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At least 1,315 records · Page 73Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

On the relative importance of spatial and timbral fidelities in judgments of degraded multichannel audio quality.

Mean opinion score ratings of reproduced sound quality typically pool all contributing perceptual factors into a single rating of basic audio quality. In order to improve understanding of the trade-offs between selected sound quality degradations that might arise in systems for the delivery of high quality multichannel audio, it was necessary to evaluate the influence of timbral and spatial fidelity changes on basic audio quality grades. The relationship between listener ratings of degraded multichannel audio quality on one timbral and two spatial fidelity scales was exploited to predict basic audio quality ratings of the same material using a regression model. It was found that timbral fidelity ratings dominated but that spatial fidelity predicted a substantial proportion of the basic audio quality.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Consequences of cochlear damage for the detection of interaural phase differences.

Thresholds for detecting interaural phase differences (IPDs) in sinusoidally amplitude-modulated pure tones were measured in seven normal-hearing listeners and nine listeners with bilaterally symmetric hearing losses of cochlear origin. The IPDs were imposed either on the carrier signal alone-not the amplitude modulation-or vice versa. The carrier frequency was 250, 500, or 1000 Hz, the modulation frequency 20 or 50 Hz, and the sound pressure level was fixed at 75 dB. A three-interval two-alternative forced choice paradigm was used. For each type of IPD (carrier or modulation), thresholds were on average higher for the hearing-impaired than for the normal listeners. However, the impaired listeners' detection deficit was markedly larger for carrier IPDs than for modulation IPDs. This was not predictable from the effect of hearing loss on the sensation level of the stimuli since, for normal listeners, large reductions of sensation level appeared to be more deleterious to the detection of modulation IPDs than to the detection of carrier IPDs. The results support the idea that one consequence of cochlear damage is a deterioration in the perceptual sensitivity to the temporal fine structure of sounds.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Forward masking of amplitude modulation: basic characteristics.

In this study we demonstrate an effect for amplitude modulation (AM) that is analogous to forward making of audio frequencies, i.e., the modulation threshold for detection of AM (signal) is raised by preceding AM (masker). In the study we focused on the basic characteristics of the forward-masking effect. Functions representing recovery from AM forward masking measured with a 150- ms 40- Hz masker AM and a 50- ms signal AM of the same rate imposed on the same broadband-noise carrier, showed an exponential decay of forward masking with increasing delay from masker offset. Thresholds remained elevated by more than 2 dB over an interval of at least 150 ms following the masker. Masked-threshold patterns, measured with a fixed signal rate (20, 40, and 80 Hz) and a variable masker rate, showed tuning of the AM forward-masking effect. The tuning was approximately constant across signal modulation rates used and consistent with the idea of modulation-rate selective channels. Combining two equally effective forward maskers of different frequencies did not lead to an increase in forward masking relative to that produced by either component alone. Overall, the results are consistent with modulation-rate selective neural channels that adapt and recover from the adaptation relatively quickly.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

The effect of diotic and dichotic level-randomization on the binaural masking-level difference.

Detection thresholds for tones in narrow-band noise were measured for two binaural configurations: N(o)S(o) and N(o)S(pi). The 30-Hz noise band had a mean overall level of 65 dB SPL and was centered on 250, 500, or 5000 Hz. Signals and noise were simultaneously gated for 500, 110, or 20 ms. Three conditions of level randomization were tested: (1) no randomization; (2) diotic randomization--the stimulus level (common to both ears) was randomly chosen from an uniformly distributed 40-dB range every presentation interval; and (3) dichotic randomization--the stimulus levels for each ear were each independently and randomly chosen from the 40-dB range. Regardless of binaural configuration, level randomization had small effects on thresholds at 500 and 110 ms, implying that binaural masking-level differences (BMLDs) do not depend on interaural level differences for individual stimuli. For 20-ms stimuli, both diotic and dichotic randomization led to markedly poorer performance than at 500- and 110-ms durations; BMLDs diminished with no randomization and dichotic randomization but not with diotic randomization. The loss of BMLDs at 20 ms, with degrees-of-freedom (2WT) approximately 1, implies that changes in intracranial parameters occurring during the course of the observation interval are necessary for BMLDs when mean-level and mean-intracranial-position cues have been made unhelpful.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Comparing monaural and interaural temporal windows: effects of a temporal fringe on sensitivity to intensity differences.

In an effort to provide a unifying framework for understanding monaural and binaural processing of intensity differences, an experiment was performed to assess whether temporal weighting functions estimated in two-interval monaural intensity-discrimination tasks could account for data in single-interval interaural intensity-discrimination tasks. In both tasks, stimuli consisted of a 50-ms burst of noise with a 5-ms probe segment at temporal positions ranging between the onset and offset of the overall stimulus. During the probe segment, one monaural interval or binaural channel of each trial contained an intensity increment and the other contained a decrement. Listeners were instructed to choose the interval/channel containing the increment. The pattern of monaural thresholds was roughly symmetrical (an inverted U) across temporal position of the probe but interaural thresholds were substantially higher for a brief time interval following stimulus onset. A two-sided exponential temporal window fit to the monaural data accounted for the interaural data well when combined with a post-onset-weighting function that described greatest weighting of binaural information at stimulus onset. A second experiment showed that the specific procedure used in measuring fringed interaural-intensity-difference-discrimination thresholds affects thresholds as a function of fringe duration and influences the form of the best-fitting post-onset-weighting function.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Profile analysis: the effects of rove on sparse spectra.

Profile-analysis thresholds were measured in the presence and absence of overall level variation at different stimulus levels to determine whether nonlinear changes in the shape of the edges of excitation pattern peaks contribute to poorer spectral-shape sensitivity observed under roving levels. Roving levels decreased sensitivity for stimuli having few components separated widely in frequency to a greater extent than for stimuli having more densely spaced components. The stimulus level did not influence sensitivity when overall level variation was absent, suggesting that listeners rely on peaks in the excitation patterns and not the edges of the peaks (as would have been predicted by the near miss to Weber's law). Because the edges of the peaks were not used in the absence of roving levels, it follows that the larger rove effects for sparse stimuli were not likely due to excitation pattern inconstancy.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Detection of spectrally complex signals in comodulated maskers: effect of temporal fringe.

This study tested the hypothesis that masking release for a complex signal under conditions where signal energy is present in all frequency regions occupied by the masker is attributable to an across-frequency-channel comodulation masking release (CMR) process. The approach was to identify a signature CMR trait, and to then determine if that trait was associated with the detection advantage for complex signals. The selected trait was the decline of CMR in the presence of a random temporal fringe. In experiment 1, a masking release was observed for a four-component harmonic signal presented in a comodulated masker, and this masking release was diminished by the random temporal fringe. A similar effect was observed in experiment 2 for a four-component inharmonic signal. These results support the hypothesis that a CMR can be measured for a complex signal even when there is substantial spectral overlap between the signal and its comodulated masker. This finding has consequences for CMR models since it demonstrates that the presence of "signal-free" cue bands is not a prerequisite for CMR, and that the presence of comodulation during the signal window is not sufficient to result in CMR.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Comparison of Levitt- and Zwislocki-type adaptive procedures for stimulus placement in human listeners.

The "3-down, 1-up" adaptive stimulus placement rules attributed to Levitt and Zwislocki were compared in the context of human interaural time difference discrimination, employing otherwise commonly used procedures (e.g., averaging reversals to estimate threshold). The Zwislocki rule typically accumulated over three more reversals than the Levitt rule but the rules were approximately equally efficient. This may be because the additional reversals did not provide additional information or that any additional information was countered by other factors, such as the lower theoretical asymptotic response probability (0.75 vs 0.794). Relative bias between rules was also explored with the aid of a simulation.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Quantitative measures of air-gun pulses recorded on sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) using acoustic tags during controlled exposure experiments.

The widespread use of powerful, low-frequency air-gun pulses for seismic seabed exploration has raised concern about their potential negative effects on marine wildlife. Here, we quantify the sound exposure levels recorded on acoustic tags attached to eight sperm whales at ranges between 1.4 and 12.6 km from controlled air-gun array sources operated in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to multipath propagation, the animals were exposed to multiple sound pulses during each firing of the array with received levels of analyzed pulses falling between 131-167 dB re. 1 microPa (pp) [111-147 dB re. 1 microPa (rms) and 100-135 dB re. 1 microPa2 s] after compensation for hearing sensitivity using the M-weighting. Received levels varied widely with range and depth of the exposed animal precluding reliable estimation of exposure zones based on simple geometric spreading laws. When whales were close to the surface, the first arrivals of air-gun pulses contained most energy between 0.3 and 3 kHz, a frequency range well beyond the normal frequencies of interest in seismic exploration. Therefore air-gun arrays can generate significant sound energy at frequencies many octaves higher than the frequencies of interest for seismic exploration, which increases concern of the potential impact on odontocetes with poor low frequency hearing.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Modeling distortion product otoacoustic emission input/output functions using segmented regression.

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) are low-level acoustic signals, the detection of which involves extraction from a background of noise. Boege and Janssen [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 111, 1810-1818 (2002)] described a method for modeling the presence and growth of these responses. While improving growth function parameter estimation, this technique excludes a significant fraction of the data (especially low-level responses), and relies on ad hoc model fit acceptance criteria. The statistical difficulties associated with these limitations are described, and a weighted segmented linear regression model that avoids them is proposed. A simple test is presented for the presence of DPOAE growth. This technique is compared to that of Boege and Janssen in a dataset of 9 556 input/output (I/O) functions collected over 4 years on 866 ears from 379 construction apprentices and 63 age-matched controls. Comparisons are made on the entire dataset and within audiometric hearing loss categories. Segmented regression avoids the statistical pitfalls of the previous method, allows estimation of the threshold and slope of auditory response on a far greater number of I/O functions, and improves estimation of these parameters in this dataset. The potential for this method to yield more sensitive metrics of hearing function and compromise is discussed.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗
PubMed2006

Constructing and disrupting listeners' models of auditory space.

A major problem for an auditory system exposed to sound in a reverberant environment is to distinguish reflections from true sound sources. Previous research indicates that the process of recognizing reflections is malleable from moment to moment. Three experiments report how ongoing input can prevent or disrupt the fusion of the delayed sound with the direct sound, a necessary component of the precedence effect. The buildup of fusion can be disrupted by presenting stimuli in alternation that simulate different reflecting surfaces. If buildup of fusion is accomplished first and then followed by an aberrant configuration, breakdown of the precedence effect occurs but it depends on the duration of the new sound configuration. The Djelani and Blauert (2001) finding that a brief disruption has no effect on fusion was confirmed; however, it was found that a more lengthy disruption produces breakdown.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Electromotile hearing: acoustic tones mask psychophysical response to high-frequency electrical stimulation of intact guinea pig cochleae.

When sinusoidal electric stimulation is applied to the intact cochlea, a frequency-specific acoustic emission can be recorded in the ear canal. Acoustic emissions are produced by basilar membrane motion, and have been used to suggest a corresponding acoustic sensation termed "electromotile hearing." Electromotile hearing has been specifically attributed to electric stimulation of outer hair cells in the intact organ of Corti. To determine the nature of the auditory perception produced by electric stimulation of a cochlea with intact outer hair cells, guinea pigs were tested in a psychophysical task. First, subjects were trained to report detection of sinusoidal acoustic stimuli and dynamic range was assessed using response latency. Subjects were then implanted with a ball electrode placed into scala tympani. Following the surgical implant procedure, subjects were transferred to a task in which acoustic signals were replaced by sinusoidal electric stimulation, and dynamic range was assessed again. Finally, the ability of acoustic pure-tone stimuli to mask the detection of the electric signals was assessed. Based on the masking effects, it is concluded that sinusoidal electric stimulation of the intact cochlea results in perception of a tonal (rather than a broadband or noisy) sound at a frequency of 8 kHz or above.

Acoustics↗