandarin-speaking congenitally deaf children over a 2-year post-implantation period. Because age at implantation negatively correlates with improved speech perception after implantation, congenitally affected children with profound deafness (if they cannot obtain enough benefit from hearing aids) should receive implants as early as possible.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2004

Auditory-visual speech perception in an adult with aphasia.

The evaluation of auditory-visual speech perception is not typically undertaken in the assessment of aphasia; however, treatment approaches utilise bimodal presentations. Research demonstrates that auditory and visual information are integrated for speech perception. The strongest evidence of this cross-modal integration is the McGurk effect. This indirect measure of integration shows that presentation of conflicting tokens may change perception (e.g. auditory /bi/ + visual /gi/ = /di/). The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of a person with mild aphasia to identify tokens presented in auditory-only, visual-only and auditory-visual conditions. It was hypothesized that performance would be best in the bimodal condition and that presence of the McGurk effect would demonstrate integration of speech information. Findings did not support the hypotheses. It is suspected that successful integration of AV speech information was limited by a perseverative response pattern. This case study suggests the use of bisensory speech information may be impaired in adults with aphasia.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Volumetric vs. surface-based alignment for localization of auditory cortex activation.

The high degree of intersubject structural variability in the human brain is an obstacle in combining data across subjects in functional neuroimaging experiments. A common method for aligning individual data is normalization into standard 3D stereotaxic space. Since the inherent geometry of the cortex is that of a 2D sheet, higher precision can potentially be achieved if the intersubject alignment is based on landmarks in this 2D space. To examine the potential advantage of surface-based alignment for localization of auditory cortex activation, and to obtain high-resolution maps of areas activated by speech sounds, fMRI data were analyzed from the left hemisphere of subjects tested with phoneme and tone discrimination tasks. We compared Talairach stereotaxic normalization with two surface-based methods: Landmark Based Warping, in which landmarks in the auditory cortex were chosen manually, and Automated Spherical Warping, in which hemispheres were aligned automatically based on spherical representations of individual and average brains. Examination of group maps generated with these alignment methods revealed superiority of the surface-based alignment in providing precise localization of functional foci and in avoiding mis-registration due to intersubject anatomical variability. Human left hemisphere cortical areas engaged in complex auditory perception appear to lie on the superior temporal gyrus, the dorsal bank of the superior temporal sulcus, and the lateral third of Heschl's gyrus.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1983

Speech perception and memory coding in relation to reading ability.

Previous work has demonstrated that children who are poor readers have short-term memory deficits in tasks in which the stimuli lend themselves to phonetic coding. The aim of the present study was to explore whether the poor readers' memory deficit may have its origin in perception with the encoding of the stimuli. Three experiments were conducted with third grade good and poor readers. As in earlier experiments, the poor readers were found to perform less well on recall of random word strings and to be less affected by the phonetic characteristics (rhyming or not rhyming) of the items (Experiment 1). In addition, the poor readers produced more errors of transposition (in the nonrhyming strings) than did the good readers, a further indication of the poor readers' problems with memory for order. The subjects were tested on two auditory perception tasks, one employing words (Experiment 2) and the other nonspeech environmental sounds (Experiment 3). Each was presented under two conditions: with a favorable signal-to-noise ratio and with masking. The poor readers made significantly more errors than the good readers when listening to speech in noise, but did not differ in perception of speech without noise or in perception of nonspeech environmental sounds, whether noise-masked or not. Together, the results of the perception studies suggest that poor readers have a perceptual difficulty that is specific to speech. It is suggested that the short-term memory deficits characteristic of poor readers may stem from material-specific problems of perceptual processing.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1976

Protein deprivation in primates. VIII. Early behavior of progeny.

Infant rhesus monkeys whose mothers were fed diets providing 1, 2, or 4 g of protein/kg body weight/day during pregnancy were tested on 13 behavioral tests during their first 60 days of life. (The diets had been shown to affect significantly the weights and blood protein concentrations of both pregnant and nonpregnant females.) The tests samples a wide range of behaviors, including visual and auditory perception, feeding reflexes, and locomotion. Despite the maternal dietary differences, the performances of infants on all tests were comparable in all groups. These data contrast with the finding of persistent deficit in rats born of protein-deprived mothers.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1978

Distinctive features for short-term memory of consonants in noise.

Wickelgren's (1966) short-term memory paradigm was used to investigate distinctive features of consonants in noise; 18 English consonants paired with the vowel /a/ were presented to 3 normal listeners in a CV context. Ss were tested in a quiet sound field at most comfortable listening level in experimental conditions of (1) quiet, (2) speech and noise at 0, (3) --5, and (4) --10 db S/N. Errors in auditory perception were eliminated from the data analysis and only errors in short-term memory recall were used as input to INDSCAL analysis. Results revealed that few errors were made in the quiet condition, but that all the noise conditions had deleterious effects on features.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Speech and language development in 41 children with sex chromosome anomalies.

Forty-one children with sex chromosome anomalies identified from the chromosome screening of a newborn population were blindly evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, along with a control group of 31 siblings. 47,XXX girls and 47,XXY boys were found to have increased problems in auditory perception, receptive language, and expressive language; the problems of the 47,XXY boys were less severe than those of the 47,XXX group, and reflected specific deficits in their ability to process linguistic information rather than a deficit in comprehension. An increased occurrence of speech production problems among the 45,X girls was associated with the presence of oral/structural malformations that often had no measurable effect on their production of speech sounds. Although the 45,X girls and 47,XYY boys had no significant increase of problems in auditory reception, receptive language, and expressive language, the trend of the data suggested more difficulty than in the control groups. The mosaic children were not different from the control subjects. Some children in all groups were found to have normal speech and language development.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

[Why can we hear pure tones?].

This study is concerned with the role and significance of "hearing out" pure tones in many types of sound. While for decades the phenomenon had played only a secondary role in auditory psychophysics, it is becoming now recognized as a key to auditory information acquisition. It is suggested that the auditory spectral pitches (i.e., the subjective pitches of pure tones) are in several respects analogous to visual contours; that both in visual and auditory perception contours convey most important information on external objects; and that contourization requires a decision process in the peripheral part of the sensory system and such can be regarded as the first step of sensory information processing. Recent experimental results on part-tone synthesis of audio signals are outlined that strongly emphasize the significance of part-tone hearing.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1985

Electrical stimulation of cochlear nucleus in man.

Auditory percepts can be produced by electrical stimulation of the cochlear nucleus in man. The ability to locate accurately and stimulate selectively the cochlear nucleus after removal of an acoustic schwannoma was confirmed in this patient. The surgical approach, electrode design, and a discussion of the results and concerns of electrical stimulation are reviewed.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed1976

Functional capability of 68-year-old people in the town of Jyväskylä.

A cross-sectional study on the functional capability of 68-year-old persons was performed in 1973 in the town of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. The mean values of the measured variables for men and women, respectively, were the following: vital capacity 1.7 l/m2 and 1.2 l/m2; threshold of auditory perception (4000 cps) 49.0 dB and 28.4 dB, digit symbol 23.9 and 24.3 digits; digit span 9.5 and 9.7 numbers; simple reaction time 0.27 sec; pred. max VO2 26.6 and 21.6 ml/kg - min. Persons with high physical working capacity or good self-assessed health attained better results compared to persons with low PWC or poor self-assessed health.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Tracking the mind's image in the brain I: time-resolved fMRI during visuospatial mental imagery.

Mental imagery, the generation and manipulation of mental representations in the absence of sensory stimulation, is a core element of numerous cognitive processes. We investigate the cortical mechanisms underlying imagery and spatial analysis in the visual domain using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging during the mental clock task. The time-resolved analysis of cortical activation from auditory perception to motor response reveals a sequential activation of the left and right posterior parietal cortex, suggesting that these regions perform distinct functions in this imagery task. This is confirmed by a trial-by-trial analysis of correlations between reaction time and onset, width, and amplitude of the hemodynamic response. These findings pose neurophysiological constraints on cognitive models of mental imagery.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1996

Technology advancements in hearing protection circa 1995: active noise reduction, frequency/amplitude-sensitivity, and uniform attenuation.

Conventional hearing protection devices represent a mature technology that has been widely used since the late 1950s. When worn consistently and correctly such devices can provide suitable hearing protection in many, if not most noise-hazardous or aurally annoying situations. However, such devices have often been implicated in compromised auditory perception, degraded signal detection, and reduced speech communication abilities. In some instances this can create hazards for the wearer, or at the very least, resistance to use by those in need of hearing protection. Recent technological developments have been used to augment hearing protectors in an attempt to alleviate these problems for the user while providing adequate attenuation. Operational characteristics, design alternatives, performance data, and applications for active noise reduction, active sound transmission, frequency selectively, adjustable attenuation, amplitude sensitivity, and uniform attenuation features in hearing protectors are discussed, and recommendations are provided.

Acoustics↗

PubMed1978

Kindergarten predictors of three aspects of reading achievement.

Kindergarten measures of intelligence, auditory perception, visual perception, and associative learning were used to predict three aspects of reading achievement (word attack, word recognition, and comprehension) at the end of Grades 1,2, and 3 for 79 subjects. The predictability of each measure was a function not only of grade, but also of the aspect of reading achievement being predicted. Multiple correlations of the predictors tended to increase across grade levels and were highest for the comprehension aspect of reading. The Number Facility subtest of the PMA was the over-all best predictor or reading achievement. Possible reasons for this and other findings are discussed.

Achievement↗

PubMed1999

Experience-dependent modification of ultrasound auditory processing in a cricket escape response.

The ultrasound acoustic startle response (ASR) of crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) is a defense against echolocating bats. The ASR to a test pulse can be habituated by a train of ultrasound prepulses. We found that this conditioning paradigm modified both the gain and the lateral direction of the startle response. Habituation reduced the slope of the intensity/response relationship but did not alter stimulus threshold, so habituation extended the dynamic range of the ASR to higher stimulus intensities. Prepulses from the side (90 degrees or 270 degrees azimuth) had a priming effect upon the lateral direction of the ASR, increasing the likelihood that test pulses from the front (between -22 degrees and +22 degrees ) would evoke responses towards the same side as prepulse-induced responses. The plasticity revealed by these experiments could alter the efficacy of the ASR as an escape response and might indicate experience-dependent modification of auditory perception. We also examined stimulus control of habituation by prepulse intensity or direction. Only suprathreshold prepulses induced habituation. Prepulses from one side habituated the responses to test pulses from either the ipsilateral or contralateral side, but habituation was strongest for the prepulse-ipsilateral side. We suggest that habituation of the ASR occurs in the brain, after the point in the pathway where the threshold is mediated, and that directional priming results from a second process of plasticity distinct from that underlying habituation. These inferences bring us a step closer to identifying the neural substrates of plasticity in the ASR pathway.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1991

Characterization and simulation of impaired hearing: implications for hearing aid design.

This article reviews several aspects of auditory perception that are affected by hearing loss of cochlear origin. It is argued that most of the observed effects can be understood in terms of damage to a physiologically vulnerable active process in the cochlea. In a normal ear, this process enhances sensitivity and frequency selectivity and reduces the slope of the input-output function on the basilar membrane. Damage to the active process in impaired ears leads to reduced sensitivity and frequency selectivity, an abnormally rapid rate of growth of loudness with intensity, reduced temporal integration and, for certain types of stimuli, reduced temporal resolution. The implications and relevance of each of these effects to the design and fitting of hearing aids are discussed.

Acoustics↗

PubMed1987

Perceptual organization of acoustic stimuli by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): II. Vocal signals.

Operant conditioning and multidimensional scaling procedures were used to study auditory perception of complex sounds in the budgerigar. In a same-different discrimination task, budgerigars learned to discriminate among natural vocal signals. Multidimensional scaling procedures were used to arrange these complex acoustic stimuli in a two-dimensional space reflecting perceptual organization. Results show that budgerigars group vocal stimuli according to functional and acoustical categories. Studies with only contact calls show that birds also make within-category discriminations. The acoustic cues in contact calls most salient to budgerigars appear to be quite complex. There is a suggestion that the sex of the signaler may also be encoded in these calls. The results from budgerigars were compared with the results from humans tested on some of the same sets of complex sounds.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Cochlear implantation in patients with auditory neuropathy of varied etiologies.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Auditory neuropathy is a relatively recently described pattern of hearing loss characterized by preservation of outer hair cell function despite absent brainstem auditory evoked responses. Intact outer hair cell function is demonstrated by the presence of otoacoustic emissions and/or a measurable cochlear microphonic on electrocochleography, whereas no synchronous neural activity (absent action potentials) is seen on acoustically evoked brainstem auditory evoked response testing. The study reviews the authors' experience with six patients diagnosed with auditory neuropathy, four of whom have undergone cochlear implantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of all medical and audiological charts at the University of Virginia Hospitals (Charlottesville, VA) was performed to identify patients who have undergone cochlear implantation or have been diagnosed with auditory neuropathy, or both. RESULTS: Six patients with hearing loss attributable to auditory neuropathy were identified, four of whom have undergone cochlear implantation. Causes varied, including congenital, infectious, and idiopathic origins. Adults demonstrated subjective auditory perception on promontory stimulation, whereas no repeatable brainstem auditory evoked response waveforms could be demonstrated on pediatric promontory stimulation testing. Patients with implants demonstrated implant-evoked brainstem auditory evoked responses and improved audiological performance. CONCLUSIONS: The six cases presented in the study represent varied causes and, probably, varied sites of lesions of auditory neuropathy. Promontory stimulation has been valuable, particularly in adults. Cochlear implantation allows the opportunity to provide a supraphysiological electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve, with the hope of reintroducing synchronous neural activity. Greater confidence and enthusiasm for cochlear implantation in appropriately selected patients with auditory neuropathy are gained through experience with such diverse cases.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Verbal memory in schizophrenia: additional evidence of subtypes having different cognitive deficits.

A prior study found a selective deficit in verbal working memory in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia who performed as well as healthy controls on a screening test of attention and auditory perception [Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 55 (1998) 1093]. Given the importance of defining pathophysiologically distinct subtypes of schizophrenia, the present study aimed to replicate and extend this finding. Patients with schizophrenia who passed the screening test (discriminators or Dsz patients) were compared to those who did not (nondiscriminators, NDsz patients), and healthy controls on a word serial position test (WSPT) and on other tests of verbal and nonverbal cognitive function. Dsz patients performed more poorly than controls on the WSPT and showed serial position effects consistent with a verbal memory deficit. They also showed a deficit in verbal memory but not visual memory on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. In contrast, the NDsz patients showed overall poor performance on both verbal and nonverbal tests, consistent with a generalized deficit. Verbal working memory deficits were not related to education, gender, severity of symptoms, medication status, or hemispheric dominance for perceiving dichotic words. The findings add to growing evidence for the existence of a subgroup of schizophrenia having a specific verbal memory deficit that is not limited to working memory, but extends to learning and recall of verbal material.

Adult↗