Auditory perception of a human walker.

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Cottrell, David; Campbell, Megan E J

2014-01-01

When one hears footsteps in the hall, one is able to instantly recognise it as a person: this is an everyday example of auditory biological motion perception. Despite the familiarity of this experience, research into this phenomenon is in its infancy compared with visual biological motion perception. Here, two experiments explored sensitivity to, and recognition of, auditory stimuli of biological and nonbiological origin. We hypothesised that the cadence of a walker gives rise to a temporal pattern of impact sounds that facilitates the recognition of human motion from auditory stimuli alone. First a series of detection tasks compared sensitivity with three carefully matched impact sounds: footsteps, a ball bouncing, and drumbeats. Unexpectedly, participants were no more sensitive to footsteps than to impact sounds of nonbiological origin. In the second experiment participants made discriminations between pairs of the same stimuli, in a series of recognition tasks in which the temporal pattern of impact sounds was manipulated to be either that of a walker or the pattern more typical of the source event (a ball bouncing or a drumbeat). Under these conditions, there was evidence that both temporal and nontemporal cues were important in recognising theses stimuli. It is proposed that the interval between footsteps, which reflects a walker's cadence, is a cue for the recognition of the sounds of a human walking.

Tuning In to Sound: Frequency-Selective Attentional Filter in Human Primary Auditory Cortex

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Da Costa, Sandra; van der Zwaag, Wietske; Miller, Lee M.; Clarke, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Cocktail parties, busy streets, and other noisy environments pose a difficult challenge to the auditory system: how to focus attention on selected sounds while ignoring others? Neurons of primary auditory cortex, many of which are sharply tuned to sound frequency, could help solve this problem by filtering selected sound information based on frequency-content. To investigate whether this occurs, we used high-resolution fMRI at 7 tesla to map the fine-scale frequency-tuning (1.5 mm isotropic resolution) of primary auditory areas A1 and R in six human participants. Then, in a selective attention experiment, participants heard low (250 Hz)- and high (4000 Hz)-frequency streams of tones presented at the same time (dual-stream) and were instructed to focus attention onto one stream versus the other, switching back and forth every 30 s. Attention to low-frequency tones enhanced neural responses within low-frequency-tuned voxels relative to high, and when attention switched the pattern quickly reversed. Thus, like a radio, human primary auditory cortex is able to tune into attended frequency channels and can switch channels on demand. PMID:23365225

Effect of omega-3 on auditory system

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Vida Rahimi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Omega-3 fatty acid have structural and biological roles in the body 's various systems . Numerous studies have tried to research about it. Auditory system is affected a s well. The aim of this article was to review the researches about the effect of omega-3 on auditory system.Methods: We searched Medline , Google Scholar, PubMed, Cochrane Library and SID search engines with the "auditory" and "omega-3" keywords and read textbooks about this subject between 19 70 and 20 13.Conclusion: Both excess and deficient amounts of dietary omega-3 fatty acid can cause harmful effects on fetal and infant growth and development of brain and central nervous system esspesially auditory system. It is important to determine the adequate dosage of omega-3.

Task-specific reorganization of the auditory cortex in deaf humans.

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Bola, Łukasz; Zimmermann, Maria; Mostowski, Piotr; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Marchewka, Artur; Rutkowski, Paweł; Szwed, Marcin

2017-01-24

The principles that guide large-scale cortical reorganization remain unclear. In the blind, several visual regions preserve their task specificity; ventral visual areas, for example, become engaged in auditory and tactile object-recognition tasks. It remains open whether task-specific reorganization is unique to the visual cortex or, alternatively, whether this kind of plasticity is a general principle applying to other cortical areas. Auditory areas can become recruited for visual and tactile input in the deaf. Although nonhuman data suggest that this reorganization might be task specific, human evidence has been lacking. Here we enrolled 15 deaf and 15 hearing adults into an functional MRI experiment during which they discriminated between temporally complex sequences of stimuli (rhythms). Both deaf and hearing subjects performed the task visually, in the central visual field. In addition, hearing subjects performed the same task in the auditory modality. We found that the visual task robustly activated the auditory cortex in deaf subjects, peaking in the posterior-lateral part of high-level auditory areas. This activation pattern was strikingly similar to the pattern found in hearing subjects performing the auditory version of the task. Although performing the visual task in deaf subjects induced an increase in functional connectivity between the auditory cortex and the dorsal visual cortex, no such effect was found in hearing subjects. We conclude that in deaf humans the high-level auditory cortex switches its input modality from sound to vision but preserves its task-specific activation pattern independent of input modality. Task-specific reorganization thus might be a general principle that guides cortical plasticity in the brain.

Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex

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Ruytjens, Liesbet; Georgiadis, Janniko R.; Holstege, Gert; Wit, Hero P.; Albers, Frans W.J.; Willemsen, Antoon T.M.

2007-01-01

We used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a baseline (no auditory stimulation). We found a sex difference in activation of the left and right PAC when comparing music to noise. The PAC was more activated by music than by noise in both men and women. But this difference between the two stimuli was significantly higher in men than in women. To investigate whether this difference could be attributed to either music or noise, we compared both stimuli with the baseline and revealed that noise gave a significantly higher activation in the female PAC than in the male PAC. Moreover, the male group showed a deactivation in the right prefrontal cortex when comparing noise to the baseline, which was not present in the female group. Interestingly, the auditory and prefrontal regions are anatomically and functionally linked and the prefrontal cortex is known to be engaged in auditory tasks that involve sustained or selective auditory attention. Thus we hypothesize that differences in attention result in a different deactivation of the right prefrontal cortex, which in turn modulates the activation of the PAC and thus explains the sex differences found in the activation of the PAC. Our results suggest that sex is an important factor in auditory brain studies. (orig.)

Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex

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Ruytjens, Liesbet [University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Groningen (Netherlands); University Medical Center Utrecht, Department Otorhinolaryngology, P.O. Box 85500, Utrecht (Netherlands); Georgiadis, Janniko R. [University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Groningen (Netherlands); Holstege, Gert [University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Uroneurology, Groningen (Netherlands); Wit, Hero P. [University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Groningen (Netherlands); Albers, Frans W.J. [University Medical Center Utrecht, Department Otorhinolaryngology, P.O. Box 85500, Utrecht (Netherlands); Willemsen, Antoon T.M. [University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Groningen (Netherlands)

2007-12-15

We used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a baseline (no auditory stimulation). We found a sex difference in activation of the left and right PAC when comparing music to noise. The PAC was more activated by music than by noise in both men and women. But this difference between the two stimuli was significantly higher in men than in women. To investigate whether this difference could be attributed to either music or noise, we compared both stimuli with the baseline and revealed that noise gave a significantly higher activation in the female PAC than in the male PAC. Moreover, the male group showed a deactivation in the right prefrontal cortex when comparing noise to the baseline, which was not present in the female group. Interestingly, the auditory and prefrontal regions are anatomically and functionally linked and the prefrontal cortex is known to be engaged in auditory tasks that involve sustained or selective auditory attention. Thus we hypothesize that differences in attention result in a different deactivation of the right prefrontal cortex, which in turn modulates the activation of the PAC and thus explains the sex differences found in the activation of the PAC. Our results suggest that sex is an important factor in auditory brain studies. (orig.)

Tinnitus alters resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in human auditory and non-auditory brain regions as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

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San Juan, Juan; Hu, Xiao-Su; Issa, Mohamad; Bisconti, Silvia; Kovelman, Ioulia; Kileny, Paul; Basura, Gregory

2017-01-01

Tinnitus, or phantom sound perception, leads to increased spontaneous neural firing rates and enhanced synchrony in central auditory circuits in animal models. These putative physiologic correlates of tinnitus to date have not been well translated in the brain of the human tinnitus sufferer. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) we recently showed that tinnitus in humans leads to maintained hemodynamic activity in auditory and adjacent, non-auditory cortices. Here we used fNIRS technology to investigate changes in resting state functional connectivity between human auditory and non-auditory brain regions in normal-hearing, bilateral subjective tinnitus and controls before and after auditory stimulation. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over the region of interest (primary auditory cortex) and non-region of interest (adjacent non-auditory cortices) and functional brain connectivity was measured during a 60-second baseline/period of silence before and after a passive auditory challenge consisting of alternating pure tones (750 and 8000Hz), broadband noise and silence. Functional connectivity was measured between all channel-pairs. Prior to stimulation, connectivity of the region of interest to the temporal and fronto-temporal region was decreased in tinnitus participants compared to controls. Overall, connectivity in tinnitus was differentially altered as compared to controls following sound stimulation. Enhanced connectivity was seen in both auditory and non-auditory regions in the tinnitus brain, while controls showed a decrease in connectivity following sound stimulation. In tinnitus, the strength of connectivity was increased between auditory cortex and fronto-temporal, fronto-parietal, temporal, occipito-temporal and occipital cortices. Together these data suggest that central auditory and non-auditory brain regions are modified in tinnitus and that resting functional connectivity measured by fNIRS technology may contribute to conscious phantom

Tinnitus alters resting state functional connectivity (RSFC in human auditory and non-auditory brain regions as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS.

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Juan San Juan

Full Text Available Tinnitus, or phantom sound perception, leads to increased spontaneous neural firing rates and enhanced synchrony in central auditory circuits in animal models. These putative physiologic correlates of tinnitus to date have not been well translated in the brain of the human tinnitus sufferer. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS we recently showed that tinnitus in humans leads to maintained hemodynamic activity in auditory and adjacent, non-auditory cortices. Here we used fNIRS technology to investigate changes in resting state functional connectivity between human auditory and non-auditory brain regions in normal-hearing, bilateral subjective tinnitus and controls before and after auditory stimulation. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over the region of interest (primary auditory cortex and non-region of interest (adjacent non-auditory cortices and functional brain connectivity was measured during a 60-second baseline/period of silence before and after a passive auditory challenge consisting of alternating pure tones (750 and 8000Hz, broadband noise and silence. Functional connectivity was measured between all channel-pairs. Prior to stimulation, connectivity of the region of interest to the temporal and fronto-temporal region was decreased in tinnitus participants compared to controls. Overall, connectivity in tinnitus was differentially altered as compared to controls following sound stimulation. Enhanced connectivity was seen in both auditory and non-auditory regions in the tinnitus brain, while controls showed a decrease in connectivity following sound stimulation. In tinnitus, the strength of connectivity was increased between auditory cortex and fronto-temporal, fronto-parietal, temporal, occipito-temporal and occipital cortices. Together these data suggest that central auditory and non-auditory brain regions are modified in tinnitus and that resting functional connectivity measured by fNIRS technology may contribute to

Temporal envelope processing in the human auditory cortex: response and interconnections of auditory cortical areas.

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Gourévitch, Boris; Le Bouquin Jeannès, Régine; Faucon, Gérard; Liégeois-Chauvel, Catherine

2008-03-01

Temporal envelope processing in the human auditory cortex has an important role in language analysis. In this paper, depth recordings of local field potentials in response to amplitude modulated white noises were used to design maps of activation in primary, secondary and associative auditory areas and to study the propagation of the cortical activity between them. The comparison of activations between auditory areas was based on a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the response to amplitude modulation (AM). The functional connectivity between cortical areas was quantified by the directed coherence (DCOH) applied to auditory evoked potentials. This study shows the following reproducible results on twenty subjects: (1) the primary auditory cortex (PAC), the secondary cortices (secondary auditory cortex (SAC) and planum temporale (PT)), the insular gyrus, the Brodmann area (BA) 22 and the posterior part of T1 gyrus (T1Post) respond to AM in both hemispheres. (2) A stronger response to AM was observed in SAC and T1Post of the left hemisphere independent of the modulation frequency (MF), and in the left BA22 for MFs 8 and 16Hz, compared to those in the right. (3) The activation and propagation features emphasized at least four different types of temporal processing. (4) A sequential activation of PAC, SAC and BA22 areas was clearly visible at all MFs, while other auditory areas may be more involved in parallel processing upon a stream originating from primary auditory area, which thus acts as a distribution hub. These results suggest that different psychological information is carried by the temporal envelope of sounds relative to the rate of amplitude modulation.

Frequency-specific modulation of population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex

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Roberts Larry E

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Under natural circumstances, attention plays an important role in extracting relevant auditory signals from simultaneously present, irrelevant noises. Excitatory and inhibitory neural activity, enhanced by attentional processes, seems to sharpen frequency tuning, contributing to improved auditory performance especially in noisy environments. In the present study, we investigated auditory magnetic fields in humans that were evoked by pure tones embedded in band-eliminated noises during two different stimulus sequencing conditions (constant vs. random under auditory focused attention by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG. Results In total, we used identical auditory stimuli between conditions, but presented them in a different order, thereby manipulating the neural processing and the auditory performance of the listeners. Constant stimulus sequencing blocks were characterized by the simultaneous presentation of pure tones of identical frequency with band-eliminated noises, whereas random sequencing blocks were characterized by the simultaneous presentation of pure tones of random frequencies and band-eliminated noises. We demonstrated that auditory evoked neural responses were larger in the constant sequencing compared to the random sequencing condition, particularly when the simultaneously presented noises contained narrow stop-bands. Conclusion The present study confirmed that population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex can be sharpened in a frequency-specific manner. This frequency-specific sharpening may contribute to improved auditory performance during detection and processing of relevant sound inputs characterized by specific frequency distributions in noisy environments.

Auditory Connections and Functions of Prefrontal Cortex

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Bethany ePlakke

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The functional auditory system extends from the ears to the frontal lobes with successively more complex functions occurring as one ascends the hierarchy of the nervous system. Several areas of the frontal lobe receive afferents from both early and late auditory processing regions within the temporal lobe. Afferents from the early part of the cortical auditory system, the auditory belt cortex, which are presumed to carry information regarding auditory features of sounds, project to only a few prefrontal regions and are most dense in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC. In contrast, projections from the parabelt and the rostral superior temporal gyrus (STG most likely convey more complex information and target a larger, widespread region of the prefrontal cortex. Neuronal responses reflect these anatomical projections as some prefrontal neurons exhibit responses to features in acoustic stimuli, while other neurons display task-related responses. For example, recording studies in non-human primates indicate that VLPFC is responsive to complex sounds including vocalizations and that VLPFC neurons in area 12/47 respond to sounds with similar acoustic morphology. In contrast, neuronal responses during auditory working memory involve a wider region of the prefrontal cortex. In humans, the frontal lobe is involved in auditory detection, discrimination, and working memory. Past research suggests that dorsal and ventral subregions of the prefrontal cortex process different types of information with dorsal cortex processing spatial/visual information and ventral cortex processing non-spatial/auditory information. While this is apparent in the non-human primate and in some neuroimaging studies, most research in humans indicates that specific task conditions, stimuli or previous experience may bias the recruitment of specific prefrontal regions, suggesting a more flexible role for the frontal lobe during auditory cognition.

Auditory connections and functions of prefrontal cortex

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Plakke, Bethany; Romanski, Lizabeth M.

2014-01-01

The functional auditory system extends from the ears to the frontal lobes with successively more complex functions occurring as one ascends the hierarchy of the nervous system. Several areas of the frontal lobe receive afferents from both early and late auditory processing regions within the temporal lobe. Afferents from the early part of the cortical auditory system, the auditory belt cortex, which are presumed to carry information regarding auditory features of sounds, project to only a few prefrontal regions and are most dense in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). In contrast, projections from the parabelt and the rostral superior temporal gyrus (STG) most likely convey more complex information and target a larger, widespread region of the prefrontal cortex. Neuronal responses reflect these anatomical projections as some prefrontal neurons exhibit responses to features in acoustic stimuli, while other neurons display task-related responses. For example, recording studies in non-human primates indicate that VLPFC is responsive to complex sounds including vocalizations and that VLPFC neurons in area 12/47 respond to sounds with similar acoustic morphology. In contrast, neuronal responses during auditory working memory involve a wider region of the prefrontal cortex. In humans, the frontal lobe is involved in auditory detection, discrimination, and working memory. Past research suggests that dorsal and ventral subregions of the prefrontal cortex process different types of information with dorsal cortex processing spatial/visual information and ventral cortex processing non-spatial/auditory information. While this is apparent in the non-human primate and in some neuroimaging studies, most research in humans indicates that specific task conditions, stimuli or previous experience may bias the recruitment of specific prefrontal regions, suggesting a more flexible role for the frontal lobe during auditory cognition. PMID:25100931

Persistent neural activity in auditory cortex is related to auditory working memory in humans and nonhuman primates.

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Huang, Ying; Matysiak, Artur; Heil, Peter; König, Reinhard; Brosch, Michael

2016-07-20

Working memory is the cognitive capacity of short-term storage of information for goal-directed behaviors. Where and how this capacity is implemented in the brain are unresolved questions. We show that auditory cortex stores information by persistent changes of neural activity. We separated activity related to working memory from activity related to other mental processes by having humans and monkeys perform different tasks with varying working memory demands on the same sound sequences. Working memory was reflected in the spiking activity of individual neurons in auditory cortex and in the activity of neuronal populations, that is, in local field potentials and magnetic fields. Our results provide direct support for the idea that temporary storage of information recruits the same brain areas that also process the information. Because similar activity was observed in the two species, the cellular bases of some auditory working memory processes in humans can be studied in monkeys.

Aging Affects Adaptation to Sound-Level Statistics in Human Auditory Cortex.

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Herrmann, Björn; Maess, Burkhard; Johnsrude, Ingrid S

2018-02-21

Optimal perception requires efficient and adaptive neural processing of sensory input. Neurons in nonhuman mammals adapt to the statistical properties of acoustic feature distributions such that they become sensitive to sounds that are most likely to occur in the environment. However, whether human auditory responses adapt to stimulus statistical distributions and how aging affects adaptation to stimulus statistics is unknown. We used MEG to study how exposure to different distributions of sound levels affects adaptation in auditory cortex of younger (mean: 25 years; n = 19) and older (mean: 64 years; n = 20) adults (male and female). Participants passively listened to two sound-level distributions with different modes (either 15 or 45 dB sensation level). In a control block with long interstimulus intervals, allowing neural populations to recover from adaptation, neural response magnitudes were similar between younger and older adults. Critically, both age groups demonstrated adaptation to sound-level stimulus statistics, but adaptation was altered for older compared with younger people: in the older group, neural responses continued to be sensitive to sound level under conditions in which responses were fully adapted in the younger group. The lack of full adaptation to the statistics of the sensory environment may be a physiological mechanism underlying the known difficulty that older adults have with filtering out irrelevant sensory information. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Behavior requires efficient processing of acoustic stimulation. Animal work suggests that neurons accomplish efficient processing by adjusting their response sensitivity depending on statistical properties of the acoustic environment. Little is known about the extent to which this adaptation to stimulus statistics generalizes to humans, particularly to older humans. We used MEG to investigate how aging influences adaptation to sound-level statistics. Listeners were presented with sounds drawn from

Achilles' ear? Inferior human short-term and recognition memory in the auditory modality.

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Bigelow, James; Poremba, Amy

2014-01-01

Studies of the memory capabilities of nonhuman primates have consistently revealed a relative weakness for auditory compared to visual or tactile stimuli: extensive training is required to learn auditory memory tasks, and subjects are only capable of retaining acoustic information for a brief period of time. Whether a parallel deficit exists in human auditory memory remains an outstanding question. In the current study, a short-term memory paradigm was used to test human subjects' retention of simple auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli that were carefully equated in terms of discriminability, stimulus exposure time, and temporal dynamics. Mean accuracy did not differ significantly among sensory modalities at very short retention intervals (1-4 s). However, at longer retention intervals (8-32 s), accuracy for auditory stimuli fell substantially below that observed for visual and tactile stimuli. In the interest of extending the ecological validity of these findings, a second experiment tested recognition memory for complex, naturalistic stimuli that would likely be encountered in everyday life. Subjects were able to identify all stimuli when retention was not required, however, recognition accuracy following a delay period was again inferior for auditory compared to visual and tactile stimuli. Thus, the outcomes of both experiments provide a human parallel to the pattern of results observed in nonhuman primates. The results are interpreted in light of neuropsychological data from nonhuman primates, which suggest a difference in the degree to which auditory, visual, and tactile memory are mediated by the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices.

The Encoding of Sound Source Elevation in the Human Auditory Cortex.

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Trapeau, Régis; Schönwiesner, Marc

2018-03-28

Spatial hearing is a crucial capacity of the auditory system. While the encoding of horizontal sound direction has been extensively studied, very little is known about the representation of vertical sound direction in the auditory cortex. Using high-resolution fMRI, we measured voxelwise sound elevation tuning curves in human auditory cortex and show that sound elevation is represented by broad tuning functions preferring lower elevations as well as secondary narrow tuning functions preferring individual elevation directions. We changed the ear shape of participants (male and female) with silicone molds for several days. This manipulation reduced or abolished the ability to discriminate sound elevation and flattened cortical tuning curves. Tuning curves recovered their original shape as participants adapted to the modified ears and regained elevation perception over time. These findings suggest that the elevation tuning observed in low-level auditory cortex did not arise from the physical features of the stimuli but is contingent on experience with spectral cues and covaries with the change in perception. One explanation for this observation may be that the tuning in low-level auditory cortex underlies the subjective perception of sound elevation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study addresses two fundamental questions about the brain representation of sensory stimuli: how the vertical spatial axis of auditory space is represented in the auditory cortex and whether low-level sensory cortex represents physical stimulus features or subjective perceptual attributes. Using high-resolution fMRI, we show that vertical sound direction is represented by broad tuning functions preferring lower elevations as well as secondary narrow tuning functions preferring individual elevation directions. In addition, we demonstrate that the shape of these tuning functions is contingent on experience with spectral cues and covaries with the change in perception, which may indicate that the

The human brain maintains contradictory and redundant auditory sensory predictions.

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Marika Pieszek

Full Text Available Computational and experimental research has revealed that auditory sensory predictions are derived from regularities of the current environment by using internal generative models. However, so far, what has not been addressed is how the auditory system handles situations giving rise to redundant or even contradictory predictions derived from different sources of information. To this end, we measured error signals in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs in response to violations of auditory predictions. Sounds could be predicted on the basis of overall probability, i.e., one sound was presented frequently and another sound rarely. Furthermore, each sound was predicted by an informative visual cue. Participants' task was to use the cue and to discriminate the two sounds as fast as possible. Violations of the probability based prediction (i.e., a rare sound as well as violations of the visual-auditory prediction (i.e., an incongruent sound elicited error signals in the ERPs (Mismatch Negativity [MMN] and Incongruency Response [IR]. Particular error signals were observed even in case the overall probability and the visual symbol predicted different sounds. That is, the auditory system concurrently maintains and tests contradictory predictions. Moreover, if the same sound was predicted, we observed an additive error signal (scalp potential and primary current density equaling the sum of the specific error signals. Thus, the auditory system maintains and tolerates functionally independently represented redundant and contradictory predictions. We argue that the auditory system exploits all currently active regularities in order to optimally prepare for future events.

Rapid Auditory System Adaptation Using a Virtual Auditory Environment

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Gaëtan Parseihian

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Various studies have highlighted plasticity of the auditory system from visual stimuli, limiting the trained field of perception. The aim of the present study is to investigate auditory system adaptation using an audio-kinesthetic platform. Participants were placed in a Virtual Auditory Environment allowing the association of the physical position of a virtual sound source with an alternate set of acoustic spectral cues or Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF through the use of a tracked ball manipulated by the subject. This set-up has the advantage to be not being limited to the visual field while also offering a natural perception-action coupling through the constant awareness of one's hand position. Adaptation process to non-individualized HRTF was realized through a spatial search game application. A total of 25 subjects participated, consisting of subjects presented with modified cues using non-individualized HRTF and a control group using individual measured HRTFs to account for any learning effect due to the game itself. The training game lasted 12 minutes and was repeated over 3 consecutive days. Adaptation effects were measured with repeated localization tests. Results showed a significant performance improvement for vertical localization and a significant reduction in the front/back confusion rate after 3 sessions.

Intracerebral evidence of rhythm transform in the human auditory cortex.

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Nozaradan, Sylvie; Mouraux, André; Jonas, Jacques; Colnat-Coulbois, Sophie; Rossion, Bruno; Maillard, Louis

2017-07-01

Musical entrainment is shared by all human cultures and the perception of a periodic beat is a cornerstone of this entrainment behavior. Here, we investigated whether beat perception might have its roots in the earliest stages of auditory cortical processing. Local field potentials were recorded from 8 patients implanted with depth-electrodes in Heschl's gyrus and the planum temporale (55 recording sites in total), usually considered as human primary and secondary auditory cortices. Using a frequency-tagging approach, we show that both low-frequency (30 Hz) neural activities in these structures faithfully track auditory rhythms through frequency-locking to the rhythm envelope. A selective gain in amplitude of the response frequency-locked to the beat frequency was observed for the low-frequency activities but not for the high-frequency activities, and was sharper in the planum temporale, especially for the more challenging syncopated rhythm. Hence, this gain process is not systematic in all activities produced in these areas and depends on the complexity of the rhythmic input. Moreover, this gain was disrupted when the rhythm was presented at fast speed, revealing low-pass response properties which could account for the propensity to perceive a beat only within the musical tempo range. Together, these observations show that, even though part of these neural transforms of rhythms could already take place in subcortical auditory processes, the earliest auditory cortical processes shape the neural representation of rhythmic inputs in favor of the emergence of a periodic beat.

Achilles' ear? Inferior human short-term and recognition memory in the auditory modality.

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James Bigelow

Full Text Available Studies of the memory capabilities of nonhuman primates have consistently revealed a relative weakness for auditory compared to visual or tactile stimuli: extensive training is required to learn auditory memory tasks, and subjects are only capable of retaining acoustic information for a brief period of time. Whether a parallel deficit exists in human auditory memory remains an outstanding question. In the current study, a short-term memory paradigm was used to test human subjects' retention of simple auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli that were carefully equated in terms of discriminability, stimulus exposure time, and temporal dynamics. Mean accuracy did not differ significantly among sensory modalities at very short retention intervals (1-4 s. However, at longer retention intervals (8-32 s, accuracy for auditory stimuli fell substantially below that observed for visual and tactile stimuli. In the interest of extending the ecological validity of these findings, a second experiment tested recognition memory for complex, naturalistic stimuli that would likely be encountered in everyday life. Subjects were able to identify all stimuli when retention was not required, however, recognition accuracy following a delay period was again inferior for auditory compared to visual and tactile stimuli. Thus, the outcomes of both experiments provide a human parallel to the pattern of results observed in nonhuman primates. The results are interpreted in light of neuropsychological data from nonhuman primates, which suggest a difference in the degree to which auditory, visual, and tactile memory are mediated by the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices.

Achilles’ Ear? Inferior Human Short-Term and Recognition Memory in the Auditory Modality

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Bigelow, James; Poremba, Amy

2014-01-01

Studies of the memory capabilities of nonhuman primates have consistently revealed a relative weakness for auditory compared to visual or tactile stimuli: extensive training is required to learn auditory memory tasks, and subjects are only capable of retaining acoustic information for a brief period of time. Whether a parallel deficit exists in human auditory memory remains an outstanding question. In the current study, a short-term memory paradigm was used to test human subjects’ retention of simple auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli that were carefully equated in terms of discriminability, stimulus exposure time, and temporal dynamics. Mean accuracy did not differ significantly among sensory modalities at very short retention intervals (1–4 s). However, at longer retention intervals (8–32 s), accuracy for auditory stimuli fell substantially below that observed for visual and tactile stimuli. In the interest of extending the ecological validity of these findings, a second experiment tested recognition memory for complex, naturalistic stimuli that would likely be encountered in everyday life. Subjects were able to identify all stimuli when retention was not required, however, recognition accuracy following a delay period was again inferior for auditory compared to visual and tactile stimuli. Thus, the outcomes of both experiments provide a human parallel to the pattern of results observed in nonhuman primates. The results are interpreted in light of neuropsychological data from nonhuman primates, which suggest a difference in the degree to which auditory, visual, and tactile memory are mediated by the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices. PMID:24587119

Auditory Spatial Layout

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Wightman, Frederic L.; Jenison, Rick

1995-01-01

All auditory sensory information is packaged in a pair of acoustical pressure waveforms, one at each ear. While there is obvious structure in these waveforms, that structure (temporal and spectral patterns) bears no simple relationship to the structure of the environmental objects that produced them. The properties of auditory objects and their layout in space must be derived completely from higher level processing of the peripheral input. This chapter begins with a discussion of the peculiarities of acoustical stimuli and how they are received by the human auditory system. A distinction is made between the ambient sound field and the effective stimulus to differentiate the perceptual distinctions among various simple classes of sound sources (ambient field) from the known perceptual consequences of the linear transformations of the sound wave from source to receiver (effective stimulus). Next, the definition of an auditory object is dealt with, specifically the question of how the various components of a sound stream become segregated into distinct auditory objects. The remainder of the chapter focuses on issues related to the spatial layout of auditory objects, both stationary and moving.

Connectivity in the human brain dissociates entropy and complexity of auditory inputs.

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Nastase, Samuel A; Iacovella, Vittorio; Davis, Ben; Hasson, Uri

2015-03-01

Complex systems are described according to two central dimensions: (a) the randomness of their output, quantified via entropy; and (b) their complexity, which reflects the organization of a system's generators. Whereas some approaches hold that complexity can be reduced to uncertainty or entropy, an axiom of complexity science is that signals with very high or very low entropy are generated by relatively non-complex systems, while complex systems typically generate outputs with entropy peaking between these two extremes. In understanding their environment, individuals would benefit from coding for both input entropy and complexity; entropy indexes uncertainty and can inform probabilistic coding strategies, whereas complexity reflects a concise and abstract representation of the underlying environmental configuration, which can serve independent purposes, e.g., as a template for generalization and rapid comparisons between environments. Using functional neuroimaging, we demonstrate that, in response to passively processed auditory inputs, functional integration patterns in the human brain track both the entropy and complexity of the auditory signal. Connectivity between several brain regions scaled monotonically with input entropy, suggesting sensitivity to uncertainty, whereas connectivity between other regions tracked entropy in a convex manner consistent with sensitivity to input complexity. These findings suggest that the human brain simultaneously tracks the uncertainty of sensory data and effectively models their environmental generators. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Binaural fusion and the representation of virtual pitch in the human auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Pantev, C; Elbert, T; Ross, B; Eulitz, C; Terhardt, E

1996-10-01

The auditory system derives the pitch of complex tones from the tone's harmonics. Research in psychoacoustics predicted that binaural fusion was an important feature of pitch processing. Based on neuromagnetic human data, the first neurophysiological confirmation of binaural fusion in hearing is presented. The centre of activation within the cortical tonotopic map corresponds to the location of the perceived pitch and not to the locations that are activated when the single frequency constituents are presented. This is also true when the different harmonics of a complex tone are presented dichotically. We conclude that the pitch processor includes binaural fusion to determine the particular pitch location which is activated in the auditory cortex.

Estimation of Human Workload from the Auditory Steady-State Response Recorded via a Wearable Electroencephalography System during Walking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuke Yokota

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Workload in the human brain can be a useful marker of internal brain state. However, due to technical limitations, previous workload studies have been unable to record brain activity via conventional electroencephalography (EEG and magnetoencephalography (MEG devices in mobile participants. In this study, we used a wearable EEG system to estimate workload while participants walked in a naturalistic environment. Specifically, we used the auditory steady-state response (ASSR which is an oscillatory brain activity evoked by repetitive auditory stimuli, as an estimation index of workload. Participants performed three types of N-back tasks, which were expected to command different workloads, while walking at a constant speed. We used a binaural 500 Hz pure tone with amplitude modulation at 40 Hz to evoke the ASSR. We found that the phase-locking index (PLI of ASSR activity was significantly correlated with the degree of task difficulty, even for EEG data from few electrodes. Thus, ASSR appears to be an effective indicator of workload during walking in an ecologically valid environment.

Using Auditory Cues to Perceptually Extract Visual Data in Collaborative, Immersive Big-Data Display Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Wendy

The advent of multisensory display systems, such as virtual and augmented reality, has fostered a new relationship between humans and space. Not only can these systems mimic real-world environments, they have the ability to create a new space typology made solely of data. In these spaces, two-dimensional information is displayed in three dimensions, requiring human senses to be used to understand virtual, attention-based elements. Studies in the field of big data have predominately focused on visual representations and extractions of information with little focus on sounds. The goal of this research is to evaluate the most efficient methods of perceptually extracting visual data using auditory stimuli in immersive environments. Using Rensselaer's CRAIVE-Lab, a virtual reality space with 360-degree panorama visuals and an array of 128 loudspeakers, participants were asked questions based on complex visual displays using a variety of auditory cues ranging from sine tones to camera shutter sounds. Analysis of the speed and accuracy of participant responses revealed that auditory cues that were more favorable for localization and were positively perceived were best for data extraction and could help create more user-friendly systems in the future.

Differences in auditory timing between human and nonhuman primates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Honing, H.; Merchant, H.

2014-01-01

The gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis is proposed as an alternative interpretation to the auditory timing mechanisms discussed in Ackermann et al.'s article. This hypothesis accommodates the fact that the performance of nonhuman primates is comparable to humans in single-interval tasks (such

Encoding of frequency-modulation (FM) rates in human auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Okamoto, Hidehiko; Kakigi, Ryusuke

2015-12-14

Frequency-modulated sounds play an important role in our daily social life. However, it currently remains unclear whether frequency modulation rates affect neural activity in the human auditory cortex. In the present study, using magnetoencephalography, we investigated the auditory evoked N1m and sustained field responses elicited by temporally repeated and superimposed frequency-modulated sweeps that were matched in the spectral domain, but differed in frequency modulation rates (1, 4, 16, and 64 octaves per sec). The results obtained demonstrated that the higher rate frequency-modulated sweeps elicited the smaller N1m and the larger sustained field responses. Frequency modulation rate had a significant impact on the human brain responses, thereby providing a key for disentangling a series of natural frequency-modulated sounds such as speech and music.

Modulatory Effects of Attention on Lateral Inhibition in the Human Auditory Cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Engell, Alva; Junghöfer, Markus; Stein, Alwina; Lau, Pia; Wunderlich, Robert; Wollbrink, Andreas; Pantev, Christo

2016-01-01

Reduced neural processing of a tone is observed when it is presented after a sound whose spectral range closely frames the frequency of the tone. This observation might be explained by the mechanism of lateral inhibition (LI) due to inhibitory interneurons in the auditory system. So far, several characteristics of bottom up influences on LI have been identified, while the influence of top-down processes such as directed attention on LI has not been investigated. Hence, the study at hand aims at investigating the modulatory effects of focused attention on LI in the human auditory cortex. In the magnetoencephalograph, we present two types of masking sounds (white noise vs. withe noise passing through a notch filter centered at a specific frequency), followed by a test tone with a frequency corresponding to the center-frequency of the notch filter. Simultaneously, subjects were presented with visual input on a screen. To modulate the focus of attention, subjects were instructed to concentrate either on the auditory input or the visual stimuli. More specific, on one half of the trials, subjects were instructed to detect small deviations in loudness in the masking sounds while on the other half of the trials subjects were asked to detect target stimuli on the screen. The results revealed a reduction in neural activation due to LI, which was larger during auditory compared to visual focused attention. Attentional modulations of LI were observed in two post-N1m time intervals. These findings underline the robustness of reduced neural activation due to LI in the auditory cortex and point towards the important role of attention on the modulation of this mechanism in more evaluative processing stages.

Evolutionary conservation and neuronal mechanisms of auditory perceptual restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Petkov, Christopher I; Sutter, Mitchell L

2011-01-01

Auditory perceptual 'restoration' occurs when the auditory system restores an occluded or masked sound of interest. Behavioral work on auditory restoration in humans began over 50 years ago using it to model a noisy environmental scene with competing sounds. It has become clear that not only humans experience auditory restoration: restoration has been broadly conserved in many species. Behavioral studies in humans and animals provide a necessary foundation to link the insights being obtained from human EEG and fMRI to those from animal neurophysiology. The aggregate of data resulting from multiple approaches across species has begun to clarify the neuronal bases of auditory restoration. Different types of neural responses supporting restoration have been found, supportive of multiple mechanisms working within a species. Yet a general principle has emerged that responses correlated with restoration mimic the response that would have been given to the uninterrupted sound of interest. Using the same technology to study different species will help us to better harness animal models of 'auditory scene analysis' to clarify the conserved neural mechanisms shaping the perceptual organization of sound and to advance strategies to improve hearing in natural environmental settings. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Listening to another sense: somatosensory integration in the auditory system.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Calvin; Stefanescu, Roxana A; Martel, David T; Shore, Susan E

2015-07-01

Conventionally, sensory systems are viewed as separate entities, each with its own physiological process serving a different purpose. However, many functions require integrative inputs from multiple sensory systems and sensory intersection and convergence occur throughout the central nervous system. The neural processes for hearing perception undergo significant modulation by the two other major sensory systems, vision and somatosensation. This synthesis occurs at every level of the ascending auditory pathway: the cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body and the auditory cortex. In this review, we explore the process of multisensory integration from (1) anatomical (inputs and connections), (2) physiological (cellular responses), (3) functional and (4) pathological aspects. We focus on the convergence between auditory and somatosensory inputs in each ascending auditory station. This review highlights the intricacy of sensory processing and offers a multisensory perspective regarding the understanding of sensory disorders.

Motor-related signals in the auditory system for listening and learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, David M; Mooney, Richard

2015-08-01

In the auditory system, corollary discharge signals are theorized to facilitate normal hearing and the learning of acoustic behaviors, including speech and music. Despite clear evidence of corollary discharge signals in the auditory cortex and their presumed importance for hearing and auditory-guided motor learning, the circuitry and function of corollary discharge signals in the auditory cortex are not well described. In this review, we focus on recent developments in the mouse and songbird that provide insights into the circuitry that transmits corollary discharge signals to the auditory system and the function of these signals in the context of hearing and vocal learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Task-specific modulation of human auditory evoked responses in a delayed-match-to-sample task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng eRong

2011-05-01

Full Text Available In this study, we focus our investigation on task-specific cognitive modulation of early cortical auditory processing in human cerebral cortex. During the experiments, we acquired whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG data while participants were performing an auditory delayed-match-to-sample (DMS task and associated control tasks. Using a spatial filtering beamformer technique to simultaneously estimate multiple source activities inside the human brain, we observed a significant DMS-specific suppression of the auditory evoked response to the second stimulus in a sound pair, with the center of the effect being located in the vicinity of the left auditory cortex. For the right auditory cortex, a non-invariant suppression effect was observed in both DMS and control tasks. Furthermore, analysis of coherence revealed a beta band (12 ~ 20 Hz DMS-specific enhanced functional interaction between the sources in left auditory cortex and those in left inferior frontal gyrus, which has been shown to involve in short-term memory processing during the delay period of DMS task. Our findings support the view that early evoked cortical responses to incoming acoustic stimuli can be modulated by task-specific cognitive functions by means of frontal-temporal functional interactions.

Biomedical Simulation Models of Human Auditory Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Bicak, Mehmet M. A.

2012-01-01

Detailed acoustic engineering models that explore noise propagation mechanisms associated with noise attenuation and transmission paths created when using hearing protectors such as earplugs and headsets in high noise environments. Biomedical finite element (FE) models are developed based on volume Computed Tomography scan data which provides explicit external ear, ear canal, middle ear ossicular bones and cochlea geometry. Results from these studies have enabled a greater understanding of hearing protector to flesh dynamics as well as prioritizing noise propagation mechanisms. Prioritization of noise mechanisms can form an essential framework for exploration of new design principles and methods in both earplug and earcup applications. These models are currently being used in development of a novel hearing protection evaluation system that can provide experimentally correlated psychoacoustic noise attenuation. Moreover, these FE models can be used to simulate the effects of blast related impulse noise on human auditory mechanisms and brain tissue.

A loudspeaker-based room auralization system for auditory perception research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buchholz, Jörg; Favrot, Sylvain Emmanuel

2009-01-01

Most research on basic auditory function has been conducted in anechoic or almost anechoic environments. The knowledge derived from these experiments cannot directly be transferred to reverberant environments. In order to investigate the auditory signal processing of reverberant sounds....... This system provides a flexible research platform for conducting auditory experiments with normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and aided hearing-impaired listeners in a fully controlled and realistic environment. This includes measures of basic auditory function (e.g., signal detection, distance perception......) and measures of speech intelligibility. A battery of objective tests (e.g., reverberation time, clarity, interaural correlation coefficient) and subjective tests (e.g., speech reception thresholds) is presented that demonstrates the applicability of the LoRA system....

Modulatory Effects of Attention on Lateral Inhibition in the Human Auditory Cortex.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alva Engell

Full Text Available Reduced neural processing of a tone is observed when it is presented after a sound whose spectral range closely frames the frequency of the tone. This observation might be explained by the mechanism of lateral inhibition (LI due to inhibitory interneurons in the auditory system. So far, several characteristics of bottom up influences on LI have been identified, while the influence of top-down processes such as directed attention on LI has not been investigated. Hence, the study at hand aims at investigating the modulatory effects of focused attention on LI in the human auditory cortex. In the magnetoencephalograph, we present two types of masking sounds (white noise vs. withe noise passing through a notch filter centered at a specific frequency, followed by a test tone with a frequency corresponding to the center-frequency of the notch filter. Simultaneously, subjects were presented with visual input on a screen. To modulate the focus of attention, subjects were instructed to concentrate either on the auditory input or the visual stimuli. More specific, on one half of the trials, subjects were instructed to detect small deviations in loudness in the masking sounds while on the other half of the trials subjects were asked to detect target stimuli on the screen. The results revealed a reduction in neural activation due to LI, which was larger during auditory compared to visual focused attention. Attentional modulations of LI were observed in two post-N1m time intervals. These findings underline the robustness of reduced neural activation due to LI in the auditory cortex and point towards the important role of attention on the modulation of this mechanism in more evaluative processing stages.

A Telehealth System for Remote Auditory Evoked Potential Monitoring

OpenAIRE

Millan, Jorge; Yunda, Leonardo

2013-01-01

A portable, Internet-based EEG/Auditory Evoked Potential (AEP) monitoring system was developed for remote electrophysiological studies during sleep. The system records EEG/AEP simultaneously at the subject?s home for increased comfort and flexibility. The system provides simultaneous recording and remote viewing of EEG, EMG and EOG waves and allows on-line averaging of auditory evoked potentials. The design allows the recording of all major AEP components (brainstem, middle and late latency E...

Behavioral lifetime of human auditory sensory memory predicted by physiological measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Z L; Williamson, S J; Kaufman, L

1992-12-04

Noninvasive magnetoencephalography makes it possible to identify the cortical area in the human brain whose activity reflects the decay of passive sensory storage of information about auditory stimuli (echoic memory). The lifetime for decay of the neuronal activation trace in primary auditory cortex was found to predict the psychophysically determined duration of memory for the loudness of a tone. Although memory for the loudness of a specific tone is lost, the remembered loudness decays toward the global mean of all of the loudnesses to which a subject is exposed in a series of trials.

MODELING SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL MASKING IN THE HUMAN AUDITORY SYSTEM

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dau, Torsten; Jepsen, Morten Løve; Ewert, Stephan D.

2007-01-01

An auditory signal processing model is presented that simulates psychoacoustical data from a large variety of experimental conditions related to spectral and temporal masking. The model is based on the modulation filterbank model by Dau et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2892-2905 (1997)] but inclu......An auditory signal processing model is presented that simulates psychoacoustical data from a large variety of experimental conditions related to spectral and temporal masking. The model is based on the modulation filterbank model by Dau et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2892-2905 (1997...... was tested in conditions of tone-in-noise masking, intensity discrimination, spectral masking with tones and narrowband noises, forward masking with (on- and off-frequency) noise- and pure-tone maskers, and amplitude modulation detection using different noise carrier bandwidths. One of the key properties...

Inhibition in the Human Auditory Cortex.

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Koji Inui

Full Text Available Despite their indispensable roles in sensory processing, little is known about inhibitory interneurons in humans. Inhibitory postsynaptic potentials cannot be recorded non-invasively, at least in a pure form, in humans. We herein sought to clarify whether prepulse inhibition (PPI in the auditory cortex reflected inhibition via interneurons using magnetoencephalography. An abrupt increase in sound pressure by 10 dB in a continuous sound was used to evoke the test response, and PPI was observed by inserting a weak (5 dB increase for 1 ms prepulse. The time course of the inhibition evaluated by prepulses presented at 10-800 ms before the test stimulus showed at least two temporally distinct inhibitions peaking at approximately 20-60 and 600 ms that presumably reflected IPSPs by fast spiking, parvalbumin-positive cells and somatostatin-positive, Martinotti cells, respectively. In another experiment, we confirmed that the degree of the inhibition depended on the strength of the prepulse, but not on the amplitude of the prepulse-evoked cortical response, indicating that the prepulse-evoked excitatory response and prepulse-evoked inhibition reflected activation in two different pathways. Although many diseases such as schizophrenia may involve deficits in the inhibitory system, we do not have appropriate methods to evaluate them; therefore, the easy and non-invasive method described herein may be clinically useful.

Mouth and Voice: A Relationship between Visual and Auditory Preference in the Human Superior Temporal Sulcus.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Lin L; Beauchamp, Michael S

2017-03-08

Cortex in and around the human posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is known to be critical for speech perception. The pSTS responds to both the visual modality (especially biological motion) and the auditory modality (especially human voices). Using fMRI in single subjects with no spatial smoothing, we show that visual and auditory selectivity are linked. Regions of the pSTS were identified that preferred visually presented moving mouths (presented in isolation or as part of a whole face) or moving eyes. Mouth-preferring regions responded strongly to voices and showed a significant preference for vocal compared with nonvocal sounds. In contrast, eye-preferring regions did not respond to either vocal or nonvocal sounds. The converse was also true: regions of the pSTS that showed a significant response to speech or preferred vocal to nonvocal sounds responded more strongly to visually presented mouths than eyes. These findings can be explained by environmental statistics. In natural environments, humans see visual mouth movements at the same time as they hear voices, while there is no auditory accompaniment to visual eye movements. The strength of a voxel's preference for visual mouth movements was strongly correlated with the magnitude of its auditory speech response and its preference for vocal sounds, suggesting that visual and auditory speech features are coded together in small populations of neurons within the pSTS. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans interacting face to face make use of auditory cues from the talker's voice and visual cues from the talker's mouth to understand speech. The human posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a brain region known to be important for speech perception, is complex, with some regions responding to specific visual stimuli and others to specific auditory stimuli. Using BOLD fMRI, we show that the natural statistics of human speech, in which voices co-occur with mouth movements, are reflected in the neural architecture of

Modeling auditory processing and speech perception in hearing-impaired listeners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Morten Løve

in a diagnostic rhyme test. The framework was constructed such that discrimination errors originating from the front-end and the back-end were separated. The front-end was fitted to individual listeners with cochlear hearing loss according to non-speech data, and speech data were obtained in the same listeners......A better understanding of how the human auditory system represents and analyzes sounds and how hearing impairment affects such processing is of great interest for researchers in the fields of auditory neuroscience, audiology, and speech communication as well as for applications in hearing......-instrument and speech technology. In this thesis, the primary focus was on the development and evaluation of a computational model of human auditory signal-processing and perception. The model was initially designed to simulate the normal-hearing auditory system with particular focus on the nonlinear processing...

Auditory signal design for automatic number plate recognition system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heydra, C.G.; Jansen, R.J.; Van Egmond, R.

2014-01-01

This paper focuses on the design of an auditory signal for the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system of Dutch national police. The auditory signal is designed to alert police officers of suspicious cars in their proximity, communicating priority level and location of the suspicious car and

Auditory Peripheral Processing of Degraded Speech

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ghitza, Oded

2003-01-01

...". The underlying thesis is that the auditory periphery contributes to the robust performance of humans in speech reception in noise through a concerted contribution of the efferent feedback system...

Auditory capacities in Middle Pleistocene humans from the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, I; Rosa, M; Arsuaga, J-L; Jarabo, P; Quam, R; Lorenzo, C; Gracia, A; Carretero, J-M; Bermúdez de Castro, J-M; Carbonell, E

2004-07-06

Human hearing differs from that of chimpanzees and most other anthropoids in maintaining a relatively high sensitivity from 2 kHz up to 4 kHz, a region that contains relevant acoustic information in spoken language. Knowledge of the auditory capacities in human fossil ancestors could greatly enhance the understanding of when this human pattern emerged during the course of our evolutionary history. Here we use a comprehensive physical model to analyze the influence of skeletal structures on the acoustic filtering of the outer and middle ears in five fossil human specimens from the Middle Pleistocene site of the Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca of Spain. Our results show that the skeletal anatomy in these hominids is compatible with a human-like pattern of sound power transmission through the outer and middle ear at frequencies up to 5 kHz, suggesting that they already had auditory capacities similar to those of living humans in this frequency range.

Auditory and Visual Sensations

CERN Document Server

Ando, Yoichi

2010-01-01

Professor Yoichi Ando, acoustic architectural designer of the Kirishima International Concert Hall in Japan, presents a comprehensive rational-scientific approach to designing performance spaces. His theory is based on systematic psychoacoustical observations of spatial hearing and listener preferences, whose neuronal correlates are observed in the neurophysiology of the human brain. A correlation-based model of neuronal signal processing in the central auditory system is proposed in which temporal sensations (pitch, timbre, loudness, duration) are represented by an internal autocorrelation representation, and spatial sensations (sound location, size, diffuseness related to envelopment) are represented by an internal interaural crosscorrelation function. Together these two internal central auditory representations account for the basic auditory qualities that are relevant for listening to music and speech in indoor performance spaces. Observed psychological and neurophysiological commonalities between auditor...

Auditory cortical and hippocampal-system mismatch responses to duration deviants in urethane-anesthetized rats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timo Ruusuvirta

Full Text Available Any change in the invariant aspects of the auditory environment is of potential importance. The human brain preattentively or automatically detects such changes. The mismatch negativity (MMN of event-related potentials (ERPs reflects this initial stage of auditory change detection. The origin of MMN is held to be cortical. The hippocampus is associated with a later generated P3a of ERPs reflecting involuntarily attention switches towards auditory changes that are high in magnitude. The evidence for this cortico-hippocampal dichotomy is scarce, however. To shed further light on this issue, auditory cortical and hippocampal-system (CA1, dentate gyrus, subiculum local-field potentials were recorded in urethane-anesthetized rats. A rare tone in duration (deviant was interspersed with a repeated tone (standard. Two standard-to-standard (SSI and standard-to-deviant (SDI intervals (200 ms vs. 500 ms were applied in different combinations to vary the observability of responses resembling MMN (mismatch responses. Mismatch responses were observed at 51.5-89 ms with the 500-ms SSI coupled with the 200-ms SDI but not with the three remaining combinations. Most importantly, the responses appeared in both the auditory-cortical and hippocampal locations. The findings suggest that the hippocampus may play a role in (cortical manifestation of MMN.

Extensive cochleotopic mapping of human auditory cortical fields obtained with phase-encoding FMRI.

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Ella Striem-Amit

Full Text Available The primary sensory cortices are characterized by a topographical mapping of basic sensory features which is considered to deteriorate in higher-order areas in favor of complex sensory features. Recently, however, retinotopic maps were also discovered in the higher-order visual, parietal and prefrontal cortices. The discovery of these maps enabled the distinction between visual regions, clarified their function and hierarchical processing. Could such extension of topographical mapping to high-order processing regions apply to the auditory modality as well? This question has been studied previously in animal models but only sporadically in humans, whose anatomical and functional organization may differ from that of animals (e.g. unique verbal functions and Heschl's gyrus curvature. Here we applied fMRI spectral analysis to investigate the cochleotopic organization of the human cerebral cortex. We found multiple mirror-symmetric novel cochleotopic maps covering most of the core and high-order human auditory cortex, including regions considered non-cochleotopic, stretching all the way to the superior temporal sulcus. These maps suggest that topographical mapping persists well beyond the auditory core and belt, and that the mirror-symmetry of topographical preferences may be a fundamental principle across sensory modalities.

Auditory short-term memory in the primate auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Brian H; Mishkin, Mortimer

2016-06-01

Sounds are fleeting, and assembling the sequence of inputs at the ear into a coherent percept requires auditory memory across various time scales. Auditory short-term memory comprises at least two components: an active ׳working memory' bolstered by rehearsal, and a sensory trace that may be passively retained. Working memory relies on representations recalled from long-term memory, and their rehearsal may require phonological mechanisms unique to humans. The sensory component, passive short-term memory (pSTM), is tractable to study in nonhuman primates, whose brain architecture and behavioral repertoire are comparable to our own. This review discusses recent advances in the behavioral and neurophysiological study of auditory memory with a focus on single-unit recordings from macaque monkeys performing delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) tasks. Monkeys appear to employ pSTM to solve these tasks, as evidenced by the impact of interfering stimuli on memory performance. In several regards, pSTM in monkeys resembles pitch memory in humans, and may engage similar neural mechanisms. Neural correlates of DMS performance have been observed throughout the auditory and prefrontal cortex, defining a network of areas supporting auditory STM with parallels to that supporting visual STM. These correlates include persistent neural firing, or a suppression of firing, during the delay period of the memory task, as well as suppression or (less commonly) enhancement of sensory responses when a sound is repeated as a ׳match' stimulus. Auditory STM is supported by a distributed temporo-frontal network in which sensitivity to stimulus history is an intrinsic feature of auditory processing. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The effect of noise exposure during the developmental period on the function of the auditory system.

Science.gov (United States)

Bureš, Zbyněk; Popelář, Jiří; Syka, Josef

2017-09-01

Recently, there has been growing evidence that development and maturation of the auditory system depends substantially on the afferent activity supplying inputs to the developing centers. In cases when this activity is altered during early ontogeny as a consequence of, e.g., an unnatural acoustic environment or acoustic trauma, the structure and function of the auditory system may be severely affected. Pathological alterations may be found in populations of ribbon synapses of the inner hair cells, in the structure and function of neuronal circuits, or in auditory driven behavioral and psychophysical performance. Three characteristics of the developmental impairment are of key importance: first, they often persist to adulthood, permanently influencing the quality of life of the subject; second, their manifestations are different and sometimes even contradictory to the impairments induced by noise trauma in adulthood; third, they may be 'hidden' and difficult to diagnose by standard audiometric procedures used in clinical practice. This paper reviews the effects of early interventions to the auditory system, in particular, of sound exposure during ontogeny. We summarize the results of recent morphological, electrophysiological, and behavioral experiments, discuss the putative mechanisms and hypotheses, and draw possible consequences for human neonatal medicine and noise health. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wenjing; Li, Jianhong; Wang, Zhenchang; Li, Yong; Liu, Zhaohui; Yan, Fei; Xian, Junfang; He, Huiguang

2015-01-01

Previous studies have shown brain reorganizations after early deprivation of auditory sensory. However, changes of grey matter connectivity have not been investigated in prelingually deaf adolescents yet. In the present study, we aimed to investigate changes of grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents. We recruited 16 prelingually deaf adolescents and 16 age-and gender-matched normal controls, and extracted the grey matter volume as the structural characteristic from 14 regions of interest involved in auditory, language or visual processing to investigate the changes of grey matter connectivity within and between auditory, language and visual systems. Sparse inverse covariance estimation (SICE) was utilized to construct grey matter connectivity between these brain regions. The results show that prelingually deaf adolescents present weaker grey matter connectivity within auditory and visual systems, and connectivity between language and visual systems declined. Notably, significantly increased brain connectivity was found between auditory and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents. Our results indicate "cross-modal" plasticity after deprivation of the auditory input in prelingually deaf adolescents, especially between auditory and visual systems. Besides, auditory deprivation and visual deficits might affect the connectivity pattern within language and visual systems in prelingually deaf adolescents.

Music-induced cortical plasticity and lateral inhibition in the human auditory cortex as foundations for tonal tinnitus treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christo ePantev

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Over the past 15 years, we have studied plasticity in the human auditory cortex by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG. Two main topics nurtured our curiosity: the effects of musical training on plasticity in the auditory system, and the effects of lateral inhibition. One of our plasticity studies found that listening to notched music for three hours inhibited the neuronal activity in the auditory cortex that corresponded to the center-frequency of the notch, suggesting suppression of neural activity by lateral inhibition. Crucially, the overall effects of lateral inhibition on human auditory cortical activity were stronger than the habituation effects. Based on these results we developed a novel treatment strategy for tonal tinnitus - tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT. By notching the music energy spectrum around the individual tinnitus frequency, we intended to attract lateral inhibition to auditory neurons involved in tinnitus perception. So far, the training strategy has been evaluated in two studies. The results of the initial long-term controlled study (12 months supported the validity of the treatment concept: subjective tinnitus loudness and annoyance were significantly reduced after TMNMT but not when notching spared the tinnitus frequencies. Correspondingly, tinnitus-related auditory evoked fields (AEFs were significantly reduced after training. The subsequent short-term (5 days training study indicated that training was more effective in the case of tinnitus frequencies ≤ 8 kHz compared to tinnitus frequencies > 8 kHz, and that training should be employed over a long-term in order to induce more persistent effects. Further development and evaluation of TMNMT therapy are planned. A goal is to transfer this novel, completely non-invasive, and low-cost treatment approach for tonal tinnitus into routine clinical practice.

Insult-induced adaptive plasticity of the auditory system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua R Gold

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The brain displays a remarkable capacity for both widespread and region-specific modifications in response to environmental challenges, with adaptive processes bringing about the reweighting of connections in neural networks putatively required for optimising performance and behaviour. As an avenue for investigation, studies centred around changes in the mammalian auditory system, extending from the brainstem to the cortex, have revealed a plethora of mechanisms that operate in the context of sensory disruption after insult, be it lesion-, noise trauma, drug-, or age-related. Of particular interest in recent work are those aspects of auditory processing which, after sensory disruption, change at multiple – if not all – levels of the auditory hierarchy. These include changes in excitatory, inhibitory and neuromodulatory networks, consistent with theories of homeostatic plasticity; functional alterations in gene expression and in protein levels; as well as broader network processing effects with cognitive and behavioural implications. Nevertheless, there abounds substantial debate regarding which of these processes may only be sequelae of the original insult, and which may, in fact, be maladaptively compelling further degradation of the organism’s competence to cope with its disrupted sensory context. In this review, we aim to examine how the mammalian auditory system responds in the wake of particular insults, and to disambiguate how the changes that develop might underlie a correlated class of phantom disorders, including tinnitus and hyperacusis, which putatively are brought about through maladaptive neuroplastic disruptions to auditory networks governing the spatial and temporal processing of acoustic sensory information.

Cortical Representations of Speech in a Multitalker Auditory Scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Puvvada, Krishna C; Simon, Jonathan Z

2017-09-20

The ability to parse a complex auditory scene into perceptual objects is facilitated by a hierarchical auditory system. Successive stages in the hierarchy transform an auditory scene of multiple overlapping sources, from peripheral tonotopically based representations in the auditory nerve, into perceptually distinct auditory-object-based representations in the auditory cortex. Here, using magnetoencephalography recordings from men and women, we investigate how a complex acoustic scene consisting of multiple speech sources is represented in distinct hierarchical stages of the auditory cortex. Using systems-theoretic methods of stimulus reconstruction, we show that the primary-like areas in the auditory cortex contain dominantly spectrotemporal-based representations of the entire auditory scene. Here, both attended and ignored speech streams are represented with almost equal fidelity, and a global representation of the full auditory scene with all its streams is a better candidate neural representation than that of individual streams being represented separately. We also show that higher-order auditory cortical areas, by contrast, represent the attended stream separately and with significantly higher fidelity than unattended streams. Furthermore, the unattended background streams are more faithfully represented as a single unsegregated background object rather than as separated objects. Together, these findings demonstrate the progression of the representations and processing of a complex acoustic scene up through the hierarchy of the human auditory cortex. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Using magnetoencephalography recordings from human listeners in a simulated cocktail party environment, we investigate how a complex acoustic scene consisting of multiple speech sources is represented in separate hierarchical stages of the auditory cortex. We show that the primary-like areas in the auditory cortex use a dominantly spectrotemporal-based representation of the entire auditory

Music-induced cortical plasticity and lateral inhibition in the human auditory cortex as foundations for tonal tinnitus treatment.

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Pantev, Christo; Okamoto, Hidehiko; Teismann, Henning

2012-01-01

Over the past 15 years, we have studied plasticity in the human auditory cortex by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG). Two main topics nurtured our curiosity: the effects of musical training on plasticity in the auditory system, and the effects of lateral inhibition. One of our plasticity studies found that listening to notched music for 3 h inhibited the neuronal activity in the auditory cortex that corresponded to the center-frequency of the notch, suggesting suppression of neural activity by lateral inhibition. Subsequent research on this topic found that suppression was notably dependent upon the notch width employed, that the lower notch-edge induced stronger attenuation of neural activity than the higher notch-edge, and that auditory focused attention strengthened the inhibitory networks. Crucially, the overall effects of lateral inhibition on human auditory cortical activity were stronger than the habituation effects. Based on these results we developed a novel treatment strategy for tonal tinnitus-tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT). By notching the music energy spectrum around the individual tinnitus frequency, we intended to attract lateral inhibition to auditory neurons involved in tinnitus perception. So far, the training strategy has been evaluated in two studies. The results of the initial long-term controlled study (12 months) supported the validity of the treatment concept: subjective tinnitus loudness and annoyance were significantly reduced after TMNMT but not when notching spared the tinnitus frequencies. Correspondingly, tinnitus-related auditory evoked fields (AEFs) were significantly reduced after training. The subsequent short-term (5 days) training study indicated that training was more effective in the case of tinnitus frequencies ≤ 8 kHz compared to tinnitus frequencies >8 kHz, and that training should be employed over a long-term in order to induce more persistent effects. Further development and evaluation of TMNMT therapy

The function of BDNF in the adult auditory system.

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Singer, Wibke; Panford-Walsh, Rama; Knipper, Marlies

2014-01-01

The inner ear of vertebrates is specialized to perceive sound, gravity and movements. Each of the specialized sensory organs within the cochlea (sound) and vestibular system (gravity, head movements) transmits information to specific areas of the brain. During development, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) orchestrates the survival and outgrowth of afferent fibers connecting the vestibular organ and those regions in the cochlea that map information for low frequency sound to central auditory nuclei and higher-auditory centers. The role of BDNF in the mature inner ear is less understood. This is mainly due to the fact that constitutive BDNF mutant mice are postnatally lethal. Only in the last few years has the improved technology of performing conditional cell specific deletion of BDNF in vivo allowed the study of the function of BDNF in the mature developed organ. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge of the expression pattern and function of BDNF in the peripheral and central auditory system from just prior to the first auditory experience onwards. A special focus will be put on the differential mechanisms in which BDNF drives refinement of auditory circuitries during the onset of sensory experience and in the adult brain. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'BDNF Regulation of Synaptic Structure, Function, and Plasticity'. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Auditory-vocal mirroring in songbirds.

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Mooney, Richard

2014-01-01

Mirror neurons are theorized to serve as a neural substrate for spoken language in humans, but the existence and functions of auditory-vocal mirror neurons in the human brain remain largely matters of speculation. Songbirds resemble humans in their capacity for vocal learning and depend on their learned songs to facilitate courtship and individual recognition. Recent neurophysiological studies have detected putative auditory-vocal mirror neurons in a sensorimotor region of the songbird's brain that plays an important role in expressive and receptive aspects of vocal communication. This review discusses the auditory and motor-related properties of these cells, considers their potential role on song learning and communication in relation to classical studies of birdsong, and points to the circuit and developmental mechanisms that may give rise to auditory-vocal mirroring in the songbird's brain.

Functional studies of the human auditory cortex, auditory memory and musical hallucinations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goycoolea, Marcos; Mena, Ismael; Neubauer, Sonia

2004-01-01

Objectives. 1. To determine which areas of the cerebral cortex are activated stimulating the left ear with pure tones, and what type of stimulation occurs (eg. excitatory or inhibitory) in these different areas. 2. To use this information as an initial step to develop a normal functional data base for future studies. 3. To try to determine if there is a biological substrate to the process of recalling previous auditory perceptions and if possible, suggest a locus for auditory memory. Method. Brain perfusion single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) evaluation was conducted: 1-2) Using auditory stimulation with pure tones in 4 volunteers with normal hearing. 3) In a patient with bilateral profound hearing loss who had auditory perception of previous musical experiences; while injected with Tc99m HMPAO while she was having the sensation of hearing a well known melody. Results. Both in the patient with auditory hallucinations and the normal controls -stimulated with pure tones- there was a statistically significant increase in perfusion in Brodmann's area 39, more intense on the right side (right to left p < 0.05). With a lesser intensity there was activation in the adjacent area 40 and there was intense activation also in the executive frontal cortex areas 6, 8, 9, and 10 of Brodmann. There was also activation of area 7 of Brodmann; an audio-visual association area; more marked on the right side in the patient and the normal stimulated controls. In the subcortical structures there was also marked activation in the patient with hallucinations in both lentiform nuclei, thalamus and caudate nuclei also more intense in the right hemisphere, 5, 4.7 and 4.2 S.D. above the mean respectively and 5, 3.3, and 3 S.D. above the normal mean in the left hemisphere respectively. Similar findings were observed in normal controls. Conclusions. After auditory stimulation with pure tones in the left ear of normal female volunteers, there is bilateral activation of area 39

Amygdala and auditory cortex exhibit distinct sensitivity to relevant acoustic features of auditory emotions.

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Pannese, Alessia; Grandjean, Didier; Frühholz, Sascha

2016-12-01

Discriminating between auditory signals of different affective value is critical to successful social interaction. It is commonly held that acoustic decoding of such signals occurs in the auditory system, whereas affective decoding occurs in the amygdala. However, given that the amygdala receives direct subcortical projections that bypass the auditory cortex, it is possible that some acoustic decoding occurs in the amygdala as well, when the acoustic features are relevant for affective discrimination. We tested this hypothesis by combining functional neuroimaging with the neurophysiological phenomena of repetition suppression (RS) and repetition enhancement (RE) in human listeners. Our results show that both amygdala and auditory cortex responded differentially to physical voice features, suggesting that the amygdala and auditory cortex decode the affective quality of the voice not only by processing the emotional content from previously processed acoustic features, but also by processing the acoustic features themselves, when these are relevant to the identification of the voice's affective value. Specifically, we found that the auditory cortex is sensitive to spectral high-frequency voice cues when discriminating vocal anger from vocal fear and joy, whereas the amygdala is sensitive to vocal pitch when discriminating between negative vocal emotions (i.e., anger and fear). Vocal pitch is an instantaneously recognized voice feature, which is potentially transferred to the amygdala by direct subcortical projections. These results together provide evidence that, besides the auditory cortex, the amygdala too processes acoustic information, when this is relevant to the discrimination of auditory emotions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A loudspeaker-based room auralisation (LoRA) system for auditory perception research

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Buchholz, Jörg; Favrot, Sylvain Emmanuel

Most research on understanding the signal processing of the auditory system has been realized in anechoic or almost anechoic environments. The knowledge derived from these experiments cannot be directly transferred to reverberant environments. In order to investigate the auditory signal processing...... are utilized to realise highly authentic room reverberation. This system aims at providing a flexible research platform for conducting auditory experiments with normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and aided hearing-impaired listeners in a fully controlled and realistic environment. An overall description...

The human auditory brainstem response to running speech reveals a subcortical mechanism for selective attention.

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Forte, Antonio Elia; Etard, Octave; Reichenbach, Tobias

2017-10-10

Humans excel at selectively listening to a target speaker in background noise such as competing voices. While the encoding of speech in the auditory cortex is modulated by selective attention, it remains debated whether such modulation occurs already in subcortical auditory structures. Investigating the contribution of the human brainstem to attention has, in particular, been hindered by the tiny amplitude of the brainstem response. Its measurement normally requires a large number of repetitions of the same short sound stimuli, which may lead to a loss of attention and to neural adaptation. Here we develop a mathematical method to measure the auditory brainstem response to running speech, an acoustic stimulus that does not repeat and that has a high ecological validity. We employ this method to assess the brainstem's activity when a subject listens to one of two competing speakers, and show that the brainstem response is consistently modulated by attention.

Frequency-specific attentional modulation in human primary auditory cortex and midbrain.

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Riecke, Lars; Peters, Judith C; Valente, Giancarlo; Poser, Benedikt A; Kemper, Valentin G; Formisano, Elia; Sorger, Bettina

2018-07-01

Paying selective attention to an audio frequency selectively enhances activity within primary auditory cortex (PAC) at the tonotopic site (frequency channel) representing that frequency. Animal PAC neurons achieve this 'frequency-specific attentional spotlight' by adapting their frequency tuning, yet comparable evidence in humans is scarce. Moreover, whether the spotlight operates in human midbrain is unknown. To address these issues, we studied the spectral tuning of frequency channels in human PAC and inferior colliculus (IC), using 7-T functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and frequency mapping, while participants focused on different frequency-specific sounds. We found that shifts in frequency-specific attention alter the response gain, but not tuning profile, of PAC frequency channels. The gain modulation was strongest in low-frequency channels and varied near-monotonically across the tonotopic axis, giving rise to the attentional spotlight. We observed less prominent, non-tonotopic spatial patterns of attentional modulation in IC. These results indicate that the frequency-specific attentional spotlight in human PAC as measured with FMRI arises primarily from tonotopic gain modulation, rather than adapted frequency tuning. Moreover, frequency-specific attentional modulation of afferent sound processing in human IC seems to be considerably weaker, suggesting that the spotlight diminishes toward this lower-order processing stage. Our study sheds light on how the human auditory pathway adapts to the different demands of selective hearing. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Searching for the optimal stimulus eliciting auditory brainstem responses in humans

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Fobel, Oliver; Dau, Torsten

2004-01-01

-chirp, was based on estimates of human basilar membrane (BM) group delays derived from stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAE) at a sound pressure level of 40 dB [Shera and Guinan, in Recent Developments in Auditory Mechanics (2000)]. The other chirp, referred to as the A-chirp, was derived from latency...

Social and emotional values of sounds influence human (Homo sapiens and non-human primate (Cercopithecus campbelli auditory laterality.

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Muriel Basile

Full Text Available The last decades evidenced auditory laterality in vertebrates, offering new important insights for the understanding of the origin of human language. Factors such as the social (e.g. specificity, familiarity and emotional value of sounds have been proved to influence hemispheric specialization. However, little is known about the crossed effect of these two factors in animals. In addition, human-animal comparative studies, using the same methodology, are rare. In our study, we adapted the head turn paradigm, a widely used non invasive method, on 8-9-year-old schoolgirls and on adult female Campbell's monkeys, by focusing on head and/or eye orientations in response to sound playbacks. We broadcast communicative signals (monkeys: calls, humans: speech emitted by familiar individuals presenting distinct degrees of social value (female monkeys: conspecific group members vs heterospecific neighbours, human girls: from the same vs different classroom and emotional value (monkeys: contact vs threat calls; humans: friendly vs aggressive intonation. We evidenced a crossed-categorical effect of social and emotional values in both species since only "negative" voices from same class/group members elicited a significant auditory laterality (Wilcoxon tests: monkeys, T = 0 p = 0.03; girls: T = 4.5 p = 0.03. Moreover, we found differences between species as a left and right hemisphere preference was found respectively in humans and monkeys. Furthermore while monkeys almost exclusively responded by turning their head, girls sometimes also just moved their eyes. This study supports theories defending differential roles played by the two hemispheres in primates' auditory laterality and evidenced that more systematic species comparisons are needed before raising evolutionary scenario. Moreover, the choice of sound stimuli and behavioural measures in such studies should be the focus of careful attention.

Web-based auditory self-training system for adult and elderly users of hearing aids.

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Vitti, Simone Virginia; Blasca, Wanderléia Quinhoneiro; Sigulem, Daniel; Torres Pisa, Ivan

2015-01-01

Adults and elderly users of hearing aids suffer psychosocial reactions as a result of hearing loss. Auditory rehabilitation is typically carried out with support from a speech therapist, usually in a clinical center. For these cases, there is a lack of computer-based self-training tools for minimizing the psychosocial impact of hearing deficiency. To develop and evaluate a web-based auditory self-training system for adult and elderly users of hearing aids. Two modules were developed for the web system: an information module based on guidelines for using hearing aids; and an auditory training module presenting a sequence of training exercises for auditory abilities along the lines of the auditory skill steps within auditory processing. We built aweb system using PHP programming language and a MySQL database .from requirements surveyed through focus groups that were conducted by healthcare information technology experts. The web system was evaluated by speech therapists and hearing aid users. An initial sample of 150 patients at DSA/HRAC/USP was defined to apply the system with the inclusion criteria that: the individuals should be over the age of 25 years, presently have hearing impairment, be a hearing aid user, have a computer and have internet experience. They were divided into two groups: a control group (G1) and an experimental group (G2). These patients were evaluated clinically using the HHIE for adults and HHIA for elderly people, before and after system implementation. A third web group was formed with users who were invited through social networks for their opinions on using the system. A questionnaire evaluating hearing complaints was given to all three groups. The study hypothesis considered that G2 would present greater auditory perception, higher satisfaction and fewer complaints than G1 after the auditory training. It was expected that G3 would have fewer complaints regarding use and acceptance of the system. The web system, which was named Sis

Cortical oscillations in auditory perception and speech: evidence for two temporal windows in human auditory cortex

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Huan eLuo

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Natural sounds, including vocal communication sounds, contain critical information at multiple time scales. Two essential temporal modulation rates in speech have been argued to be in the low gamma band (~20-80 ms duration information and the theta band (~150-300 ms, corresponding to segmental and syllabic modulation rates, respectively. On one hypothesis, auditory cortex implements temporal integration using time constants closely related to these values. The neural correlates of a proposed dual temporal window mechanism in human auditory cortex remain poorly understood. We recorded MEG responses from participants listening to non-speech auditory stimuli with different temporal structures, created by concatenating frequency-modulated segments of varied segment durations. We show that these non-speech stimuli with temporal structure matching speech-relevant scales (~25 ms and ~200 ms elicit reliable phase tracking in the corresponding associated oscillatory frequencies (low gamma and theta bands. In contrast, stimuli with non-matching temporal structure do not. Furthermore, the topography of theta band phase tracking shows rightward lateralization while gamma band phase tracking occurs bilaterally. The results support the hypothesis that there exists multi-time resolution processing in cortex on discontinuous scales and provide evidence for an asymmetric organization of temporal analysis (asymmetrical sampling in time, AST. The data argue for a macroscopic-level neural mechanism underlying multi-time resolution processing: the sliding and resetting of intrinsic temporal windows on privileged time scales.

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

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Bowl, Michael R.; Simon, Michelle M.; Ingham, Neil J.

2017-01-01

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. O...

Effects of selective attention on the electrophysiological representation of concurrent sounds in the human auditory cortex.

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Bidet-Caulet, Aurélie; Fischer, Catherine; Besle, Julien; Aguera, Pierre-Emmanuel; Giard, Marie-Helene; Bertrand, Olivier

2007-08-29

In noisy environments, we use auditory selective attention to actively ignore distracting sounds and select relevant information, as during a cocktail party to follow one particular conversation. The present electrophysiological study aims at deciphering the spatiotemporal organization of the effect of selective attention on the representation of concurrent sounds in the human auditory cortex. Sound onset asynchrony was manipulated to induce the segregation of two concurrent auditory streams. Each stream consisted of amplitude modulated tones at different carrier and modulation frequencies. Electrophysiological recordings were performed in epileptic patients with pharmacologically resistant partial epilepsy, implanted with depth electrodes in the temporal cortex. Patients were presented with the stimuli while they either performed an auditory distracting task or actively selected one of the two concurrent streams. Selective attention was found to affect steady-state responses in the primary auditory cortex, and transient and sustained evoked responses in secondary auditory areas. The results provide new insights on the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention: stream selection during sound rivalry would be facilitated not only by enhancing the neural representation of relevant sounds, but also by reducing the representation of irrelevant information in the auditory cortex. Finally, they suggest a specialization of the left hemisphere in the attentional selection of fine-grained acoustic information.

Time computations in anuran auditory systems

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Gary J Rose

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Temporal computations are important in the acoustic communication of anurans. In many cases, calls between closely related species are nearly identical spectrally but differ markedly in temporal structure. Depending on the species, calls can differ in pulse duration, shape and/or rate (i.e., amplitude modulation, direction and rate of frequency modulation, and overall call duration. Also, behavioral studies have shown that anurans are able to discriminate between calls that differ in temporal structure. In the peripheral auditory system, temporal information is coded primarily in the spatiotemporal patterns of activity of auditory-nerve fibers. However, major transformations in the representation of temporal information occur in the central auditory system. In this review I summarize recent advances in understanding how temporal information is represented in the anuran midbrain, with particular emphasis on mechanisms that underlie selectivity for pulse duration and pulse rate (i.e., intervals between onsets of successive pulses. Two types of neurons have been identified that show selectivity for pulse rate: long-interval cells respond well to slow pulse rates but fail to spike or respond phasically to fast pulse rates; conversely, interval-counting neurons respond to intermediate or fast pulse rates, but only after a threshold number of pulses, presented at optimal intervals, have occurred. Duration-selectivity is manifest as short-pass, band-pass or long-pass tuning. Whole-cell patch recordings, in vivo, suggest that excitation and inhibition are integrated in diverse ways to generate temporal selectivity. In many cases, activity-related enhancement or depression of excitatory or inhibitory processes appear to contribute to selective responses.

Engagement with the auditory processing system during targeted auditory cognitive training mediates changes in cognitive outcomes in individuals with schizophrenia.

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Biagianti, Bruno; Fisher, Melissa; Neilands, Torsten B; Loewy, Rachel; Vinogradov, Sophia

2016-11-01

Individuals with schizophrenia who engage in targeted cognitive training (TCT) of the auditory system show generalized cognitive improvements. The high degree of variability in cognitive gains maybe due to individual differences in the level of engagement of the underlying neural system target. 131 individuals with schizophrenia underwent 40 hours of TCT. We identified target engagement of auditory system processing efficiency by modeling subject-specific trajectories of auditory processing speed (APS) over time. Lowess analysis, mixed models repeated measures analysis, and latent growth curve modeling were used to examine whether APS trajectories were moderated by age and illness duration, and mediated improvements in cognitive outcome measures. We observed significant improvements in APS from baseline to 20 hours of training (initial change), followed by a flat APS trajectory (plateau) at subsequent time-points. Participants showed interindividual variability in the steepness of the initial APS change and in the APS plateau achieved and sustained between 20 and 40 hours. We found that participants who achieved the fastest APS plateau, showed the greatest transfer effects to untrained cognitive domains. There is a significant association between an individual's ability to generate and sustain auditory processing efficiency and their degree of cognitive improvement after TCT, independent of baseline neurocognition. APS plateau may therefore represent a behavioral measure of target engagement mediating treatment response. Future studies should examine the optimal plateau of auditory processing efficiency required to induce significant cognitive improvements, in the context of interindividual differences in neural plasticity and sensory system efficiency that characterize schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Validation of the Emotiv EPOC® EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs

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Mousikou, Petroula; Mahajan, Yatin; de Lissa, Peter; Thie, Johnson; McArthur, Genevieve

2013-01-01

Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants – particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC®, www.emotiv.com) were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan). Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive (non-attended) and active (attended) conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan) or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC®). These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks) and the mismatch negativity (MMN) in active and passive listening conditions for each participant. Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21). Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks. Conclusions

Validation of the Emotiv EPOC® EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs

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Nicholas A. Badcock

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants – particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC®, www.emotiv.com were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan.Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz and 100 deviant (1200 Hz tones under passive (non-attended and active (attended conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC®. These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks and the mismatch negativity (MMN in active and passive listening conditions for each participant.Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21. Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks

Neuronal Correlates of Auditory Streaming in Monkey Auditory Cortex for Tone Sequences without Spectral Differences

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Stanislava Knyazeva

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study finds a neuronal correlate of auditory perceptual streaming in the primary auditory cortex for sequences of tone complexes that have the same amplitude spectrum but a different phase spectrum. Our finding is based on microelectrode recordings of multiunit activity from 270 cortical sites in three awake macaque monkeys. The monkeys were presented with repeated sequences of a tone triplet that consisted of an A tone, a B tone, another A tone and then a pause. The A and B tones were composed of unresolved harmonics formed by adding the harmonics in cosine phase, in alternating phase, or in random phase. A previous psychophysical study on humans revealed that when the A and B tones are similar, humans integrate them into a single auditory stream; when the A and B tones are dissimilar, humans segregate them into separate auditory streams. We found that the similarity of neuronal rate responses to the triplets was highest when all A and B tones had cosine phase. Similarity was intermediate when the A tones had cosine phase and the B tones had alternating phase. Similarity was lowest when the A tones had cosine phase and the B tones had random phase. The present study corroborates and extends previous reports, showing similar correspondences between neuronal activity in the primary auditory cortex and auditory streaming of sound sequences. It also is consistent with Fishman’s population separation model of auditory streaming.

Neuronal Correlates of Auditory Streaming in Monkey Auditory Cortex for Tone Sequences without Spectral Differences.

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Knyazeva, Stanislava; Selezneva, Elena; Gorkin, Alexander; Aggelopoulos, Nikolaos C; Brosch, Michael

2018-01-01

This study finds a neuronal correlate of auditory perceptual streaming in the primary auditory cortex for sequences of tone complexes that have the same amplitude spectrum but a different phase spectrum. Our finding is based on microelectrode recordings of multiunit activity from 270 cortical sites in three awake macaque monkeys. The monkeys were presented with repeated sequences of a tone triplet that consisted of an A tone, a B tone, another A tone and then a pause. The A and B tones were composed of unresolved harmonics formed by adding the harmonics in cosine phase, in alternating phase, or in random phase. A previous psychophysical study on humans revealed that when the A and B tones are similar, humans integrate them into a single auditory stream; when the A and B tones are dissimilar, humans segregate them into separate auditory streams. We found that the similarity of neuronal rate responses to the triplets was highest when all A and B tones had cosine phase. Similarity was intermediate when the A tones had cosine phase and the B tones had alternating phase. Similarity was lowest when the A tones had cosine phase and the B tones had random phase. The present study corroborates and extends previous reports, showing similar correspondences between neuronal activity in the primary auditory cortex and auditory streaming of sound sequences. It also is consistent with Fishman's population separation model of auditory streaming.

Auditory memory can be object based.

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Dyson, Benjamin J; Ishfaq, Feraz

2008-04-01

Identifying how memories are organized remains a fundamental issue in psychology. Previous work has shown that visual short-term memory is organized according to the object of origin, with participants being better at retrieving multiple pieces of information from the same object than from different objects. However, it is not yet clear whether similar memory structures are employed for other modalities, such as audition. Under analogous conditions in the auditory domain, we found that short-term memories for sound can also be organized according to object, with a same-object advantage being demonstrated for the retrieval of information in an auditory scene defined by two complex sounds overlapping in both space and time. Our results provide support for the notion of an auditory object, in addition to the continued identification of similar processing constraints across visual and auditory domains. The identification of modality-independent organizational principles of memory, such as object-based coding, suggests possible mechanisms by which the human processing system remembers multimodal experiences.

At the interface of the auditory and vocal motor systems: NIf and its role in vocal processing, production and learning.

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Lewandowski, Brian; Vyssotski, Alexei; Hahnloser, Richard H R; Schmidt, Marc

2013-06-01

Communication between auditory and vocal motor nuclei is essential for vocal learning. In songbirds, the nucleus interfacialis of the nidopallium (NIf) is part of a sensorimotor loop, along with auditory nucleus avalanche (Av) and song system nucleus HVC, that links the auditory and song systems. Most of the auditory information comes through this sensorimotor loop, with the projection from NIf to HVC representing the largest single source of auditory information to the song system. In addition to providing the majority of HVC's auditory input, NIf is also the primary driver of spontaneous activity and premotor-like bursting during sleep in HVC. Like HVC and RA, two nuclei critical for song learning and production, NIf exhibits behavioral-state dependent auditory responses and strong motor bursts that precede song output. NIf also exhibits extended periods of fast gamma oscillations following vocal production. Based on the converging evidence from studies of physiology and functional connectivity it would be reasonable to expect NIf to play an important role in the learning, maintenance, and production of song. Surprisingly, however, lesions of NIf in adult zebra finches have no effect on song production or maintenance. Only the plastic song produced by juvenile zebra finches during the sensorimotor phase of song learning is affected by NIf lesions. In this review, we carefully examine what is known about NIf at the anatomical, physiological, and behavioral levels. We reexamine conclusions drawn from previous studies in the light of our current understanding of the song system, and establish what can be said with certainty about NIf's involvement in song learning, maintenance, and production. Finally, we review recent theories of song learning integrating possible roles for NIf within these frameworks and suggest possible parallels between NIf and sensorimotor areas that form part of the neural circuitry for speech processing in humans. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier

Auditory distance perception in humans: a review of cues, development, neuronal bases, and effects of sensory loss.

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Kolarik, Andrew J; Moore, Brian C J; Zahorik, Pavel; Cirstea, Silvia; Pardhan, Shahina

2016-02-01

Auditory distance perception plays a major role in spatial awareness, enabling location of objects and avoidance of obstacles in the environment. However, it remains under-researched relative to studies of the directional aspect of sound localization. This review focuses on the following four aspects of auditory distance perception: cue processing, development, consequences of visual and auditory loss, and neurological bases. The several auditory distance cues vary in their effective ranges in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. The primary cues are sound level, reverberation, and frequency. Nonperceptual factors, including the importance of the auditory event to the listener, also can affect perceived distance. Basic internal representations of auditory distance emerge at approximately 6 months of age in humans. Although visual information plays an important role in calibrating auditory space, sensorimotor contingencies can be used for calibration when vision is unavailable. Blind individuals often manifest supranormal abilities to judge relative distance but show a deficit in absolute distance judgments. Following hearing loss, the use of auditory level as a distance cue remains robust, while the reverberation cue becomes less effective. Previous studies have not found evidence that hearing-aid processing affects perceived auditory distance. Studies investigating the brain areas involved in processing different acoustic distance cues are described. Finally, suggestions are given for further research on auditory distance perception, including broader investigation of how background noise and multiple sound sources affect perceived auditory distance for those with sensory loss.

Auditory display as feedback for a novel eye-tracking system for sterile operating room interaction.

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Black, David; Unger, Michael; Fischer, Nele; Kikinis, Ron; Hahn, Horst; Neumuth, Thomas; Glaser, Bernhard

2018-01-01

The growing number of technical systems in the operating room has increased attention on developing touchless interaction methods for sterile conditions. However, touchless interaction paradigms lack the tactile feedback found in common input devices such as mice and keyboards. We propose a novel touchless eye-tracking interaction system with auditory display as a feedback method for completing typical operating room tasks. Auditory display provides feedback concerning the selected input into the eye-tracking system as well as a confirmation of the system response. An eye-tracking system with a novel auditory display using both earcons and parameter-mapping sonification was developed to allow touchless interaction for six typical scrub nurse tasks. An evaluation with novice participants compared auditory display with visual display with respect to reaction time and a series of subjective measures. When using auditory display to substitute for the lost tactile feedback during eye-tracking interaction, participants exhibit reduced reaction time compared to using visual-only display. In addition, the auditory feedback led to lower subjective workload and higher usefulness and system acceptance ratings. Due to the absence of tactile feedback for eye-tracking and other touchless interaction methods, auditory display is shown to be a useful and necessary addition to new interaction concepts for the sterile operating room, reducing reaction times while improving subjective measures, including usefulness, user satisfaction, and cognitive workload.

Effects of exposure to 2100 MHz GSM-like radiofrequency electromagnetic field on auditory system of rats

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Metin Çeliker

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: The use of mobile phones has become widespread in recent years. Although beneficial from the communication viewpoint, the electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phones may cause unwanted biological changes in the human body. Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of 2100 MHz Global System for Mobile communication (GSM-like electromagnetic field, generated by an electromagnetic fields generator, on the auditory system of rats by using electrophysiological, histopathologic and immunohistochemical methods. Methods: Fourteen adult Wistar albino rats were included in the study. The rats were divided randomly into two groups of seven rats each. The study group was exposed continuously for 30 days to a 2100 MHz electromagnetic fields with a signal level (power of 5.4 dBm (3.47 mW to simulate the talk mode on a mobile phone. The control group was not exposed to the aforementioned electromagnetic fields. After 30 days, the Auditory Brainstem Responses of both groups were recorded and the rats were sacrificed. The cochlear nuclei were evaluated by histopathologic and immunohistochemical methods. Results: The Auditory Brainstem Responses records of the two groups did not differ significantly. The histopathologic analysis showed increased degeneration signs in the study group (p = 0.007. In addition, immunohistochemical analysis revealed increased apoptotic index in the study group compared to that in the control group (p = 0.002. Conclusion: The results support that long-term exposure to a GSM-like 2100 MHz electromagnetic fields causes an increase in neuronal degeneration and apoptosis in the auditory system.

Auditory short-term memory in the primate auditory cortex

OpenAIRE

Scott, Brian H.; Mishkin, Mortimer

2015-01-01

Sounds are fleeting, and assembling the sequence of inputs at the ear into a coherent percept requires auditory memory across various time scales. Auditory short-term memory comprises at least two components: an active ���working memory��� bolstered by rehearsal, and a sensory trace that may be passively retained. Working memory relies on representations recalled from long-term memory, and their rehearsal may require phonological mechanisms unique to humans. The sensory component, passive sho...

Auditory Perceptual Abilities Are Associated with Specific Auditory Experience

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Yael Zaltz

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The extent to which auditory experience can shape general auditory perceptual abilities is still under constant debate. Some studies show that specific auditory expertise may have a general effect on auditory perceptual abilities, while others show a more limited influence, exhibited only in a relatively narrow range associated with the area of expertise. The current study addresses this issue by examining experience-dependent enhancement in perceptual abilities in the auditory domain. Three experiments were performed. In the first experiment, 12 pop and rock musicians and 15 non-musicians were tested in frequency discrimination (DLF, intensity discrimination, spectrum discrimination (DLS, and time discrimination (DLT. Results showed significant superiority of the musician group only for the DLF and DLT tasks, illuminating enhanced perceptual skills in the key features of pop music, in which miniscule changes in amplitude and spectrum are not critical to performance. The next two experiments attempted to differentiate between generalization and specificity in the influence of auditory experience, by comparing subgroups of specialists. First, seven guitar players and eight percussionists were tested in the DLF and DLT tasks that were found superior for musicians. Results showed superior abilities on the DLF task for guitar players, though no difference between the groups in DLT, demonstrating some dependency of auditory learning on the specific area of expertise. Subsequently, a third experiment was conducted, testing a possible influence of vowel density in native language on auditory perceptual abilities. Ten native speakers of German (a language characterized by a dense vowel system of 14 vowels, and 10 native speakers of Hebrew (characterized by a sparse vowel system of five vowels, were tested in a formant discrimination task. This is the linguistic equivalent of a DLS task. Results showed that German speakers had superior formant

Auditory processing in the brainstem and audiovisual integration in humans studied with fMRI

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slabu, Lavinia Mihaela

2008-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful technique because of the high spatial resolution and the noninvasiveness. The applications of the fMRI to the auditory pathway remain a challenge due to the intense acoustic scanner noise of approximately 110 dB SPL. The auditory system

Multimodal Diffusion-MRI and MEG Assessment of Auditory and Language System Development in Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Jeffrey I Berman

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Auditory processing and language impairments are prominent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD. The present study integrated diffusion MR measures of white-matter microstructure and magnetoencephalography (MEG measures of cortical dynamics to investigate associations between brain structure and function within auditory and language systems in ASD. Based on previous findings, abnormal structure-function relationships in auditory and language systems in ASD were hypothesized. Methods: Evaluable neuroimaging data was obtained from 44 typically developing (TD children (mean age 10.4±2.4years and 95 children with ASD (mean age 10.2±2.6years. Diffusion MR tractography was used to delineate and quantitatively assess the auditory radiation and arcuate fasciculus segments of the auditory and language systems. MEG was used to measure (1 superior temporal gyrus auditory evoked M100 latency in response to pure-tone stimuli as an indicator of auditory system conduction velocity, and (2 auditory vowel-contrast mismatch field (MMF latency as a passive probe of early linguistic processes. Results: Atypical development of white matter and cortical function, along with atypical lateralization, were present in ASD. In both auditory and language systems, white matter integrity and cortical electrophysiology were found to be coupled in typically developing children, with white matter microstructural features contributing significantly to electrophysiological response latencies. However, in ASD, we observed uncoupled structure-function relationships in both auditory and language systems. Regression analyses in ASD indicated that factors other than white-matter microstructure additionally contribute to the latency of neural evoked responses and ultimately behavior. Results also indicated that whereas delayed M100 is a marker for ASD severity, MMF delay is more associated with language impairment. Conclusion: Present findings suggest atypical

Validation of the Emotiv EPOC(®) EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs.

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Badcock, Nicholas A; Mousikou, Petroula; Mahajan, Yatin; de Lissa, Peter; Thie, Johnson; McArthur, Genevieve

2013-01-01

Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants - particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC(®), www.emotiv.com) were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan). Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive (non-attended) and active (attended) conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan) or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC(®)). These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks) and the mismatch negativity (MMN) in active and passive listening conditions for each participant. Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21). Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks

Changes in auditory memory performance following the use of frequency-modulated system in children with suspected auditory processing disorders.

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Umat, Cila; Mukari, Siti Z; Ezan, Nurul F; Din, Normah C

2011-08-01

To examine the changes in the short-term auditory memory following the use of frequency-modulated (FM) system in children with suspected auditory processing disorders (APDs), and also to compare the advantages of bilateral over unilateral FM fitting. This longitudinal study involved 53 children from Sekolah Kebangsaan Jalan Kuantan 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The study was conducted from September 2007 to October 2008 in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The children's age was between 7-10 years old, and they were assigned into 3 groups: 15 in the control group (not fitted with FM); 19 in the unilateral; and 19 in the bilateral FM-fitting group. Subjects wore the FM system during school time for 12 weeks. Their working memory (WM), best learning (BL), and retention of information (ROI) were measured using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test at pre-fitting, post (after 12 weeks of FM usage), and at long term (one year after the usage of FM system ended). There were significant differences in the mean WM (p=0.001), BL (p=0.019), and ROI (p=0.005) scores at the different measurement times, in which the mean scores at long-term were consistently higher than at pre-fitting, despite similar performances at the baseline (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in performance between unilateral- and bilateral-fitting groups. The use of FM might give a long-term effect on improving selected short-term auditory memories of some children with suspected APDs. One may not need to use 2 FM receivers to receive advantages on auditory memory performance.

Auditory midbrain processing is differentially modulated by auditory and visual cortices: An auditory fMRI study.

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Gao, Patrick P; Zhang, Jevin W; Fan, Shu-Juan; Sanes, Dan H; Wu, Ed X

2015-12-01

The cortex contains extensive descending projections, yet the impact of cortical input on brainstem processing remains poorly understood. In the central auditory system, the auditory cortex contains direct and indirect pathways (via brainstem cholinergic cells) to nuclei of the auditory midbrain, called the inferior colliculus (IC). While these projections modulate auditory processing throughout the IC, single neuron recordings have samples from only a small fraction of cells during stimulation of the corticofugal pathway. Furthermore, assessments of cortical feedback have not been extended to sensory modalities other than audition. To address these issues, we devised blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms to measure the sound-evoked responses throughout the rat IC and investigated the effects of bilateral ablation of either auditory or visual cortices. Auditory cortex ablation increased the gain of IC responses to noise stimuli (primarily in the central nucleus of the IC) and decreased response selectivity to forward species-specific vocalizations (versus temporally reversed ones, most prominently in the external cortex of the IC). In contrast, visual cortex ablation decreased the gain and induced a much smaller effect on response selectivity. The results suggest that auditory cortical projections normally exert a large-scale and net suppressive influence on specific IC subnuclei, while visual cortical projections provide a facilitatory influence. Meanwhile, auditory cortical projections enhance the midbrain response selectivity to species-specific vocalizations. We also probed the role of the indirect cholinergic projections in the auditory system in the descending modulation process by pharmacologically blocking muscarinic cholinergic receptors. This manipulation did not affect the gain of IC responses but significantly reduced the response selectivity to vocalizations. The results imply that auditory cortical

Usage of drip drops as stimuli in an auditory P300 BCI paradigm.

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Huang, Minqiang; Jin, Jing; Zhang, Yu; Hu, Dewen; Wang, Xingyu

2018-02-01

Recently, many auditory BCIs are using beeps as auditory stimuli, while beeps sound unnatural and unpleasant for some people. It is proved that natural sounds make people feel comfortable, decrease fatigue, and improve the performance of auditory BCI systems. Drip drop is a kind of natural sounds that makes humans feel relaxed and comfortable. In this work, three kinds of drip drops were used as stimuli in an auditory-based BCI system to improve the user-friendness of the system. This study explored whether drip drops could be used as stimuli in the auditory BCI system. The auditory BCI paradigm with drip-drop stimuli, which was called the drip-drop paradigm (DP), was compared with the auditory paradigm with beep stimuli, also known as the beep paradigm (BP), in items of event-related potential amplitudes, online accuracies and scores on the likability and difficulty to demonstrate the advantages of DP. DP obtained significantly higher online accuracy and information transfer rate than the BP ( p  < 0.05, Wilcoxon signed test; p  < 0.05, Wilcoxon signed test). Besides, DP obtained higher scores on the likability with no significant difference on the difficulty ( p  < 0.05, Wilcoxon signed test). The results showed that the drip drops were reliable acoustic materials as stimuli in an auditory BCI system.

Plasticity in the Human Speech Motor System Drives Changes in Speech Perception

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Lametti, Daniel R.; Rochet-Capellan, Amélie; Neufeld, Emily; Shiller, Douglas M.

2014-01-01

Recent studies of human speech motor learning suggest that learning is accompanied by changes in auditory perception. But what drives the perceptual change? Is it a consequence of changes in the motor system? Or is it a result of sensory inflow during learning? Here, subjects participated in a speech motor-learning task involving adaptation to altered auditory feedback and they were subsequently tested for perceptual change. In two separate experiments, involving two different auditory perceptual continua, we show that changes in the speech motor system that accompany learning drive changes in auditory speech perception. Specifically, we obtained changes in speech perception when adaptation to altered auditory feedback led to speech production that fell into the phonetic range of the speech perceptual tests. However, a similar change in perception was not observed when the auditory feedback that subjects' received during learning fell into the phonetic range of the perceptual tests. This indicates that the central motor outflow associated with vocal sensorimotor adaptation drives changes to the perceptual classification of speech sounds. PMID:25080594

Evidence for cue-independent spatial representation in the human auditory cortex during active listening.

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Higgins, Nathan C; McLaughlin, Susan A; Rinne, Teemu; Stecker, G Christopher

2017-09-05

Few auditory functions are as important or as universal as the capacity for auditory spatial awareness (e.g., sound localization). That ability relies on sensitivity to acoustical cues-particularly interaural time and level differences (ITD and ILD)-that correlate with sound-source locations. Under nonspatial listening conditions, cortical sensitivity to ITD and ILD takes the form of broad contralaterally dominated response functions. It is unknown, however, whether that sensitivity reflects representations of the specific physical cues or a higher-order representation of auditory space (i.e., integrated cue processing), nor is it known whether responses to spatial cues are modulated by active spatial listening. To investigate, sensitivity to parametrically varied ITD or ILD cues was measured using fMRI during spatial and nonspatial listening tasks. Task type varied across blocks where targets were presented in one of three dimensions: auditory location, pitch, or visual brightness. Task effects were localized primarily to lateral posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) and modulated binaural-cue response functions differently in the two hemispheres. Active spatial listening (location tasks) enhanced both contralateral and ipsilateral responses in the right hemisphere but maintained or enhanced contralateral dominance in the left hemisphere. Two observations suggest integrated processing of ITD and ILD. First, overlapping regions in medial pSTG exhibited significant sensitivity to both cues. Second, successful classification of multivoxel patterns was observed for both cue types and-critically-for cross-cue classification. Together, these results suggest a higher-order representation of auditory space in the human auditory cortex that at least partly integrates the specific underlying cues.

Left hemispheric dominance during auditory processing in a noisy environment

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Ross Bernhard

2007-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In daily life, we are exposed to different sound inputs simultaneously. During neural encoding in the auditory pathway, neural activities elicited by these different sounds interact with each other. In the present study, we investigated neural interactions elicited by masker and amplitude-modulated test stimulus in primary and non-primary human auditory cortex during ipsi-lateral and contra-lateral masking by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG. Results We observed significant decrements of auditory evoked responses and a significant inter-hemispheric difference for the N1m response during both ipsi- and contra-lateral masking. Conclusion The decrements of auditory evoked neural activities during simultaneous masking can be explained by neural interactions evoked by masker and test stimulus in peripheral and central auditory systems. The inter-hemispheric differences of N1m decrements during ipsi- and contra-lateral masking reflect a basic hemispheric specialization contributing to the processing of complex auditory stimuli such as speech signals in noisy environments.

The memory systems of children with (central) auditory disorder.

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Pires, Mayra Monteiro; Mota, Mailce Borges; Pinheiro, Maria Madalena Canina

2015-01-01

This study aims to investigate working, declarative, and procedural memory in children with (central) auditory processing disorder who showed poor phonological awareness. Thirty 9- and 10-year-old children participated in the study and were distributed into two groups: a control group consisting of 15 children with typical development, and an experimental group consisting of 15 children with (central) auditory processing disorder who were classified according to three behavioral tests and who showed poor phonological awareness in the CONFIAS test battery. The memory systems were assessed through the adapted tests in the program E-PRIME 2.0. The working memory was assessed by the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C), whereas the declarative memory was assessed by a picture-naming test and the procedural memory was assessed by means of a morphosyntactic processing test. The results showed that, when compared to the control group, children with poor phonological awareness scored lower in the working, declarative, and procedural memory tasks. The results of this study suggest that in children with (central) auditory processing disorder, phonological awareness is associated with the analyzed memory systems.

Head-Up Auditory Displays for Traffic Collision Avoidance System Advisories: A Preliminary Investigation

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Begault, Durand R.

1993-01-01

The advantage of a head-up auditory display was evaluated in a preliminary experiment designed to measure and compare the acquisition time for capturing visual targets under two auditory conditions: standard one-earpiece presentation and two-earpiece three-dimensional (3D) audio presentation. Twelve commercial airline crews were tested under full mission simulation conditions at the NASA-Ames Man-Vehicle Systems Research Facility advanced concepts flight simulator. Scenario software generated visual targets corresponding to aircraft that would activate a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) aural advisory; the spatial auditory position was linked to the visual position with 3D audio presentation. Results showed that crew members using a 3D auditory display acquired targets approximately 2.2 s faster than did crew members who used one-earpiece head- sets, but there was no significant difference in the number of targets acquired.

Manipulation of Auditory Inputs as Rehabilitation Therapy for Maladaptive Auditory Cortical Reorganization

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Hidehiko Okamoto

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Neurophysiological and neuroimaging data suggest that the brains of not only children but also adults are reorganized based on sensory inputs and behaviors. Plastic changes in the brain are generally beneficial; however, maladaptive cortical reorganization in the auditory cortex may lead to hearing disorders such as tinnitus and hyperacusis. Recent studies attempted to noninvasively visualize pathological neural activity in the living human brain and reverse maladaptive cortical reorganization by the suitable manipulation of auditory inputs in order to alleviate detrimental auditory symptoms. The effects of the manipulation of auditory inputs on maladaptively reorganized brain were reviewed herein. The findings obtained indicate that rehabilitation therapy based on the manipulation of auditory inputs is an effective and safe approach for hearing disorders. The appropriate manipulation of sensory inputs guided by the visualization of pathological brain activities using recent neuroimaging techniques may contribute to the establishment of new clinical applications for affected individuals.

Multichannel auditory search: toward understanding control processes in polychotic auditory listening.

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Lee, M D

2001-01-01

Two experiments are presented that serve as a framework for exploring auditory information processing. The framework is referred to as polychotic listening or auditory search, and it requires a listener to scan multiple simultaneous auditory streams for the appearance of a target word (the name of a letter such as A or M). Participants' ability to scan between two and six simultaneous auditory streams of letter and digit names for the name of a target letter was examined using six loudspeakers. The main independent variable was auditory load, or the number of active audio streams on a given trial. The primary dependent variables were target localization accuracy and reaction time. Results showed that as load increased, performance decreased. The performance decrease was evident in reaction time, accuracy, and sensitivity measures. The second study required participants to practice the same task for 10 sessions, for a total of 1800 trials. Results indicated that even with extensive practice, performance was still affected by auditory load. The present results are compared with findings in the visual search literature. The implications for the use of multiple auditory displays are discussed. Potential applications include cockpit and automobile warning displays, virtual reality systems, and training systems.

Multivariate sensitivity to voice during auditory categorization.

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Lee, Yune Sang; Peelle, Jonathan E; Kraemer, David; Lloyd, Samuel; Granger, Richard

2015-09-01

Past neuroimaging studies have documented discrete regions of human temporal cortex that are more strongly activated by conspecific voice sounds than by nonvoice sounds. However, the mechanisms underlying this voice sensitivity remain unclear. In the present functional MRI study, we took a novel approach to examining voice sensitivity, in which we applied a signal detection paradigm to the assessment of multivariate pattern classification among several living and nonliving categories of auditory stimuli. Within this framework, voice sensitivity can be interpreted as a distinct neural representation of brain activity that correctly distinguishes human vocalizations from other auditory object categories. Across a series of auditory categorization tests, we found that bilateral superior and middle temporal cortex consistently exhibited robust sensitivity to human vocal sounds. Although the strongest categorization was in distinguishing human voice from other categories, subsets of these regions were also able to distinguish reliably between nonhuman categories, suggesting a general role in auditory object categorization. Our findings complement the current evidence of cortical sensitivity to human vocal sounds by revealing that the greatest sensitivity during categorization tasks is devoted to distinguishing voice from nonvoice categories within human temporal cortex. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Word Recognition in Auditory Cortex

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DeWitt, Iain D. J.

2013-01-01

Although spoken word recognition is more fundamental to human communication than text recognition, knowledge of word-processing in auditory cortex is comparatively impoverished. This dissertation synthesizes current models of auditory cortex, models of cortical pattern recognition, models of single-word reading, results in phonetics and results in…

Occupational Styrene Exposure on Auditory Function Among Adults: A Systematic Review of Selected Workers

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Francis T. Pleban

2017-12-01

Full Text Available A review study was conducted to examine the adverse effects of styrene, styrene mixtures, or styrene and/or styrene mixtures and noise on the auditory system in humans employed in occupational settings. The search included peer-reviewed articles published in English language involving human volunteers spanning a 25-year period (1990–2015. Studies included peer review journals, case–control studies, and case reports. Animal studies were excluded. An initial search identified 40 studies. After screening for inclusion, 13 studies were retrieved for full journal detail examination and review. As a whole, the results range from no to mild associations between styrene exposure and auditory dysfunction, noting relatively small sample sizes. However, four studies investigating styrene with other organic solvent mixtures and noise suggested combined exposures to both styrene organic solvent mixtures may be more ototoxic than exposure to noise alone. There is little literature examining the effect of styrene on auditory functioning in humans. Nonetheless, findings suggest public health professionals and policy makers should be made aware of the future research needs pertaining to hearing impairment and ototoxicity from styrene. It is recommended that chronic styrene-exposed individuals be routinely evaluated with a comprehensive audiological test battery to detect early signs of auditory dysfunction. Keywords: auditory system, human exposure, ototoxicity, styrene

Animal models for auditory streaming

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Itatani, Naoya

2017-01-01

Sounds in the natural environment need to be assigned to acoustic sources to evaluate complex auditory scenes. Separating sources will affect the analysis of auditory features of sounds. As the benefits of assigning sounds to specific sources accrue to all species communicating acoustically, the ability for auditory scene analysis is widespread among different animals. Animal studies allow for a deeper insight into the neuronal mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis. Here, we will review the paradigms applied in the study of auditory scene analysis and streaming of sequential sounds in animal models. We will compare the psychophysical results from the animal studies to the evidence obtained in human psychophysics of auditory streaming, i.e. in a task commonly used for measuring the capability for auditory scene analysis. Furthermore, the neuronal correlates of auditory streaming will be reviewed in different animal models and the observations of the neurons’ response measures will be related to perception. The across-species comparison will reveal whether similar demands in the analysis of acoustic scenes have resulted in similar perceptual and neuronal processing mechanisms in the wide range of species being capable of auditory scene analysis. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’. PMID:28044022

Attention effects at auditory periphery derived from human scalp potentials: displacement measure of potentials.

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Ikeda, Kazunari; Hayashi, Akiko; Sekiguchi, Takahiro; Era, Shukichi

2006-10-01

It is known in humans that electrophysiological measures such as the auditory brainstem response (ABR) are difficult to identify the attention effect at the auditory periphery, whereas the centrifugal effect has been detected by measuring otoacoustic emissions. This research developed a measure responsive to the shift of human scalp potentials within a brief post-stimulus period (13 ms), that is, displacement percentage, and applied it to an experiment to retrieve the peripheral attention effect. In the present experimental paradigm, tone pips were exposed to the left ear whereas the other ear was masked by white noise. Twelve participants each conducted two conditions of either ignoring or attending to the tone pips. Relative to averaged scalp potentials in the ignoring condition, the shift of the potentials was found within early component range during the attentive condition, and displacement percentage then revealed a significant magnitude difference between the two conditions. These results suggest that, using a measure representing the potential shift itself, the peripheral effect of attention can be detected from human scalp potentials.

Human pupillary dilation response to deviant auditory stimuli: Effects of stimulus properties and voluntary attention

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Hsin-I eLiao

2016-02-01

Full Text Available A unique sound that deviates from a repetitive background sound induces signature neural responses, such as mismatch negativity and novelty P3 response in electro-encephalography studies. Here we show that a deviant auditory stimulus induces a human pupillary dilation response (PDR that is sensitive to the stimulus properties and irrespective whether attention is directed to the sounds or not. In an auditory oddball sequence, we used white noise and 2000-Hz tones as oddballs against repeated 1000-Hz tones. Participants’ pupillary responses were recorded while they listened to the auditory oddball sequence. In Experiment 1, they were not involved in any task. Results show that pupils dilated to the noise oddballs for approximately 4 s, but no such PDR was found for the 2000-Hz tone oddballs. In Experiments 2, two types of visual oddballs were presented synchronously with the auditory oddballs. Participants discriminated the auditory or visual oddballs while trying to ignore stimuli from the other modality. The purpose of this manipulation was to direct attention to or away from the auditory sequence. In Experiment 3, the visual oddballs and the auditory oddballs were always presented asynchronously to prevent residuals of attention on to-be-ignored oddballs due to the concurrence with the attended oddballs. Results show that pupils dilated to both the noise and 2000-Hz tone oddballs in all conditions. Most importantly, PDRs to noise were larger than those to the 2000-Hz tone oddballs regardless of the attention condition in both experiments. The overall results suggest that the stimulus-dependent factor of the PDR appears to be independent of attention.

Human Pupillary Dilation Response to Deviant Auditory Stimuli: Effects of Stimulus Properties and Voluntary Attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Hsin-I; Yoneya, Makoto; Kidani, Shunsuke; Kashino, Makio; Furukawa, Shigeto

2016-01-01

A unique sound that deviates from a repetitive background sound induces signature neural responses, such as mismatch negativity and novelty P3 response in electro-encephalography studies. Here we show that a deviant auditory stimulus induces a human pupillary dilation response (PDR) that is sensitive to the stimulus properties and irrespective whether attention is directed to the sounds or not. In an auditory oddball sequence, we used white noise and 2000-Hz tones as oddballs against repeated 1000-Hz tones. Participants' pupillary responses were recorded while they listened to the auditory oddball sequence. In Experiment 1, they were not involved in any task. Results show that pupils dilated to the noise oddballs for approximately 4 s, but no such PDR was found for the 2000-Hz tone oddballs. In Experiments 2, two types of visual oddballs were presented synchronously with the auditory oddballs. Participants discriminated the auditory or visual oddballs while trying to ignore stimuli from the other modality. The purpose of this manipulation was to direct attention to or away from the auditory sequence. In Experiment 3, the visual oddballs and the auditory oddballs were always presented asynchronously to prevent residuals of attention on to-be-ignored oddballs due to the concurrence with the attended oddballs. Results show that pupils dilated to both the noise and 2000-Hz tone oddballs in all conditions. Most importantly, PDRs to noise were larger than those to the 2000-Hz tone oddballs regardless of the attention condition in both experiments. The overall results suggest that the stimulus-dependent factor of the PDR appears to be independent of attention.

Mapping auditory core, lateral belt, and parabelt cortices in the human superior temporal gyrus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sweet, Robert A; Dorph-Petersen, Karl-Anton; Lewis, David A

2005-01-01

The goal of the present study was to determine whether the architectonic criteria used to identify the core, lateral belt, and parabelt auditory cortices in macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) could be used to identify homologous regions in humans (Homo sapiens). Current evidence indicates...

Method for Dissecting the Auditory Epithelium (Basilar Papilla) in Developing Chick Embryos.

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Levic, Snezana; Yamoah, Ebenezer N

2016-01-01

Chickens are an invaluable model for exploring auditory physiology. Similar to humans, the chicken inner ear is morphologically and functionally close to maturity at the time of hatching. In contrast, chicks can regenerate hearing, an ability lost in all mammals, including humans. The extensive morphological, physiological, behavioral, and pharmacological data available, regarding normal development in the chicken auditory system, has driven the progress of the field. The basilar papilla is an attractive model system to study the developmental mechanisms of hearing. Here, we describe the dissection technique for isolating the basilar papilla in developing chick inner ear. We also provide detailed examples of physiological (patch clamping) experiments using this preparation.

A loudspeaker-based room auralization system for auditory research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Favrot, Sylvain Emmanuel

to systematically study the signal processing of realistic sounds by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners, a flexible, reproducible and fully controllable auditory environment is needed. A loudspeaker-based room auralization (LoRA) system was developed in this thesis to provide virtual auditory...... in reverberant environments. Each part of the early incoming sound to the listener was auralized with either higher-order Ambisonic (HOA) or using a single loudspeaker. The late incoming sound was auralized with a specific algorithm in order to provide a diffuse reverberation with minimal coloration artifacts...... assessed the impact of the auralization technique used for the early incoming sound (HOA or single loudspeaker) on speech intelligibility. A listening test showed that speech intelligibility experiments can be reliably conducted with the LoRA system with both techniques. The second evaluation investigated...

Selective memory retrieval of auditory what and auditory where involves the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

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Kostopoulos, Penelope; Petrides, Michael

2016-02-16

There is evidence from the visual, verbal, and tactile memory domains that the midventrolateral prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in the top-down modulation of activity within posterior cortical areas for the selective retrieval of specific aspects of a memorized experience, a functional process often referred to as active controlled retrieval. In the present functional neuroimaging study, we explore the neural bases of active retrieval for auditory nonverbal information, about which almost nothing is known. Human participants were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a task in which they were presented with short melodies from different locations in a simulated virtual acoustic environment within the scanner and were then instructed to retrieve selectively either the particular melody presented or its location. There were significant activity increases specifically within the midventrolateral prefrontal region during the selective retrieval of nonverbal auditory information. During the selective retrieval of information from auditory memory, the right midventrolateral prefrontal region increased its interaction with the auditory temporal region and the inferior parietal lobule in the right hemisphere. These findings provide evidence that the midventrolateral prefrontal cortical region interacts with specific posterior cortical areas in the human cerebral cortex for the selective retrieval of object and location features of an auditory memory experience.

Auditory-somatosensory bimodal stimulation desynchronizes brain circuitry to reduce tinnitus in guinea pigs and humans.

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Marks, Kendra L; Martel, David T; Wu, Calvin; Basura, Gregory J; Roberts, Larry E; Schvartz-Leyzac, Kara C; Shore, Susan E

2018-01-03

The dorsal cochlear nucleus is the first site of multisensory convergence in mammalian auditory pathways. Principal output neurons, the fusiform cells, integrate auditory nerve inputs from the cochlea with somatosensory inputs from the head and neck. In previous work, we developed a guinea pig model of tinnitus induced by noise exposure and showed that the fusiform cells in these animals exhibited increased spontaneous activity and cross-unit synchrony, which are physiological correlates of tinnitus. We delivered repeated bimodal auditory-somatosensory stimulation to the dorsal cochlear nucleus of guinea pigs with tinnitus, choosing a stimulus interval known to induce long-term depression (LTD). Twenty minutes per day of LTD-inducing bimodal (but not unimodal) stimulation reduced physiological and behavioral evidence of tinnitus in the guinea pigs after 25 days. Next, we applied the same bimodal treatment to 20 human subjects with tinnitus using a double-blinded, sham-controlled, crossover study. Twenty-eight days of LTD-inducing bimodal stimulation reduced tinnitus loudness and intrusiveness. Unimodal auditory stimulation did not deliver either benefit. Bimodal auditory-somatosensory stimulation that induces LTD in the dorsal cochlear nucleus may hold promise for suppressing chronic tinnitus, which reduces quality of life for millions of tinnitus sufferers worldwide. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Level-Dependent Nonlinear Hearing Protector Model in the Auditory Hazard Assessment Algorithm for Humans

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2015-04-01

HPD model. In an article on measuring HPD attenuation, Berger (1986) points out that Real Ear Attenuation at Threshold (REAT) tests are...men. Audiology . 1991;30:345–356. Fedele P, Binseel M, Kalb J, Price GR. Using the auditory hazard assessment algorithm for humans (AHAAH) with

Functional Mapping of the Human Auditory Cortex: fMRI Investigation of a Patient with Auditory Agnosia from Trauma to the Inferior Colliculus.

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Poliva, Oren; Bestelmeyer, Patricia E G; Hall, Michelle; Bultitude, Janet H; Koller, Kristin; Rafal, Robert D

2015-09-01

To use functional magnetic resonance imaging to map the auditory cortical fields that are activated, or nonreactive, to sounds in patient M.L., who has auditory agnosia caused by trauma to the inferior colliculi. The patient cannot recognize speech or environmental sounds. Her discrimination is greatly facilitated by context and visibility of the speaker's facial movements, and under forced-choice testing. Her auditory temporal resolution is severely compromised. Her discrimination is more impaired for words differing in voice onset time than place of articulation. Words presented to her right ear are extinguished with dichotic presentation; auditory stimuli in the right hemifield are mislocalized to the left. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine cortical activations to different categories of meaningful sounds embedded in a block design. Sounds activated the caudal sub-area of M.L.'s primary auditory cortex (hA1) bilaterally and her right posterior superior temporal gyrus (auditory dorsal stream), but not the rostral sub-area (hR) of her primary auditory cortex or the anterior superior temporal gyrus in either hemisphere (auditory ventral stream). Auditory agnosia reflects dysfunction of the auditory ventral stream. The ventral and dorsal auditory streams are already segregated as early as the primary auditory cortex, with the ventral stream projecting from hR and the dorsal stream from hA1. M.L.'s leftward localization bias, preserved audiovisual integration, and phoneme perception are explained by preserved processing in her right auditory dorsal stream.

Synchronization to auditory and visual rhythms in hearing and deaf individuals

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Iversen, John R.; Patel, Aniruddh D.; Nicodemus, Brenda; Emmorey, Karen

2014-01-01

A striking asymmetry in human sensorimotor processing is that humans synchronize movements to rhythmic sound with far greater precision than to temporally equivalent visual stimuli (e.g., to an auditory vs. a flashing visual metronome). Traditionally, this finding is thought to reflect a fundamental difference in auditory vs. visual processing, i.e., superior temporal processing by the auditory system and/or privileged coupling between the auditory and motor systems. It is unclear whether this asymmetry is an inevitable consequence of brain organization or whether it can be modified (or even eliminated) by stimulus characteristics or by experience. With respect to stimulus characteristics, we found that a moving, colliding visual stimulus (a silent image of a bouncing ball with a distinct collision point on the floor) was able to drive synchronization nearly as accurately as sound in hearing participants. To study the role of experience, we compared synchronization to flashing metronomes in hearing and profoundly deaf individuals. Deaf individuals performed better than hearing individuals when synchronizing with visual flashes, suggesting that cross-modal plasticity enhances the ability to synchronize with temporally discrete visual stimuli. Furthermore, when deaf (but not hearing) individuals synchronized with the bouncing ball, their tapping patterns suggest that visual timing may access higher-order beat perception mechanisms for deaf individuals. These results indicate that the auditory advantage in rhythmic synchronization is more experience- and stimulus-dependent than has been previously reported. PMID:25460395

Diminished auditory sensory gating during active auditory verbal hallucinations.

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Thoma, Robert J; Meier, Andrew; Houck, Jon; Clark, Vincent P; Lewine, Jeffrey D; Turner, Jessica; Calhoun, Vince; Stephen, Julia

2017-10-01

Auditory sensory gating, assessed in a paired-click paradigm, indicates the extent to which incoming stimuli are filtered, or "gated", in auditory cortex. Gating is typically computed as the ratio of the peak amplitude of the event related potential (ERP) to a second click (S2) divided by the peak amplitude of the ERP to a first click (S1). Higher gating ratios are purportedly indicative of incomplete suppression of S2 and considered to represent sensory processing dysfunction. In schizophrenia, hallucination severity is positively correlated with gating ratios, and it was hypothesized that a failure of sensory control processes early in auditory sensation (gating) may represent a larger system failure within the auditory data stream; resulting in auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). EEG data were collected while patients (N=12) with treatment-resistant AVH pressed a button to indicate the beginning (AVH-on) and end (AVH-off) of each AVH during a paired click protocol. For each participant, separate gating ratios were computed for the P50, N100, and P200 components for each of the AVH-off and AVH-on states. AVH trait severity was assessed using the Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scales AVH Total score (PSYRATS). The results of a mixed model ANOVA revealed an overall effect for AVH state, such that gating ratios were significantly higher during the AVH-on state than during AVH-off for all three components. PSYRATS score was significantly and negatively correlated with N100 gating ratio only in the AVH-off state. These findings link onset of AVH with a failure of an empirically-defined auditory inhibition system, auditory sensory gating, and pave the way for a sensory gating model of AVH. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Central Auditory Nervous System Dysfunction in Echolalic Autistic Individuals.

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Wetherby, Amy Miller; And Others

1981-01-01

The results showed that all the Ss had normal hearing on the monaural speech tests; however, there was indication of central auditory nervous system dysfunction in the language dominant hemisphere, inferred from the dichotic tests, for those Ss displaying echolalia. (Author)

Mobile phones: influence on auditory and vestibular systems.

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Balbani, Aracy Pereira Silveira; Montovani, Jair Cortez

2008-01-01

Telecommunications systems emit radiofrequency, which is an invisible electromagnetic radiation. Mobile phones operate with microwaves (450900 MHz in the analog service, and 1,82,2 GHz in the digital service) very close to the users ear. The skin, inner ear, cochlear nerve and the temporal lobe surface absorb the radiofrequency energy. literature review on the influence of cellular phones on hearing and balance. systematic review. We reviewed papers on the influence of mobile phones on auditory and vestibular systems from Lilacs and Medline databases, published from 2000 to 2005, and also materials available in the Internet. Studies concerning mobile phone radiation and risk of developing an acoustic neuroma have controversial results. Some authors did not see evidences of a higher risk of tumor development in mobile phone users, while others report that usage of analog cellular phones for ten or more years increase the risk of developing the tumor. Acute exposure to mobile phone microwaves do not influence the cochlear outer hair cells function in vivo and in vitro, the cochlear nerve electrical properties nor the vestibular system physiology in humans. Analog hearing aids are more susceptible to the electromagnetic interference caused by digital mobile phones. there is no evidence of cochleo-vestibular lesion caused by cellular phones.

Neural coding and perception of pitch in the normal and impaired human auditory system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Santurette, Sébastien

2011-01-01

that the use of spectral cues remained plausible. Simulations of auditory-nerve representations of the complex tones further suggested that a spectrotemporal mechanism combining precise timing information across auditory channels might best account for the behavioral data. Overall, this work provides insights...... investigated using psychophysical methods. First, hearing loss was found to affect the perception of binaural pitch, a pitch sensation created by the binaural interaction of noise stimuli. Specifically, listeners without binaural pitch sensation showed signs of retrocochlear disorders. Despite adverse effects...... of reduced frequency selectivity on binaural pitch perception, the ability to accurately process the temporal fine structure (TFS) of sounds at the output of the cochlear filters was found to be essential for perceiving binaural pitch. Monaural TFS processing also played a major and independent role...

Effect of neonatal asphyxia on the impairment of the auditory pathway by recording auditory brainstem responses in newborn piglets: a new experimentation model to study the perinatal hypoxic-ischemic damage on the auditory system.

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Francisco Jose Alvarez

Full Text Available Hypoxia-ischemia (HI is a major perinatal problem that results in severe damage to the brain impairing the normal development of the auditory system. The purpose of the present study is to study the effect of perinatal asphyxia on the auditory pathway by recording auditory brain responses in a novel animal experimentation model in newborn piglets.Hypoxia-ischemia was induced to 1.3 day-old piglets by clamping 30 minutes both carotid arteries by vascular occluders and lowering the fraction of inspired oxygen. We compared the Auditory Brain Responses (ABRs of newborn piglets exposed to acute hypoxia/ischemia (n = 6 and a control group with no such exposure (n = 10. ABRs were recorded for both ears before the start of the experiment (baseline, after 30 minutes of HI injury, and every 30 minutes during 6 h after the HI injury.Auditory brain responses were altered during the hypoxic-ischemic insult but recovered 30-60 minutes later. Hypoxia/ischemia seemed to induce auditory functional damage by increasing I-V latencies and decreasing wave I, III and V amplitudes, although differences were not significant.The described experimental model of hypoxia-ischemia in newborn piglets may be useful for studying the effect of perinatal asphyxia on the impairment of the auditory pathway.

Selective attention modulates human auditory brainstem responses: relative contributions of frequency and spatial cues.

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Alexandre Lehmann

Full Text Available Selective attention is the mechanism that allows focusing one's attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, for instance, on a single conversation in a noisy room. Attending to one sound source rather than another changes activity in the human auditory cortex, but it is unclear whether attention to different acoustic features, such as voice pitch and speaker location, modulates subcortical activity. Studies using a dichotic listening paradigm indicated that auditory brainstem processing may be modulated by the direction of attention. We investigated whether endogenous selective attention to one of two speech signals affects amplitude and phase locking in auditory brainstem responses when the signals were either discriminable by frequency content alone, or by frequency content and spatial location. Frequency-following responses to the speech sounds were significantly modulated in both conditions. The modulation was specific to the task-relevant frequency band. The effect was stronger when both frequency and spatial information were available. Patterns of response were variable between participants, and were correlated with psychophysical discriminability of the stimuli, suggesting that the modulation was biologically relevant. Our results demonstrate that auditory brainstem responses are susceptible to efferent modulation related to behavioral goals. Furthermore they suggest that mechanisms of selective attention actively shape activity at early subcortical processing stages according to task relevance and based on frequency and spatial cues.

Hierarchical processing of auditory objects in humans.

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Sukhbinder Kumar

2007-06-01

Full Text Available This work examines the computational architecture used by the brain during the analysis of the spectral envelope of sounds, an important acoustic feature for defining auditory objects. Dynamic causal modelling and Bayesian model selection were used to evaluate a family of 16 network models explaining functional magnetic resonance imaging responses in the right temporal lobe during spectral envelope analysis. The models encode different hypotheses about the effective connectivity between Heschl's Gyrus (HG, containing the primary auditory cortex, planum temporale (PT, and superior temporal sulcus (STS, and the modulation of that coupling during spectral envelope analysis. In particular, we aimed to determine whether information processing during spectral envelope analysis takes place in a serial or parallel fashion. The analysis provides strong support for a serial architecture with connections from HG to PT and from PT to STS and an increase of the HG to PT connection during spectral envelope analysis. The work supports a computational model of auditory object processing, based on the abstraction of spectro-temporal "templates" in the PT before further analysis of the abstracted form in anterior temporal lobe areas.

Multivoxel Patterns Reveal Functionally Differentiated Networks Underlying Auditory Feedback Processing of Speech

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zheng, Zane Z.; Vicente-Grabovetsky, Alejandro; MacDonald, Ewen N.

2013-01-01

The everyday act of speaking involves the complex processes of speech motor control. An important component of control is monitoring, detection, and processing of errors when auditory feedback does not correspond to the intended motor gesture. Here we show, using fMRI and converging operations...... within a multivoxel pattern analysis framework, that this sensorimotor process is supported by functionally differentiated brain networks. During scanning, a real-time speech-tracking system was used to deliver two acoustically different types of distorted auditory feedback or unaltered feedback while...... human participants were vocalizing monosyllabic words, and to present the same auditory stimuli while participants were passively listening. Whole-brain analysis of neural-pattern similarity revealed three functional networks that were differentially sensitive to distorted auditory feedback during...

Deviance-Related Responses along the Auditory Hierarchy: Combined FFR, MLR and MMN Evidence

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Shiga, Tetsuya; Althen, Heike; Cornella, Miriam; Zarnowiec, Katarzyna; Yabe, Hirooki; Escera, Carles

2015-01-01

The mismatch negativity (MMN) provides a correlate of automatic auditory discrimination in human auditory cortex that is elicited in response to violation of any acoustic regularity. Recently, deviance-related responses were found at much earlier cortical processing stages as reflected by the middle latency response (MLR) of the auditory evoked potential, and even at the level of the auditory brainstem as reflected by the frequency following response (FFR). However, no study has reported deviance-related responses in the FFR, MLR and long latency response (LLR) concurrently in a single recording protocol. Amplitude-modulated (AM) sounds were presented to healthy human participants in a frequency oddball paradigm to investigate deviance-related responses along the auditory hierarchy in the ranges of FFR, MLR and LLR. AM frequency deviants modulated the FFR, the Na and Nb components of the MLR, and the LLR eliciting the MMN. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to elicit deviance-related responses at three different levels (FFR, MLR and LLR) in one single recording protocol, highlight the involvement of the whole auditory hierarchy in deviance detection and have implications for cognitive and clinical auditory neuroscience. Moreover, the present protocol provides a new research tool into clinical neuroscience so that the functional integrity of the auditory novelty system can now be tested as a whole in a range of clinical populations where the MMN was previously shown to be defective. PMID:26348628

Dissociable influences of auditory object vs. spatial attention on visual system oscillatory activity.

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Jyrki Ahveninen

Full Text Available Given that both auditory and visual systems have anatomically separate object identification ("what" and spatial ("where" pathways, it is of interest whether attention-driven cross-sensory modulations occur separately within these feature domains. Here, we investigated how auditory "what" vs. "where" attention tasks modulate activity in visual pathways using cortically constrained source estimates of magnetoencephalograpic (MEG oscillatory activity. In the absence of visual stimuli or tasks, subjects were presented with a sequence of auditory-stimulus pairs and instructed to selectively attend to phonetic ("what" vs. spatial ("where" aspects of these sounds, or to listen passively. To investigate sustained modulatory effects, oscillatory power was estimated from time periods between sound-pair presentations. In comparison to attention to sound locations, phonetic auditory attention was associated with stronger alpha (7-13 Hz power in several visual areas (primary visual cortex; lingual, fusiform, and inferior temporal gyri, lateral occipital cortex, as well as in higher-order visual/multisensory areas including lateral/medial parietal and retrosplenial cortices. Region-of-interest (ROI analyses of dynamic changes, from which the sustained effects had been removed, suggested further power increases during Attend Phoneme vs. Location centered at the alpha range 400-600 ms after the onset of second sound of each stimulus pair. These results suggest distinct modulations of visual system oscillatory activity during auditory attention to sound object identity ("what" vs. sound location ("where". The alpha modulations could be interpreted to reflect enhanced crossmodal inhibition of feature-specific visual pathways and adjacent audiovisual association areas during "what" vs. "where" auditory attention.

ERP evaluation of auditory sensory memory systems in adults with intellectual disability.

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Ikeda, Kazunari; Hashimoto, Souichi; Hayashi, Akiko; Kanno, Atsushi

2009-01-01

Auditory sensory memory stage can be functionally divided into two subsystems; transient-detector system and permanent feature-detector system (Naatanen, 1992). We assessed these systems in persons with intellectual disability by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) N1 and mismatch negativity (MMN), which reflect the two auditory subsystems, respectively. Added to these, P3a (an ERP reflecting stage after sensory memory) was evaluated. Either synthesized vowels or simple tones were delivered during a passive oddball paradigm to adults with and without intellectual disability. ERPs were recorded from midline scalp sites (Fz, Cz, and Pz). Relative to control group, participants with the disability exhibited greater N1 latency and less MMN amplitude. The results for N1 amplitude and MMN latency were basically comparable between both groups. IQ scores in participants with the disability revealed no significant relation with N1 and MMN measures, whereas the IQ scores tended to increase significantly as P3a latency reduced. These outcomes suggest that persons with intellectual disability might own discrete malfunctions for the two detector systems in auditory sensory-memory stage. Moreover, the processes following sensory memory might be partly related to a determinant of mental development.

Auditory-motor learning influences auditory memory for music.

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Brown, Rachel M; Palmer, Caroline

2012-05-01

In two experiments, we investigated how auditory-motor learning influences performers' memory for music. Skilled pianists learned novel melodies in four conditions: auditory only (listening), motor only (performing without sound), strongly coupled auditory-motor (normal performance), and weakly coupled auditory-motor (performing along with auditory recordings). Pianists' recognition of the learned melodies was better following auditory-only or auditory-motor (weakly coupled and strongly coupled) learning than following motor-only learning, and better following strongly coupled auditory-motor learning than following auditory-only learning. Auditory and motor imagery abilities modulated the learning effects: Pianists with high auditory imagery scores had better recognition following motor-only learning, suggesting that auditory imagery compensated for missing auditory feedback at the learning stage. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 with melodies that contained greater variation in acoustic features. Melodies that were slower and less variable in tempo and intensity were remembered better following weakly coupled auditory-motor learning. These findings suggest that motor learning can aid performers' auditory recognition of music beyond auditory learning alone, and that motor learning is influenced by individual abilities in mental imagery and by variation in acoustic features.

Auditory system dysfunction in Alzheimer disease and its prodromal states: A review.

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Swords, Gabriel M; Nguyen, Lydia T; Mudar, Raksha A; Llano, Daniel A

2018-04-06

Recent findings suggest that both peripheral and central auditory system dysfunction occur in the prodromal stages of Alzheimer Disease (AD), and therefore may represent early indicators of the disease. In addition, loss of auditory function itself leads to communication difficulties, social isolation and poor quality of life for both patients with AD and their caregivers. Developing a greater understanding of auditory dysfunction in early AD may shed light on the mechanisms of disease progression and carry diagnostic and therapeutic importance. Herein, we review the literature on hearing abilities in AD and its prodromal stages investigated through methods such as pure-tone audiometry, dichotic listening tasks, and evoked response potentials. We propose that screening for peripheral and central auditory dysfunction in at-risk populations is a low-cost and effective means to identify early AD pathology and provides an entry point for therapeutic interventions that enhance the quality of life of AD patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Auditory cortical function during verbal episodic memory encoding in Alzheimer's disease.

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Dhanjal, Novraj S; Warren, Jane E; Patel, Maneesh C; Wise, Richard J S

2013-02-01

Episodic memory encoding of a verbal message depends upon initial registration, which requires sustained auditory attention followed by deep semantic processing of the message. Motivated by previous data demonstrating modulation of auditory cortical activity during sustained attention to auditory stimuli, we investigated the response of the human auditory cortex during encoding of sentences to episodic memory. Subsequently, we investigated this response in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and probable Alzheimer's disease (pAD). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, 31 healthy participants were studied. The response in 18 MCI and 18 pAD patients was then determined, and compared to 18 matched healthy controls. Subjects heard factual sentences, and subsequent retrieval performance indicated successful registration and episodic encoding. The healthy subjects demonstrated that suppression of auditory cortical responses was related to greater success in encoding heard sentences; and that this was also associated with greater activity in the semantic system. In contrast, there was reduced auditory cortical suppression in patients with MCI, and absence of suppression in pAD. Administration of a central cholinesterase inhibitor (ChI) partially restored the suppression in patients with pAD, and this was associated with an improvement in verbal memory. Verbal episodic memory impairment in AD is associated with altered auditory cortical function, reversible with a ChI. Although these results may indicate the direct influence of pathology in auditory cortex, they are also likely to indicate a partially reversible impairment of feedback from neocortical systems responsible for sustained attention and semantic processing. Copyright © 2012 American Neurological Association.

Auditory Pattern Memory: Mechanisms of Tonal Sequence Discrimination by Human Observers

Science.gov (United States)

1988-10-30

and Creelman (1977) in a study of categorical perception. Tanner’s model included a short-term decaying memory for the acoustic input to the system plus...auditory pattern components, J. &Coust. Soc. 91 Am., 76, 1037- 1044. Macmillan, N. A., Kaplan H. L., & Creelman , C. D. (1977). The psychophysics of

Modularity in Sensory Auditory Memory

OpenAIRE

Clement, Sylvain; Moroni, Christine; Samson, Séverine

2004-01-01

The goal of this paper was to review various experimental and neuropsychological studies that support the modular conception of auditory sensory memory or auditory short-term memory. Based on initial findings demonstrating that verbal sensory memory system can be dissociated from a general auditory memory store at the functional and anatomical levels. we reported a series of studies that provided evidence in favor of multiple auditory sensory stores specialized in retaining eit...

Glycinergic Pathways of the Central Auditory System and Adjacent Reticular Formation of the Rat.

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Hunter, Chyren

The development of techniques to visualize and identify specific transmitters of neuronal circuits has stimulated work on the characterization of pathways in the rat central nervous system that utilize the inhibitory amino acid glycine as its neurotransmitter. Glycine is a major inhibitory transmitter in the spinal cord and brainstem of vertebrates where it satisfies the major criteria for neurotransmitter action. Some of these characteristics are: uneven distribution in brain, high affinity reuptake mechanisms, inhibitory neurophysiological actions on certain neuronal populations, uneven receptor distribution and the specific antagonism of its actions by the convulsant alkaloid strychnine. Behaviorally, antagonism of glycinergic neurotransmission in the medullary reticular formation is linked to the development of myoclonus and seizures which may be initiated by auditory as well as other stimuli. In the present study, decreases in the concentration of glycine as well as the density of glycine receptors in the medulla with aging were found and may be responsible for the lowered threshold for strychnine seizures observed in older rats. Neuroanatomical pathways in the central auditory system and medullary and pontine reticular formation (RF) were investigated using retrograde transport of tritiated glycine to identify glycinergic pathways; immunohistochemical techniques were used to corroborate the location of glycine neurons. Within the central auditory system, retrograde transport studies using tritiated glycine demonstrated an ipsilateral glycinergic pathway linking nuclei of the ascending auditory system. This pathway has its cell bodies in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) and projects to the ventrocaudal division of the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VLL). Collaterals of this glycinergic projection terminate in the ipsilateral lateral superior olive (LSO). Other glycinergic pathways found were afferent to the VLL and have their origin

Neural correlates of auditory recognition memory in the primate dorsal temporal pole

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Ng, Chi-Wing; Plakke, Bethany

2013-01-01

Temporal pole (TP) cortex is associated with higher-order sensory perception and/or recognition memory, as human patients with damage in this region show impaired performance during some tasks requiring recognition memory (Olson et al. 2007). The underlying mechanisms of TP processing are largely based on examination of the visual nervous system in humans and monkeys, while little is known about neuronal activity patterns in the auditory portion of this region, dorsal TP (dTP; Poremba et al. 2003). The present study examines single-unit activity of dTP in rhesus monkeys performing a delayed matching-to-sample task utilizing auditory stimuli, wherein two sounds are determined to be the same or different. Neurons of dTP encode several task-relevant events during the delayed matching-to-sample task, and encoding of auditory cues in this region is associated with accurate recognition performance. Population activity in dTP shows a match suppression mechanism to identical, repeated sound stimuli similar to that observed in the visual object identification pathway located ventral to dTP (Desimone 1996; Nakamura and Kubota 1996). However, in contrast to sustained visual delay-related activity in nearby analogous regions, auditory delay-related activity in dTP is transient and limited. Neurons in dTP respond selectively to different sound stimuli and often change their sound response preferences between experimental contexts. Current findings suggest a significant role for dTP in auditory recognition memory similar in many respects to the visual nervous system, while delay memory firing patterns are not prominent, which may relate to monkeys' shorter forgetting thresholds for auditory vs. visual objects. PMID:24198324

Neural correlates of auditory recognition memory in the primate dorsal temporal pole.

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Ng, Chi-Wing; Plakke, Bethany; Poremba, Amy

2014-02-01

Temporal pole (TP) cortex is associated with higher-order sensory perception and/or recognition memory, as human patients with damage in this region show impaired performance during some tasks requiring recognition memory (Olson et al. 2007). The underlying mechanisms of TP processing are largely based on examination of the visual nervous system in humans and monkeys, while little is known about neuronal activity patterns in the auditory portion of this region, dorsal TP (dTP; Poremba et al. 2003). The present study examines single-unit activity of dTP in rhesus monkeys performing a delayed matching-to-sample task utilizing auditory stimuli, wherein two sounds are determined to be the same or different. Neurons of dTP encode several task-relevant events during the delayed matching-to-sample task, and encoding of auditory cues in this region is associated with accurate recognition performance. Population activity in dTP shows a match suppression mechanism to identical, repeated sound stimuli similar to that observed in the visual object identification pathway located ventral to dTP (Desimone 1996; Nakamura and Kubota 1996). However, in contrast to sustained visual delay-related activity in nearby analogous regions, auditory delay-related activity in dTP is transient and limited. Neurons in dTP respond selectively to different sound stimuli and often change their sound response preferences between experimental contexts. Current findings suggest a significant role for dTP in auditory recognition memory similar in many respects to the visual nervous system, while delay memory firing patterns are not prominent, which may relate to monkeys' shorter forgetting thresholds for auditory vs. visual objects.

Deriving cochlear delays in humans using otoacoustic emissions and auditory evoked potentials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pigasse, Gilles

A great deal of the processing of incoming sounds to the auditory system occurs within the cochlear. The organ of Corti within the cochlea has differing mechanical properties along its length that broadly gives rise to frequency selectivity. Its stiffness is at maximum at the base and decreases...... relation between frequency and travel time in the cochlea defines the cochlear delay. This delay is directly associated with the signal analysis occurring in the inner ear and is therefore of primary interest to get a better knowledge of this organ. It is possible to estimate the cochlear delay by direct...... and invasive techniques, but these disrupt the normal functioning of the cochlea and are usually conducted in animals. In order to obtain an estimate of the cochlear delay that is closer to the normally functioning human cochlea, the present project investigates non-invasive methods in normal hearing adults...

Weak responses to auditory feedback perturbation during articulation in persons who stutter: evidence for abnormal auditory-motor transformation.

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Shanqing Cai

Full Text Available Previous empirical observations have led researchers to propose that auditory feedback (the auditory perception of self-produced sounds when speaking functions abnormally in the speech motor systems of persons who stutter (PWS. Researchers have theorized that an important neural basis of stuttering is the aberrant integration of auditory information into incipient speech motor commands. Because of the circumstantial support for these hypotheses and the differences and contradictions between them, there is a need for carefully designed experiments that directly examine auditory-motor integration during speech production in PWS. In the current study, we used real-time manipulation of auditory feedback to directly investigate whether the speech motor system of PWS utilizes auditory feedback abnormally during articulation and to characterize potential deficits of this auditory-motor integration. Twenty-one PWS and 18 fluent control participants were recruited. Using a short-latency formant-perturbation system, we examined participants' compensatory responses to unanticipated perturbation of auditory feedback of the first formant frequency during the production of the monophthong [ε]. The PWS showed compensatory responses that were qualitatively similar to the controls' and had close-to-normal latencies (∼150 ms, but the magnitudes of their responses were substantially and significantly smaller than those of the control participants (by 47% on average, p<0.05. Measurements of auditory acuity indicate that the weaker-than-normal compensatory responses in PWS were not attributable to a deficit in low-level auditory processing. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that stuttering is associated with functional defects in the inverse models responsible for the transformation from the domain of auditory targets and auditory error information into the domain of speech motor commands.

Acquired auditory-visual synesthesia: A window to early cross-modal sensory interactions

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Pegah Afra

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Pegah Afra, Michael Funke, Fumisuke MatsuoDepartment of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USAAbstract: Synesthesia is experienced when sensory stimulation of one sensory modality elicits an involuntary sensation in another sensory modality. Auditory-visual synesthesia occurs when auditory stimuli elicit visual sensations. It has developmental, induced and acquired varieties. The acquired variety has been reported in association with deafferentation of the visual system as well as temporal lobe pathology with intact visual pathways. The induced variety has been reported in experimental and post-surgical blindfolding, as well as intake of hallucinogenic or psychedelics. Although in humans there is no known anatomical pathway connecting auditory areas to primary and/or early visual association areas, there is imaging and neurophysiologic evidence to the presence of early cross modal interactions between the auditory and visual sensory pathways. Synesthesia may be a window of opportunity to study these cross modal interactions. Here we review the existing literature in the acquired and induced auditory-visual synesthesias and discuss the possible neural mechanisms.Keywords: synesthesia, auditory-visual, cross modal

Plasticity in the Primary Auditory Cortex, Not What You Think it is: Implications for Basic and Clinical Auditory Neuroscience

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Weinberger, Norman M.

2013-01-01

Standard beliefs that the function of the primary auditory cortex (A1) is the analysis of sound have proven to be incorrect. Its involvement in learning, memory and other complex processes in both animals and humans is now well-established, although often not appreciated. Auditory coding is strongly modifed by associative learning, evident as associative representational plasticity (ARP) in which the representation of an acoustic dimension, like frequency, is re-organized to emphasize a sound that has become behaviorally important. For example, the frequency tuning of a cortical neuron can be shifted to match that of a significant sound and the representational area of sounds that acquire behavioral importance can be increased. ARP depends on the learning strategy used to solve an auditory problem and the increased cortical area confers greater strength of auditory memory. Thus, primary auditory cortex is involved in cognitive processes, transcending its assumed function of auditory stimulus analysis. The implications for basic neuroscience and clinical auditory neuroscience are presented and suggestions for remediation of auditory processing disorders are introduced. PMID:25356375

Representation of complex vocalizations in the Lusitanian toadfish auditory system: evidence of fine temporal, frequency and amplitude discrimination

Science.gov (United States)

Vasconcelos, Raquel O.; Fonseca, Paulo J.; Amorim, M. Clara P.; Ladich, Friedrich

2011-01-01

Many fishes rely on their auditory skills to interpret crucial information about predators and prey, and to communicate intraspecifically. Few studies, however, have examined how complex natural sounds are perceived in fishes. We investigated the representation of conspecific mating and agonistic calls in the auditory system of the Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus, and analysed auditory responses to heterospecific signals from ecologically relevant species: a sympatric vocal fish (meagre Argyrosomus regius) and a potential predator (dolphin Tursiops truncatus). Using auditory evoked potential (AEP) recordings, we showed that both sexes can resolve fine features of conspecific calls. The toadfish auditory system was most sensitive to frequencies well represented in the conspecific vocalizations (namely the mating boatwhistle), and revealed a fine representation of duration and pulsed structure of agonistic and mating calls. Stimuli and corresponding AEP amplitudes were highly correlated, indicating an accurate encoding of amplitude modulation. Moreover, Lusitanian toadfish were able to detect T. truncatus foraging sounds and A. regius calls, although at higher amplitudes. We provide strong evidence that the auditory system of a vocal fish, lacking accessory hearing structures, is capable of resolving fine features of complex vocalizations that are probably important for intraspecific communication and other relevant stimuli from the auditory scene. PMID:20861044

From ear to body: the auditory-motor loop in spatial cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Viaud-Delmon, Isabelle; Warusfel, Olivier

2014-01-01

SPATIAL MEMORY IS MAINLY STUDIED THROUGH THE VISUAL SENSORY MODALITY: navigation tasks in humans rarely integrate dynamic and spatial auditory information. In order to study how a spatial scene can be memorized on the basis of auditory and idiothetic cues only, we constructed an auditory equivalent of the Morris water maze, a task widely used to assess spatial learning and memory in rodents. Participants were equipped with wireless headphones, which delivered a soundscape updated in real time according to their movements in 3D space. A wireless tracking system (video infrared with passive markers) was used to send the coordinates of the subject's head to the sound rendering system. The rendering system used advanced HRTF-based synthesis of directional cues and room acoustic simulation for the auralization of a realistic acoustic environment. Participants were guided blindfolded in an experimental room. Their task was to explore a delimitated area in order to find a hidden auditory target, i.e., a sound that was only triggered when walking on a precise location of the area. The position of this target could be coded in relationship to auditory landmarks constantly rendered during the exploration of the area. The task was composed of a practice trial, 6 acquisition trials during which they had to memorize the localization of the target, and 4 test trials in which some aspects of the auditory scene were modified. The task ended with a probe trial in which the auditory target was removed. The configuration of searching paths allowed observing how auditory information was coded to memorize the position of the target. They suggested that space can be efficiently coded without visual information in normal sighted subjects. In conclusion, space representation can be based on sensorimotor and auditory cues only, providing another argument in favor of the hypothesis that the brain has access to a modality-invariant representation of external space.

From ear to body: the auditory-motor loop in spatial cognition

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Isabelle eViaud-Delmon

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Spatial memory is mainly studied through the visual sensory modality: navigation tasks in humans rarely integrate dynamic and spatial auditory information. In order to study how a spatial scene can be memorized on the basis of auditory and idiothetic cues only, we constructed an auditory equivalent of the Morris water maze, a task widely used to assess spatial learning and memory in rodents. Participants were equipped with wireless headphones, which delivered a soundscape updated in real time according to their movements in 3D space. A wireless tracking system (video infrared with passive markers was used to send the coordinates of the subject’s head to the sound rendering system. The rendering system used advanced HRTF-based synthesis of directional cues and room acoustic simulation for the auralization of a realistic acoustic environment. Participants were guided blindfolded in an experimental room. Their task was to explore a delimitated area in order to find a hidden auditory target, i.e. a sound that was only triggered when walking on a precise location of the area. The position of this target could be coded in relationship to auditory landmarks constantly rendered during the exploration of the area. The task was composed of a practice trial, 6 acquisition trials during which they had to memorise the localisation of the target, and 4 test trials in which some aspects of the auditory scene were modified. The task ended with a probe trial in which the auditory target was removed.The configuration of searching paths allowed observing how auditory information was coded to memorise the position of the target. They suggested that space can be efficiently coded without visual information in normal sighted subjects. In conclusion, space representation can be based on sensorimotor and auditory cues only, providing another argument in favour of the hypothesis that the brain has access to a modality-invariant representation of external space.

Towards Clinical Application of Neurotrophic Factors to the Auditory Nerve; Assessment of Safety and Efficacy by a Systematic Review of Neurotrophic Treatments in Humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bezdjian, Aren; Kraaijenga, Véronique J C; Ramekers, Dyan; Versnel, Huib; Thomeer, Hans G X M; Klis, Sjaak F L; Grolman, Wilko

2016-01-01

Animal studies have evidenced protection of the auditory nerve by exogenous neurotrophic factors. In order to assess clinical applicability of neurotrophic treatment of the auditory nerve, the safety and efficacy of neurotrophic therapies in various human disorders were systematically reviewed.

Developmental programming of auditory learning

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Melania Puddu

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The basic structures involved in the development of auditory function and consequently in language acquisition are directed by genetic code, but the expression of individual genes may be altered by exposure to environmental factors, which if favorable, orient it in the proper direction, leading its development towards normality, if unfavorable, they deviate it from its physiological course. Early sensorial experience during the foetal period (i.e. intrauterine noise floor, sounds coming from the outside and attenuated by the uterine filter, particularly mother’s voice and modifications induced by it at the cochlear level represent the first example of programming in one of the earliest critical periods in development of the auditory system. This review will examine the factors that influence the developmental programming of auditory learning from the womb to the infancy. In particular it focuses on the following points: the prenatal auditory experience and the plastic phenomena presumably induced by it in the auditory system from the basilar membrane to the cortex;the involvement of these phenomena on language acquisition and on the perception of language communicative intention after birth;the consequences of auditory deprivation in critical periods of auditory development (i.e. premature interruption of foetal life.

Short-term plasticity in auditory cognition.

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Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Belliveau, John W; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2007-12-01

Converging lines of evidence suggest that auditory system short-term plasticity can enable several perceptual and cognitive functions that have been previously considered as relatively distinct phenomena. Here we review recent findings suggesting that auditory stimulation, auditory selective attention and cross-modal effects of visual stimulation each cause transient excitatory and (surround) inhibitory modulations in the auditory cortex. These modulations might adaptively tune hierarchically organized sound feature maps of the auditory cortex (e.g. tonotopy), thus filtering relevant sounds during rapidly changing environmental and task demands. This could support auditory sensory memory, pre-attentive detection of sound novelty, enhanced perception during selective attention, influence of visual processing on auditory perception and longer-term plastic changes associated with perceptual learning.

Interactive rhythmic auditory stimulation reinstates natural 1/f timing in gait of Parkinson's patients.

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Michael J Hove

Full Text Available Parkinson's disease (PD and basal ganglia dysfunction impair movement timing, which leads to gait instability and falls. Parkinsonian gait consists of random, disconnected stride times--rather than the 1/f structure observed in healthy gait--and this randomness of stride times (low fractal scaling predicts falling. Walking with fixed-tempo Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS can improve many aspects of gait timing; however, it lowers fractal scaling (away from healthy 1/f structure and requires attention. Here we show that interactive rhythmic auditory stimulation reestablishes healthy gait dynamics in PD patients. In the experiment, PD patients and healthy participants walked with a no auditory stimulation, b fixed-tempo RAS, and c interactive rhythmic auditory stimulation. The interactive system used foot sensors and nonlinear oscillators to track and mutually entrain with the human's step timing. Patients consistently synchronized with the interactive system, their fractal scaling returned to levels of healthy participants, and their gait felt more stable to them. Patients and healthy participants rarely synchronized with fixed-tempo RAS, and when they did synchronize their fractal scaling declined from healthy 1/f levels. Five minutes after removing the interactive rhythmic stimulation, the PD patients' gait retained high fractal scaling, suggesting that the interaction stabilized the internal rhythm generating system and reintegrated timing networks. The experiment demonstrates that complex interaction is important in the (reemergence of 1/f structure in human behavior and that interactive rhythmic auditory stimulation is a promising therapeutic tool for improving gait of PD patients.

Quadri-stability of a spatially ambiguous auditory illusion

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Constance May Bainbridge

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In addition to vision, audition plays an important role in sound localization in our world. One way we estimate the motion of an auditory object moving towards or away from us is from changes in volume intensity. However, the human auditory system has unequally distributed spatial resolution, including difficulty distinguishing sounds in front versus behind the listener. Here, we introduce a novel quadri-stable illusion, the Transverse-and-Bounce Auditory Illusion, which combines front-back confusion with changes in volume levels of a nonspatial sound to create ambiguous percepts of an object approaching and withdrawing from the listener. The sound can be perceived as traveling transversely from front to back or back to front, or bouncing to remain exclusively in front of or behind the observer. Here we demonstrate how human listeners experience this illusory phenomenon by comparing ambiguous and unambiguous stimuli for each of the four possible motion percepts. When asked to rate their confidence in perceiving each sound’s motion, participants reported equal confidence for the illusory and unambiguous stimuli. Participants perceived all four illusory motion percepts, and could not distinguish the illusion from the unambiguous stimuli. These results show that this illusion is effectively quadri-stable. In a second experiment, the illusory stimulus was looped continuously in headphones while participants identified its perceived path of motion to test properties of perceptual switching, locking, and biases. Participants were biased towards perceiving transverse compared to bouncing paths, and they became perceptually locked into alternating between front-to-back and back-to-front percepts, perhaps reflecting how auditory objects commonly move in the real world. This multi-stable auditory illusion opens opportunities for studying the perceptual, cognitive, and neural representation of objects in motion, as well as exploring multimodal perceptual

Sustained selective attention to competing amplitude-modulations in human auditory cortex.

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Riecke, Lars; Scharke, Wolfgang; Valente, Giancarlo; Gutschalk, Alexander

2014-01-01

Auditory selective attention plays an essential role for identifying sounds of interest in a scene, but the neural underpinnings are still incompletely understood. Recent findings demonstrate that neural activity that is time-locked to a particular amplitude-modulation (AM) is enhanced in the auditory cortex when the modulated stream of sounds is selectively attended to under sensory competition with other streams. However, the target sounds used in the previous studies differed not only in their AM, but also in other sound features, such as carrier frequency or location. Thus, it remains uncertain whether the observed enhancements reflect AM-selective attention. The present study aims at dissociating the effect of AM frequency on response enhancement in auditory cortex by using an ongoing auditory stimulus that contains two competing targets differing exclusively in their AM frequency. Electroencephalography results showed a sustained response enhancement for auditory attention compared to visual attention, but not for AM-selective attention (attended AM frequency vs. ignored AM frequency). In contrast, the response to the ignored AM frequency was enhanced, although a brief trend toward response enhancement occurred during the initial 15 s. Together with the previous findings, these observations indicate that selective enhancement of attended AMs in auditory cortex is adaptive under sustained AM-selective attention. This finding has implications for our understanding of cortical mechanisms for feature-based attentional gain control.

Sustained Selective Attention to Competing Amplitude-Modulations in Human Auditory Cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Riecke, Lars; Scharke, Wolfgang; Valente, Giancarlo; Gutschalk, Alexander

2014-01-01

Auditory selective attention plays an essential role for identifying sounds of interest in a scene, but the neural underpinnings are still incompletely understood. Recent findings demonstrate that neural activity that is time-locked to a particular amplitude-modulation (AM) is enhanced in the auditory cortex when the modulated stream of sounds is selectively attended to under sensory competition with other streams. However, the target sounds used in the previous studies differed not only in their AM, but also in other sound features, such as carrier frequency or location. Thus, it remains uncertain whether the observed enhancements reflect AM-selective attention. The present study aims at dissociating the effect of AM frequency on response enhancement in auditory cortex by using an ongoing auditory stimulus that contains two competing targets differing exclusively in their AM frequency. Electroencephalography results showed a sustained response enhancement for auditory attention compared to visual attention, but not for AM-selective attention (attended AM frequency vs. ignored AM frequency). In contrast, the response to the ignored AM frequency was enhanced, although a brief trend toward response enhancement occurred during the initial 15 s. Together with the previous findings, these observations indicate that selective enhancement of attended AMs in auditory cortex is adaptive under sustained AM-selective attention. This finding has implications for our understanding of cortical mechanisms for feature-based attentional gain control. PMID:25259525

Subcortical pathways: Towards a better understanding of auditory disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Felix, Richard A; Gourévitch, Boris; Portfors, Christine V

2018-05-01

Hearing loss is a significant problem that affects at least 15% of the population. This percentage, however, is likely significantly higher because of a variety of auditory disorders that are not identifiable through traditional tests of peripheral hearing ability. In these disorders, individuals have difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments, even though the sounds are loud enough to hear. The underlying mechanisms leading to such deficits are not well understood. To enable the development of suitable treatments to alleviate or prevent such disorders, the affected processing pathways must be identified. Historically, mechanisms underlying speech processing have been thought to be a property of the auditory cortex and thus the study of auditory disorders has largely focused on cortical impairments and/or cognitive processes. As we review here, however, there is strong evidence to suggest that, in fact, deficits in subcortical pathways play a significant role in auditory disorders. In this review, we highlight the role of the auditory brainstem and midbrain in processing complex sounds and discuss how deficits in these regions may contribute to auditory dysfunction. We discuss current research with animal models of human hearing and then consider human studies that implicate impairments in subcortical processing that may contribute to auditory disorders. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neurophysiological evidence for context-dependent encoding of sensory input in human auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Sussman, Elyse; Steinschneider, Mitchell

2006-02-23

Attention biases the way in which sound information is stored in auditory memory. Little is known, however, about the contribution of stimulus-driven processes in forming and storing coherent sound events. An electrophysiological index of cortical auditory change detection (mismatch negativity [MMN]) was used to assess whether sensory memory representations could be biased toward one organization over another (one or two auditory streams) without attentional control. Results revealed that sound representations held in sensory memory biased the organization of subsequent auditory input. The results demonstrate that context-dependent sound representations modulate stimulus-dependent neural encoding at early stages of auditory cortical processing.

Attending to auditory memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmermann, Jacqueline F; Moscovitch, Morris; Alain, Claude

2016-06-01

Attention to memory describes the process of attending to memory traces when the object is no longer present. It has been studied primarily for representations of visual stimuli with only few studies examining attention to sound object representations in short-term memory. Here, we review the interplay of attention and auditory memory with an emphasis on 1) attending to auditory memory in the absence of related external stimuli (i.e., reflective attention) and 2) effects of existing memory on guiding attention. Attention to auditory memory is discussed in the context of change deafness, and we argue that failures to detect changes in our auditory environments are most likely the result of a faulty comparison system of incoming and stored information. Also, objects are the primary building blocks of auditory attention, but attention can also be directed to individual features (e.g., pitch). We review short-term and long-term memory guided modulation of attention based on characteristic features, location, and/or semantic properties of auditory objects, and propose that auditory attention to memory pathways emerge after sensory memory. A neural model for auditory attention to memory is developed, which comprises two separate pathways in the parietal cortex, one involved in attention to higher-order features and the other involved in attention to sensory information. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Human Auditory and Adjacent Nonauditory Cerebral Cortices Are Hypermetabolic in Tinnitus as Measured by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Science.gov (United States)

Issa, Mohamad; Bisconti, Silvia; Kovelman, Ioulia; Kileny, Paul; Basura, Gregory J

2016-01-01

Tinnitus is the phantom perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus. To date, the purported neural correlates of tinnitus from animal models have not been adequately characterized with translational technology in the human brain. The aim of the present study was to measure changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration from regions of interest (ROI; auditory cortex) and non-ROI (adjacent nonauditory cortices) during auditory stimulation and silence in participants with subjective tinnitus appreciated equally in both ears and in nontinnitus controls using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Control and tinnitus participants with normal/near-normal hearing were tested during a passive auditory task. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over ROI and non-ROI under episodic periods of auditory stimulation with 750 or 8000 Hz tones, broadband noise, and silence. During periods of silence, tinnitus participants maintained increased hemodynamic responses in ROI, while a significant deactivation was seen in controls. Interestingly, non-ROI activity was also increased in the tinnitus group as compared to controls during silence. The present results demonstrate that both auditory and select nonauditory cortices have elevated hemodynamic activity in participants with tinnitus in the absence of an external auditory stimulus, a finding that may reflect basic science neural correlates of tinnitus that ultimately contribute to phantom sound perception.

A computational model of human auditory signal processing and perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Morten Løve; Ewert, Stephan D.; Dau, Torsten

2008-01-01

A model of computational auditory signal-processing and perception that accounts for various aspects of simultaneous and nonsimultaneous masking in human listeners is presented. The model is based on the modulation filterbank model described by Dau et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2892 (1997...... discrimination with pure tones and broadband noise, tone-in-noise detection, spectral masking with narrow-band signals and maskers, forward masking with tone signals and tone or noise maskers, and amplitude-modulation detection with narrow- and wideband noise carriers. The model can account for most of the key...... properties of the data and is more powerful than the original model. The model might be useful as a front end in technical applications....

No counterpart of visual perceptual echoes in the auditory system.

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Barkın İlhan

Full Text Available It has been previously demonstrated by our group that a visual stimulus made of dynamically changing luminance evokes an echo or reverberation at ~10 Hz, lasting up to a second. In this study we aimed to reveal whether similar echoes also exist in the auditory modality. A dynamically changing auditory stimulus equivalent to the visual stimulus was designed and employed in two separate series of experiments, and the presence of reverberations was analyzed based on reverse correlations between stimulus sequences and EEG epochs. The first experiment directly compared visual and auditory stimuli: while previous findings of ~10 Hz visual echoes were verified, no similar echo was found in the auditory modality regardless of frequency. In the second experiment, we tested if auditory sequences would influence the visual echoes when they were congruent or incongruent with the visual sequences. However, the results in that case similarly did not reveal any auditory echoes, nor any change in the characteristics of visual echoes as a function of audio-visual congruence. The negative findings from these experiments suggest that brain oscillations do not equivalently affect early sensory processes in the visual and auditory modalities, and that alpha (8-13 Hz oscillations play a special role in vision.

Maps of the Auditory Cortex.

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Brewer, Alyssa A; Barton, Brian

2016-07-08

One of the fundamental properties of the mammalian brain is that sensory regions of cortex are formed of multiple, functionally specialized cortical field maps (CFMs). Each CFM comprises two orthogonal topographical representations, reflecting two essential aspects of sensory space. In auditory cortex, auditory field maps (AFMs) are defined by the combination of tonotopic gradients, representing the spectral aspects of sound (i.e., tones), with orthogonal periodotopic gradients, representing the temporal aspects of sound (i.e., period or temporal envelope). Converging evidence from cytoarchitectural and neuroimaging measurements underlies the definition of 11 AFMs across core and belt regions of human auditory cortex, with likely homology to those of macaque. On a macrostructural level, AFMs are grouped into cloverleaf clusters, an organizational structure also seen in visual cortex. Future research can now use these AFMs to investigate specific stages of auditory processing, key for understanding behaviors such as speech perception and multimodal sensory integration.

Modification of computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) for noise-robust acoustic feature

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Minseok

While there have been many attempts to mitigate interferences of background noise, the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) still can be deteriorated by various factors with ease. However, normal hearing listeners can accurately perceive sounds of their interests, which is believed to be a result of Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA). As a first attempt, the simulation of the human auditory processing, called computational auditory scene analysis (CASA), was fulfilled through physiological and psychological investigations of ASA. CASA comprised of Zilany-Bruce auditory model, followed by tracking fundamental frequency for voice segmentation and detecting pairs of onset/offset at each characteristic frequency (CF) for unvoiced segmentation. The resulting Time-Frequency (T-F) representation of acoustic stimulation was converted into acoustic feature, gammachirp-tone frequency cepstral coefficients (GFCC). 11 keywords with various environmental conditions are used and the robustness of GFCC was evaluated by spectral distance (SD) and dynamic time warping distance (DTW). In "clean" and "noisy" conditions, the application of CASA generally improved noise robustness of the acoustic feature compared to a conventional method with or without noise suppression using MMSE estimator. The intial study, however, not only showed the noise-type dependency at low SNR, but also called the evaluation methods in question. Some modifications were made to capture better spectral continuity from an acoustic feature matrix, to obtain faster processing speed, and to describe the human auditory system more precisely. The proposed framework includes: 1) multi-scale integration to capture more accurate continuity in feature extraction, 2) contrast enhancement (CE) of each CF by competition with neighboring frequency bands, and 3) auditory model modifications. The model modifications contain the introduction of higher Q factor, middle ear filter more analogous to human auditory system

Real-time classification of auditory sentences using evoked cortical activity in humans

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, David A.; Leonard, Matthew K.; Chang, Edward F.

2018-06-01

Objective. Recent research has characterized the anatomical and functional basis of speech perception in the human auditory cortex. These advances have made it possible to decode speech information from activity in brain regions like the superior temporal gyrus, but no published work has demonstrated this ability in real-time, which is necessary for neuroprosthetic brain-computer interfaces. Approach. Here, we introduce a real-time neural speech recognition (rtNSR) software package, which was used to classify spoken input from high-resolution electrocorticography signals in real-time. We tested the system with two human subjects implanted with electrode arrays over the lateral brain surface. Subjects listened to multiple repetitions of ten sentences, and rtNSR classified what was heard in real-time from neural activity patterns using direct sentence-level and HMM-based phoneme-level classification schemes. Main results. We observed single-trial sentence classification accuracies of 90% or higher for each subject with less than 7 minutes of training data, demonstrating the ability of rtNSR to use cortical recordings to perform accurate real-time speech decoding in a limited vocabulary setting. Significance. Further development and testing of the package with different speech paradigms could influence the design of future speech neuroprosthetic applications.

Auditory Hypersensitivity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Lucker, Jay R.

2013-01-01

A review of records was completed to determine whether children with auditory hypersensitivities have difficulty tolerating loud sounds due to auditory-system factors or some other factors not directly involving the auditory system. Records of 150 children identified as not meeting autism spectrum disorders (ASD) criteria and another 50 meeting…

Occupational Styrene Exposure on Auditory Function Among Adults: A Systematic Review of Selected Workers.

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Pleban, Francis T; Oketope, Olutosin; Shrestha, Laxmi

2017-12-01

A review study was conducted to examine the adverse effects of styrene, styrene mixtures, or styrene and/or styrene mixtures and noise on the auditory system in humans employed in occupational settings. The search included peer-reviewed articles published in English language involving human volunteers spanning a 25-year period (1990-2015). Studies included peer review journals, case-control studies, and case reports. Animal studies were excluded. An initial search identified 40 studies. After screening for inclusion, 13 studies were retrieved for full journal detail examination and review. As a whole, the results range from no to mild associations between styrene exposure and auditory dysfunction, noting relatively small sample sizes. However, four studies investigating styrene with other organic solvent mixtures and noise suggested combined exposures to both styrene organic solvent mixtures may be more ototoxic than exposure to noise alone. There is little literature examining the effect of styrene on auditory functioning in humans. Nonetheless, findings suggest public health professionals and policy makers should be made aware of the future research needs pertaining to hearing impairment and ototoxicity from styrene. It is recommended that chronic styrene-exposed individuals be routinely evaluated with a comprehensive audiological test battery to detect early signs of auditory dysfunction.

Auditory analysis for speech recognition based on physiological models

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Woojay; Juang, Biing-Hwang

2004-05-01

To address the limitations of traditional cepstrum or LPC based front-end processing methods for automatic speech recognition, more elaborate methods based on physiological models of the human auditory system may be used to achieve more robust speech recognition in adverse environments. For this purpose, a modified version of a model of the primary auditory cortex featuring a three dimensional mapping of auditory spectra [Wang and Shamma, IEEE Trans. Speech Audio Process. 3, 382-395 (1995)] is adopted and investigated for its use as an improved front-end processing method. The study is conducted in two ways: first, by relating the model's redundant representation to traditional spectral representations and showing that the former not only encompasses information provided by the latter, but also reveals more relevant information that makes it superior in describing the identifying features of speech signals; and second, by observing the statistical features of the representation for various classes of sound to show how different identifying features manifest themselves as specific patterns on the cortical map, thereby becoming a place-coded data set on which detection theory could be applied to simulate auditory perception and cognition.

Sensorimotor nucleus NIf is necessary for auditory processing but not vocal motor output in the avian song system.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardin, Jessica A; Raksin, Jonathan N; Schmidt, Marc F

2005-04-01

Sensorimotor integration in the avian song system is crucial for both learning and maintenance of song, a vocal motor behavior. Although a number of song system areas demonstrate both sensory and motor characteristics, their exact roles in auditory and premotor processing are unclear. In particular, it is unknown whether input from the forebrain nucleus interface of the nidopallium (NIf), which exhibits both sensory and premotor activity, is necessary for both auditory and premotor processing in its target, HVC. Here we show that bilateral NIf lesions result in long-term loss of HVC auditory activity but do not impair song production. NIf is thus a major source of auditory input to HVC, but an intact NIf is not necessary for motor output in adult zebra finches.

Demodulation Processes in Auditory Perception

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Feth, Lawrence

1997-01-01

The long range goal of this project was the understanding of human auditory processing of information conveyed by complex, time varying signals such as speech, music or important environmental sounds...

Enhanced peripheral visual processing in congenitally deaf humans is supported by multiple brain regions, including primary auditory cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregory D. Scott

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Brain reorganization associated with altered sensory experience clarifies the critical role of neuroplasticity in development. An example is enhanced peripheral visual processing associated with congenital deafness, but the neural systems supporting this have not been fully characterized. A gap in our understanding of deafness-enhanced peripheral vision is the contribution of primary auditory cortex. Previous studies of auditory cortex that use anatomical normalization across participants were limited by inter-subject variability of Heschl’s gyrus. In addition to reorganized auditory cortex (cross-modal plasticity, a second gap in our understanding is the contribution of altered modality-specific cortices (visual intramodal plasticity in this case, as well as supramodal and multisensory cortices, especially when target detection is required across contrasts. Here we address these gaps by comparing fMRI signal change for peripheral versus perifoveal visual stimulation (11-15° vs. 2°-7° in congenitally deaf and hearing participants in a blocked experimental design with two analytical approaches: a Heschl’s gyrus region of interest analysis and a whole brain analysis. Our results using individually-defined primary auditory cortex (Heschl’s gyrus indicate that fMRI signal change for more peripheral stimuli was greater than perifoveal in deaf but not in hearing participants. Whole-brain analyses revealed differences between deaf and hearing participants for peripheral versus perifoveal visual processing in extrastriate visual cortex including primary auditory cortex, MT+/V5, superior-temporal auditory and multisensory and/or supramodal regions, such as posterior parietal cortex, frontal eye fields, anterior cingulate, and supplementary eye fields. Overall, these data demonstrate the contribution of neuroplasticity in multiple systems including primary auditory cortex, supramodal and multisensory regions, to altered visual processing in

Human Auditory and Adjacent Nonauditory Cerebral Cortices Are Hypermetabolic in Tinnitus as Measured by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Issa

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Tinnitus is the phantom perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus. To date, the purported neural correlates of tinnitus from animal models have not been adequately characterized with translational technology in the human brain. The aim of the present study was to measure changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration from regions of interest (ROI; auditory cortex and non-ROI (adjacent nonauditory cortices during auditory stimulation and silence in participants with subjective tinnitus appreciated equally in both ears and in nontinnitus controls using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS. Control and tinnitus participants with normal/near-normal hearing were tested during a passive auditory task. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over ROI and non-ROI under episodic periods of auditory stimulation with 750 or 8000 Hz tones, broadband noise, and silence. During periods of silence, tinnitus participants maintained increased hemodynamic responses in ROI, while a significant deactivation was seen in controls. Interestingly, non-ROI activity was also increased in the tinnitus group as compared to controls during silence. The present results demonstrate that both auditory and select nonauditory cortices have elevated hemodynamic activity in participants with tinnitus in the absence of an external auditory stimulus, a finding that may reflect basic science neural correlates of tinnitus that ultimately contribute to phantom sound perception.

Repetition suppression and repetition enhancement underlie auditory memory-trace formation in the human brain: an MEG study.

Science.gov (United States)

Recasens, Marc; Leung, Sumie; Grimm, Sabine; Nowak, Rafal; Escera, Carles

2015-03-01

The formation of echoic memory traces has traditionally been inferred from the enhanced responses to its deviations. The mismatch negativity (MMN), an auditory event-related potential (ERP) elicited between 100 and 250ms after sound deviation is an indirect index of regularity encoding that reflects a memory-based comparison process. Recently, repetition positivity (RP) has been described as a candidate ERP correlate of direct memory trace formation. RP consists of repetition suppression and enhancement effects occurring in different auditory components between 50 and 250ms after sound onset. However, the neuronal generators engaged in the encoding of repeated stimulus features have received little interest. This study intends to investigate the neuronal sources underlying the formation and strengthening of new memory traces by employing a roving-standard paradigm, where trains of different frequencies and different lengths are presented randomly. Source generators of repetition enhanced (RE) and suppressed (RS) activity were modeled using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in healthy subjects. Our results show that, in line with RP findings, N1m (~95-150ms) activity is suppressed with stimulus repetition. In addition, we observed the emergence of a sustained field (~230-270ms) that showed RE. Source analysis revealed neuronal generators of RS and RE located in both auditory and non-auditory areas, like the medial parietal cortex and frontal areas. The different timing and location of neural generators involved in RS and RE points to the existence of functionally separated mechanisms devoted to acoustic memory-trace formation in different auditory processing stages of the human brain. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hearing an Illusory Vowel in Noise : Suppression of Auditory Cortical Activity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Riecke, Lars; Vanbussel, Mieke; Hausfeld, Lars; Baskent, Deniz; Formisano, Elia; Esposito, Fabrizio

2012-01-01

Human hearing is constructive. For example, when a voice is partially replaced by an extraneous sound (e.g., on the telephone due to a transmission problem), the auditory system may restore the missing portion so that the voice can be perceived as continuous (Miller and Licklider, 1950; for review,

Discrimination of timbre in early auditory responses of the human brain.

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Jaeho Seol

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The issue of how differences in timbre are represented in the neural response still has not been well addressed, particularly with regard to the relevant brain mechanisms. Here we employ phasing and clipping of tones to produce auditory stimuli differing to describe the multidimensional nature of timbre. We investigated the auditory response and sensory gating as well, using by magnetoencephalography (MEG. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Thirty-five healthy subjects without hearing deficit participated in the experiments. Two different or same tones in timbre were presented through conditioning (S1-testing (S2 paradigm as a pair with an interval of 500 ms. As a result, the magnitudes of auditory M50 and M100 responses were different with timbre in both hemispheres. This result might support that timbre, at least by phasing and clipping, is discriminated in the auditory early processing. The second response in a pair affected by S1 in the consecutive stimuli occurred in M100 of the left hemisphere, whereas both M50 and M100 responses to S2 only in the right hemisphere reflected whether two stimuli in a pair were the same or not. Both M50 and M100 magnitudes were different with the presenting order (S1 vs. S2 for both same and different conditions in the both hemispheres. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCES: Our results demonstrate that the auditory response depends on timbre characteristics. Moreover, it was revealed that the auditory sensory gating is determined not by the stimulus that directly evokes the response, but rather by whether or not the two stimuli are identical in timbre.

Non-linear laws of echoic memory and auditory change detection in humans

OpenAIRE

Inui, Koji; Urakawa, Tomokazu; Yamashiro, Koya; Otsuru, Naofumi; Nishihara, Makoto; Takeshima, Yasuyuki; Keceli, Sumru; Kakigi, Ryusuke

2010-01-01

Abstract Background The detection of any abrupt change in the environment is important to survival. Since memory of preceding sensory conditions is necessary for detecting changes, such a change-detection system relates closely to the memory system. Here we used an auditory change-related N1 subcomponent (change-N1) of event-related brain potentials to investigate cortical mechanisms underlying change detection and echoic memory. Results Change-N1 was elicited by a simple paradigm with two to...

Auditory-Motor Interactions in Pediatric Motor Speech Disorders: Neurocomputational Modeling of Disordered Development

Science.gov (United States)

Terband, H.; Maassen, B.; Guenther, F.H.; Brumberg, J.

2014-01-01

Background/Purpose Differentiating the symptom complex due to phonological-level disorders, speech delay and pediatric motor speech disorders is a controversial issue in the field of pediatric speech and language pathology. The present study investigated the developmental interaction between neurological deficits in auditory and motor processes using computational modeling with the DIVA model. Method In a series of computer simulations, we investigated the effect of a motor processing deficit alone (MPD), and the effect of a motor processing deficit in combination with an auditory processing deficit (MPD+APD) on the trajectory and endpoint of speech motor development in the DIVA model. Results Simulation results showed that a motor programming deficit predominantly leads to deterioration on the phonological level (phonemic mappings) when auditory self-monitoring is intact, and on the systemic level (systemic mapping) if auditory self-monitoring is impaired. Conclusions These findings suggest a close relation between quality of auditory self-monitoring and the involvement of phonological vs. motor processes in children with pediatric motor speech disorders. It is suggested that MPD+APD might be involved in typically apraxic speech output disorders and MPD in pediatric motor speech disorders that also have a phonological component. Possibilities to verify these hypotheses using empirical data collected from human subjects are discussed. PMID:24491630

Adult plasticity in the subcortical auditory pathway of the maternal mouse.

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Jason A Miranda

Full Text Available Subcortical auditory nuclei were traditionally viewed as non-plastic in adulthood so that acoustic information could be stably conveyed to higher auditory areas. Studies in a variety of species, including humans, now suggest that prolonged acoustic training can drive long-lasting brainstem plasticity. The neurobiological mechanisms for such changes are not well understood in natural behavioral contexts due to a relative dearth of in vivo animal models in which to study this. Here, we demonstrate in a mouse model that a natural life experience with increased demands on the auditory system - motherhood - is associated with improved temporal processing in the subcortical auditory pathway. We measured the auditory brainstem response to test whether mothers and pup-naïve virgin mice differed in temporal responses to both broadband and tone stimuli, including ultrasonic frequencies found in mouse pup vocalizations. Mothers had shorter latencies for early ABR peaks, indicating plasticity in the auditory nerve and the cochlear nucleus. Shorter interpeak latency between waves IV and V also suggest plasticity in the inferior colliculus. Hormone manipulations revealed that these cannot be explained solely by estrogen levels experienced during pregnancy and parturition in mothers. In contrast, we found that pup-care experience, independent of pregnancy and parturition, contributes to shortening auditory brainstem response latencies. These results suggest that acoustic experience in the maternal context imparts plasticity on early auditory processing that lasts beyond pup weaning. In addition to establishing an animal model for exploring adult auditory brainstem plasticity in a neuroethological context, our results have broader implications for models of perceptual, behavioral and neural changes that arise during maternity, where subcortical sensorineural plasticity has not previously been considered.

Adult plasticity in the subcortical auditory pathway of the maternal mouse.

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Jason A; Shepard, Kathryn N; McClintock, Shannon K; Liu, Robert C

2014-01-01

Subcortical auditory nuclei were traditionally viewed as non-plastic in adulthood so that acoustic information could be stably conveyed to higher auditory areas. Studies in a variety of species, including humans, now suggest that prolonged acoustic training can drive long-lasting brainstem plasticity. The neurobiological mechanisms for such changes are not well understood in natural behavioral contexts due to a relative dearth of in vivo animal models in which to study this. Here, we demonstrate in a mouse model that a natural life experience with increased demands on the auditory system - motherhood - is associated with improved temporal processing in the subcortical auditory pathway. We measured the auditory brainstem response to test whether mothers and pup-naïve virgin mice differed in temporal responses to both broadband and tone stimuli, including ultrasonic frequencies found in mouse pup vocalizations. Mothers had shorter latencies for early ABR peaks, indicating plasticity in the auditory nerve and the cochlear nucleus. Shorter interpeak latency between waves IV and V also suggest plasticity in the inferior colliculus. Hormone manipulations revealed that these cannot be explained solely by estrogen levels experienced during pregnancy and parturition in mothers. In contrast, we found that pup-care experience, independent of pregnancy and parturition, contributes to shortening auditory brainstem response latencies. These results suggest that acoustic experience in the maternal context imparts plasticity on early auditory processing that lasts beyond pup weaning. In addition to establishing an animal model for exploring adult auditory brainstem plasticity in a neuroethological context, our results have broader implications for models of perceptual, behavioral and neural changes that arise during maternity, where subcortical sensorineural plasticity has not previously been considered.

Tactile feedback improves auditory spatial localization

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Monica eGori

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Our recent studies suggest that congenitally blind adults have severely impaired thresholds in an auditory spatial-bisection task, pointing to the importance of vision in constructing complex auditory spatial maps (Gori et al., 2014. To explore strategies that may improve the auditory spatial sense in visually impaired people, we investigated the impact of tactile feedback on spatial auditory localization in 48 blindfolded sighted subjects. We measured auditory spatial bisection thresholds before and after training, either with tactile feedback, verbal feedback or no feedback. Audio thresholds were first measured with a spatial bisection task: subjects judged whether the second sound of a three sound sequence was spatially closer to the first or the third sound. The tactile-feedback group underwent two audio-tactile feedback sessions of 100 trials, where each auditory trial was followed by the same spatial sequence played on the subject’s forearm; auditory spatial bisection thresholds were evaluated after each session. In the verbal-feedback condition, the positions of the sounds were verbally reported to the subject after each feedback trial. The no-feedback group did the same sequence of trials, with no feedback. Performance improved significantly only after audio-tactile feedback. The results suggest that direct tactile feedback interacts with the auditory spatial localization system, possibly by a process of cross-sensory recalibration. Control tests with the subject rotated suggested that this effect occurs only when the tactile and acoustic sequences are spatially coherent. Our results suggest that the tactile system can be used to recalibrate the auditory sense of space. These results encourage the possibility of designing rehabilitation programs to help blind persons establish a robust auditory sense of space, through training with the tactile modality.

Post training REMs coincident auditory stimulation enhances memory in humans.

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Smith, C; Weeden, K

1990-06-01

Sleep activity was monitored in 20 freshman college students for two consecutive nights. Subjects were assigned to 4 equal groups and all were asked to learn a complex logic task before bed on the second night. Two groups of subjects learned the task with a constant clicking noise in the background (cued groups), while two groups simply learned the task (non cued). During the night, one cued and one non cued group were presented with auditory clicks during REM sleep such as to coincide with all REMs of at least 100 microvolts. The second cued group was given auditory clicks during REM sleep, but only during the REMs "quiet" times. The second non-cued control group was never given any nighttime auditory stimulations. The cued REMs coincident group showed a significant 23% improvement in task performance when tested one week later. The non cued REMs coincident group showed only an 8.8% improvement which was not significant. The cued REMs quiet and non-stimulated control groups showed no change in task performance when retested. The results were interpreted as support for the idea that the cued auditory stimulation induced a "recall" of the learned material during the REM sleep state in order for further memory processing to take place.

Development of a wireless system for auditory neuroscience.

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Lukes, A J; Lear, A T; Snider, R K

2001-01-01

In order to study how the auditory cortex extracts communication sounds in a realistic acoustic environment, a wireless system is being developed that will transmit acoustic as well as neural signals. The miniature transmitter will be capable of transmitting two acoustic signals with 37.5 KHz bandwidths (75 KHz sample rate) and 56 neural signals with bandwidths of 9.375 KHz (18.75 KHz sample rate). These signals will be time-division multiplexed into one high bandwidth signal with a 1.2 MHz sample rate. This high bandwidth signal will then be frequency modulated onto a 2.4 GHz carrier, which resides in the industrial, scientic, and medical (ISM) band that is designed for low-power short-range wireless applications. On the receiver side, the signal will be demodulated from the 2.4 GHz carrier and then digitized by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. The acoustic and neural signals will be digitally demultiplexed from the multiplexed signal into their respective channels. Oversampling (20 MHz) will allow the reconstruction of the multiplexing clock by a digital signal processor (DSP) that will perform frame and bit synchronization. A frame is a subset of the signal that contains all the channels and several channels tied high and low will signal the start of a frame. This technological development will bring two benefits to auditory neuroscience. It will allow simultaneous recording of many neurons that will permit studies of population codes. It will also allow neural functions to be determined in higher auditory areas by correlating neural and acoustic signals without apriori knowledge of the necessary stimuli.

SALICYLATE INCREASES THE GAIN OF THE CENTRAL AUDITORY SYSTEM

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Sun, W.; Lu, J.; Stolzberg, D.; Gray, L.; Deng, A.; Lobarinas, E.; Salvi, R. J.

2009-01-01

High doses of salicylate, the anti-inflammatory component of aspirin, induce transient tinnitus and hearing loss. Systemic injection of 250 mg/kg of salicylate, a dose that reliably induces tinnitus in rats, significantly reduced the sound evoked output of the rat cochlea. Paradoxically, salicylate significantly increased the amplitude of the sound-evoked field potential from the auditory cortex (AC) of conscious rats, but not the inferior colliculus (IC). When rats were anesthetized with isoflurane, which increases GABA-mediated inhibition, the salicylate-induced AC amplitude enhancement was abolished, whereas ketamine, which blocks N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors, further increased the salicylate-induced AC amplitude enhancement. Direct application of salicylate to the cochlea, however, reduced the response amplitude of the cochlea, IC and AC, suggesting the AC amplitude enhancement induced by systemic injection of salicylate does not originate from the cochlea. To identify a behavioral correlate of the salicylate-induced AC enhancement, the acoustic startle response was measured before and after salicylate treatment. Salicylate significantly increased the amplitude of the startle response. Collectively, these results suggest that high doses of salicylate increase the gain of the central auditory system, presumably by down-regulating GABA-mediated inhibition, leading to an exaggerated acoustic startle response. The enhanced startle response may be the behavioral correlate of hyperacusis that often accompanies tinnitus and hearing loss. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IBRO. PMID:19154777

Auditory agnosia.

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Slevc, L Robert; Shell, Alison R

2015-01-01

Auditory agnosia refers to impairments in sound perception and identification despite intact hearing, cognitive functioning, and language abilities (reading, writing, and speaking). Auditory agnosia can be general, affecting all types of sound perception, or can be (relatively) specific to a particular domain. Verbal auditory agnosia (also known as (pure) word deafness) refers to deficits specific to speech processing, environmental sound agnosia refers to difficulties confined to non-speech environmental sounds, and amusia refers to deficits confined to music. These deficits can be apperceptive, affecting basic perceptual processes, or associative, affecting the relation of a perceived auditory object to its meaning. This chapter discusses what is known about the behavioral symptoms and lesion correlates of these different types of auditory agnosia (focusing especially on verbal auditory agnosia), evidence for the role of a rapid temporal processing deficit in some aspects of auditory agnosia, and the few attempts to treat the perceptual deficits associated with auditory agnosia. A clear picture of auditory agnosia has been slow to emerge, hampered by the considerable heterogeneity in behavioral deficits, associated brain damage, and variable assessments across cases. Despite this lack of clarity, these striking deficits in complex sound processing continue to inform our understanding of auditory perception and cognition. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neurofeedback-Based Enhancement of Single-Trial Auditory Evoked Potentials: Treatment of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia.

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Rieger, Kathryn; Rarra, Marie-Helene; Diaz Hernandez, Laura; Hubl, Daniela; Koenig, Thomas

2018-03-01

Auditory verbal hallucinations depend on a broad neurobiological network ranging from the auditory system to language as well as memory-related processes. As part of this, the auditory N100 event-related potential (ERP) component is attenuated in patients with schizophrenia, with stronger attenuation occurring during auditory verbal hallucinations. Changes in the N100 component assumingly reflect disturbed responsiveness of the auditory system toward external stimuli in schizophrenia. With this premise, we investigated the therapeutic utility of neurofeedback training to modulate the auditory-evoked N100 component in patients with schizophrenia and associated auditory verbal hallucinations. Ten patients completed electroencephalography neurofeedback training for modulation of N100 (treatment condition) or another unrelated component, P200 (control condition). On a behavioral level, only the control group showed a tendency for symptom improvement in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score in a pre-/postcomparison ( t (4) = 2.71, P = .054); however, no significant differences were found in specific hallucination related symptoms ( t (7) = -0.53, P = .62). There was no significant overall effect of neurofeedback training on ERP components in our paradigm; however, we were able to identify different learning patterns, and found a correlation between learning and improvement in auditory verbal hallucination symptoms across training sessions ( r = 0.664, n = 9, P = .05). This effect results, with cautious interpretation due to the small sample size, primarily from the treatment group ( r = 0.97, n = 4, P = .03). In particular, a within-session learning parameter showed utility for predicting symptom improvement with neurofeedback training. In conclusion, patients with schizophrenia and associated auditory verbal hallucinations who exhibit a learning pattern more characterized by within-session aptitude may benefit from electroencephalography neurofeedback

Estimating individual listeners’ auditory-filter bandwidth in simultaneous and non-simultaneous masking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buchholz, Jörg; Caminade, Sabine; Strelcyk, Olaf

2010-01-01

Frequency selectivity in the human auditory system is often measured using simultaneous masking of tones presented in notched noise. Based on such masking data, the equivalent rectangular bandwidth (ERB) of the auditory filters can be derived by applying the power spectrum model of masking....... Considering bandwidth estimates from previous studies based on forward masking, only average data across a number of subjects have been considered. The present study is concerned with bandwidth estimates in simultaneous and forward masking in individual normal-hearing subjects. In order to investigate...... the reliability of the individual estimates, a statistical resampling method is applied. It is demonstrated that a rather large set of experimental data is required to reliably estimate auditory filter bandwidth, particularly in the case of simultaneous masking. The poor overall reliability of the filter...

Effects of asymmetry and learning on phonotaxis in a robot based on the lizard auditory system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, L.; Hallam, J.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.

2012-01-01

Lizards have strong directional hearing across a broad band of frequencies. The directionality can be attributed to the acoustical properties of the ear, especially the strong acoustical coupling of the two eardrums. The peripheral auditory system of the lizard has previously been modeled...... and magnitude of their intrinsic bias. To attain effective directional hearing, the bias in the peripheral system should be compensated. In this article, with the peripheral models, we design a decision model and a behavior model, a virtual robot, to simulate the auditory system of the lizard in software...

The importance of individual frequencies of endogenous brain oscillations for auditory cognition - A short review.

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Baltus, Alina; Herrmann, Christoph Siegfried

2016-06-01

Oscillatory EEG activity in the human brain with frequencies in the gamma range (approx. 30-80Hz) is known to be relevant for a large number of cognitive processes. Interestingly, each subject reveals an individual frequency of the auditory gamma-band response (GBR) that coincides with the peak in the auditory steady state response (ASSR). A common resonance frequency of auditory cortex seems to underlie both the individual frequency of the GBR and the peak of the ASSR. This review sheds light on the functional role of oscillatory gamma activity for auditory processing. For successful processing, the auditory system has to track changes in auditory input over time and store information about past events in memory which allows the construction of auditory objects. Recent findings support the idea of gamma oscillations being involved in the partitioning of auditory input into discrete samples to facilitate higher order processing. We review experiments that seem to suggest that inter-individual differences in the resonance frequency are behaviorally relevant for gap detection and speech processing. A possible application of these resonance frequencies for brain computer interfaces is illustrated with regard to optimized individual presentation rates for auditory input to correspond with endogenous oscillatory activity. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Auditory working memory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rapid measurement of auditory filter shape in mice using the auditory brainstem response and notched noise.

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Lina, Ioan A; Lauer, Amanda M

2013-04-01

The notched noise method is an effective procedure for measuring frequency resolution and auditory filter shapes in both human and animal models of hearing. Briefly, auditory filter shape and bandwidth estimates are derived from masked thresholds for tones presented in noise containing widening spectral notches. As the spectral notch widens, increasingly less of the noise falls within the auditory filter and the tone becomes more detectible until the notch width exceeds the filter bandwidth. Behavioral procedures have been used for the derivation of notched noise auditory filter shapes in mice; however, the time and effort needed to train and test animals on these tasks renders a constraint on the widespread application of this testing method. As an alternative procedure, we combined relatively non-invasive auditory brainstem response (ABR) measurements and the notched noise method to estimate auditory filters in normal-hearing mice at center frequencies of 8, 11.2, and 16 kHz. A complete set of simultaneous masked thresholds for a particular tone frequency were obtained in about an hour. ABR-derived filter bandwidths broadened with increasing frequency, consistent with previous studies. The ABR notched noise procedure provides a fast alternative to estimating frequency selectivity in mice that is well-suited to high through-put or time-sensitive screening. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Psycho-physiological assessment of a prosthetic hand sensory feedback system based on an auditory display: a preliminary study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Jose; Soma, Hirokazu; Sekine, Masashi; Yu, Wenwei

2012-06-09

Prosthetic hand users have to rely extensively on visual feedback, which seems to lead to a high conscious burden for the users, in order to manipulate their prosthetic devices. Indirect methods (electro-cutaneous, vibrotactile, auditory cues) have been used to convey information from the artificial limb to the amputee, but the usability and advantages of these feedback methods were explored mainly by looking at the performance results, not taking into account measurements of the user's mental effort, attention, and emotions. The main objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using psycho-physiological measurements to assess cognitive effort when manipulating a robot hand with and without the usage of a sensory substitution system based on auditory feedback, and how these psycho-physiological recordings relate to temporal and grasping performance in a static setting. 10 male subjects (26+/-years old), participated in this study and were asked to come for 2 consecutive days. On the first day the experiment objective, tasks, and experiment setting was explained. Then, they completed a 30 minutes guided training. On the second day each subject was tested in 3 different modalities: Auditory Feedback only control (AF), Visual Feedback only control (VF), and Audiovisual Feedback control (AVF). For each modality they were asked to perform 10 trials. At the end of each test, the subject had to answer the NASA TLX questionnaire. Also, during the test the subject's EEG, ECG, electro-dermal activity (EDA), and respiration rate were measured. The results show that a higher mental effort is needed when the subjects rely only on their vision, and that this effort seems to be reduced when auditory feedback is added to the human-machine interaction (multimodal feedback). Furthermore, better temporal performance and better grasping performance was obtained in the audiovisual modality. The performance improvements when using auditory cues, along with vision

Psycho-physiological assessment of a prosthetic hand sensory feedback system based on an auditory display: a preliminary study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonzalez Jose

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Prosthetic hand users have to rely extensively on visual feedback, which seems to lead to a high conscious burden for the users, in order to manipulate their prosthetic devices. Indirect methods (electro-cutaneous, vibrotactile, auditory cues have been used to convey information from the artificial limb to the amputee, but the usability and advantages of these feedback methods were explored mainly by looking at the performance results, not taking into account measurements of the user’s mental effort, attention, and emotions. The main objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using psycho-physiological measurements to assess cognitive effort when manipulating a robot hand with and without the usage of a sensory substitution system based on auditory feedback, and how these psycho-physiological recordings relate to temporal and grasping performance in a static setting. Methods 10 male subjects (26+/-years old, participated in this study and were asked to come for 2 consecutive days. On the first day the experiment objective, tasks, and experiment setting was explained. Then, they completed a 30 minutes guided training. On the second day each subject was tested in 3 different modalities: Auditory Feedback only control (AF, Visual Feedback only control (VF, and Audiovisual Feedback control (AVF. For each modality they were asked to perform 10 trials. At the end of each test, the subject had to answer the NASA TLX questionnaire. Also, during the test the subject’s EEG, ECG, electro-dermal activity (EDA, and respiration rate were measured. Results The results show that a higher mental effort is needed when the subjects rely only on their vision, and that this effort seems to be reduced when auditory feedback is added to the human-machine interaction (multimodal feedback. Furthermore, better temporal performance and better grasping performance was obtained in the audiovisual modality. Conclusions The performance

A general auditory bias for handling speaker variability in speech? Evidence in humans and songbirds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buddhamas eKriengwatana

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Different speakers produce the same speech sound differently, yet listeners are still able to reliably identify the speech sound. How listeners can adjust their perception to compensate for speaker differences in speech, and whether these compensatory processes are unique only to humans, is still not fully understood. In this study we compare the ability of humans and zebra finches to categorize vowels despite speaker variation in speech in order to test the hypothesis that accommodating speaker and gender differences in isolated vowels can be achieved without prior experience with speaker-related variability. Using a behavioural Go/No-go task and identical stimuli, we compared Australian English adults’ (naïve to Dutch and zebra finches’ (naïve to human speech ability to categorize /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ vowels of an novel Dutch speaker after learning to discriminate those vowels from only one other speaker. Experiment 1 and 2 presented vowels of two speakers interspersed or blocked, respectively. Results demonstrate that categorization of vowels is possible without prior exposure to speaker-related variability in speech for zebra finches, and in non-native vowel categories for humans. Therefore, this study is the first to provide evidence for what might be a species-shared auditory bias that may supersede speaker-related information during vowel categorization. It additionally provides behavioural evidence contradicting a prior hypothesis that accommodation of speaker differences is achieved via the use of formant ratios. Therefore, investigations of alternative accounts of vowel normalization that incorporate the possibility of an auditory bias for disregarding inter-speaker variability are warranted.

Auditory object perception: A neurobiological model and prospective review.

Science.gov (United States)

Brefczynski-Lewis, Julie A; Lewis, James W

2017-10-01

Interaction with the world is a multisensory experience, but most of what is known about the neural correlates of perception comes from studying vision. Auditory inputs enter cortex with its own set of unique qualities, and leads to use in oral communication, speech, music, and the understanding of emotional and intentional states of others, all of which are central to the human experience. To better understand how the auditory system develops, recovers after injury, and how it may have transitioned in its functions over the course of hominin evolution, advances are needed in models of how the human brain is organized to process real-world natural sounds and "auditory objects". This review presents a simple fundamental neurobiological model of hearing perception at a category level that incorporates principles of bottom-up signal processing together with top-down constraints of grounded cognition theories of knowledge representation. Though mostly derived from human neuroimaging literature, this theoretical framework highlights rudimentary principles of real-world sound processing that may apply to most if not all mammalian species with hearing and acoustic communication abilities. The model encompasses three basic categories of sound-source: (1) action sounds (non-vocalizations) produced by 'living things', with human (conspecific) and non-human animal sources representing two subcategories; (2) action sounds produced by 'non-living things', including environmental sources and human-made machinery; and (3) vocalizations ('living things'), with human versus non-human animals as two subcategories therein. The model is presented in the context of cognitive architectures relating to multisensory, sensory-motor, and spoken language organizations. The models' predictive values are further discussed in the context of anthropological theories of oral communication evolution and the neurodevelopment of spoken language proto-networks in infants/toddlers. These phylogenetic

Enhanced peripheral visual processing in congenitally deaf humans is supported by multiple brain regions, including primary auditory cortex

OpenAIRE

Scott, Gregory D.; Karns, Christina M.; Dow, Mark W.; Stevens, Courtney; Neville, Helen J.

2014-01-01

Brain reorganization associated with altered sensory experience clarifies the critical role of neuroplasticity in development. An example is enhanced peripheral visual processing associated with congenital deafness, but the neural systems supporting this have not been fully characterized. A gap in our understanding of deafness-enhanced peripheral vision is the contribution of primary auditory cortex. Previous studies of auditory cortex that use anatomical normalization across participants wer...

The attenuation of auditory neglect by implicit cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Coleman, A Rand; Williams, J Michael

2006-09-01

This study examined implicit semantic and rhyming cues on perception of auditory stimuli among nonaphasic participants who suffered a lesion of the right cerebral hemisphere and auditory neglect of sound perceived by the left ear. Because language represents an elaborate processing of auditory stimuli and the language centers were intact among these patients, it was hypothesized that interactive verbal stimuli presented in a dichotic manner would attenuate neglect. The selected participants were administered an experimental dichotic listening test composed of six types of word pairs: unrelated words, synonyms, antonyms, categorically related words, compound words, and rhyming words. Presentation of word pairs that were semantically related resulted in a dramatic reduction of auditory neglect. Dichotic presentations of rhyming words exacerbated auditory neglect. These findings suggest that the perception of auditory information is strongly affected by the specific content conveyed by the auditory system. Language centers will process a degraded stimulus that contains salient language content. A degraded auditory stimulus is neglected if it is devoid of content that activates the language centers or other cognitive systems. In general, these findings suggest that auditory neglect involves a complex interaction of intact and impaired cerebral processing centers with content that is selectively processed by these centers.

Biological impact of music and software-based auditory training

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Kraus, Nina

2012-01-01

Auditory-based communication skills are developed at a young age and are maintained throughout our lives. However, some individuals – both young and old – encounter difficulties in achieving or maintaining communication proficiency. Biological signals arising from hearing sounds relate to real-life communication skills such as listening to speech in noisy environments and reading, pointing to an intersection between hearing and cognition. Musical experience, amplification, and software-based training can improve these biological signals. These findings of biological plasticity, in a variety of subject populations, relate to attention and auditory memory, and represent an integrated auditory system influenced by both sensation and cognition. Learning outcomes The reader will (1) understand that the auditory system is malleable to experience and training, (2) learn the ingredients necessary for auditory learning to successfully be applied to communication, (3) learn that the auditory brainstem response to complex sounds (cABR) is a window into the integrated auditory system, and (4) see examples of how cABR can be used to track the outcome of experience and training. PMID:22789822

Auditory cortex involvement in emotional learning and memory.

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Grosso, A; Cambiaghi, M; Concina, G; Sacco, T; Sacchetti, B

2015-07-23

Emotional memories represent the core of human and animal life and drive future choices and behaviors. Early research involving brain lesion studies in animals lead to the idea that the auditory cortex participates in emotional learning by processing the sensory features of auditory stimuli paired with emotional consequences and by transmitting this information to the amygdala. Nevertheless, electrophysiological and imaging studies revealed that, following emotional experiences, the auditory cortex undergoes learning-induced changes that are highly specific, associative and long lasting. These studies suggested that the role played by the auditory cortex goes beyond stimulus elaboration and transmission. Here, we discuss three major perspectives created by these data. In particular, we analyze the possible roles of the auditory cortex in emotional learning, we examine the recruitment of the auditory cortex during early and late memory trace encoding, and finally we consider the functional interplay between the auditory cortex and subcortical nuclei, such as the amygdala, that process affective information. We conclude that, starting from the early phase of memory encoding, the auditory cortex has a more prominent role in emotional learning, through its connections with subcortical nuclei, than is typically acknowledged. Copyright © 2015 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modelling the Emergence and Dynamics of Perceptual Organisation in Auditory Streaming

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Mill, Robert W.; Bőhm, Tamás M.; Bendixen, Alexandra; Winkler, István; Denham, Susan L.

2013-01-01

Many sound sources can only be recognised from the pattern of sounds they emit, and not from the individual sound events that make up their emission sequences. Auditory scene analysis addresses the difficult task of interpreting the sound world in terms of an unknown number of discrete sound sources (causes) with possibly overlapping signals, and therefore of associating each event with the appropriate source. There are potentially many different ways in which incoming events can be assigned to different causes, which means that the auditory system has to choose between them. This problem has been studied for many years using the auditory streaming paradigm, and recently it has become apparent that instead of making one fixed perceptual decision, given sufficient time, auditory perception switches back and forth between the alternatives—a phenomenon known as perceptual bi- or multi-stability. We propose a new model of auditory scene analysis at the core of which is a process that seeks to discover predictable patterns in the ongoing sound sequence. Representations of predictable fragments are created on the fly, and are maintained, strengthened or weakened on the basis of their predictive success, and conflict with other representations. Auditory perceptual organisation emerges spontaneously from the nature of the competition between these representations. We present detailed comparisons between the model simulations and data from an auditory streaming experiment, and show that the model accounts for many important findings, including: the emergence of, and switching between, alternative organisations; the influence of stimulus parameters on perceptual dominance, switching rate and perceptual phase durations; and the build-up of auditory streaming. The principal contribution of the model is to show that a two-stage process of pattern discovery and competition between incompatible patterns can account for both the contents (perceptual organisations) and the

Auditory Dysfunction in Patients with Cerebrovascular Disease

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Sadaharu Tabuchi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Auditory dysfunction is a common clinical symptom that can induce profound effects on the quality of life of those affected. Cerebrovascular disease (CVD is the most prevalent neurological disorder today, but it has generally been considered a rare cause of auditory dysfunction. However, a substantial proportion of patients with stroke might have auditory dysfunction that has been underestimated due to difficulties with evaluation. The present study reviews relationships between auditory dysfunction and types of CVD including cerebral infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebrovascular malformation, moyamoya disease, and superficial siderosis. Recent advances in the etiology, anatomy, and strategies to diagnose and treat these conditions are described. The numbers of patients with CVD accompanied by auditory dysfunction will increase as the population ages. Cerebrovascular diseases often include the auditory system, resulting in various types of auditory dysfunctions, such as unilateral or bilateral deafness, cortical deafness, pure word deafness, auditory agnosia, and auditory hallucinations, some of which are subtle and can only be detected by precise psychoacoustic and electrophysiological testing. The contribution of CVD to auditory dysfunction needs to be understood because CVD can be fatal if overlooked.

Musical experience shapes top-down auditory mechanisms: evidence from masking and auditory attention performance.

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Strait, Dana L; Kraus, Nina; Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Ashley, Richard

2010-03-01

A growing body of research suggests that cognitive functions, such as attention and memory, drive perception by tuning sensory mechanisms to relevant acoustic features. Long-term musical experience also modulates lower-level auditory function, although the mechanisms by which this occurs remain uncertain. In order to tease apart the mechanisms that drive perceptual enhancements in musicians, we posed the question: do well-developed cognitive abilities fine-tune auditory perception in a top-down fashion? We administered a standardized battery of perceptual and cognitive tests to adult musicians and non-musicians, including tasks either more or less susceptible to cognitive control (e.g., backward versus simultaneous masking) and more or less dependent on auditory or visual processing (e.g., auditory versus visual attention). Outcomes indicate lower perceptual thresholds in musicians specifically for auditory tasks that relate with cognitive abilities, such as backward masking and auditory attention. These enhancements were observed in the absence of group differences for the simultaneous masking and visual attention tasks. Our results suggest that long-term musical practice strengthens cognitive functions and that these functions benefit auditory skills. Musical training bolsters higher-level mechanisms that, when impaired, relate to language and literacy deficits. Thus, musical training may serve to lessen the impact of these deficits by strengthening the corticofugal system for hearing. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Auditory and audio-visual processing in patients with cochlear, auditory brainstem, and auditory midbrain implants: An EEG study.

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Schierholz, Irina; Finke, Mareike; Kral, Andrej; Büchner, Andreas; Rach, Stefan; Lenarz, Thomas; Dengler, Reinhard; Sandmann, Pascale

2017-04-01

There is substantial variability in speech recognition ability across patients with cochlear implants (CIs), auditory brainstem implants (ABIs), and auditory midbrain implants (AMIs). To better understand how this variability is related to central processing differences, the current electroencephalography (EEG) study compared hearing abilities and auditory-cortex activation in patients with electrical stimulation at different sites of the auditory pathway. Three different groups of patients with auditory implants (Hannover Medical School; ABI: n = 6, CI: n = 6; AMI: n = 2) performed a speeded response task and a speech recognition test with auditory, visual, and audio-visual stimuli. Behavioral performance and cortical processing of auditory and audio-visual stimuli were compared between groups. ABI and AMI patients showed prolonged response times on auditory and audio-visual stimuli compared with NH listeners and CI patients. This was confirmed by prolonged N1 latencies and reduced N1 amplitudes in ABI and AMI patients. However, patients with central auditory implants showed a remarkable gain in performance when visual and auditory input was combined, in both speech and non-speech conditions, which was reflected by a strong visual modulation of auditory-cortex activation in these individuals. In sum, the results suggest that the behavioral improvement for audio-visual conditions in central auditory implant patients is based on enhanced audio-visual interactions in the auditory cortex. Their findings may provide important implications for the optimization of electrical stimulation and rehabilitation strategies in patients with central auditory prostheses. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2206-2225, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Multiple time scales of adaptation in auditory cortex neurons.

Science.gov (United States)

Ulanovsky, Nachum; Las, Liora; Farkas, Dina; Nelken, Israel

2004-11-17

Neurons in primary auditory cortex (A1) of cats show strong stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). In probabilistic settings, in which one stimulus is common and another is rare, responses to common sounds adapt more strongly than responses to rare sounds. This SSA could be a correlate of auditory sensory memory at the level of single A1 neurons. Here we studied adaptation in A1 neurons, using three different probabilistic designs. We showed that SSA has several time scales concurrently, spanning many orders of magnitude, from hundreds of milliseconds to tens of seconds. Similar time scales are known for the auditory memory span of humans, as measured both psychophysically and using evoked potentials. A simple model, with linear dependence on both short-term and long-term stimulus history, provided a good fit to A1 responses. Auditory thalamus neurons did not show SSA, and their responses were poorly fitted by the same model. In addition, SSA increased the proportion of failures in the responses of A1 neurons to the adapting stimulus. Finally, SSA caused a bias in the neuronal responses to unbiased stimuli, enhancing the responses to eccentric stimuli. Therefore, we propose that a major function of SSA in A1 neurons is to encode auditory sensory memory on multiple time scales. This SSA might play a role in stream segregation and in binding of auditory objects over many time scales, a property that is crucial for processing of natural auditory scenes in cats and of speech and music in humans.

Automatic hearing loss detection system based on auditory brainstem response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aldonate, J; Mercuri, C; Reta, J; Biurrun, J; Bonell, C; Gentiletti, G; Escobar, S; Acevedo, R

2007-01-01

Hearing loss is one of the pathologies with the highest prevalence in newborns. If it is not detected in time, it can affect the nervous system and cause problems in speech, language and cognitive development. The recommended methods for early detection are based on otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and/or auditory brainstem response (ABR). In this work, the design and implementation of an automated system based on ABR to detect hearing loss in newborns is presented. Preliminary evaluation in adults was satisfactory

A probabilistic model for robust localization based on a binaural auditory front-end

NARCIS (Netherlands)

May, T.; Par, van de S.L.J.D.E.; Kohlrausch, A.G.

2011-01-01

Although extensive research has been done in the field of machine-based localization, the degrading effect of reverberation and the presence of multiple sources on localization performance has remained a major problem. Motivated by the ability of the human auditory system to robustly analyze complex

Assessing the aging effect on auditory-verbal memory by Persian version of dichotic auditory verbal memory test

OpenAIRE

Zahra Shahidipour; Ahmad Geshani; Zahra Jafari; Shohreh Jalaie; Elham Khosravifard

2014-01-01

Background and Aim: Memory is one of the aspects of cognitive function which is widely affected among aged people. Since aging has different effects on different memorial systems and little studies have investigated auditory-verbal memory function in older adults using dichotic listening techniques, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the auditory-verbal memory function among old people using Persian version of dichotic auditory-verbal memory test. Methods: The Persian version of dic...

Representation of auditory-filter phase characteristics in the cortex of human listeners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rupp, A.; Sieroka, N.; Gutschalk, A.

2008-01-01

consistent with the perceptual data obtained with the same stimuli and with results from simulations of neural activity at the output of cochlear preprocessing. These findings demonstrate that phase effects in peripheral auditory processing are accurately reflected up to the level of the auditory cortex....

A comparison of anesthetic agents and their effects on the response properties of the peripheral auditory system.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodd, F; Capranica, R R

1992-10-01

Anesthetic agents were compared in order to identify the most appropriate agent for use during surgery and electrophysiological recordings in the auditory system of the tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). Each agent was first screened for anesthetic and analgesic properties and, if found satisfactory, it was subsequently tested in electrophysiological recordings in the auditory nerve. The following anesthetic agents fulfilled our criteria and were selected for further screening: sodium pentobarbital (60 mg/kg); sodium pentobarbital (30 mg/kg) and oxymorphone (1 mg/kg); 3.2% isoflurane; ketamine (440 mg/kg) and oxymorphone (1 mg/kg). These agents were subsequently compared on the basis of their effect on standard response properties of auditory nerve fibers. Our results verified that different anesthetic agents can have significant effects on most of the parameters commonly used in describing the basic response properties of the auditory system in vertebrates. We therefore conclude from this study that the selection of an appropriate experimental protocol is critical and must take into consideration the effects of anesthesia on auditory responsiveness. In the tokay gecko, we recommend 3.2% isoflurane for general surgical procedures; and for electrophysiological recordings in the eighth nerve we recommend barbiturate anesthesia of appropriate dosage in combination if possible with an opioid agent to provide additional analgesic action.

Functional Changes in the Human Auditory Cortex in Ageing

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Profant, Oliver; Tintěra, Jaroslav; Balogová, Zuzana; Ibrahim, Ibrahim; Jilek, Milan; Syka, Josef

2015-01-01

Hearing loss, presbycusis, is one of the most common sensory declines in the ageing population. Presbycusis is characterised by a deterioration in the processing of temporal sound features as well as a decline in speech perception, thus indicating a possible central component. With the aim to explore the central component of presbycusis, we studied the function of the auditory cortex by functional MRI in two groups of elderly subjects (>65 years) and compared the results with young subjects (presbycusis (EP) differed from the elderly group with mild presbycusis (MP) in hearing thresholds measured by pure tone audiometry, presence and amplitudes of transient otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and distortion-product oto-acoustic emissions (DPOAE), as well as in speech-understanding under noisy conditions. Acoustically evoked activity (pink noise centered around 350 Hz, 700 Hz, 1.5 kHz, 3 kHz, 8 kHz), recorded by BOLD fMRI from an area centered on Heschl’s gyrus, was used to determine age-related changes at the level of the auditory cortex. The fMRI showed only minimal activation in response to the 8 kHz stimulation, despite the fact that all subjects heard the stimulus. Both elderly groups showed greater activation in response to acoustical stimuli in the temporal lobes in comparison with young subjects. In addition, activation in the right temporal lobe was more expressed than in the left temporal lobe in both elderly groups, whereas in the young control subjects (YC) leftward lateralization was present. No statistically significant differences in activation of the auditory cortex were found between the MP and EP groups. The greater extent of cortical activation in elderly subjects in comparison with young subjects, with an asymmetry towards the right side, may serve as a compensatory mechanism for the impaired processing of auditory information appearing as a consequence of ageing. PMID:25734519

Auditory Reserve and the Legacy of Auditory Experience

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Erika Skoe

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Musical training during childhood has been linked to more robust encoding of sound later in life. We take this as evidence for an auditory reserve: a mechanism by which individuals capitalize on earlier life experiences to promote auditory processing. We assert that early auditory experiences guide how the reserve develops and is maintained over the lifetime. Experiences that occur after childhood, or which are limited in nature, are theorized to affect the reserve, although their influence on sensory processing may be less long-lasting and may potentially fade over time if not repeated. This auditory reserve may help to explain individual differences in how individuals cope with auditory impoverishment or loss of sensorineural function.

Cochlear Damage Affects Neurotransmitter Chemistry in the Central Auditory System

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Donald Albert Godfrey

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Tinnitus, the perception of a monotonous sound not actually present in the environment, affects nearly 20% of the population of the United States. Although there has been great progress in tinnitus research over the past 25 years, the neurochemical basis of tinnitus is still poorly understood. We review current research about the effects of various types of cochlear damage on the neurotransmitter chemistry in the central auditory system and document evidence that different changes in this chemistry can underlie similar behaviorally measured tinnitus symptoms. Most available data have been obtained from rodents following cochlear damage produced by cochlear ablation, loud sound, or ototoxic drugs. Effects on neurotransmitter systems have been measured as changes in neurotransmitter level, synthesis, release, uptake, and receptors. In this review, magnitudes of changes are presented for neurotransmitter-related amino acids, acetylcholine, and serotonin. A variety of effects have been found in these studies that may be related to animal model, survival time, type of cochlear damage, or methodology. The overall impression from the evidence presented is that any imbalance of neurotransmitter-related chemistry could disrupt auditory processing in such a way as to produce tinnitus.

An analysis of nonlinear dynamics underlying neural activity related to auditory induction in the rat auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Noto, M; Nishikawa, J; Tateno, T

2016-03-24

A sound interrupted by silence is perceived as discontinuous. However, when high-intensity noise is inserted during the silence, the missing sound may be perceptually restored and be heard as uninterrupted. This illusory phenomenon is called auditory induction. Recent electrophysiological studies have revealed that auditory induction is associated with the primary auditory cortex (A1). Although experimental evidence has been accumulating, the neural mechanisms underlying auditory induction in A1 neurons are poorly understood. To elucidate this, we used both experimental and computational approaches. First, using an optical imaging method, we characterized population responses across auditory cortical fields to sound and identified five subfields in rats. Next, we examined neural population activity related to auditory induction with high temporal and spatial resolution in the rat auditory cortex (AC), including the A1 and several other AC subfields. Our imaging results showed that tone-burst stimuli interrupted by a silent gap elicited early phasic responses to the first tone and similar or smaller responses to the second tone following the gap. In contrast, tone stimuli interrupted by broadband noise (BN), considered to cause auditory induction, considerably suppressed or eliminated responses to the tone following the noise. Additionally, tone-burst stimuli that were interrupted by notched noise centered at the tone frequency, which is considered to decrease the strength of auditory induction, partially restored the second responses from the suppression caused by BN. To phenomenologically mimic the neural population activity in the A1 and thus investigate the mechanisms underlying auditory induction, we constructed a computational model from the periphery through the AC, including a nonlinear dynamical system. The computational model successively reproduced some of the above-mentioned experimental results. Therefore, our results suggest that a nonlinear, self

Neural Hyperactivity of the Central Auditory System in Response to Peripheral Damage

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Yi Zhao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available It is increasingly appreciated that cochlear pathology is accompanied by adaptive responses in the central auditory system. The cause of cochlear pathology varies widely, and it seems that few commonalities can be drawn. In fact, despite intricate internal neuroplasticity and diverse external symptoms, several classical injury models provide a feasible path to locate responses to different peripheral cochlear lesions. In these cases, hair cell damage may lead to considerable hyperactivity in the central auditory pathways, mediated by a reduction in inhibition, which may underlie some clinical symptoms associated with hearing loss, such as tinnitus. Homeostatic plasticity, the most discussed and acknowledged mechanism in recent years, is most likely responsible for excited central activity following cochlear damage.

Mapping the after-effects of theta burst stimulation on the human auditory cortex with functional imaging.

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Andoh, Jamila; Zatorre, Robert J

2012-09-12

Auditory cortex pertains to the processing of sound, which is at the basis of speech or music-related processing. However, despite considerable recent progress, the functional properties and lateralization of the human auditory cortex are far from being fully understood. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique that can transiently or lastingly modulate cortical excitability via the application of localized magnetic field pulses, and represents a unique method of exploring plasticity and connectivity. It has only recently begun to be applied to understand auditory cortical function. An important issue in using TMS is that the physiological consequences of the stimulation are difficult to establish. Although many TMS studies make the implicit assumption that the area targeted by the coil is the area affected, this need not be the case, particularly for complex cognitive functions which depend on interactions across many brain regions. One solution to this problem is to combine TMS with functional Magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The idea here is that fMRI will provide an index of changes in brain activity associated with TMS. Thus, fMRI would give an independent means of assessing which areas are affected by TMS and how they are modulated. In addition, fMRI allows the assessment of functional connectivity, which represents a measure of the temporal coupling between distant regions. It can thus be useful not only to measure the net activity modulation induced by TMS in given locations, but also the degree to which the network properties are affected by TMS, via any observed changes in functional connectivity. Different approaches exist to combine TMS and functional imaging according to the temporal order of the methods. Functional MRI can be applied before, during, after, or both before and after TMS. Recently, some studies interleaved TMS and fMRI in order to provide online mapping of the functional changes induced by TMS. However, this

Selective Attention to Auditory Memory Neurally Enhances Perceptual Precision.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Sung-Joo; Wöstmann, Malte; Obleser, Jonas

2015-12-09

Selective attention to a task-relevant stimulus facilitates encoding of that stimulus into a working memory representation. It is less clear whether selective attention also improves the precision of a stimulus already represented in memory. Here, we investigate the behavioral and neural dynamics of selective attention to representations in auditory working memory (i.e., auditory objects) using psychophysical modeling and model-based analysis of electroencephalographic signals. Human listeners performed a syllable pitch discrimination task where two syllables served as to-be-encoded auditory objects. Valid (vs neutral) retroactive cues were presented during retention to allow listeners to selectively attend to the to-be-probed auditory object in memory. Behaviorally, listeners represented auditory objects in memory more precisely (expressed by steeper slopes of a psychometric curve) and made faster perceptual decisions when valid compared to neutral retrocues were presented. Neurally, valid compared to neutral retrocues elicited a larger frontocentral sustained negativity in the evoked potential as well as enhanced parietal alpha/low-beta oscillatory power (9-18 Hz) during memory retention. Critically, individual magnitudes of alpha oscillatory power (7-11 Hz) modulation predicted the degree to which valid retrocues benefitted individuals' behavior. Our results indicate that selective attention to a specific object in auditory memory does benefit human performance not by simply reducing memory load, but by actively engaging complementary neural resources to sharpen the precision of the task-relevant object in memory. Can selective attention improve the representational precision with which objects are held in memory? And if so, what are the neural mechanisms that support such improvement? These issues have been rarely examined within the auditory modality, in which acoustic signals change and vanish on a milliseconds time scale. Introducing a new auditory memory

Dissociation of Detection and Discrimination of Pure Tones following Bilateral Lesions of Auditory Cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Dykstra, Andrew R.; Koh, Christine K.; Braida, Louis D.; Tramo, Mark Jude

2012-01-01

It is well known that damage to the peripheral auditory system causes deficits in tone detection as well as pitch and loudness perception across a wide range of frequencies. However, the extent to which to which the auditory cortex plays a critical role in these basic aspects of spectral processing, especially with regard to speech, music, and environmental sound perception, remains unclear. Recent experiments indicate that primary auditory cortex is necessary for the normally-high perceptual acuity exhibited by humans in pure-tone frequency discrimination. The present study assessed whether the auditory cortex plays a similar role in the intensity domain and contrasted its contribution to sensory versus discriminative aspects of intensity processing. We measured intensity thresholds for pure-tone detection and pure-tone loudness discrimination in a population of healthy adults and a middle-aged man with complete or near-complete lesions of the auditory cortex bilaterally. Detection thresholds in his left and right ears were 16 and 7 dB HL, respectively, within clinically-defined normal limits. In contrast, the intensity threshold for monaural loudness discrimination at 1 kHz was 6.5±2.1 dB in the left ear and 6.5±1.9 dB in the right ear at 40 dB sensation level, well above the means of the control population (left ear: 1.6±0.22 dB; right ear: 1.7±0.19 dB). The results indicate that auditory cortex lowers just-noticeable differences for loudness discrimination by approximately 5 dB but is not necessary for tone detection in quiet. Previous human and Old-world monkey experiments employing lesion-effect, neurophysiology, and neuroimaging methods to investigate the role of auditory cortex in intensity processing are reviewed. PMID:22957087

Dissociation of detection and discrimination of pure tones following bilateral lesions of auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Dykstra, Andrew R; Koh, Christine K; Braida, Louis D; Tramo, Mark Jude

2012-01-01

It is well known that damage to the peripheral auditory system causes deficits in tone detection as well as pitch and loudness perception across a wide range of frequencies. However, the extent to which to which the auditory cortex plays a critical role in these basic aspects of spectral processing, especially with regard to speech, music, and environmental sound perception, remains unclear. Recent experiments indicate that primary auditory cortex is necessary for the normally-high perceptual acuity exhibited by humans in pure-tone frequency discrimination. The present study assessed whether the auditory cortex plays a similar role in the intensity domain and contrasted its contribution to sensory versus discriminative aspects of intensity processing. We measured intensity thresholds for pure-tone detection and pure-tone loudness discrimination in a population of healthy adults and a middle-aged man with complete or near-complete lesions of the auditory cortex bilaterally. Detection thresholds in his left and right ears were 16 and 7 dB HL, respectively, within clinically-defined normal limits. In contrast, the intensity threshold for monaural loudness discrimination at 1 kHz was 6.5 ± 2.1 dB in the left ear and 6.5 ± 1.9 dB in the right ear at 40 dB sensation level, well above the means of the control population (left ear: 1.6 ± 0.22 dB; right ear: 1.7 ± 0.19 dB). The results indicate that auditory cortex lowers just-noticeable differences for loudness discrimination by approximately 5 dB but is not necessary for tone detection in quiet. Previous human and Old-world monkey experiments employing lesion-effect, neurophysiology, and neuroimaging methods to investigate the role of auditory cortex in intensity processing are reviewed.

Dissociation of detection and discrimination of pure tones following bilateral lesions of auditory cortex.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew R Dykstra

Full Text Available It is well known that damage to the peripheral auditory system causes deficits in tone detection as well as pitch and loudness perception across a wide range of frequencies. However, the extent to which to which the auditory cortex plays a critical role in these basic aspects of spectral processing, especially with regard to speech, music, and environmental sound perception, remains unclear. Recent experiments indicate that primary auditory cortex is necessary for the normally-high perceptual acuity exhibited by humans in pure-tone frequency discrimination. The present study assessed whether the auditory cortex plays a similar role in the intensity domain and contrasted its contribution to sensory versus discriminative aspects of intensity processing. We measured intensity thresholds for pure-tone detection and pure-tone loudness discrimination in a population of healthy adults and a middle-aged man with complete or near-complete lesions of the auditory cortex bilaterally. Detection thresholds in his left and right ears were 16 and 7 dB HL, respectively, within clinically-defined normal limits. In contrast, the intensity threshold for monaural loudness discrimination at 1 kHz was 6.5 ± 2.1 dB in the left ear and 6.5 ± 1.9 dB in the right ear at 40 dB sensation level, well above the means of the control population (left ear: 1.6 ± 0.22 dB; right ear: 1.7 ± 0.19 dB. The results indicate that auditory cortex lowers just-noticeable differences for loudness discrimination by approximately 5 dB but is not necessary for tone detection in quiet. Previous human and Old-world monkey experiments employing lesion-effect, neurophysiology, and neuroimaging methods to investigate the role of auditory cortex in intensity processing are reviewed.

Music and the auditory brain: where is the connection?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Israel eNelken

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Sound processing by the auditory system is understood in unprecedented details, even compared with sensory coding in the visual system. Nevertheless, we don't understand yet the way in which some of the simplest perceptual properties of sounds are coded in neuronal activity. This poses serious difficulties for linking neuronal responses in the auditory system and music processing, since music operates on abstract representations of sounds. Paradoxically, although perceptual representations of sounds most probably occur high in auditory system or even beyond it, neuronal responses are strongly affected by the temporal organization of sound streams even in subcortical stations. Thus, to the extent that music is organized sound, it is the organization, rather than the sound, which is represented first in the auditory brain.

Visual-induced expectations modulate auditory cortical responses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virginie evan Wassenhove

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Active sensing has important consequences on multisensory processing (Schroeder et al. 2010. Here, we asked whether in the absence of saccades, the position of the eyes and the timing of transient colour changes of visual stimuli could selectively affect the excitability of auditory cortex by predicting the where and the when of a sound, respectively. Human participants were recorded with magnetoencephalography (MEG while maintaining the position of their eyes on the left, right, or centre of the screen. Participants counted colour changes of the fixation cross while neglecting sounds which could be presented to the left, right or both ears. First, clear alpha power increases were observed in auditory cortices, consistent with participants’ attention directed to visual inputs. Second, colour changes elicited robust modulations of auditory cortex responses (when prediction seen as ramping activity, early alpha phase-locked responses, and enhanced high-gamma band responses in the contralateral side of sound presentation. Third, no modulations of auditory evoked or oscillatory activity were found to be specific to eye position. Altogether, our results suggest that visual transience can automatically elicit a prediction of when a sound will occur by changing the excitability of auditory cortices irrespective of the attended modality, eye position or spatial congruency of auditory and visual events. To the contrary, auditory cortical responses were not significantly affected by eye position suggesting that where predictions may require active sensing or saccadic reset to modulate auditory cortex responses, notably in the absence of spatial orientation to sounds.

Temporal integration of sequential auditory events: silent period in sound pattern activates human planum temporale.

Science.gov (United States)

Mustovic, Henrietta; Scheffler, Klaus; Di Salle, Francesco; Esposito, Fabrizio; Neuhoff, John G; Hennig, Jürgen; Seifritz, Erich

2003-09-01

Temporal integration is a fundamental process that the brain carries out to construct coherent percepts from serial sensory events. This process critically depends on the formation of memory traces reconciling past with present events and is particularly important in the auditory domain where sensory information is received both serially and in parallel. It has been suggested that buffers for transient auditory memory traces reside in the auditory cortex. However, previous studies investigating "echoic memory" did not distinguish between brain response to novel auditory stimulus characteristics on the level of basic sound processing and a higher level involving matching of present with stored information. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with a regular pattern of sounds repeated every 100 ms and deviant interspersed stimuli of 100-ms duration, which were either brief presentations of louder sounds or brief periods of silence, to probe the formation of auditory memory traces. To avoid interaction with scanner noise, the auditory stimulation sequence was implemented into the image acquisition scheme. Compared to increased loudness events, silent periods produced specific neural activation in the right planum temporale and temporoparietal junction. Our findings suggest that this area posterior to the auditory cortex plays a critical role in integrating sequential auditory events and is involved in the formation of short-term auditory memory traces. This function of the planum temporale appears to be fundamental in the segregation of simultaneous sound sources.

Extensive Tonotopic Mapping across Auditory Cortex Is Recapitulated by Spectrally Directed Attention and Systematically Related to Cortical Myeloarchitecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Dick, Frederic K; Lehet, Matt I; Callaghan, Martina F; Keller, Tim A; Sereno, Martin I; Holt, Lori L

2017-12-13

Auditory selective attention is vital in natural soundscapes. But it is unclear how attentional focus on the primary dimension of auditory representation-acoustic frequency-might modulate basic auditory functional topography during active listening. In contrast to visual selective attention, which is supported by motor-mediated optimization of input across saccades and pupil dilation, the primate auditory system has fewer means of differentially sampling the world. This makes spectrally-directed endogenous attention a particularly crucial aspect of auditory attention. Using a novel functional paradigm combined with quantitative MRI, we establish in male and female listeners that human frequency-band-selective attention drives activation in both myeloarchitectonically estimated auditory core, and across the majority of tonotopically mapped nonprimary auditory cortex. The attentionally driven best-frequency maps show strong concordance with sensory-driven maps in the same subjects across much of the temporal plane, with poor concordance in areas outside traditional auditory cortex. There is significantly greater activation across most of auditory cortex when best frequency is attended, versus ignored; the same regions do not show this enhancement when attending to the least-preferred frequency band. Finally, the results demonstrate that there is spatial correspondence between the degree of myelination and the strength of the tonotopic signal across a number of regions in auditory cortex. Strong frequency preferences across tonotopically mapped auditory cortex spatially correlate with R 1 -estimated myeloarchitecture, indicating shared functional and anatomical organization that may underlie intrinsic auditory regionalization. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Perception is an active process, especially sensitive to attentional state. Listeners direct auditory attention to track a violin's melody within an ensemble performance, or to follow a voice in a crowded cafe. Although

Robust Sound Localization: An Application of an Auditory Perception System for a Humanoid Robot

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Irie, Robert E

1995-01-01

.... This thesis presents an integrated auditory system for a humanoid robot, currently under development, that will, among other things, learn to localize normal, everyday sounds in a realistic environment...

Auditory-motor interactions in pediatric motor speech disorders: neurocomputational modeling of disordered development.

Science.gov (United States)

Terband, H; Maassen, B; Guenther, F H; Brumberg, J

2014-01-01

Differentiating the symptom complex due to phonological-level disorders, speech delay and pediatric motor speech disorders is a controversial issue in the field of pediatric speech and language pathology. The present study investigated the developmental interaction between neurological deficits in auditory and motor processes using computational modeling with the DIVA model. In a series of computer simulations, we investigated the effect of a motor processing deficit alone (MPD), and the effect of a motor processing deficit in combination with an auditory processing deficit (MPD+APD) on the trajectory and endpoint of speech motor development in the DIVA model. Simulation results showed that a motor programming deficit predominantly leads to deterioration on the phonological level (phonemic mappings) when auditory self-monitoring is intact, and on the systemic level (systemic mapping) if auditory self-monitoring is impaired. These findings suggest a close relation between quality of auditory self-monitoring and the involvement of phonological vs. motor processes in children with pediatric motor speech disorders. It is suggested that MPD+APD might be involved in typically apraxic speech output disorders and MPD in pediatric motor speech disorders that also have a phonological component. Possibilities to verify these hypotheses using empirical data collected from human subjects are discussed. The reader will be able to: (1) identify the difficulties in studying disordered speech motor development; (2) describe the differences in speech motor characteristics between SSD and subtype CAS; (3) describe the different types of learning that occur in the sensory-motor system during babbling and early speech acquisition; (4) identify the neural control subsystems involved in speech production; (5) describe the potential role of auditory self-monitoring in developmental speech disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional dissociation between regularity encoding and deviance detection along the auditory hierarchy.

Science.gov (United States)

Aghamolaei, Maryam; Zarnowiec, Katarzyna; Grimm, Sabine; Escera, Carles

2016-02-01

Auditory deviance detection based on regularity encoding appears as one of the basic functional properties of the auditory system. It has traditionally been assessed with the mismatch negativity (MMN) long-latency component of the auditory evoked potential (AEP). Recent studies have found earlier correlates of deviance detection based on regularity encoding. They occur in humans in the first 50 ms after sound onset, at the level of the middle-latency response of the AEP, and parallel findings of stimulus-specific adaptation observed in animal studies. However, the functional relationship between these different levels of regularity encoding and deviance detection along the auditory hierarchy has not yet been clarified. Here we addressed this issue by examining deviant-related responses at different levels of the auditory hierarchy to stimulus changes varying in their degree of deviation regarding the spatial location of a repeated standard stimulus. Auditory stimuli were presented randomly from five loudspeakers at azimuthal angles of 0°, 12°, 24°, 36° and 48° during oddball and reversed-oddball conditions. Middle-latency responses and MMN were measured. Our results revealed that middle-latency responses were sensitive to deviance but not the degree of deviation, whereas the MMN amplitude increased as a function of deviance magnitude. These findings indicated that acoustic regularity can be encoded at the level of the middle-latency response but that it takes a higher step in the auditory hierarchy for deviance magnitude to be encoded, thus providing a functional dissociation between regularity encoding and deviance detection along the auditory hierarchy. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Functional Imaging of Human Vestibular Cortex Activity Elicited by Skull Tap and Auditory Tone Burst

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Noohi, F.; Kinnaird, C.; Wood, S.; Bloomberg, J.; Mulavara, A.; Seidler, R.

2016-01-01

The current study characterizes brain activation in response to two modes of vestibular stimulation: skull tap and auditory tone burst. The auditory tone burst has been used in previous studies to elicit either the vestibulo-spinal reflex (saccular-mediated colic Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (cVEMP)), or the ocular muscle response (utricle-mediated ocular VEMP (oVEMP)). Some researchers have reported that air-conducted skull tap elicits both saccular and utricle-mediated VEMPs, while being faster and less irritating for the subjects. However, it is not clear whether the skull tap and auditory tone burst elicit the same pattern of cortical activity. Both forms of stimulation target the otolith response, which provides a measurement of vestibular function independent from semicircular canals. This is of high importance for studying otolith-specific deficits, including gait and balance problems that astronauts experience upon returning to earth. Previous imaging studies have documented activity in the anterior and posterior insula, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate cortex in response to different modes of vestibular stimulation. Here we hypothesized that skull taps elicit similar patterns of cortical activity as the auditory tone bursts, and previous vestibular imaging studies. Subjects wore bilateral MR compatible skull tappers and headphones inside the 3T GE scanner, while lying in the supine position, with eyes closed. Subjects received both forms of the stimulation in a counterbalanced fashion. Pneumatically powered skull tappers were placed bilaterally on the cheekbones. The vibration of the cheekbone was transmitted to the vestibular system, resulting in the vestibular cortical response. Auditory tone bursts were also delivered for comparison. To validate our stimulation method, we measured the ocular VEMP outside of the scanner. This measurement showed that both skull tap and auditory

The Central Auditory Processing Kit[TM]. Book 1: Auditory Memory [and] Book 2: Auditory Discrimination, Auditory Closure, and Auditory Synthesis [and] Book 3: Auditory Figure-Ground, Auditory Cohesion, Auditory Binaural Integration, and Compensatory Strategies.

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Mokhemar, Mary Ann

This kit for assessing central auditory processing disorders (CAPD), in children in grades 1 through 8 includes 3 books, 14 full-color cards with picture scenes, and a card depicting a phone key pad, all contained in a sturdy carrying case. The units in each of the three books correspond with auditory skill areas most commonly addressed in…

Auditory Sketches: Very Sparse Representations of Sounds Are Still Recognizable.

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Vincent Isnard

Full Text Available Sounds in our environment like voices, animal calls or musical instruments are easily recognized by human listeners. Understanding the key features underlying this robust sound recognition is an important question in auditory science. Here, we studied the recognition by human listeners of new classes of sounds: acoustic and auditory sketches, sounds that are severely impoverished but still recognizable. Starting from a time-frequency representation, a sketch is obtained by keeping only sparse elements of the original signal, here, by means of a simple peak-picking algorithm. Two time-frequency representations were compared: a biologically grounded one, the auditory spectrogram, which simulates peripheral auditory filtering, and a simple acoustic spectrogram, based on a Fourier transform. Three degrees of sparsity were also investigated. Listeners were asked to recognize the category to which a sketch sound belongs: singing voices, bird calls, musical instruments, and vehicle engine noises. Results showed that, with the exception of voice sounds, very sparse representations of sounds (10 features, or energy peaks, per second could be recognized above chance. No clear differences could be observed between the acoustic and the auditory sketches. For the voice sounds, however, a completely different pattern of results emerged, with at-chance or even below-chance recognition performances, suggesting that the important features of the voice, whatever they are, were removed by the sketch process. Overall, these perceptual results were well correlated with a model of auditory distances, based on spectro-temporal excitation patterns (STEPs. This study confirms the potential of these new classes of sounds, acoustic and auditory sketches, to study sound recognition.

The role of temporal coherence in auditory stream segregation

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Christiansen, Simon Krogholt

The ability to perceptually segregate concurrent sound sources and focus one’s attention on a single source at a time is essential for the ability to use acoustic information. While perceptual experiments have determined a range of acoustic cues that help facilitate auditory stream segregation......, it is not clear how the auditory system realizes the task. This thesis presents a study of the mechanisms involved in auditory stream segregation. Through a combination of psychoacoustic experiments, designed to characterize the influence of acoustic cues on auditory stream formation, and computational models...... of auditory processing, the role of auditory preprocessing and temporal coherence in auditory stream formation was evaluated. The computational model presented in this study assumes that auditory stream segregation occurs when sounds stimulate non-overlapping neural populations in a temporally incoherent...

Functional changes in the human auditory cortex in ageing.

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Oliver Profant

Full Text Available Hearing loss, presbycusis, is one of the most common sensory declines in the ageing population. Presbycusis is characterised by a deterioration in the processing of temporal sound features as well as a decline in speech perception, thus indicating a possible central component. With the aim to explore the central component of presbycusis, we studied the function of the auditory cortex by functional MRI in two groups of elderly subjects (>65 years and compared the results with young subjects (auditory cortex. The fMRI showed only minimal activation in response to the 8 kHz stimulation, despite the fact that all subjects heard the stimulus. Both elderly groups showed greater activation in response to acoustical stimuli in the temporal lobes in comparison with young subjects. In addition, activation in the right temporal lobe was more expressed than in the left temporal lobe in both elderly groups, whereas in the young control subjects (YC leftward lateralization was present. No statistically significant differences in activation of the auditory cortex were found between the MP and EP groups. The greater extent of cortical activation in elderly subjects in comparison with young subjects, with an asymmetry towards the right side, may serve as a compensatory mechanism for the impaired processing of auditory information appearing as a consequence of ageing.

Presentation of dynamically overlapping auditory messages in user interfaces

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Papp, III, Albert Louis [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

1997-09-01

This dissertation describes a methodology and example implementation for the dynamic regulation of temporally overlapping auditory messages in computer-user interfaces. The regulation mechanism exists to schedule numerous overlapping auditory messages in such a way that each individual message remains perceptually distinct from all others. The method is based on the research conducted in the area of auditory scene analysis. While numerous applications have been engineered to present the user with temporally overlapped auditory output, they have generally been designed without any structured method of controlling the perceptual aspects of the sound. The method of scheduling temporally overlapping sounds has been extended to function in an environment where numerous applications can present sound independently of each other. The Centralized Audio Presentation System is a global regulation mechanism that controls all audio output requests made from all currently running applications. The notion of multimodal objects is explored in this system as well. Each audio request that represents a particular message can include numerous auditory representations, such as musical motives and voice. The Presentation System scheduling algorithm selects the best representation according to the current global auditory system state, and presents it to the user within the request constraints of priority and maximum acceptable latency. The perceptual conflicts between temporally overlapping audio messages are examined in depth through the Computational Auditory Scene Synthesizer. At the heart of this system is a heuristic-based auditory scene synthesis scheduling method. Different schedules of overlapped sounds are evaluated and assigned penalty scores. High scores represent presentations that include perceptual conflicts between over-lapping sounds. Low scores indicate fewer and less serious conflicts. A user study was conducted to validate that the perceptual difficulties predicted by

Auditory-motor interaction revealed by fMRI: speech, music, and working memory in area Spt.

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Hickok, Gregory; Buchsbaum, Bradley; Humphries, Colin; Muftuler, Tugan

2003-07-01

The concept of auditory-motor interaction pervades speech science research, yet the cortical systems supporting this interface have not been elucidated. Drawing on experimental designs used in recent work in sensory-motor integration in the cortical visual system, we used fMRI in an effort to identify human auditory regions with both sensory and motor response properties, analogous to single-unit responses in known visuomotor integration areas. The sensory phase of the task involved listening to speech (nonsense sentences) or music (novel piano melodies); the "motor" phase of the task involved covert rehearsal/humming of the auditory stimuli. A small set of areas in the superior temporal and temporal-parietal cortex responded both during the listening phase and the rehearsal/humming phase. A left lateralized region in the posterior Sylvian fissure at the parietal-temporal boundary, area Spt, showed particularly robust responses to both phases of the task. Frontal areas also showed combined auditory + rehearsal responsivity consistent with the claim that the posterior activations are part of a larger auditory-motor integration circuit. We hypothesize that this circuit plays an important role in speech development as part of the network that enables acoustic-phonetic input to guide the acquisition of language-specific articulatory-phonetic gestures; this circuit may play a role in analogous musical abilities. In the adult, this system continues to support aspects of speech production, and, we suggest, supports verbal working memory.

Evidence of functional connectivity between auditory cortical areas revealed by amplitude modulation sound processing.

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Guéguin, Marie; Le Bouquin-Jeannès, Régine; Faucon, Gérard; Chauvel, Patrick; Liégeois-Chauvel, Catherine

2007-02-01

The human auditory cortex includes several interconnected areas. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in auditory cortical functions requires a detailed knowledge of neuronal connectivity between functional cortical regions. In human, it is difficult to track in vivo neuronal connectivity. We investigated the interarea connection in vivo in the auditory cortex using a method of directed coherence (DCOH) applied to depth auditory evoked potentials (AEPs). This paper presents simultaneous AEPs recordings from insular gyrus (IG), primary and secondary cortices (Heschl's gyrus and planum temporale), and associative areas (Brodmann area [BA] 22) with multilead intracerebral electrodes in response to sinusoidal modulated white noises in 4 epileptic patients who underwent invasive monitoring with depth electrodes for epilepsy surgery. DCOH allowed estimation of the causality between 2 signals recorded from different cortical sites. The results showed 1) a predominant auditory stream within the primary auditory cortex from the most medial region to the most lateral one whatever the modulation frequency, 2) unidirectional functional connection from the primary to secondary auditory cortex, 3) a major auditory propagation from the posterior areas to the anterior ones, particularly at 8, 16, and 32 Hz, and 4) a particular role of Heschl's sulcus dispatching information to the different auditory areas. These findings suggest that cortical processing of auditory information is performed in serial and parallel streams. Our data showed that the auditory propagation could not be associated to a unidirectional traveling wave but to a constant interaction between these areas that could reflect the large adaptive and plastic capacities of auditory cortex. The role of the IG is discussed.

Decreased auditory GABA+ concentrations in presbycusis demonstrated by edited magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

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Gao, Fei; Wang, Guangbin; Ma, Wen; Ren, Fuxin; Li, Muwei; Dong, Yuling; Liu, Cheng; Liu, Bo; Bai, Xue; Zhao, Bin; Edden, Richard A E

2015-02-01

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central auditory system. Altered GABAergic neurotransmission has been found in both the inferior colliculus and the auditory cortex in animal models of presbycusis. Edited magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), using the MEGA-PRESS sequence, is the most widely used technique for detecting GABA in the human brain. However, to date there has been a paucity of studies exploring changes to the GABA concentrations in the auditory region of patients with presbycusis. In this study, sixteen patients with presbycusis (5 males/11 females, mean age 63.1 ± 2.6 years) and twenty healthy controls (6 males/14 females, mean age 62.5 ± 2.3 years) underwent audiological and MRS examinations. Pure tone audiometry from 0.125 to 8 kHz and tympanometry were used to assess the hearing abilities of all subjects. The pure tone average (PTA; the average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz) was calculated. The MEGA-PRESS sequence was used to measure GABA+ concentrations in 4 × 3 × 3 cm(3) volumes centered on the left and right Heschl's gyri. GABA+ concentrations were significantly lower in the presbycusis group compared to the control group (left auditory regions: p = 0.002, right auditory regions: p = 0.008). Significant negative correlations were observed between PTA and GABA+ concentrations in the presbycusis group (r = -0.57, p = 0.02), while a similar trend was found in the control group (r = -0.40, p = 0.08). These results are consistent with a hypothesis of dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission in the central auditory system in presbycusis and suggest a potential treatment target for presbycusis. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Central auditory masking by an illusory tone.

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Christopher J Plack

Full Text Available Many natural sounds fluctuate over time. The detectability of sounds in a sequence can be reduced by prior stimulation in a process known as forward masking. Forward masking is thought to reflect neural adaptation or neural persistence in the auditory nervous system, but it has been unclear where in the auditory pathway this processing occurs. To address this issue, the present study used a "Huggins pitch" stimulus, the perceptual effects of which depend on central auditory processing. Huggins pitch is an illusory tonal sensation produced when the same noise is presented to the two ears except for a narrow frequency band that is different (decorrelated between the ears. The pitch sensation depends on the combination of the inputs to the two ears, a process that first occurs at the level of the superior olivary complex in the brainstem. Here it is shown that a Huggins pitch stimulus produces more forward masking in the frequency region of the decorrelation than a noise stimulus identical to the Huggins-pitch stimulus except with perfect correlation between the ears. This stimulus has a peripheral neural representation that is identical to that of the Huggins-pitch stimulus. The results show that processing in, or central to, the superior olivary complex can contribute to forward masking in human listeners.

Experience and information loss in auditory and visual memory.

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Gloede, Michele E; Paulauskas, Emily E; Gregg, Melissa K

2017-07-01

Recent studies show that recognition memory for sounds is inferior to memory for pictures. Four experiments were conducted to examine the nature of auditory and visual memory. Experiments 1-3 were conducted to evaluate the role of experience in auditory and visual memory. Participants received a study phase with pictures/sounds, followed by a recognition memory test. Participants then completed auditory training with each of the sounds, followed by a second memory test. Despite auditory training in Experiments 1 and 2, visual memory was superior to auditory memory. In Experiment 3, we found that it is possible to improve auditory memory, but only after 3 days of specific auditory training and 3 days of visual memory decay. We examined the time course of information loss in auditory and visual memory in Experiment 4 and found a trade-off between visual and auditory recognition memory: Visual memory appears to have a larger capacity, while auditory memory is more enduring. Our results indicate that visual and auditory memory are inherently different memory systems and that differences in visual and auditory recognition memory performance may be due to the different amounts of experience with visual and auditory information, as well as structurally different neural circuitry specialized for information retention.

Sensory Entrainment Mechanisms in Auditory Perception: Neural Synchronization Cortico-Striatal Activation.

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Sameiro-Barbosa, Catia M; Geiser, Eveline

2016-01-01

The auditory system displays modulations in sensitivity that can align with the temporal structure of the acoustic environment. This sensory entrainment can facilitate sensory perception and is particularly relevant for audition. Systems neuroscience is slowly uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying the behaviorally observed sensory entrainment effects in the human sensory system. The present article summarizes the prominent behavioral effects of sensory entrainment and reviews our current understanding of the neural basis of sensory entrainment, such as synchronized neural oscillations, and potentially, neural activation in the cortico-striatal system.

Sensory Entrainment Mechanisms in Auditory Perception: Neural Synchronization Cortico-Striatal Activation

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Sameiro-Barbosa, Catia M.; Geiser, Eveline

2016-01-01

The auditory system displays modulations in sensitivity that can align with the temporal structure of the acoustic environment. This sensory entrainment can facilitate sensory perception and is particularly relevant for audition. Systems neuroscience is slowly uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying the behaviorally observed sensory entrainment effects in the human sensory system. The present article summarizes the prominent behavioral effects of sensory entrainment and reviews our current understanding of the neural basis of sensory entrainment, such as synchronized neural oscillations, and potentially, neural activation in the cortico-striatal system. PMID:27559306

Shaping the aging brain: Role of auditory input patterns in the emergence of auditory cortical impairments

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Brishna Soraya Kamal

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Age-related impairments in the primary auditory cortex (A1 include poor tuning selectivity, neural desynchronization and degraded responses to low-probability sounds. These changes have been largely attributed to reduced inhibition in the aged brain, and are thought to contribute to substantial hearing impairment in both humans and animals. Since many of these changes can be partially reversed with auditory training, it has been speculated that they might not be purely degenerative, but might rather represent negative plastic adjustments to noisy or distorted auditory signals reaching the brain. To test this hypothesis, we examined the impact of exposing young adult rats to 8 weeks of low-grade broadband noise on several aspects of A1 function and structure. We then characterized the same A1 elements in aging rats for comparison. We found that the impact of noise exposure on A1 tuning selectivity, temporal processing of auditory signal and responses to oddball tones was almost indistinguishable from the effect of natural aging. Moreover, noise exposure resulted in a reduction in the population of parvalbumin inhibitory interneurons and cortical myelin as previously documented in the aged group. Most of these changes reversed after returning the rats to a quiet environment. These results support the hypothesis that age-related changes in A1 have a strong activity-dependent component and indicate that the presence or absence of clear auditory input patterns might be a key factor in sustaining adult A1 function.

Human-Avatar Symbiosis for the Treatment of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia through Virtual/Augmented Reality and Brain-Computer Interfaces.

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Fernández-Caballero, Antonio; Navarro, Elena; Fernández-Sotos, Patricia; González, Pascual; Ricarte, Jorge J; Latorre, José M; Rodriguez-Jimenez, Roberto

2017-01-01

This perspective paper faces the future of alternative treatments that take advantage of a social and cognitive approach with regards to pharmacological therapy of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in patients with schizophrenia. AVH are the perception of voices in the absence of auditory stimulation and represents a severe mental health symptom. Virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) and brain computer interfaces (BCI) are technologies that are growing more and more in different medical and psychological applications. Our position is that their combined use in computer-based therapies offers still unforeseen possibilities for the treatment of physical and mental disabilities. This is why, the paper expects that researchers and clinicians undergo a pathway toward human-avatar symbiosis for AVH by taking full advantage of new technologies. This outlook supposes to address challenging issues in the understanding of non-pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia-related disorders and the exploitation of VR/AR and BCI to achieve a real human-avatar symbiosis.

Perceptual consequences of disrupted auditory nerve activity.

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Zeng, Fan-Gang; Kong, Ying-Yee; Michalewski, Henry J; Starr, Arnold

2005-06-01

Perceptual consequences of disrupted auditory nerve activity were systematically studied in 21 subjects who had been clinically diagnosed with auditory neuropathy (AN), a recently defined disorder characterized by normal outer hair cell function but disrupted auditory nerve function. Neurological and electrophysical evidence suggests that disrupted auditory nerve activity is due to desynchronized or reduced neural activity or both. Psychophysical measures showed that the disrupted neural activity has minimal effects on intensity-related perception, such as loudness discrimination, pitch discrimination at high frequencies, and sound localization using interaural level differences. In contrast, the disrupted neural activity significantly impairs timing related perception, such as pitch discrimination at low frequencies, temporal integration, gap detection, temporal modulation detection, backward and forward masking, signal detection in noise, binaural beats, and sound localization using interaural time differences. These perceptual consequences are the opposite of what is typically observed in cochlear-impaired subjects who have impaired intensity perception but relatively normal temporal processing after taking their impaired intensity perception into account. These differences in perceptual consequences between auditory neuropathy and cochlear damage suggest the use of different neural codes in auditory perception: a suboptimal spike count code for intensity processing, a synchronized spike code for temporal processing, and a duplex code for frequency processing. We also proposed two underlying physiological models based on desynchronized and reduced discharge in the auditory nerve to successfully account for the observed neurological and behavioral data. These methods and measures cannot differentiate between these two AN models, but future studies using electric stimulation of the auditory nerve via a cochlear implant might. These results not only show the unique

Large-Scale Analysis of Auditory Segregation Behavior Crowdsourced via a Smartphone App.

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Teki, Sundeep; Kumar, Sukhbinder; Griffiths, Timothy D

2016-01-01

The human auditory system is adept at detecting sound sources of interest from a complex mixture of several other simultaneous sounds. The ability to selectively attend to the speech of one speaker whilst ignoring other speakers and background noise is of vital biological significance-the capacity to make sense of complex 'auditory scenes' is significantly impaired in aging populations as well as those with hearing loss. We investigated this problem by designing a synthetic signal, termed the 'stochastic figure-ground' stimulus that captures essential aspects of complex sounds in the natural environment. Previously, we showed that under controlled laboratory conditions, young listeners sampled from the university subject pool (n = 10) performed very well in detecting targets embedded in the stochastic figure-ground signal. Here, we presented a modified version of this cocktail party paradigm as a 'game' featured in a smartphone app (The Great Brain Experiment) and obtained data from a large population with diverse demographical patterns (n = 5148). Despite differences in paradigms and experimental settings, the observed target-detection performance by users of the app was robust and consistent with our previous results from the psychophysical study. Our results highlight the potential use of smartphone apps in capturing robust large-scale auditory behavioral data from normal healthy volunteers, which can also be extended to study auditory deficits in clinical populations with hearing impairments and central auditory disorders.

Large-Scale Analysis of Auditory Segregation Behavior Crowdsourced via a Smartphone App.

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Sundeep Teki

Full Text Available The human auditory system is adept at detecting sound sources of interest from a complex mixture of several other simultaneous sounds. The ability to selectively attend to the speech of one speaker whilst ignoring other speakers and background noise is of vital biological significance-the capacity to make sense of complex 'auditory scenes' is significantly impaired in aging populations as well as those with hearing loss. We investigated this problem by designing a synthetic signal, termed the 'stochastic figure-ground' stimulus that captures essential aspects of complex sounds in the natural environment. Previously, we showed that under controlled laboratory conditions, young listeners sampled from the university subject pool (n = 10 performed very well in detecting targets embedded in the stochastic figure-ground signal. Here, we presented a modified version of this cocktail party paradigm as a 'game' featured in a smartphone app (The Great Brain Experiment and obtained data from a large population with diverse demographical patterns (n = 5148. Despite differences in paradigms and experimental settings, the observed target-detection performance by users of the app was robust and consistent with our previous results from the psychophysical study. Our results highlight the potential use of smartphone apps in capturing robust large-scale auditory behavioral data from normal healthy volunteers, which can also be extended to study auditory deficits in clinical populations with hearing impairments and central auditory disorders.

Impact of Aging on the Auditory System and Related Cognitive Functions: A Narrative Review

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Dona M. P. Jayakody

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Age-related hearing loss (ARHL, presbycusis, is a chronic health condition that affects approximately one-third of the world's population. The peripheral and central hearing alterations associated with age-related hearing loss have a profound impact on perception of verbal and non-verbal auditory stimuli. The high prevalence of hearing loss in the older adults corresponds to the increased frequency of dementia in this population. Therefore, researchers have focused their attention on age-related central effects that occur independent of the peripheral hearing loss as well as central effects of peripheral hearing loss and its association with cognitive decline and dementia. Here we review the current evidence for the age-related changes of the peripheral and central auditory system and the relationship between hearing loss and pathological cognitive decline and dementia. Furthermore, there is a paucity of evidence on the relationship between ARHL and established biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, as the most common cause of dementia. Such studies are critical to be able to consider any causal relationship between dementia and ARHL. While this narrative review will examine the pathophysiological alterations in both the peripheral and central auditory system and its clinical implications, the question remains unanswered whether hearing loss causes cognitive impairment or vice versa.

Beneficial auditory and cognitive effects of auditory brainstem implantation in children.

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Colletti, Liliana

2007-09-01

This preliminary study demonstrates the development of hearing ability and shows that there is a significant improvement in some cognitive parameters related to selective visual/spatial attention and to fluid or multisensory reasoning, in children fitted with auditory brainstem implantation (ABI). The improvement in cognitive paramenters is due to several factors, among which there is certainly, as demonstrated in the literature on a cochlear implants (CIs), the activation of the auditory sensory canal, which was previously absent. The findings of the present study indicate that children with cochlear or cochlear nerve abnormalities with associated cognitive deficits should not be excluded from ABI implantation. The indications for ABI have been extended over the last 10 years to adults with non-tumoral (NT) cochlear or cochlear nerve abnormalities that cannot benefit from CI. We demonstrated that the ABI with surface electrodes may provide sufficient stimulation of the central auditory system in adults for open set speech recognition. These favourable results motivated us to extend ABI indications to children with profound hearing loss who were not candidates for a CI. This study investigated the performances of young deaf children undergoing ABI, in terms of their auditory perceptual development and their non-verbal cognitive abilities. In our department from 2000 to 2006, 24 children aged 14 months to 16 years received an ABI for different tumour and non-tumour diseases. Two children had NF2 tumours. Eighteen children had bilateral cochlear nerve aplasia. In this group, nine children had associated cochlear malformations, two had unilateral facial nerve agenesia and two had combined microtia, aural atresia and middle ear malformations. Four of these children had previously been fitted elsewhere with a CI with no auditory results. One child had bilateral incomplete cochlear partition (type II); one child, who had previously been fitted unsuccessfully elsewhere

Transitional Probabilities Are Prioritized over Stimulus/Pattern Probabilities in Auditory Deviance Detection: Memory Basis for Predictive Sound Processing.

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Mittag, Maria; Takegata, Rika; Winkler, István

2016-09-14

Representations encoding the probabilities of auditory events do not directly support predictive processing. In contrast, information about the probability with which a given sound follows another (transitional probability) allows predictions of upcoming sounds. We tested whether behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection (the latter indexed by the mismatch negativity event-related potential) relies on probabilities of sound patterns or on transitional probabilities. We presented healthy adult volunteers with three types of rare tone-triplets among frequent standard triplets of high-low-high (H-L-H) or L-H-L pitch structure: proximity deviant (H-H-H/L-L-L), reversal deviant (L-H-L/H-L-H), and first-tone deviant (L-L-H/H-H-L). If deviance detection was based on pattern probability, reversal and first-tone deviants should be detected with similar latency because both differ from the standard at the first pattern position. If deviance detection was based on transitional probabilities, then reversal deviants should be the most difficult to detect because, unlike the other two deviants, they contain no low-probability pitch transitions. The data clearly showed that both behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection uses transitional probabilities. Thus, the memory traces underlying cortical deviance detection may provide a link between stimulus probability-based change/novelty detectors operating at lower levels of the auditory system and higher auditory cognitive functions that involve predictive processing. Our research presents the first definite evidence for the auditory system prioritizing transitional probabilities over probabilities of individual sensory events. Forming representations for transitional probabilities paves the way for predictions of upcoming sounds. Several recent theories suggest that predictive processing provides the general basis of human perception, including important auditory functions, such as auditory scene analysis. Our

Auditory Association Cortex Lesions Impair Auditory Short-Term Memory in Monkeys

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Colombo, Michael; D'Amato, Michael R.; Rodman, Hillary R.; Gross, Charles G.

1990-01-01

Monkeys that were trained to perform auditory and visual short-term memory tasks (delayed matching-to-sample) received lesions of the auditory association cortex in the superior temporal gyrus. Although visual memory was completely unaffected by the lesions, auditory memory was severely impaired. Despite this impairment, all monkeys could discriminate sounds closer in frequency than those used in the auditory memory task. This result suggests that the superior temporal cortex plays a role in auditory processing and retention similar to the role the inferior temporal cortex plays in visual processing and retention.

Localized brain activation related to the strength of auditory learning in a parrot.

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Hiroko Eda-Fujiwara

Full Text Available Parrots and songbirds learn their vocalizations from a conspecific tutor, much like human infants acquire spoken language. Parrots can learn human words and it has been suggested that they can use them to communicate with humans. The caudomedial pallium in the parrot brain is homologous with that of songbirds, and analogous to the human auditory association cortex, involved in speech processing. Here we investigated neuronal activation, measured as expression of the protein product of the immediate early gene ZENK, in relation to auditory learning in the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus, a parrot. Budgerigar males successfully learned to discriminate two Japanese words spoken by another male conspecific. Re-exposure to the two discriminanda led to increased neuronal activation in the caudomedial pallium, but not in the hippocampus, compared to untrained birds that were exposed to the same words, or were not exposed to words. Neuronal activation in the caudomedial pallium of the experimental birds was correlated significantly and positively with the percentage of correct responses in the discrimination task. These results suggest that in a parrot, the caudomedial pallium is involved in auditory learning. Thus, in parrots, songbirds and humans, analogous brain regions may contain the neural substrate for auditory learning and memory.

Auditory hallucinations.

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Blom, Jan Dirk

2015-01-01

Auditory hallucinations constitute a phenomenologically rich group of endogenously mediated percepts which are associated with psychiatric, neurologic, otologic, and other medical conditions, but which are also experienced by 10-15% of all healthy individuals in the general population. The group of phenomena is probably best known for its verbal auditory subtype, but it also includes musical hallucinations, echo of reading, exploding-head syndrome, and many other types. The subgroup of verbal auditory hallucinations has been studied extensively with the aid of neuroimaging techniques, and from those studies emerges an outline of a functional as well as a structural network of widely distributed brain areas involved in their mediation. The present chapter provides an overview of the various types of auditory hallucination described in the literature, summarizes our current knowledge of the auditory networks involved in their mediation, and draws on ideas from the philosophy of science and network science to reconceptualize the auditory hallucinatory experience, and point out directions for future research into its neurobiologic substrates. In addition, it provides an overview of known associations with various clinical conditions and of the existing evidence for pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Normal time course of auditory recognition in schizophrenia, despite impaired precision of the auditory sensory ("echoic") memory code.

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March, L; Cienfuegos, A; Goldbloom, L; Ritter, W; Cowan, N; Javitt, D C

1999-02-01

Prior studies have demonstrated impaired precision of processing within the auditory sensory memory (ASM) system in schizophrenia. This study used auditory backward masking to evaluate the degree to which such deficits resulted from impaired overall precision versus premature decay of information within the short-term auditory store. ASM performance was evaluated in 14 schizophrenic participants and 16 controls. Schizophrenic participants were severely impaired in their ability to match tones following delay. However, when no-mask performance was equated across participants, schizophrenic participants were no more susceptible to the effects of backward maskers than were controls. Thus, despite impaired precision of ASM performance, schizophrenic participants showed no deficits in the time course over which short-term representations could be used within the ASM system.

Visual and auditory stimuli associated with swallowing. An fMRI study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawai, Takeshi; Watanabe, Yutaka; Tonogi, Morio; Yamane, Gen-yuki; Abe, Shinichi; Yamada, Yoshiaki; Callan, Akiko

2009-01-01

We focused on brain areas activated by audiovisual stimuli related to swallowing motions. In this study, three kinds of stimuli related to human swallowing movement (auditory stimuli alone, visual stimuli alone, or audiovisual stimuli) were presented to the subjects, and activated brain areas were measured using functional MRI (fMRI) and analyzed. When auditory stimuli alone were presented, the supplementary motor area was activated. When visual stimuli alone were presented, the premotor and primary motor areas of the left and right hemispheres and prefrontal area of the left hemisphere were activated. When audiovisual stimuli were presented, the prefrontal and premotor areas of the left and right hemispheres were activated. Activation of Broca's area, which would have been characteristic of mirror neuron system activation on presentation of motion images, was not observed; however, activation of brain areas related to swallowing motion programming and performance was verified for auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli related to swallowing motion. These results suggest that audiovisual stimuli related to swallowing motion could be applied to the treatment of patients with dysphagia. (author)

Primate Auditory Recognition Memory Performance Varies With Sound Type

OpenAIRE

Chi-Wing, Ng; Bethany, Plakke; Amy, Poremba

2009-01-01

Neural correlates of auditory processing, including for species-specific vocalizations that convey biological and ethological significance (e.g. social status, kinship, environment),have been identified in a wide variety of areas including the temporal and frontal cortices. However, few studies elucidate how non-human primates interact with these vocalization signals when they are challenged by tasks requiring auditory discrimination, recognition, and/or memory. The present study employs a de...

The role of the auditory brainstem in processing musically-relevant pitch

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Gavin M. Bidelman

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Neuroimaging work has shed light on the cerebral architecture involved in processing the melodic and harmonic aspects of music. Here, recent evidence is reviewed illustrating that subcortical auditory structures contribute to the early formation and processing of musically-relevant pitch. Electrophysiological recordings from the human brainstem and population responses from the auditory nerve reveal that nascent features of tonal music (e.g., consonance/dissonance, pitch salience, harmonic sonority are evident at early, subcortical levels of the auditory pathway. The salience and harmonicity of brainstem activity is strongly correlated with listeners’ perceptual preferences and perceived consonance for the tonal relationships of music. Moreover, the hierarchical ordering of pitch intervals/chords described by the Western music practice and their perceptual consonance is well-predicted by the salience with which pitch combinations are encoded in subcortical auditory structures. While the neural correlates of consonance can be tuned and exaggerated with musical training, they persist even in the absence of musicianship or long-term enculturation. As such, it is posited that the structural foundations of musical pitch might result from innate processing performed by the central auditory system. A neurobiological predisposition for consonant, pleasant sounding pitch relationships may be one reason why these pitch combinations have been favored by composers and listeners for centuries. It is suggested that important perceptual dimensions of music emerge well before the auditory signal reaches cerebral cortex and prior to attentional engagement. While cortical mechanisms are no doubt critical to the perception, production, and enjoyment of music, the contribution of subcortical structures implicates a more integrated, hierarchically organized network underlying music processing within the brain.

Diminished Auditory Responses during NREM Sleep Correlate with the Hierarchy of Language Processing.

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Meytal Wilf

Full Text Available Natural sleep provides a powerful model system for studying the neuronal correlates of awareness and state changes in the human brain. To quantitatively map the nature of sleep-induced modulations in sensory responses we presented participants with auditory stimuli possessing different levels of linguistic complexity. Ten participants were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI during the waking state and after falling asleep. Sleep staging was based on heart rate measures validated independently on 20 participants using concurrent EEG and heart rate measurements and the results were confirmed using permutation analysis. Participants were exposed to three types of auditory stimuli: scrambled sounds, meaningless word sentences and comprehensible sentences. During non-rapid eye movement (NREM sleep, we found diminishing brain activation along the hierarchy of language processing, more pronounced in higher processing regions. Specifically, the auditory thalamus showed similar activation levels during sleep and waking states, primary auditory cortex remained activated but showed a significant reduction in auditory responses during sleep, and the high order language-related representation in inferior frontal gyrus (IFG cortex showed a complete abolishment of responses during NREM sleep. In addition to an overall activation decrease in language processing regions in superior temporal gyrus and IFG, those areas manifested a loss of semantic selectivity during NREM sleep. Our results suggest that the decreased awareness to linguistic auditory stimuli during NREM sleep is linked to diminished activity in high order processing stations.

Diminished Auditory Responses during NREM Sleep Correlate with the Hierarchy of Language Processing.

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Wilf, Meytal; Ramot, Michal; Furman-Haran, Edna; Arzi, Anat; Levkovitz, Yechiel; Malach, Rafael

2016-01-01

Natural sleep provides a powerful model system for studying the neuronal correlates of awareness and state changes in the human brain. To quantitatively map the nature of sleep-induced modulations in sensory responses we presented participants with auditory stimuli possessing different levels of linguistic complexity. Ten participants were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the waking state and after falling asleep. Sleep staging was based on heart rate measures validated independently on 20 participants using concurrent EEG and heart rate measurements and the results were confirmed using permutation analysis. Participants were exposed to three types of auditory stimuli: scrambled sounds, meaningless word sentences and comprehensible sentences. During non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, we found diminishing brain activation along the hierarchy of language processing, more pronounced in higher processing regions. Specifically, the auditory thalamus showed similar activation levels during sleep and waking states, primary auditory cortex remained activated but showed a significant reduction in auditory responses during sleep, and the high order language-related representation in inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) cortex showed a complete abolishment of responses during NREM sleep. In addition to an overall activation decrease in language processing regions in superior temporal gyrus and IFG, those areas manifested a loss of semantic selectivity during NREM sleep. Our results suggest that the decreased awareness to linguistic auditory stimuli during NREM sleep is linked to diminished activity in high order processing stations.

Auditory agnosia due to long-term severe hydrocephalus caused by spina bifida - specific auditory pathway versus nonspecific auditory pathway.

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Zhang, Qing; Kaga, Kimitaka; Hayashi, Akimasa

2011-07-01

A 27-year-old female showed auditory agnosia after long-term severe hydrocephalus due to congenital spina bifida. After years of hydrocephalus, she gradually suffered from hearing loss in her right ear at 19 years of age, followed by her left ear. During the time when she retained some ability to hear, she experienced severe difficulty in distinguishing verbal, environmental, and musical instrumental sounds. However, her auditory brainstem response and distortion product otoacoustic emissions were largely intact in the left ear. Her bilateral auditory cortices were preserved, as shown by neuroimaging, whereas her auditory radiations were severely damaged owing to progressive hydrocephalus. Although she had a complete bilateral hearing loss, she felt great pleasure when exposed to music. After years of self-training to read lips, she regained fluent ability to communicate. Clinical manifestations of this patient indicate that auditory agnosia can occur after long-term hydrocephalus due to spina bifida; the secondary auditory pathway may play a role in both auditory perception and hearing rehabilitation.

A novel 9-class auditory ERP paradigm driving a predictive text entry system

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Johannes eHöhne

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs based on Event Related Potentials (ERPs strive for offering communication pathways which are independent of muscle activity. While most visual ERP-based BCI paradigms require good control of the user's gaze direction, auditory BCI paradigms overcome this restriction. The present work proposes a novel approach using Auditory Evoked Potentials (AEP for the example of a multiclass text spelling application. To control the ERP speller, BCI users focus their attention to two-dimensional auditory stimuli that vary in both, pitch (high/medium/low and direction (left/middle/right and that are presented via headphones. The resulting nine different control signals are exploited to drive a predictive text entry system. It enables the user to spell a letter by a single 9-class decision plus two additional decisions to confirm a spelled word.This paradigm - called PASS2D - was investigated in an online study with twelve healthy participants. Users spelled with more than 0.8 characters per minute on average (3.4 bits per minute which makes PASS2D a competitive method. It could enrich the toolbox of existing ERP paradigms for BCI end users like late-stage ALS patients.

Abnormalities in auditory efferent activities in children with selective mutism.

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Muchnik, Chava; Ari-Even Roth, Daphne; Hildesheimer, Minka; Arie, Miri; Bar-Haim, Yair; Henkin, Yael

2013-01-01

Two efferent feedback pathways to the auditory periphery may play a role in monitoring self-vocalization: the middle-ear acoustic reflex (MEAR) and the medial olivocochlear bundle (MOCB) reflex. Since most studies regarding the role of auditory efferent activity during self-vocalization were conducted in animals, human data are scarce. The working premise of the current study was that selective mutism (SM), a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by consistent failure to speak in specific social situations despite the ability to speak normally in other situations, may serve as a human model for studying the potential involvement of auditory efferent activity during self-vocalization. For this purpose, auditory efferent function was assessed in a group of 31 children with SM and compared to that of a group of 31 normally developing control children (mean age 8.9 and 8.8 years, respectively). All children exhibited normal hearing thresholds and type A tympanograms. MEAR and MOCB functions were evaluated by means of acoustic reflex thresholds and decay functions and the suppression of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions, respectively. Auditory afferent function was tested by means of auditory brainstem responses (ABR). Results indicated a significantly higher proportion of children with abnormal MEAR and MOCB function in the SM group (58.6 and 38%, respectively) compared to controls (9.7 and 8%, respectively). The prevalence of abnormal MEAR and/or MOCB function was significantly higher in the SM group (71%) compared to controls (16%). Intact afferent function manifested in normal absolute and interpeak latencies of ABR components in all children. The finding of aberrant efferent auditory function in a large proportion of children with SM provides further support for the notion that MEAR and MOCB may play a significant role in the process of self-vocalization. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Oscillatory Mechanisms of Stimulus Processing and Selection in the Visual and Auditory Systems: State-of-the-Art, Speculations and Suggestions

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Benedikt Zoefel

2017-05-01

Full Text Available All sensory systems need to continuously prioritize and select incoming stimuli in order to avoid overflow or interference, and provide a structure to the brain's input. However, the characteristics of this input differ across sensory systems; therefore, and as a direct consequence, each sensory system might have developed specialized strategies to cope with the continuous stream of incoming information. Neural oscillations are intimately connected with this selection process, as they can be used by the brain to rhythmically amplify or attenuate input and therefore represent an optimal tool for stimulus selection. In this paper, we focus on oscillatory processes for stimulus selection in the visual and auditory systems. We point out both commonalities and differences between the two systems and develop several hypotheses, inspired by recently published findings: (1 The rhythmic component in its input is crucial for the auditory, but not for the visual system. The alignment between oscillatory phase and rhythmic input (phase entrainment is therefore an integral part of stimulus selection in the auditory system whereas the visual system merely adjusts its phase to upcoming events, without the need for any rhythmic component. (2 When input is unpredictable, the visual system can maintain its oscillatory sampling, whereas the auditory system switches to a different, potentially internally oriented, “mode” of processing that might be characterized by alpha oscillations. (3 Visual alpha can be divided into a faster occipital alpha (10 Hz and a slower frontal alpha (7 Hz that critically depends on attention.

Dynamics of auditory working memory

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Jochen eKaiser

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Working memory denotes the ability to retain stimuli in mind that are no longer physically present and to perform mental operations on them. Electro- and magnetoencephalography allow investigating the short-term maintenance of acoustic stimuli at a high temporal resolution. Studies investigating working memory for non-spatial and spatial auditory information have suggested differential roles of regions along the putative auditory ventral and dorsal streams, respectively, in the processing of the different sound properties. Analyses of event-related potentials have shown sustained, memory load-dependent deflections over the retention periods. The topography of these waves suggested an involvement of modality-specific sensory storage regions. Spectral analysis has yielded information about the temporal dynamics of auditory working memory processing of individual stimuli, showing activation peaks during the delay phase whose timing was related to task performance. Coherence at different frequencies was enhanced between frontal and sensory cortex. In summary, auditory working memory seems to rely on the dynamic interplay between frontal executive systems and sensory representation regions.

Stuttering adults' lack of pre-speech auditory modulation normalizes when speaking with delayed auditory feedback.

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Daliri, Ayoub; Max, Ludo

2018-02-01

Auditory modulation during speech movement planning is limited in adults who stutter (AWS), but the functional relevance of the phenomenon itself remains unknown. We investigated for AWS and adults who do not stutter (AWNS) (a) a potential relationship between pre-speech auditory modulation and auditory feedback contributions to speech motor learning and (b) the effect on pre-speech auditory modulation of real-time versus delayed auditory feedback. Experiment I used a sensorimotor adaptation paradigm to estimate auditory-motor speech learning. Using acoustic speech recordings, we quantified subjects' formant frequency adjustments across trials when continually exposed to formant-shifted auditory feedback. In Experiment II, we used electroencephalography to determine the same subjects' extent of pre-speech auditory modulation (reductions in auditory evoked potential N1 amplitude) when probe tones were delivered prior to speaking versus not speaking. To manipulate subjects' ability to monitor real-time feedback, we included speaking conditions with non-altered auditory feedback (NAF) and delayed auditory feedback (DAF). Experiment I showed that auditory-motor learning was limited for AWS versus AWNS, and the extent of learning was negatively correlated with stuttering frequency. Experiment II yielded several key findings: (a) our prior finding of limited pre-speech auditory modulation in AWS was replicated; (b) DAF caused a decrease in auditory modulation for most AWNS but an increase for most AWS; and (c) for AWS, the amount of auditory modulation when speaking with DAF was positively correlated with stuttering frequency. Lastly, AWNS showed no correlation between pre-speech auditory modulation (Experiment II) and extent of auditory-motor learning (Experiment I) whereas AWS showed a negative correlation between these measures. Thus, findings suggest that AWS show deficits in both pre-speech auditory modulation and auditory-motor learning; however, limited pre

Effect of delayed auditory feedback on stuttering with and without central auditory processing disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Picoloto, Luana Altran; Cardoso, Ana Cláudia Vieira; Cerqueira, Amanda Venuti; Oliveira, Cristiane Moço Canhetti de

2017-12-07

To verify the effect of delayed auditory feedback on speech fluency of individuals who stutter with and without central auditory processing disorders. The participants were twenty individuals with stuttering from 7 to 17 years old and were divided into two groups: Stuttering Group with Auditory Processing Disorders (SGAPD): 10 individuals with central auditory processing disorders, and Stuttering Group (SG): 10 individuals without central auditory processing disorders. Procedures were: fluency assessment with non-altered auditory feedback (NAF) and delayed auditory feedback (DAF), assessment of the stuttering severity and central auditory processing (CAP). Phono Tools software was used to cause a delay of 100 milliseconds in the auditory feedback. The "Wilcoxon Signal Post" test was used in the intragroup analysis and "Mann-Whitney" test in the intergroup analysis. The DAF caused a statistically significant reduction in SG: in the frequency score of stuttering-like disfluencies in the analysis of the Stuttering Severity Instrument, in the amount of blocks and repetitions of monosyllabic words, and in the frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies of duration. Delayed auditory feedback did not cause statistically significant effects on SGAPD fluency, individuals with stuttering with auditory processing disorders. The effect of delayed auditory feedback in speech fluency of individuals who stutter was different in individuals of both groups, because there was an improvement in fluency only in individuals without auditory processing disorder.

Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Dysphonia: A Comparison Between Narrow and Broad Terminology Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iwarsson, Jenny

2017-01-01

of the terminology used in the multiparameter Danish Dysphonia Assessment (DDA) approach into the five-parameter GRBAS system. Methods. Voice samples illustrating type and grade of the voice qualities included in DDA were rated by five speech language pathologists using the GRBAS system with the aim of estimating...... terms and antagonists, reflecting muscular hypo- and hyperfunction. Key Words: Auditory-perceptual voice analysis–Dysphonia–GRBAS–Listening test–Voice ratings....

What's that sound? Matches with auditory long-term memory induce gamma activity in human EEG.

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Lenz, Daniel; Schadow, Jeanette; Thaerig, Stefanie; Busch, Niko A; Herrmann, Christoph S

2007-04-01

In recent years the cognitive functions of human gamma-band activity (30-100 Hz) advanced continuously into scientific focus. Not only bottom-up driven influences on 40 Hz activity have been observed, but also top-down processes seem to modulate responses in this frequency band. Among the various functions that have been related to gamma activity a pivotal role has been assigned to memory processes. Visual experiments suggested that gamma activity is involved in matching visual input to memory representations. Based on these findings we hypothesized that such memory related modulations of gamma activity exist in the auditory modality, as well. Thus, we chose environmental sounds for which subjects already had a long-term memory (LTM) representation and compared them to unknown, but physically similar sounds. 21 subjects had to classify sounds as 'recognized' or 'unrecognized', while EEG was recorded. Our data show significantly stronger activity in the induced gamma-band for recognized sounds in the time window between 300 and 500 ms after stimulus onset with a central topography. The results suggest that induced gamma-band activity reflects the matches between sounds and their representations in auditory LTM.

Influences of multiple memory systems on auditory mental image acuity.

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Navarro Cebrian, Ana; Janata, Petr

2010-05-01

The influence of different memory systems and associated attentional processes on the acuity of auditory images, formed for the purpose of making intonation judgments, was examined across three experiments using three different task types (cued-attention, imagery, and two-tone discrimination). In experiment 1 the influence of implicit long-term memory for musical scale structure was manipulated by varying the scale degree (leading tone versus tonic) of the probe note about which a judgment had to be made. In experiments 2 and 3 the ability of short-term absolute pitch knowledge to develop was manipulated by presenting blocks of trials in the same key or in seven different keys. The acuity of auditory images depended on all of these manipulations. Within individual listeners, thresholds in the two-tone discrimination and cued-attention conditions were closely related. In many listeners, cued-attention thresholds were similar to thresholds in the imagery condition, and depended on the amount of training individual listeners had in playing a musical instrument. The results indicate that mental images formed at a sensory/cognitive interface for the purpose of making perceptual decisions are highly malleable.

Auditory white noise reduces age-related fluctuations in balance.

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Ross, J M; Will, O J; McGann, Z; Balasubramaniam, R

2016-09-06

Fall prevention technologies have the potential to improve the lives of older adults. Because of the multisensory nature of human balance control, sensory therapies, including some involving tactile and auditory noise, are being explored that might reduce increased balance variability due to typical age-related sensory declines. Auditory white noise has previously been shown to reduce postural sway variability in healthy young adults. In the present experiment, we examined this treatment in young adults and typically aging older adults. We measured postural sway of healthy young adults and adults over the age of 65 years during silence and auditory white noise, with and without vision. Our results show reduced postural sway variability in young and older adults with auditory noise, even in the absence of vision. We show that vision and noise can reduce sway variability for both feedback-based and exploratory balance processes. In addition, we show changes with auditory noise in nonlinear patterns of sway in older adults that reflect what is more typical of young adults, and these changes did not interfere with the typical random walk behavior of sway. Our results suggest that auditory noise might be valuable for therapeutic and rehabilitative purposes in older adults with typical age-related balance variability. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evolution of the auditory ossicles in extant hominids: metric variation in African apes and humans

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Quam, Rolf M; Coleman, Mark N; Martínez, Ignacio

2014-01-01

The auditory ossicles in primates have proven to be a reliable source of phylogenetic information. Nevertheless, to date, very little data have been published on the metric dimensions of the ear ossicles in African apes and humans. The present study relies on the largest samples of African ape ear ossicles studied to date to address questions of taxonomic differences and the evolutionary transformation of the ossicles in gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Both African ape taxa show a malleus that is characterized by a long and slender manubrium and relatively short corpus, whereas humans show the opposite constellation of a short and thick manubrium and relatively long corpus. These changes in the manubrium are plausibly linked with changes in the size of the tympanic membrane. The main difference between the incus in African apes and humans seems to be related to changes in the functional length. Compared with chimpanzees, human incudes are larger in nearly all dimensions, except articular facet height, and show a more open angle between the axes. The gorilla incus resembles humans more closely in its metric dimensions, including functional length, perhaps as a result of the dramatically larger body size compared with chimpanzees. The differences between the stapedes of humans and African apes are primarily size-related, with humans being larger in nearly all dimensions. Nevertheless, some distinctions between the African apes were found in the obturator foramen and head height. Although correlations between metric variables in different ossicles were generally lower than those between variables in the same bone, variables of the malleus/incus complex appear to be more strongly correlated than those of the incus/stapes complex, perhaps reflecting the different embryological and evolutionary origins of the ossicles. The middle ear lever ratio for the African apes is similar to other haplorhines, but humans show the lowest lever ratio within primates. Very low levels

Auditory, visual and auditory-visual memory and sequencing performance in typically developing children.

Science.gov (United States)

Pillai, Roshni; Yathiraj, Asha

2017-09-01

The study evaluated whether there exists a difference/relation in the way four different memory skills (memory score, sequencing score, memory span, & sequencing span) are processed through the auditory modality, visual modality and combined modalities. Four memory skills were evaluated on 30 typically developing children aged 7 years and 8 years across three modality conditions (auditory, visual, & auditory-visual). Analogous auditory and visual stimuli were presented to evaluate the three modality conditions across the two age groups. The children obtained significantly higher memory scores through the auditory modality compared to the visual modality. Likewise, their memory scores were significantly higher through the auditory-visual modality condition than through the visual modality. However, no effect of modality was observed on the sequencing scores as well as for the memory and the sequencing span. A good agreement was seen between the different modality conditions that were studied (auditory, visual, & auditory-visual) for the different memory skills measures (memory scores, sequencing scores, memory span, & sequencing span). A relatively lower agreement was noted only between the auditory and visual modalities as well as between the visual and auditory-visual modality conditions for the memory scores, measured using Bland-Altman plots. The study highlights the efficacy of using analogous stimuli to assess the auditory, visual as well as combined modalities. The study supports the view that the performance of children on different memory skills was better through the auditory modality compared to the visual modality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contextual modulation of primary visual cortex by auditory signals.

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Petro, L S; Paton, A T; Muckli, L

2017-02-19

Early visual cortex receives non-feedforward input from lateral and top-down connections (Muckli & Petro 2013 Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 23, 195-201. (doi:10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.020)), including long-range projections from auditory areas. Early visual cortex can code for high-level auditory information, with neural patterns representing natural sound stimulation (Vetter et al. 2014 Curr. Biol. 24, 1256-1262. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.020)). We discuss a number of questions arising from these findings. What is the adaptive function of bimodal representations in visual cortex? What type of information projects from auditory to visual cortex? What are the anatomical constraints of auditory information in V1, for example, periphery versus fovea, superficial versus deep cortical layers? Is there a putative neural mechanism we can infer from human neuroimaging data and recent theoretical accounts of cortex? We also present data showing we can read out high-level auditory information from the activation patterns of early visual cortex even when visual cortex receives simple visual stimulation, suggesting independent channels for visual and auditory signals in V1. We speculate which cellular mechanisms allow V1 to be contextually modulated by auditory input to facilitate perception, cognition and behaviour. Beyond cortical feedback that facilitates perception, we argue that there is also feedback serving counterfactual processing during imagery, dreaming and mind wandering, which is not relevant for immediate perception but for behaviour and cognition over a longer time frame.This article is part of the themed issue 'Auditory and visual scene analysis'. © 2017 The Authors.

Towards Clinical Application of Neurotrophic Factors to the Auditory Nerve; Assessment of Safety and Efficacy by a Systematic Review of Neurotrophic Treatments in Humans

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Aren Bezdjian

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Animal studies have evidenced protection of the auditory nerve by exogenous neurotrophic factors. In order to assess clinical applicability of neurotrophic treatment of the auditory nerve, the safety and efficacy of neurotrophic therapies in various human disorders were systematically reviewed. Outcomes of our literature search included disorder, neurotrophic factor, administration route, therapeutic outcome, and adverse event. From 2103 articles retrieved, 20 randomized controlled trials including 3974 patients were selected. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (53% was the most frequently reported indication for neurotrophic therapy followed by diabetic polyneuropathy (28%. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (50%, nerve growth factor (24% and insulin-like growth factor (21% were most often used. Injection site reaction was a frequently occurring adverse event (61% followed by asthenia (24% and gastrointestinal disturbances (20%. Eighteen out of 20 trials deemed neurotrophic therapy to be safe, and six out of 17 studies concluded the neurotrophic therapy to be effective. Positive outcomes were generally small or contradicted by other studies. Most non-neurodegenerative diseases treated by targeted deliveries of neurotrophic factors were considered safe and effective. Hence, since local delivery to the cochlea is feasible, translation from animal studies to human trials in treating auditory nerve degeneration seems promising.

Entrainment to an auditory signal: Is attention involved?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kunert, R.; Jongman, S.R.

2017-01-01

Many natural auditory signals, including music and language, change periodically. The effect of such auditory rhythms on the brain is unclear however. One widely held view, dynamic attending theory, proposes that the attentional system entrains to the rhythm and increases attention at moments of

Speech Evoked Auditory Brainstem Response in Stuttering

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Ali Akbar Tahaei

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Auditory processing deficits have been hypothesized as an underlying mechanism for stuttering. Previous studies have demonstrated abnormal responses in subjects with persistent developmental stuttering (PDS at the higher level of the central auditory system using speech stimuli. Recently, the potential usefulness of speech evoked auditory brainstem responses in central auditory processing disorders has been emphasized. The current study used the speech evoked ABR to investigate the hypothesis that subjects with PDS have specific auditory perceptual dysfunction. Objectives. To determine whether brainstem responses to speech stimuli differ between PDS subjects and normal fluent speakers. Methods. Twenty-five subjects with PDS participated in this study. The speech-ABRs were elicited by the 5-formant synthesized syllable/da/, with duration of 40 ms. Results. There were significant group differences for the onset and offset transient peaks. Subjects with PDS had longer latencies for the onset and offset peaks relative to the control group. Conclusions. Subjects with PDS showed a deficient neural timing in the early stages of the auditory pathway consistent with temporal processing deficits and their abnormal timing may underlie to their disfluency.

Auditory Brain Stem Processing in Reptiles and Amphibians: Roles of Coupled Ears

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willis, Katie L.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jakob; Carr, Catherine

2014-01-01

Comparative approaches to the auditory system have yielded great insight into the evolution of sound localization circuits, particularly within the nonmammalian tetrapods. The fossil record demonstrates multiple appearances of tympanic hearing, and examination of the auditory brain stem of various...... groups can reveal the organizing effects of the ear across taxa. If the peripheral structures have a strongly organizing influence on the neural structures, then homologous neural structures should be observed only in groups with a homologous tympanic ear. Therefore, the central auditory systems...... of anurans (frogs), reptiles (including birds), and mammals should all be more similar within each group than among the groups. Although there is large variation in the peripheral auditory system, there is evidence that auditory brain stem nuclei in tetrapods are homologous and have similar functions among...

Objective measures of binaural masking level differences and comodulation masking release based on late auditory evoked potentials.

Science.gov (United States)

Epp, Bastian; Yasin, Ifat; Verhey, Jesko L

2013-12-01

The audibility of important sounds is often hampered due to the presence of other masking sounds. The present study investigates if a correlate of the audibility of a tone masked by noise is found in late auditory evoked potentials measured from human listeners. The audibility of the target sound at a fixed physical intensity is varied by introducing auditory cues of (i) interaural target signal phase disparity and (ii) coherent masker level fluctuations in different frequency regions. In agreement with previous studies, psychoacoustical experiments showed that both stimulus manipulations result in a masking release (i: binaural masking level difference; ii: comodulation masking release) compared to a condition where those cues are not present. Late auditory evoked potentials (N1, P2) were recorded for the stimuli at a constant masker level, but different signal levels within the same set of listeners who participated in the psychoacoustical experiment. The data indicate differences in N1 and P2 between stimuli with and without interaural phase disparities. However, differences for stimuli with and without coherent masker modulation were only found for P2, i.e., only P2 is sensitive to the increase in audibility, irrespective of the cue that caused the masking release. The amplitude of P2 is consistent with the psychoacoustical finding of an addition of the masking releases when both cues are present. Even though it cannot be concluded where along the auditory pathway the audibility is represented, the P2 component of auditory evoked potentials is a candidate for an objective measure of audibility in the human auditory system. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Functional Imaging of Human Vestibular Cortex Activity Elicited by Skull Tap and Auditory Tone Burst

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Noohi, Fatemeh; Kinnaird, Catherine; Wood, Scott; Bloomberg, Jacob; Mulavara, Ajitkumar; Seidler, Rachael

2014-01-01

The aim of the current study was to characterize the brain activation in response to two modes of vestibular stimulation: skull tap and auditory tone burst. The auditory tone burst has been used in previous studies to elicit saccular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMP) (Colebatch & Halmagyi 1992; Colebatch et al. 1994). Some researchers have reported that airconducted skull tap elicits both saccular and utricle VEMPs, while being faster and less irritating for the subjects (Curthoys et al. 2009, Wackym et al., 2012). However, it is not clear whether the skull tap and auditory tone burst elicit the same pattern of cortical activity. Both forms of stimulation target the otolith response, which provides a measurement of vestibular function independent from semicircular canals. This is of high importance for studying the vestibular disorders related to otolith deficits. Previous imaging studies have documented activity in the anterior and posterior insula, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, pre and post central gyri, inferior frontal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate cortex in response to different modes of vestibular stimulation (Bottini et al., 1994; Dieterich et al., 2003; Emri et al., 2003; Schlindwein et al., 2008; Janzen et al., 2008). Here we hypothesized that the skull tap elicits the similar pattern of cortical activity as the auditory tone burst. Subjects put on a set of MR compatible skull tappers and headphones inside the 3T GE scanner, while lying in supine position, with eyes closed. All subjects received both forms of the stimulation, however, the order of stimulation with auditory tone burst and air-conducted skull tap was counterbalanced across subjects. Pneumatically powered skull tappers were placed bilaterally on the cheekbones. The vibration of the cheekbone was transmitted to the vestibular cortex, resulting in vestibular response (Halmagyi et al., 1995). Auditory tone bursts were also delivered for comparison. To validate

Specialization of the auditory system for the processing of bio-sonar information in the frequency domain: Mustached bats.

Science.gov (United States)

Suga, Nobuo

2018-04-01

For echolocation, mustached bats emit velocity-sensitive orientation sounds (pulses) containing a constant-frequency component consisting of four harmonics (CF 1-4 ). They show unique behavior called Doppler-shift compensation for Doppler-shifted echoes and hunting behavior for frequency and amplitude modulated echoes from fluttering insects. Their peripheral auditory system is highly specialized for fine frequency analysis of CF 2 (∼61.0 kHz) and detecting echo CF 2 from fluttering insects. In their central auditory system, lateral inhibition occurring at multiple levels sharpens V-shaped frequency-tuning curves at the periphery and creates sharp spindle-shaped tuning curves and amplitude tuning. The large CF 2 -tuned area of the auditory cortex systematically represents the frequency and amplitude of CF 2 in a frequency-versus-amplitude map. "CF/CF" neurons are tuned to a specific combination of pulse CF 1 and Doppler-shifted echo CF 2 or 3 . They are tuned to specific velocities. CF/CF neurons cluster in the CC ("C" stands for CF) and DIF (dorsal intrafossa) areas of the auditory cortex. The CC area has the velocity map for Doppler imaging. The DIF area is particularly for Dopper imaging of other bats approaching in cruising flight. To optimize the processing of behaviorally relevant sounds, cortico-cortical interactions and corticofugal feedback modulate the frequency tuning of cortical and sub-cortical auditory neurons and cochlear hair cells through a neural net consisting of positive feedback associated with lateral inhibition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Noise-robust speech recognition through auditory feature detection and spike sequence decoding.

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Schafer, Phillip B; Jin, Dezhe Z

2014-03-01

Speech recognition in noisy conditions is a major challenge for computer systems, but the human brain performs it routinely and accurately. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems that are inspired by neuroscience can potentially bridge the performance gap between humans and machines. We present a system for noise-robust isolated word recognition that works by decoding sequences of spikes from a population of simulated auditory feature-detecting neurons. Each neuron is trained to respond selectively to a brief spectrotemporal pattern, or feature, drawn from the simulated auditory nerve response to speech. The neural population conveys the time-dependent structure of a sound by its sequence of spikes. We compare two methods for decoding the spike sequences--one using a hidden Markov model-based recognizer, the other using a novel template-based recognition scheme. In the latter case, words are recognized by comparing their spike sequences to template sequences obtained from clean training data, using a similarity measure based on the length of the longest common sub-sequence. Using isolated spoken digits from the AURORA-2 database, we show that our combined system outperforms a state-of-the-art robust speech recognizer at low signal-to-noise ratios. Both the spike-based encoding scheme and the template-based decoding offer gains in noise robustness over traditional speech recognition methods. Our system highlights potential advantages of spike-based acoustic coding and provides a biologically motivated framework for robust ASR development.

Multiple benefits of personal FM system use by children with auditory processing disorder (APD).

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Johnston, Kristin N; John, Andrew B; Kreisman, Nicole V; Hall, James W; Crandell, Carl C

2009-01-01

Children with auditory processing disorders (APD) were fitted with Phonak EduLink FM devices for home and classroom use. Baseline measures of the children with APD, prior to FM use, documented significantly lower speech-perception scores, evidence of decreased academic performance, and psychosocial problems in comparison to an age- and gender-matched control group. Repeated measures during the school year demonstrated speech-perception improvement in noisy classroom environments as well as significant academic and psychosocial benefits. Compared with the control group, the children with APD showed greater speech-perception advantage with FM technology. Notably, after prolonged FM use, even unaided (no FM device) speech-perception performance was improved in the children with APD, suggesting the possibility of fundamentally enhanced auditory system function.

Abnormal Auditory Gain in Hyperacusis: Investigation with a Computational Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter U. Diehl

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Hyperacusis is a frequent auditory disorder that is characterized by abnormal loudness perception where sounds of relatively normal volume are perceived as too loud or even painfully loud. As Hyperacusis patients show decreased loudness discomfort levels (LDLs and steeper loudness growth functions, it has been hypothesized that hyperacusis might be caused by an increase in neuronal response gain in the auditory system. Moreover, since about 85% of hyperacusis patients also experience tinnitus, the conditions might be caused by a common mechanism. However, the mechanisms that give rise to hyperacusis have remained unclear.Here we have used a computational model of the auditory system to investigate candidate mechanisms for hyperacusis. Assuming that perceived loudness is proportional to the summed activity of all auditory nerve fibers, the model was tuned to reproduce normal loudness perception. We then evaluated a variety of potential hyperacusis gain mechanisms by determining their effects on model equal-loudness contours and comparing the results to the LDLs of hyperacusis patients with normal hearing thresholds. Hyperacusis was best accounted for by an increase in nonlinear gain in the central auditory system. Good fits to the average patient LDLs were obtained for a general increase in gain that affected all frequency channels to the same degree, and also for a frequency-specific gain increase in the high-frequency range. Moreover, the gain needed to be applied after subtraction of spontaneous activity of the auditory nerve, which is in contrast to current theories of tinnitus generation based on amplification of spontaneous activity. Hyperacusis and tinnitus might therefore be caused by different changes in neuronal processing in the central auditory system.

Auditory alert systems with enhanced detectability

Science.gov (United States)

Begault, Durand R. (Inventor)

2008-01-01

Methods and systems for distinguishing an auditory alert signal from a background of one or more non-alert signals. In a first embodiment, a prefix signal, associated with an existing alert signal, is provided that has a signal component in each of three or more selected frequency ranges, with each signal component in each of three or more selected level at least 3-10 dB above an estimated background (non-alert) level in that frequency range. The alert signal may be chirped within one or more frequency bands. In another embodiment, an alert signal moves, continuously or discontinuously, from one location to another over a short time interval, introducing a perceived spatial modulation or jitter. In another embodiment, a weighted sum of background signals adjacent to each ear is formed, and the weighted sum is delivered to each ear as a uniform background; a distinguishable alert signal is presented on top of this weighted sum signal at one ear, or distinguishable first and second alert signals are presented at two ears of a subject.

Auditory changes in acromegaly.

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Tabur, S; Korkmaz, H; Baysal, E; Hatipoglu, E; Aytac, I; Akarsu, E

2017-06-01

The aim of this study is to determine the changes involving auditory system in cases with acromegaly. Otological examinations of 41 cases with acromegaly (uncontrolled n = 22, controlled n = 19) were compared with those of age and gender-matched 24 healthy subjects. Whereas the cases with acromegaly underwent examination with pure tone audiometry (PTA), speech audiometry for speech discrimination (SD), tympanometry, stapedius reflex evaluation and otoacoustic emission tests, the control group did only have otological examination and PTA. Additionally, previously performed paranasal sinus-computed tomography of all cases with acromegaly and control subjects were obtained to measure the length of internal acoustic canal (IAC). PTA values were higher (p acromegaly group was narrower compared to that in control group (p = 0.03 for right ears and p = 0.02 for left ears). When only cases with acromegaly were taken into consideration, PTA values in left ears had positive correlation with growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels (r = 0.4, p = 0.02 and r = 0.3, p = 0.03). Of all cases with acromegaly 13 (32%) had hearing loss in at least one ear, 7 (54%) had sensorineural type and 6 (46%) had conductive type hearing loss. Acromegaly may cause certain changes in the auditory system in cases with acromegaly. The changes in the auditory system may be multifactorial causing both conductive and sensorioneural defects.

Specialized prefrontal auditory fields: organization of primate prefrontal-temporal pathways

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Maria eMedalla

2014-04-01

Full Text Available No other modality is more frequently represented in the prefrontal cortex than the auditory, but the role of auditory information in prefrontal functions is not well understood. Pathways from auditory association cortices reach distinct sites in the lateral, orbital, and medial surfaces of the prefrontal cortex in rhesus monkeys. Among prefrontal areas, frontopolar area 10 has the densest interconnections with auditory association areas, spanning a large antero-posterior extent of the superior temporal gyrus from the temporal pole to auditory parabelt and belt regions. Moreover, auditory pathways make up the largest component of the extrinsic connections of area 10, suggesting a special relationship with the auditory modality. Here we review anatomic evidence showing that frontopolar area 10 is indeed the main frontal auditory field as the major recipient of auditory input in the frontal lobe and chief source of output to auditory cortices. Area 10 is thought to be the functional node for the most complex cognitive tasks of multitasking and keeping track of information for future decisions. These patterns suggest that the auditory association links of area 10 are critical for complex cognition. The first part of this review focuses on the organization of prefrontal-auditory pathways at the level of the system and the synapse, with a particular emphasis on area 10. Then we explore ideas on how the elusive role of area 10 in complex cognition may be related to the specialized relationship with auditory association cortices.

Primate auditory recognition memory performance varies with sound type.

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Ng, Chi-Wing; Plakke, Bethany; Poremba, Amy

2009-10-01

Neural correlates of auditory processing, including for species-specific vocalizations that convey biological and ethological significance (e.g., social status, kinship, environment), have been identified in a wide variety of areas including the temporal and frontal cortices. However, few studies elucidate how non-human primates interact with these vocalization signals when they are challenged by tasks requiring auditory discrimination, recognition and/or memory. The present study employs a delayed matching-to-sample task with auditory stimuli to examine auditory memory performance of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), wherein two sounds are determined to be the same or different. Rhesus macaques seem to have relatively poor short-term memory with auditory stimuli, and we examine if particular sound types are more favorable for memory performance. Experiment 1 suggests memory performance with vocalization sound types (particularly monkey), are significantly better than when using non-vocalization sound types, and male monkeys outperform female monkeys overall. Experiment 2, controlling for number of sound exemplars and presentation pairings across types, replicates Experiment 1, demonstrating better performance or decreased response latencies, depending on trial type, to species-specific monkey vocalizations. The findings cannot be explained by acoustic differences between monkey vocalizations and the other sound types, suggesting the biological, and/or ethological meaning of these sounds are more effective for auditory memory. 2009 Elsevier B.V.

Effectiveness of auditory and tactile crossmodal cues in a dual-task visual and auditory scenario.

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Hopkins, Kevin; Kass, Steven J; Blalock, Lisa Durrance; Brill, J Christopher

2017-05-01

In this study, we examined how spatially informative auditory and tactile cues affected participants' performance on a visual search task while they simultaneously performed a secondary auditory task. Visual search task performance was assessed via reaction time and accuracy. Tactile and auditory cues provided the approximate location of the visual target within the search display. The inclusion of tactile and auditory cues improved performance in comparison to the no-cue baseline conditions. In comparison to the no-cue conditions, both tactile and auditory cues resulted in faster response times in the visual search only (single task) and visual-auditory (dual-task) conditions. However, the effectiveness of auditory and tactile cueing for visual task accuracy was shown to be dependent on task-type condition. Crossmodal cueing remains a viable strategy for improving task performance without increasing attentional load within a singular sensory modality. Practitioner Summary: Crossmodal cueing with dual-task performance has not been widely explored, yet has practical applications. We examined the effects of auditory and tactile crossmodal cues on visual search performance, with and without a secondary auditory task. Tactile cues aided visual search accuracy when also engaged in a secondary auditory task, whereas auditory cues did not.

Statistical representation of sound textures in the impaired auditory system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McWalter, Richard Ian; Dau, Torsten

2015-01-01

Many challenges exist when it comes to understanding and compensating for hearing impairment. Traditional methods, such as pure tone audiometry and speech intelligibility tests, offer insight into the deficiencies of a hearingimpaired listener, but can only partially reveal the mechanisms...... that underlie the hearing loss. An alternative approach is to investigate the statistical representation of sounds for hearing-impaired listeners along the auditory pathway. Using models of the auditory periphery and sound synthesis, we aimed to probe hearing impaired perception for sound textures – temporally...

Modification of sudden onset auditory ERP by involuntary attention to visual stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Oray, Serkan; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Dawson, Michael E

2002-03-01

To investigate the cross-modal nature of the exogenous attention system, we studied how involuntary attention in the visual modality affects ERPs elicited by sudden onset of events in the auditory modality. Relatively loud auditory white noise bursts were presented to subjects with random and long inter-trial intervals. The noise bursts were either presented alone, or paired with a visual stimulus with a visual to auditory onset asynchrony of 120 ms. In a third condition, the visual stimuli were shown alone. All three conditions, auditory alone, visual alone, and paired visual/auditory, were randomly inter-mixed and presented with equal probabilities. Subjects were instructed to fixate on a point in front of them without task instructions concerning either the auditory or visual stimuli. ERPs were recorded from 28 scalp sites throughout every experimental session. Compared to ERPs in the auditory alone condition, pairing the auditory noise bursts with the visual stimulus reduced the amplitude of the auditory N100 component at Cz by 40% and the auditory P200/P300 component at Cz by 25%. No significant topographical change was observed in the scalp distributions of the N100 and P200/P300. Our results suggest that involuntary attention to visual stimuli suppresses early sensory (N100) as well as late cognitive (P200/P300) processing of sudden auditory events. The activation of the exogenous attention system by sudden auditory onset can be modified by involuntary visual attention in a cross-model, passive prepulse inhibition paradigm.

Explaining the high voice superiority effect in polyphonic music: evidence from cortical evoked potentials and peripheral auditory models.

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Trainor, Laurel J; Marie, Céline; Bruce, Ian C; Bidelman, Gavin M

2014-02-01

Natural auditory environments contain multiple simultaneously-sounding objects and the auditory system must parse the incoming complex sound wave they collectively create into parts that represent each of these individual objects. Music often similarly requires processing of more than one voice or stream at the same time, and behavioral studies demonstrate that human listeners show a systematic perceptual bias in processing the highest voice in multi-voiced music. Here, we review studies utilizing event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which support the notions that (1) separate memory traces are formed for two simultaneous voices (even without conscious awareness) in auditory cortex and (2) adults show more robust encoding (i.e., larger ERP responses) to deviant pitches in the higher than in the lower voice, indicating better encoding of the former. Furthermore, infants also show this high-voice superiority effect, suggesting that the perceptual dominance observed across studies might result from neurophysiological characteristics of the peripheral auditory system. Although musically untrained adults show smaller responses in general than musically trained adults, both groups similarly show a more robust cortical representation of the higher than of the lower voice. Finally, years of experience playing a bass-range instrument reduces but does not reverse the high voice superiority effect, indicating that although it can be modified, it is not highly neuroplastic. Results of new modeling experiments examined the possibility that characteristics of middle-ear filtering and cochlear dynamics (e.g., suppression) reflected in auditory nerve firing patterns might account for the higher-voice superiority effect. Simulations show that both place and temporal AN coding schemes well-predict a high-voice superiority across a wide range of interval spacings and registers. Collectively, we infer an innate, peripheral origin for the higher-voice superiority observed in human

A Time-Frequency Auditory Model Using Wavelet Packets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerkvist, Finn

1996-01-01

A time-frequency auditory model is presented. The model uses the wavelet packet analysis as the preprocessor. The auditory filters are modelled by the rounded exponential filters, and the excitation is smoothed by a window function. By comparing time-frequency excitation patterns it is shown...... that the change in the time-frequency excitation pattern introduced when a test tone at masked threshold is added to the masker is approximately equal to 7 dB for all types of maskers. The classic detection ratio therefore overrates the detection efficiency of the auditory system....

Congenital Deafness Reduces, But Does Not Eliminate Auditory Responsiveness in Cat Extrastriate Visual Cortex.

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Land, Rüdiger; Radecke, Jan-Ole; Kral, Andrej

2018-04-01

Congenital deafness not only affects the development of the auditory cortex, but also the interrelation between the visual and auditory system. For example, congenital deafness leads to visual modulation of the deaf auditory cortex in the form of cross-modal plasticity. Here we asked, whether congenital deafness additionally affects auditory modulation in the visual cortex. We demonstrate that auditory activity, which is normally present in the lateral suprasylvian visual areas in normal hearing cats, can also be elicited by electrical activation of the auditory system with cochlear implants. We then show that in adult congenitally deaf cats auditory activity in this region was reduced when tested with cochlear implant stimulation. However, the change in this area was small and auditory activity was not completely abolished despite years of congenital deafness. The results document that congenital deafness leads not only to changes in the auditory cortex but also affects auditory modulation of visual areas. However, the results further show a persistence of fundamental cortical sensory functional organization despite congenital deafness. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

External auditory canal leech: a rare case report of paediatric ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Leeches are blood sucking organism feed on human blood. While human bites are common, they rarely cause human internal infestation. We describe a rare case of a parasitic leech infestation of the External Auditory Canal (EAC). A two month old child presented to the Emergency department with a seven day history of ...

SoundView: an auditory guidance system based on environment understanding for the visually impaired people.

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Min; Ren, Jie; Li, Zhengjun; Niu, Jinhai; Qiu, Yihong; Zhu, Yisheng; Tong, Shanbao

2009-01-01

Without visual information, the blind people live in various hardships with shopping, reading, finding objects and etc. Therefore, we developed a portable auditory guide system, called SoundView, for visually impaired people. This prototype system consists of a mini-CCD camera, a digital signal processing unit and an earphone, working with built-in customizable auditory coding algorithms. Employing environment understanding techniques, SoundView processes the images from a camera and detects objects tagged with barcodes. The recognized objects in the environment are then encoded into stereo speech signals for the blind though an earphone. The user would be able to recognize the type, motion state and location of the interested objects with the help of SoundView. Compared with other visual assistant techniques, SoundView is object-oriented and has the advantages of cheap cost, smaller size, light weight, low power consumption and easy customization.

Selective attention reduces physiological noise in the external ear canals of humans. I: Auditory attention

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Kyle P.; Pasanen, Edward G.; McFadden, Dennis

2014-01-01

In this study, a nonlinear version of the stimulus-frequency OAE (SFOAE), called the nSFOAE, was used to measure cochlear responses from human subjects while they simultaneously performed behavioral tasks requiring, or not requiring, selective auditory attention. Appended to each stimulus presentation, and included in the calculation of each nSFOAE response, was a 30-ms silent period that was used to estimate the level of the inherent physiological noise in the ear canals of our subjects during each behavioral condition. Physiological-noise magnitudes were higher (noisier) for all subjects in the inattention task, and lower (quieter) in the selective auditory-attention tasks. These noise measures initially were made at the frequency of our nSFOAE probe tone (4.0 kHz), but the same attention effects also were observed across a wide range of frequencies. We attribute the observed differences in physiological-noise magnitudes between the inattention and attention conditions to different levels of efferent activation associated with the differing attentional demands of the behavioral tasks. One hypothesis is that when the attentional demand is relatively great, efferent activation is relatively high, and a decrease in the gain of the cochlear amplifier leads to lower-amplitude cochlear activity, and thus a smaller measure of noise from the ear. PMID:24732069

Association between language development and auditory processing disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Nunes Rocha-Muniz

2014-06-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: It is crucial to understand the complex processing of acoustic stimuli along the auditory pathway ;comprehension of this complex processing can facilitate our understanding of the processes that underlie normal and altered human communication. AIM: To investigate the performance and lateralization effects on auditory processing assessment in children with specific language impairment (SLI, relating these findings to those obtained in children with auditory processing disorder (APD and typical development (TD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Prospective study. Seventy-five children, aged 6-12 years, were separated in three groups: 25 children with SLI, 25 children with APD, and 25 children with TD. All went through the following tests: speech-in-noise test, Dichotic Digit test and Pitch Pattern Sequencing test. RESULTS: The effects of lateralization were observed only in the SLI group, with the left ear presenting much lower scores than those presented to the right ear. The inter-group analysis has shown that in all tests children from APD and SLI groups had significantly poorer performance compared to TD group. Moreover, SLI group presented worse results than APD group. CONCLUSION: This study has shown, in children with SLI, an inefficient processing of essential sound components and an effect of lateralization. These findings may indicate that neural processes (required for auditory processing are different between auditory processing and speech disorders.

Interaction of streaming and attention in human auditory cortex.

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Gutschalk, Alexander; Rupp, André; Dykstra, Andrew R

2015-01-01

Serially presented tones are sometimes segregated into two perceptually distinct streams. An ongoing debate is whether this basic streaming phenomenon reflects automatic processes or requires attention focused to the stimuli. Here, we examined the influence of focused attention on streaming-related activity in human auditory cortex using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Listeners were presented with a dichotic paradigm in which left-ear stimuli consisted of canonical streaming stimuli (ABA_ or ABAA) and right-ear stimuli consisted of a classical oddball paradigm. In phase one, listeners were instructed to attend the right-ear oddball sequence and detect rare deviants. In phase two, they were instructed to attend the left ear streaming stimulus and report whether they heard one or two streams. The frequency difference (ΔF) of the sequences was set such that the smallest and largest ΔF conditions generally induced one- and two-stream percepts, respectively. Two intermediate ΔF conditions were chosen to elicit bistable percepts (i.e., either one or two streams). Attention enhanced the peak-to-peak amplitude of the P1-N1 complex, but only for ambiguous ΔF conditions, consistent with the notion that automatic mechanisms for streaming tightly interact with attention and that the latter is of particular importance for ambiguous sound sequences.

Evaluation of peripheral compression and auditory nerve fiber intensity coding using auditory steady-state responses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Encina Llamas, Gerard; M. Harte, James; Epp, Bastian

2015-01-01

. Evaluation of these properties provides information about the health state of the system. It has been shown that a loss of outer hair cells leads to a reduction in peripheral compression. It has also recently been shown in animal studies that noise over-exposure, producing temporary threshold shifts, can....... The results indicate that the slope of the ASSR level growth function can be used to estimate peripheral compression simultaneously at four frequencies below 60 dB SPL, while the slope above 60 dB SPL may provide information about the integrity of intensity coding of low-SR fibers.......The compressive nonlinearity of the auditory system is assumed to be an epiphenomenon of a healthy cochlea and, particularly, of outer-hair cell function. Another ability of the healthy auditory system is to enable communication in acoustical environments with high-level background noises...

Modifying Directionality through Auditory System Scaling in a Robotic Lizard

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaikh, Danish; Hallam, John; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jakob

2010-01-01

The peripheral auditory system of a lizard is strongly directional. This directionality is created by acoustical coupling of the two eardrums and is strongly dependent on characteristics of the middle ear, such as interaural distance, resonance frequency of the middle ear cavity and of the tympanum....... Therefore, directionality should be strongly influenced by their scaling. In the present study, we have exploited an FPGA–based mobile robot based on a model of the lizard ear to investigate the influence of scaling on the directional response, in terms of the robot’s performance in a phonotaxis task...

Lateralization of the human mirror neuron system.

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Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa; Koski, Lisa; Zaidel, Eran; Mazziotta, John; Iacoboni, Marco

2006-03-15

A cortical network consisting of the inferior frontal, rostral inferior parietal, and posterior superior temporal cortices has been implicated in representing actions in the primate brain and is critical to imitation in humans. This neural circuitry may be an evolutionary precursor of neural systems associated with language. However, language is predominantly lateralized to the left hemisphere, whereas the degree of lateralization of the imitation circuitry in humans is unclear. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of imitation of finger movements with lateralized stimuli and responses. During imitation, activity in the inferior frontal and rostral inferior parietal cortex, although fairly bilateral, was stronger in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the visual stimulus and response hand. This ipsilateral pattern is at variance with the typical contralateral activity of primary visual and motor areas. Reliably increased signal in the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) was observed for both left-sided and right-sided imitation tasks, although subthreshold activity was also observed in the left STS. Overall, the data indicate that visual and motor components of the human mirror system are not left-lateralized. The left hemisphere superiority for language, then, must be have been favored by other types of language precursors, perhaps auditory or multimodal action representations.

Techniques and applications for binaural sound manipulation in human-machine interfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Begault, Durand R.; Wenzel, Elizabeth M.

1992-01-01

The implementation of binaural sound to speech and auditory sound cues (auditory icons) is addressed from both an applications and technical standpoint. Techniques overviewed include processing by means of filtering with head-related transfer functions. Application to advanced cockpit human interface systems is discussed, although the techniques are extendable to any human-machine interface. Research issues pertaining to three-dimensional sound displays under investigation at the Aerospace Human Factors Division at NASA Ames Research Center are described.

Predictive coding of visual-auditory and motor-auditory events: An electrophysiological study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stekelenburg, Jeroen J; Vroomen, Jean

2015-11-11

The amplitude of auditory components of the event-related potential (ERP) is attenuated when sounds are self-generated compared to externally generated sounds. This effect has been ascribed to internal forward modals predicting the sensory consequences of one's own motor actions. Auditory potentials are also attenuated when a sound is accompanied by a video of anticipatory visual motion that reliably predicts the sound. Here, we investigated whether the neural underpinnings of prediction of upcoming auditory stimuli are similar for motor-auditory (MA) and visual-auditory (VA) events using a stimulus omission paradigm. In the MA condition, a finger tap triggered the sound of a handclap whereas in the VA condition the same sound was accompanied by a video showing the handclap. In both conditions, the auditory stimulus was omitted in either 50% or 12% of the trials. These auditory omissions induced early and mid-latency ERP components (oN1 and oN2, presumably reflecting prediction and prediction error), and subsequent higher-order error evaluation processes. The oN1 and oN2 of MA and VA were alike in amplitude, topography, and neural sources despite that the origin of the prediction stems from different brain areas (motor versus visual cortex). This suggests that MA and VA predictions activate a sensory template of the sound in auditory cortex. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cortical pitch regions in humans respond primarily to resolved harmonics and are located in specific tonotopic regions of anterior auditory cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Norman-Haignere, Sam; Kanwisher, Nancy; McDermott, Josh H

2013-12-11

Pitch is a defining perceptual property of many real-world sounds, including music and speech. Classically, theories of pitch perception have differentiated between temporal and spectral cues. These cues are rendered distinct by the frequency resolution of the ear, such that some frequencies produce "resolved" peaks of excitation in the cochlea, whereas others are "unresolved," providing a pitch cue only via their temporal fluctuations. Despite longstanding interest, the neural structures that process pitch, and their relationship to these cues, have remained controversial. Here, using fMRI in humans, we report the following: (1) consistent with previous reports, all subjects exhibited pitch-sensitive cortical regions that responded substantially more to harmonic tones than frequency-matched noise; (2) the response of these regions was mainly driven by spectrally resolved harmonics, although they also exhibited a weak but consistent response to unresolved harmonics relative to noise; (3) the response of pitch-sensitive regions to a parametric manipulation of resolvability tracked psychophysical discrimination thresholds for the same stimuli; and (4) pitch-sensitive regions were localized to specific tonotopic regions of anterior auditory cortex, extending from a low-frequency region of primary auditory cortex into a more anterior and less frequency-selective region of nonprimary auditory cortex. These results demonstrate that cortical pitch responses are located in a stereotyped region of anterior auditory cortex and are predominantly driven by resolved frequency components in a way that mirrors behavior.

Integration of auditory and tactile inputs in musical meter perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Juan; Gamble, Darik; Sarnlertsophon, Kristine; Wang, Xiaoqin; Hsiao, Steven

2013-01-01

Musicians often say that they not only hear but also "feel" music. To explore the contribution of tactile information to "feeling" music, we investigated the degree that auditory and tactile inputs are integrated in humans performing a musical meter-recognition task. Subjects discriminated between two types of sequences, "duple" (march-like rhythms) and "triple" (waltz-like rhythms), presented in three conditions: (1) unimodal inputs (auditory or tactile alone); (2) various combinations of bimodal inputs, where sequences were distributed between the auditory and tactile channels such that a single channel did not produce coherent meter percepts; and (3) bimodal inputs where the two channels contained congruent or incongruent meter cues. We first show that meter is perceived similarly well (70-85 %) when tactile or auditory cues are presented alone. We next show in the bimodal experiments that auditory and tactile cues are integrated to produce coherent meter percepts. Performance is high (70-90 %) when all of the metrically important notes are assigned to one channel and is reduced to 60 % when half of these notes are assigned to one channel. When the important notes are presented simultaneously to both channels, congruent cues enhance meter recognition (90 %). Performance dropped dramatically when subjects were presented with incongruent auditory cues (10 %), as opposed to incongruent tactile cues (60 %), demonstrating that auditory input dominates meter perception. These observations support the notion that meter perception is a cross-modal percept with tactile inputs underlying the perception of "feeling" music.

Spatial Hearing with Incongruent Visual or Auditory Room Cues

Science.gov (United States)

Gil-Carvajal, Juan C.; Cubick, Jens; Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten

2016-11-01

In day-to-day life, humans usually perceive the location of sound sources as outside their heads. This externalized auditory spatial perception can be reproduced through headphones by recreating the sound pressure generated by the source at the listener’s eardrums. This requires the acoustical features of the recording environment and listener’s anatomy to be recorded at the listener’s ear canals. Although the resulting auditory images can be indistinguishable from real-world sources, their externalization may be less robust when the playback and recording environments differ. Here we tested whether a mismatch between playback and recording room reduces perceived distance, azimuthal direction, and compactness of the auditory image, and whether this is mostly due to incongruent auditory cues or to expectations generated from the visual impression of the room. Perceived distance ratings decreased significantly when collected in a more reverberant environment than the recording room, whereas azimuthal direction and compactness remained room independent. Moreover, modifying visual room-related cues had no effect on these three attributes, while incongruent auditory room-related cues between the recording and playback room did affect distance perception. Consequently, the external perception of virtual sounds depends on the degree of congruency between the acoustical features of the environment and the stimuli.

Auditory evoked field measurement using magneto-impedance sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, K., E-mail: o-kabou@echo.nuee.nagoya-u.ac.jp; Tajima, S.; Song, D.; Uchiyama, T. [Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Hamada, N.; Cai, C. [Aichi Steel Corporation, Tokai (Japan)

2015-05-07

The magnetic field of the human brain is extremely weak, and it is mostly measured and monitored in the magnetoencephalography method using superconducting quantum interference devices. In this study, in order to measure the weak magnetic field of the brain, we constructed a Magneto-Impedance sensor (MI sensor) system that can cancel out the background noise without any magnetic shield. Based on our previous studies of brain wave measurements, we used two MI sensors in this system for monitoring both cerebral hemispheres. In this study, we recorded and compared the auditory evoked field signals of the subject, including the N100 (or N1) and the P300 (or P3) brain waves. The results suggest that the MI sensor can be applied to brain activity measurement.

Plastic changes in the central auditory system after hearing loss, restoration of function, and during learning

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Syka, Josef

2002-01-01

Roč. 82, - (2002), s. 601-636 ISSN 0031-9333 R&D Projects: GA MZd NK6454 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z5039906 Keywords : auditory system Subject RIV: FH - Neurology Impact factor: 26.533, year: 2002

GF-GC Theory of Human Cognition: Differentiation of Short-Term Auditory and Visual Memory Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

McGhee, Ron; Lieberman, Lewis

1994-01-01

Study sought to determine whether separate short-term auditory and visual memory factors would emerge given a sufficient number of markers in a factor matrix. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed. Short-term visual and short-term auditory memory factors emerged as expected. (RJM)

Metabolic changes in the auditory cortex in presbycusis demonstrated by MR spectroscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Profant, Oliver; Balogová, Zuzana; Dezortová, Monika; Wagnerová, Dita; Hájek, Milan; Syka, Josef

2013-08-01

In humans, aging is accompanied by the deterioration of the hearing function--presbycusis. The major etiology for presbycusis is the loss of hair cells in the inner ear; less well known are changes in the central auditory system. Therefore, we used 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3T tomograph to examine metabolite levels in the auditory cortex of three groups of subjects: young healthy subjects less than 30 years old and subjects older than 65 years either with mild presbycusis corresponding to their age or with expressed presbycusis. Hearing function in all subjects was examined by pure tone audiometry (125-16,000 Hz). Significant differences were found in the concentrations of glutamate and N-acetylaspartate, with lower levels in aged subjects. Lactate was particularly increased in subjects with expressed presbycusis. Significant differences were not found in other metabolites, including GABA, between young and elderly subjects. The results demonstrate that the age-related changes of the inner ear are accompanied by a decrease in the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate as well as a lactate increase in the auditory cortex that is more expressed in elderly subjects with large hearing threshold shifts. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Presbycusis and auditory brainstem responses: a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shilpa Khullar

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Age-related hearing loss or presbycusis is a complex phenomenon consisting of elevation of hearing levels as well as changes in the auditory processing. It is commonly classified into four categories depending on the cause. Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs are a type of early evoked potentials recorded within the first 10 ms of stimulation. They represent the synchronized activity of the auditory nerve and the brainstem. Some of the changes that occur in the aging auditory system may significantly influence the interpretation of the ABRs in comparison with the ABRs of the young adults. The waves of ABRs are described in terms of amplitude, latencies and interpeak latency of the different waves. There is a tendency of the amplitude to decrease and the absolute latencies to increase with advancing age but these trends are not always clear due to increase in threshold with advancing age that act a major confounding factor in the interpretation of ABRs.

Improvement of auditory hallucinations and reduction of primary auditory area's activation following TMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giesel, Frederik L.; Mehndiratta, Amit; Hempel, Albrecht; Hempel, Eckhard; Kress, Kai R.; Essig, Marco; Schröder, Johannes

2012-01-01

Background: In the present case study, improvement of auditory hallucinations following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy was investigated with respect to activation changes of the auditory cortices. Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), activation of the auditory cortices was assessed prior to and after a 4-week TMS series of the left superior temporal gyrus in a schizophrenic patient with medication-resistant auditory hallucinations. Results: Hallucinations decreased slightly after the third and profoundly after the fourth week of TMS. Activation in the primary auditory area decreased, whereas activation in the operculum and insula remained stable. Conclusions: Combination of TMS and repetitive fMRI is promising to elucidate the physiological changes induced by TMS.

[Communication and auditory behavior obtained by auditory evoked potentials in mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles].

Science.gov (United States)

Arch-Tirado, Emilio; Collado-Corona, Miguel Angel; Morales-Martínez, José de Jesús

2004-01-01

amphibians, Frog catesbiana (frog bull, 30 animals); reptiles, Sceloporus torcuatus (common small lizard, 22 animals); birds: Columba livia (common dove, 20 animals), and mammals, Cavia porcellus, (guinea pig, 20 animals). With regard to lodging, all animals were maintained at the Institute of Human Communication Disorders, were fed with special food for each species, and had water available ad libitum. Regarding procedure, for carrying out analysis of auditory evoked potentials of brain stem SPL amphibians, birds, and mammals were anesthetized with ketamine 20, 25, and 50 mg/kg, by injection. Reptiles were anesthetized by freezing (6 degrees C). Study subjects had needle electrodes placed in an imaginary line on the half sagittal line between both ears and eyes, behind right ear, and behind left ear. Stimulation was carried out inside a no noise site by means of a horn in free field. The sign was filtered at between 100 and 3,000 Hz and analyzed in a computer for provoked potentials (Racia APE 78). In data shown by amphibians, wave-evoked responses showed greater latency than those of the other species. In reptiles, latency was observed as reduced in comparison with amphibians. In the case of birds, lesser latency values were observed, while in the case of guinea pigs latencies were greater than those of doves but they were stimulated by 10 dB, which demonstrated best auditory threshold in the four studied species. Last, it was corroborated that as the auditory threshold of each species it descends conforms to it advances in the phylogenetic scale. Beginning with these registrations, we care able to say that response for evoked brain stem potential showed to be more complex and lesser values of absolute latency as we advance along the phylogenetic scale; thus, the opposing auditory threshold is better agreement with regard to the phylogenetic scale among studied species. These data indicated to us that seeking of auditory information is more complex in more

Acquisition, Analyses and Interpretation of fMRI Data: A Study on the Effective Connectivity in Human Primary Auditory Cortices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad Nazlim Yusoff; Mazlyfarina Mohamad; Khairiah Abdul Hamid

2011-01-01

A study on the effective connectivity characteristics in auditory cortices was conducted on five healthy Malay male subjects with the age of 20 to 40 years old using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), statistical parametric mapping (SPM5) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). A silent imaging paradigm was used to reduce the scanner sound artefacts on functional images. The subjects were instructed to pay attention to the white noise stimulus binaurally given at intensity level of 70 dB higher than the hearing level for normal people. Functional specialisation was studied using Matlab-based SPM5 software by means of fixed effects (FFX), random effects (RFX) and conjunction analyses. Individual analyses on all subjects indicate asymmetrical bilateral activation between the left and right auditory cortices in Brodmann areas (BA)22, 41 and 42 involving the primary and secondary auditory cortices. The three auditory areas in the right and left auditory cortices are selected for the determination of the effective connectivity by constructing 9 network models. The effective connectivity is determined on four out of five subjects with the exception of one subject who has the BA22 coordinates located too far from BA22 coordinates obtained from group analysis. DCM results showed the existence of effective connectivity between the three selected auditory areas in both auditory cortices. In the right auditory cortex, BA42 is identified as input centre with unidirectional parallel effective connectivities of BA42→BA41and BA42→BA22. However, for the left auditory cortex, the input is BA41 with unidirectional parallel effective connectivities of BA41→BA42 and BA41→BA22. The connectivity between the activated auditory areas suggests the existence of signal pathway in the auditory cortices even when the subject is listening to noise. (author)

Effects of sequential streaming on auditory masking using psychoacoustics and auditory evoked potentials.

Science.gov (United States)

Verhey, Jesko L; Ernst, Stephan M A; Yasin, Ifat

2012-03-01

The present study was aimed at investigating the relationship between the mismatch negativity (MMN) and psychoacoustical effects of sequential streaming on comodulation masking release (CMR). The influence of sequential streaming on CMR was investigated using a psychoacoustical alternative forced-choice procedure and electroencephalography (EEG) for the same group of subjects. The psychoacoustical data showed, that adding precursors comprising of only off-signal-frequency maskers abolished the CMR. Complementary EEG data showed an MMN irrespective of the masker envelope correlation across frequency when only the off-signal-frequency masker components were present. The addition of such precursors promotes a separation of the on- and off-frequency masker components into distinct auditory objects preventing the auditory system from using comodulation as an additional cue. A frequency-specific adaptation changing the representation of the flanking bands in the streaming conditions may also contribute to the reduction of CMR in the stream conditions, however, it is unlikely that adaptation is the primary reason for the streaming effect. A neurophysiological correlate of sequential streaming was found in EEG data using MMN, but the magnitude of the MMN was not correlated with the audibility of the signal in CMR experiments. Dipole source analysis indicated different cortical regions involved in processing auditory streaming and modulation detection. In particular, neural sources for processing auditory streaming include cortical regions involved in decision-making. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How do auditory cortex neurons represent communication sounds?

Science.gov (United States)

Gaucher, Quentin; Huetz, Chloé; Gourévitch, Boris; Laudanski, Jonathan; Occelli, Florian; Edeline, Jean-Marc

2013-11-01

A major goal in auditory neuroscience is to characterize how communication sounds are represented at the cortical level. The present review aims at investigating the role of auditory cortex in the processing of speech, bird songs and other vocalizations, which all are spectrally and temporally highly structured sounds. Whereas earlier studies have simply looked for neurons exhibiting higher firing rates to particular conspecific vocalizations over their modified, artificially synthesized versions, more recent studies determined the coding capacity of temporal spike patterns, which are prominent in primary and non-primary areas (and also in non-auditory cortical areas). In several cases, this information seems to be correlated with the behavioral performance of human or animal subjects, suggesting that spike-timing based coding strategies might set the foundations of our perceptive abilities. Also, it is now clear that the responses of auditory cortex neurons are highly nonlinear and that their responses to natural stimuli cannot be predicted from their responses to artificial stimuli such as moving ripples and broadband noises. Since auditory cortex neurons cannot follow rapid fluctuations of the vocalizations envelope, they only respond at specific time points during communication sounds, which can serve as temporal markers for integrating the temporal and spectral processing taking place at subcortical relays. Thus, the temporal sparse code of auditory cortex neurons can be considered as a first step for generating high level representations of communication sounds independent of the acoustic characteristic of these sounds. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Communication Sounds and the Brain: New Directions and Perspectives". Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Auditory and visual connectivity gradients in frontoparietal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Braga, Rodrigo M; Hellyer, Peter J; Wise, Richard J S; Leech, Robert

2017-01-01

A frontoparietal network of brain regions is often implicated in both auditory and visual information processing. Although it is possible that the same set of multimodal regions subserves both modalities, there is increasing evidence that there is a differentiation of sensory function within frontoparietal cortex. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in humans was used to investigate whether different frontoparietal regions showed intrinsic biases in connectivity with visual or auditory modalities. Structural connectivity was assessed with diffusion tractography and functional connectivity was tested using functional MRI. A dorsal-ventral gradient of function was observed, where connectivity with visual cortex dominates dorsal frontal and parietal connections, while connectivity with auditory cortex dominates ventral frontal and parietal regions. A gradient was also observed along the posterior-anterior axis, although in opposite directions in prefrontal and parietal cortices. The results suggest that the location of neural activity within frontoparietal cortex may be influenced by these intrinsic biases toward visual and auditory processing. Thus, the location of activity in frontoparietal cortex may be influenced as much by stimulus modality as the cognitive demands of a task. It was concluded that stimulus modality was spatially encoded throughout frontal and parietal cortices, and was speculated that such an arrangement allows for top-down modulation of modality-specific information to occur within higher-order cortex. This could provide a potentially faster and more efficient pathway by which top-down selection between sensory modalities could occur, by constraining modulations to within frontal and parietal regions, rather than long-range connections to sensory cortices. Hum Brain Mapp 38:255-270, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Impairments in musical abilities reflected in the auditory brainstem: evidence from congenital amusia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, Alexandre; Skoe, Erika; Moreau, Patricia; Peretz, Isabelle; Kraus, Nina

2015-07-01

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic condition, characterized by a deficit in music perception and production, not explained by hearing loss, brain damage or lack of exposure to music. Despite inferior musical performance, amusics exhibit normal auditory cortical responses, with abnormal neural correlates suggested to lie beyond auditory cortices. Here we show, using auditory brainstem responses to complex sounds in humans, that fine-grained automatic processing of sounds is impoverished in amusia. Compared with matched non-musician controls, spectral amplitude was decreased in amusics for higher harmonic components of the auditory brainstem response. We also found a delayed response to the early transient aspects of the auditory stimulus in amusics. Neural measures of spectral amplitude and response timing correlated with participants' behavioral assessments of music processing. We demonstrate, for the first time, that amusia affects how complex acoustic signals are processed in the auditory brainstem. This neural signature of amusia mirrors what is observed in musicians, such that the aspects of the auditory brainstem responses that are enhanced in musicians are degraded in amusics. By showing that gradients of music abilities are reflected in the auditory brainstem, our findings have implications not only for current models of amusia but also for auditory functioning in general. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Neural Correlates of Auditory Figure-Ground Segregation Based on Temporal Coherence.

Science.gov (United States)

Teki, Sundeep; Barascud, Nicolas; Picard, Samuel; Payne, Christopher; Griffiths, Timothy D; Chait, Maria

2016-09-01

To make sense of natural acoustic environments, listeners must parse complex mixtures of sounds that vary in frequency, space, and time. Emerging work suggests that, in addition to the well-studied spectral cues for segregation, sensitivity to temporal coherence-the coincidence of sound elements in and across time-is also critical for the perceptual organization of acoustic scenes. Here, we examine pre-attentive, stimulus-driven neural processes underlying auditory figure-ground segregation using stimuli that capture the challenges of listening in complex scenes where segregation cannot be achieved based on spectral cues alone. Signals ("stochastic figure-ground": SFG) comprised a sequence of brief broadband chords containing random pure tone components that vary from 1 chord to another. Occasional tone repetitions across chords are perceived as "figures" popping out of a stochastic "ground." Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurement in naïve, distracted, human subjects revealed robust evoked responses, commencing from about 150 ms after figure onset that reflect the emergence of the "figure" from the randomly varying "ground." Neural sources underlying this bottom-up driven figure-ground segregation were localized to planum temporale, and the intraparietal sulcus, demonstrating that this area, outside the "classic" auditory system, is also involved in the early stages of auditory scene analysis." © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Prestimulus influences on auditory perception from sensory representations and decision processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kayser, Stephanie J; McNair, Steven W; Kayser, Christoph

2016-04-26

The qualities of perception depend not only on the sensory inputs but also on the brain state before stimulus presentation. Although the collective evidence from neuroimaging studies for a relation between prestimulus state and perception is strong, the interpretation in the context of sensory computations or decision processes has remained difficult. In the auditory system, for example, previous studies have reported a wide range of effects in terms of the perceptually relevant frequency bands and state parameters (phase/power). To dissociate influences of state on earlier sensory representations and higher-level decision processes, we collected behavioral and EEG data in human participants performing two auditory discrimination tasks relying on distinct acoustic features. Using single-trial decoding, we quantified the relation between prestimulus activity, relevant sensory evidence, and choice in different task-relevant EEG components. Within auditory networks, we found that phase had no direct influence on choice, whereas power in task-specific frequency bands affected the encoding of sensory evidence. Within later-activated frontoparietal regions, theta and alpha phase had a direct influence on choice, without involving sensory evidence. These results delineate two consistent mechanisms by which prestimulus activity shapes perception. However, the timescales of the relevant neural activity depend on the specific brain regions engaged by the respective task.

Mutism and auditory agnosia due to bilateral insular damage--role of the insula in human communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, M; Daquin, G; Milandre, L; Royere, M L; Rey, M; Lanteri, A; Salamon, G; Khalil, R

1995-03-01

We report a case of transient mutism and persistent auditory agnosia due to two successive ischemic infarcts mainly involving the insular cortex on both hemispheres. During the 'mutic' period, which lasted about 1 month, the patient did not respond to any auditory stimuli and made no effort to communicate. On follow-up examinations, language competences had re-appeared almost intact, but a massive auditory agnosia for non-verbal sounds was observed. From close inspection of lesion site, as determined with brain resonance imaging, and from a study of auditory evoked potentials, it is concluded that bilateral insular damage was crucial to both expressive and receptive components of the syndrome. The role of the insula in verbal and non-verbal communication is discussed in the light of anatomical descriptions of the pattern of connectivity of the insular cortex.

Testing resonating vector strength: Auditory system, electric fish, and noise

Science.gov (United States)

Leo van Hemmen, J.; Longtin, André; Vollmayr, Andreas N.

2011-12-01

Quite often a response to some input with a specific frequency ν○ can be described through a sequence of discrete events. Here, we study the synchrony vector, whose length stands for the vector strength, and in doing so focus on neuronal response in terms of spike times. The latter are supposed to be given by experiment. Instead of singling out the stimulus frequency ν○ we study the synchrony vector as a function of the real frequency variable ν. Its length turns out to be a resonating vector strength in that it shows clear maxima in the neighborhood of ν○ and multiples thereof, hence, allowing an easy way of determining response frequencies. We study this "resonating" vector strength for two concrete but rather different cases, viz., a specific midbrain neuron in the auditory system of cat and a primary detector neuron belonging to the electric sense of the wave-type electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus. We show that the resonating vector strength always performs a clear resonance correlated with the phase locking that it quantifies. We analyze the influence of noise and demonstrate how well the resonance associated with maximal vector strength indicates the dominant stimulus frequency. Furthermore, we exhibit how one can obtain a specific phase associated with, for instance, a delay in auditory analysis.

Effect of Bluetooth headset and mobile phone electromagnetic fields on the human auditory nerve.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandalà, Marco; Colletti, Vittorio; Sacchetto, Luca; Manganotti, Paolo; Ramat, Stefano; Marcocci, Alessandro; Colletti, Liliana

2014-01-01

The possibility that long-term mobile phone use increases the incidence of astrocytoma, glioma and acoustic neuroma has been investigated in several studies. Recently, our group showed that direct exposure (in a surgical setting) to cell phone electromagnetic fields (EMFs) induces deterioration of auditory evoked cochlear nerve compound action potential (CNAP) in humans. To verify whether the use of Bluetooth devices reduces these effects, we conducted the present study with the same experimental protocol. Randomized trial. Twelve patients underwent retrosigmoid vestibular neurectomy to treat definite unilateral Ménière's disease while being monitored with acoustically evoked CNAPs to assess direct mobile phone exposure or alternatively the EMF effects of Bluetooth headsets. We found no short-term effects of Bluetooth EMFs on the auditory nervous structures, whereas direct mobile phone EMF exposure confirmed a significant decrease in CNAPs amplitude and an increase in latency in all subjects. The outcomes of the present study show that, contrary to the finding that the latency and amplitude of CNAPs are very sensitive to EMFs produced by the tested mobile phone, the EMFs produced by a common Bluetooth device do not induce any significant change in cochlear nerve activity. The conditions of exposure, therefore, differ from those of everyday life, in which various biological tissues may reduce the EMF affecting the cochlear nerve. Nevertheless, these novel findings may have important safety implications. © 2013 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Auditory Perspective Taking

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Martinson, Eric; Brock, Derek

2006-01-01

.... From this knowledge of another's auditory perspective, a conversational partner can then adapt his or her auditory output to overcome a variety of environmental challenges and insure that what is said is intelligible...

Frequency-specific attentional modulation in human primary auditory cortex and midbrain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Riecke, Lars; Peters, Judith C; Valente, Giancarlo; Poser, Benedikt A; Kemper, Valentin G; Formisano, Elia; Sorger, Bettina

2018-01-01

Paying selective attention to an audio frequency selectively enhances activity within primary auditory cortex (PAC) at the tonotopic site (frequency channel) representing that frequency. Animal PAC neurons achieve this 'frequency-specific attentional spotlight' by adapting their frequency tuning,

Competition and convergence between auditory and cross-modal visual inputs to primary auditory cortical areas

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Yu-Ting; Hua, Tian-Miao

2011-01-01

Sensory neocortex is capable of considerable plasticity after sensory deprivation or damage to input pathways, especially early in development. Although plasticity can often be restorative, sometimes novel, ectopic inputs invade the affected cortical area. Invading inputs from other sensory modalities may compromise the original function or even take over, imposing a new function and preventing recovery. Using ferrets whose retinal axons were rerouted into auditory thalamus at birth, we were able to examine the effect of varying the degree of ectopic, cross-modal input on reorganization of developing auditory cortex. In particular, we assayed whether the invading visual inputs and the existing auditory inputs competed for or shared postsynaptic targets and whether the convergence of input modalities would induce multisensory processing. We demonstrate that although the cross-modal inputs create new visual neurons in auditory cortex, some auditory processing remains. The degree of damage to auditory input to the medial geniculate nucleus was directly related to the proportion of visual neurons in auditory cortex, suggesting that the visual and residual auditory inputs compete for cortical territory. Visual neurons were not segregated from auditory neurons but shared target space even on individual target cells, substantially increasing the proportion of multisensory neurons. Thus spatial convergence of visual and auditory input modalities may be sufficient to expand multisensory representations. Together these findings argue that early, patterned visual activity does not drive segregation of visual and auditory afferents and suggest that auditory function might be compromised by converging visual inputs. These results indicate possible ways in which multisensory cortical areas may form during development and evolution. They also suggest that rehabilitative strategies designed to promote recovery of function after sensory deprivation or damage need to take into

Differential Recruitment of Auditory Cortices in the Consolidation of Recent Auditory Fearful Memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Cambiaghi, Marco; Grosso, Anna; Renna, Annamaria; Sacchetti, Benedetto

2016-08-17

Memories of frightening events require a protracted consolidation process. Sensory cortex, such as the auditory cortex, is involved in the formation of fearful memories with a more complex sensory stimulus pattern. It remains controversial, however, whether the auditory cortex is also required for fearful memories related to simple sensory stimuli. In the present study, we found that, 1 d after training, the temporary inactivation of either the most anterior region of the auditory cortex, including the primary (Te1) cortex, or the most posterior region, which included the secondary (Te2) component, did not affect the retention of recent memories, which is consistent with the current literature. However, at this time point, the inactivation of the entire auditory cortices completely prevented the formation of new memories. Amnesia was site specific and was not due to auditory stimuli perception or processing and strictly related to the interference with memory consolidation processes. Strikingly, at a late time interval 4 d after training, blocking the posterior part (encompassing the Te2) alone impaired memory retention, whereas the inactivation of the anterior part (encompassing the Te1) left memory unaffected. Together, these data show that the auditory cortex is necessary for the consolidation of auditory fearful memories related to simple tones in rats. Moreover, these results suggest that, at early time intervals, memory information is processed in a distributed network composed of both the anterior and the posterior auditory cortical regions, whereas, at late time intervals, memory processing is concentrated in the most posterior part containing the Te2 region. Memories of threatening experiences undergo a prolonged process of "consolidation" to be maintained for a long time. The dynamic of fearful memory consolidation is poorly understood. Here, we show that 1 d after learning, memory is processed in a distributed network composed of both primary Te1 and

Measuring the performance of visual to auditory information conversion.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shern Shiou Tan

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Visual to auditory conversion systems have been in existence for several decades. Besides being among the front runners in providing visual capabilities to blind users, the auditory cues generated from image sonification systems are still easier to learn and adapt to compared to other similar techniques. Other advantages include low cost, easy customizability, and universality. However, every system developed so far has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. In order to improve these systems further, we propose an automated and quantitative method to measure the performance of such systems. With these quantitative measurements, it is possible to gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of different systems and rank the systems accordingly. METHODOLOGY: Performance is measured by both the interpretability and also the information preservation of visual to auditory conversions. Interpretability is measured by computing the correlation of inter image distance (IID and inter sound distance (ISD whereas the information preservation is computed by applying Information Theory to measure the entropy of both visual and corresponding auditory signals. These measurements provide a basis and some insights on how the systems work. CONCLUSIONS: With an automated interpretability measure as a standard, more image sonification systems can be developed, compared, and then improved. Even though the measure does not test systems as thoroughly as carefully designed psychological experiments, a quantitative measurement like the one proposed here can compare systems to a certain degree without incurring much cost. Underlying this research is the hope that a major breakthrough in image sonification systems will allow blind users to cost effectively regain enough visual functions to allow them to lead secure and productive lives.

Rendering visual events as sounds: Spatial attention capture by auditory augmented reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Scott A; Tata, Matthew S

2017-01-01

Many salient visual events tend to coincide with auditory events, such as seeing and hearing a car pass by. Information from the visual and auditory senses can be used to create a stable percept of the stimulus. Having access to related coincident visual and auditory information can help for spatial tasks such as localization. However not all visual information has analogous auditory percepts, such as viewing a computer monitor. Here, we describe a system capable of detecting and augmenting visual salient events into localizable auditory events. The system uses a neuromorphic camera (DAVIS 240B) to detect logarithmic changes of brightness intensity in the scene, which can be interpreted as salient visual events. Participants were blindfolded and asked to use the device to detect new objects in the scene, as well as determine direction of motion for a moving visual object. Results suggest the system is robust enough to allow for the simple detection of new salient stimuli, as well accurately encoding direction of visual motion. Future successes are probable as neuromorphic devices are likely to become faster and smaller in the future, making this system much more feasible.

Rendering visual events as sounds: Spatial attention capture by auditory augmented reality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scott A Stone

Full Text Available Many salient visual events tend to coincide with auditory events, such as seeing and hearing a car pass by. Information from the visual and auditory senses can be used to create a stable percept of the stimulus. Having access to related coincident visual and auditory information can help for spatial tasks such as localization. However not all visual information has analogous auditory percepts, such as viewing a computer monitor. Here, we describe a system capable of detecting and augmenting visual salient events into localizable auditory events. The system uses a neuromorphic camera (DAVIS 240B to detect logarithmic changes of brightness intensity in the scene, which can be interpreted as salient visual events. Participants were blindfolded and asked to use the device to detect new objects in the scene, as well as determine direction of motion for a moving visual object. Results suggest the system is robust enough to allow for the simple detection of new salient stimuli, as well accurately encoding direction of visual motion. Future successes are probable as neuromorphic devices are likely to become faster and smaller in the future, making this system much more feasible.

Auditory bones obtained by synchrotron radiation computed tomography at SPring-8

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, E.; Sugiyama, H.; Maksimenko, A.

2005-01-01

A series tomograms and 3D reconstructions of the inner structure of the human auditory bone were obtained for the first time by employing absorption X-ray computed tomography using a synchrotron radiation. The experiment was performed at the very long transport channel beam line BL29XUL, where X-ray were available at 1000m from the source point. This method is great worth to making anatomically auditory structure observations without bursting the specimens. (author)

Systemic inhibition of mTOR kinase via rapamycin disrupts consolidation and reconsolidation of auditory fear memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Mac Callum, Phillip E; Hebert, Mark; Adamec, Robert E; Blundell, Jacqueline

2014-07-01

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase is a critical regulator of mRNA translation and is known to be involved in various long lasting forms of synaptic and behavioural plasticity. However, information concerning the temporal pattern of mTOR activation and susceptibility to pharmacological intervention during both consolidation and reconsolidation of long-term memory (LTM) remains scant. Male C57BL/6 mice were injected systemically with rapamycin at various time points following conditioning or retrieval in an auditory fear conditioning paradigm, and compared to vehicle (and/or anisomycin) controls for subsequent memory recall. Systemic blockade of mTOR with rapamycin immediately or 12h after training or reactivation impairs both consolidation and reconsolidation of an auditory fear memory. Further behavioural analysis revealed that the enduring effects of rapamycin on reconsolidation are dependent upon reactivation of the memory trace. Rapamycin, however, has no effect on short-term memory or the ability to retrieve an established fear memory. Collectively, our data suggest that biphasic mTOR signalling is essential for both consolidation and reconsolidation-like activities that contribute to the formation, re-stabilization, and persistence of long term auditory-fear memories, while not influencing other aspects of the memory trace. These findings also provide evidence for a cogent treatment model for reducing the emotional strength of established, traumatic memories analogous to those observed in acquired anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and specific phobias, through pharmacologic blockade of mTOR using systemic rapamycin following reactivation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Activation of auditory white matter tracts as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tae, Woo Suk [Kangwon National University, Neuroscience Research Institute, School of Medicine, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of); Yakunina, Natalia; Nam, Eui-Cheol [Kangwon National University, Neuroscience Research Institute, School of Medicine, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of); Kangwon National University, Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Tae Su [Kangwon National University Hospital, Department of Otolaryngology, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Sam Soo [Kangwon National University, Neuroscience Research Institute, School of Medicine, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of); Kangwon National University, Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-07-15

The ability of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect activation in brain white matter (WM) is controversial. In particular, studies on the functional activation of WM tracts in the central auditory system are scarce. We utilized fMRI to assess and characterize the entire auditory WM pathway under robust experimental conditions involving the acquisition of a large number of functional volumes, the application of broadband auditory stimuli of high intensity, and the use of sparse temporal sampling to avoid scanner noise effects and increase signal-to-noise ratio. Nineteen healthy volunteers were subjected to broadband white noise in a block paradigm; each run had four sound-on/off alternations and was repeated nine times for each subject. Sparse sampling (TR = 8 s) was used. In addition to traditional gray matter (GM) auditory center activation, WM activation was detected in the isthmus and midbody of the corpus callosum (CC), tapetum, auditory radiation, lateral lemniscus, and decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncles. At the individual level, 13 of 19 subjects (68 %) had CC activation. Callosal WM exhibited a temporal delay of approximately 8 s in response to the stimulation compared with GM. These findings suggest that direct evaluation of the entire functional network of the central auditory system may be possible using fMRI, which may aid in understanding the neurophysiological basis of the central auditory system and in developing treatment strategies for various central auditory disorders. (orig.)

Activation of auditory white matter tracts as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tae, Woo Suk; Yakunina, Natalia; Nam, Eui-Cheol; Kim, Tae Su; Kim, Sam Soo

2014-01-01

The ability of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect activation in brain white matter (WM) is controversial. In particular, studies on the functional activation of WM tracts in the central auditory system are scarce. We utilized fMRI to assess and characterize the entire auditory WM pathway under robust experimental conditions involving the acquisition of a large number of functional volumes, the application of broadband auditory stimuli of high intensity, and the use of sparse temporal sampling to avoid scanner noise effects and increase signal-to-noise ratio. Nineteen healthy volunteers were subjected to broadband white noise in a block paradigm; each run had four sound-on/off alternations and was repeated nine times for each subject. Sparse sampling (TR = 8 s) was used. In addition to traditional gray matter (GM) auditory center activation, WM activation was detected in the isthmus and midbody of the corpus callosum (CC), tapetum, auditory radiation, lateral lemniscus, and decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncles. At the individual level, 13 of 19 subjects (68 %) had CC activation. Callosal WM exhibited a temporal delay of approximately 8 s in response to the stimulation compared with GM. These findings suggest that direct evaluation of the entire functional network of the central auditory system may be possible using fMRI, which may aid in understanding the neurophysiological basis of the central auditory system and in developing treatment strategies for various central auditory disorders. (orig.)

Brain bases for auditory stimulus-driven figure-ground segregation.

Science.gov (United States)

Teki, Sundeep; Chait, Maria; Kumar, Sukhbinder; von Kriegstein, Katharina; Griffiths, Timothy D

2011-01-05

Auditory figure-ground segregation, listeners' ability to selectively hear out a sound of interest from a background of competing sounds, is a fundamental aspect of scene analysis. In contrast to the disordered acoustic environment we experience during everyday listening, most studies of auditory segregation have used relatively simple, temporally regular signals. We developed a new figure-ground stimulus that incorporates stochastic variation of the figure and background that captures the rich spectrotemporal complexity of natural acoustic scenes. Figure and background signals overlap in spectrotemporal space, but vary in the statistics of fluctuation, such that the only way to extract the figure is by integrating the patterns over time and frequency. Our behavioral results demonstrate that human listeners are remarkably sensitive to the appearance of such figures. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, aimed at investigating preattentive, stimulus-driven, auditory segregation mechanisms, naive subjects listened to these stimuli while performing an irrelevant task. Results demonstrate significant activations in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the superior temporal sulcus related to bottom-up, stimulus-driven figure-ground decomposition. We did not observe any significant activation in the primary auditory cortex. Our results support a role for automatic, bottom-up mechanisms in the IPS in mediating stimulus-driven, auditory figure-ground segregation, which is consistent with accumulating evidence implicating the IPS in structuring sensory input and perceptual organization.

Effects of Caffeine on Auditory Brainstem Response

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Saleheh Soleimanian

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Blocking of the adenosine receptor in central nervous system by caffeine can lead to increasing the level of neurotransmitters like glutamate. As the adenosine receptors are present in almost all brain areas like central auditory pathway, it seems caffeine can change conduction in this way. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of caffeine on latency and amplitude of auditory brainstem response(ABR.Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study 43 normal 18-25 years old male students were participated. The subjects consumed 0, 2 and 3 mg/kg BW caffeine in three different sessions. Auditory brainstem responses were recorded before and 30 minute after caffeine consumption. The results were analyzed by Friedman and Wilcoxone test to assess the effects of caffeine on auditory brainstem response.Results: Compared to control group the latencies of waves III,V and I-V interpeak interval of the cases decreased significantly after 2 and 3mg/kg BW caffeine consumption. Wave I latency significantly decreased after 3mg/kg BW caffeine consumption(p<0.01. Conclusion: Increasing of the glutamate level resulted from the adenosine receptor blocking brings about changes in conduction in the central auditory pathway.

For Better or Worse: The Effect of Prismatic Adaptation on Auditory Neglect

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Isabel Tissieres

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Patients with auditory neglect attend less to auditory stimuli on their left and/or make systematic directional errors when indicating sound positions. Rightward prismatic adaptation (R-PA was repeatedly shown to alleviate symptoms of visuospatial neglect and once to restore partially spatial bias in dichotic listening. It is currently unknown whether R-PA affects only this ear-related symptom or also other aspects of auditory neglect. We have investigated the effect of R-PA on left ear extinction in dichotic listening, space-related inattention assessed by diotic listening, and directional errors in auditory localization in patients with auditory neglect. The most striking effect of R-PA was the alleviation of left ear extinction in dichotic listening, which occurred in half of the patients with initial deficit. In contrast to nonresponders, their lesions spared the right dorsal attentional system and posterior temporal cortex. The beneficial effect of R-PA on an ear-related performance contrasted with detrimental effects on diotic listening and auditory localization. The former can be parsimoniously explained by the SHD-VAS model (shift in hemispheric dominance within the ventral attentional system; Clarke and Crottaz-Herbette 2016, which is based on the R-PA-induced shift of the right-dominant ventral attentional system to the left hemisphere. The negative effects in space-related tasks may be due to the complex nature of auditory space encoding at a cortical level.

A comparison of several computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) techniques for monaural speech segregation.

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Zeremdini, Jihen; Ben Messaoud, Mohamed Anouar; Bouzid, Aicha

2015-09-01

Humans have the ability to easily separate a composed speech and to form perceptual representations of the constituent sources in an acoustic mixture thanks to their ears. Until recently, researchers attempt to build computer models of high-level functions of the auditory system. The problem of the composed speech segregation is still a very challenging problem for these researchers. In our case, we are interested in approaches that are addressed to the monaural speech segregation. For this purpose, we study in this paper the computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) to segregate speech from monaural mixtures. CASA is the reproduction of the source organization achieved by listeners. It is based on two main stages: segmentation and grouping. In this work, we have presented, and compared several studies that have used CASA for speech separation and recognition.

Effects of voice harmonic complexity on ERP responses to pitch-shifted auditory feedback.

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Behroozmand, Roozbeh; Korzyukov, Oleg; Larson, Charles R

2011-12-01

The present study investigated the neural mechanisms of voice pitch control for different levels of harmonic complexity in the auditory feedback. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to+200 cents pitch perturbations in the auditory feedback of self-produced natural human vocalizations, complex and pure tone stimuli during active vocalization and passive listening conditions. During active vocal production, ERP amplitudes were largest in response to pitch shifts in the natural voice, moderately large for non-voice complex stimuli and smallest for the pure tones. However, during passive listening, neural responses were equally large for pitch shifts in voice and non-voice complex stimuli but still larger than that for pure tones. These findings suggest that pitch change detection is facilitated for spectrally rich sounds such as natural human voice and non-voice complex stimuli compared with pure tones. Vocalization-induced increase in neural responses for voice feedback suggests that sensory processing of naturally-produced complex sounds such as human voice is enhanced by means of motor-driven mechanisms (e.g. efference copies) during vocal production. This enhancement may enable the audio-vocal system to more effectively detect and correct for vocal errors in the feedback of natural human vocalizations to maintain an intended vocal output for speaking. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differences between human auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) measured at 2 and 4 months after birth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Heuvel, Marion I.; Otte, Renee A.; Braeken, Marijke A. K. A.; Winkler, Istvan; Kushnerenko, Elena; Van den Bergh, Bea R. H.

2015-01-01

Infant auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) show a series of marked changes during the first year of life. These AERP changes indicate important advances in early development. The current study examined AERP differences between 2- and 4-month-old infants. An auditory oddball paradigm was

Structural changes in the adult rat auditory system induced by brief postnatal noise exposure

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Ouda, Ladislav; Burianová, Jana; Balogová, Zuzana; Lu, H. P.; Syka, Josef

2016-01-01

Roč. 221, č. 1 (2016), s. 617-629 ISSN 1863-2653 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GCP303/11/J005; GA ČR(CZ) GAP303/12/1347; GA ČR(CZ) GBP304/12/G069 Institutional support: RVO:68378041 Keywords : noise exposure * critical period * central auditory system Subject RIV: FH - Neurology Impact factor: 4.698, year: 2016

Hearing after congenital deafness: central auditory plasticity and sensory deprivation.

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Kral, A; Hartmann, R; Tillein, J; Heid, S; Klinke, R

2002-08-01

The congenitally deaf cat suffers from a degeneration of the inner ear. The organ of Corti bears no hair cells, yet the auditory afferents are preserved. Since these animals have no auditory experience, they were used as a model for congenital deafness. Kittens were equipped with a cochlear implant at different ages and electro-stimulated over a period of 2.0-5.5 months using a monopolar single-channel compressed analogue stimulation strategy (VIENNA-type signal processor). Following a period of auditory experience, we investigated cortical field potentials in response to electrical biphasic pulses applied by means of the cochlear implant. In comparison to naive unstimulated deaf cats and normal hearing cats, the chronically stimulated animals showed larger cortical regions producing middle-latency responses at or above 300 microV amplitude at the contralateral as well as the ipsilateral auditory cortex. The cortex ipsilateral to the chronically stimulated ear did not show any signs of reduced responsiveness when stimulating the 'untrained' ear through a second cochlear implant inserted in the final experiment. With comparable duration of auditory training, the activated cortical area was substantially smaller if implantation had been performed at an older age of 5-6 months. The data emphasize that young sensory systems in cats have a higher capacity for plasticity than older ones and that there is a sensitive period for the cat's auditory system.

Effects of chronic exposure to electromagnetic waves on the auditory system.

Science.gov (United States)

Özgür, Abdulkadir; Tümkaya, Levent; Terzi, Suat; Kalkan, Yıldıray; Erdivanlı, Özlem Çelebi; Dursun, Engin

2015-08-01

The results support that chronic electromagnetic field exposure may cause damage by leading to neuronal degeneration of the auditory system. Numerous researches have been done about the risks of exposure to the electromagnetic fields that occur during the use of these devices, especially the effects on hearing. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the electromagnetic waves emitted by the mobile phones through the electrophysiological and histological methods. Twelve adult Wistar albino rats were included in the study. The rats were divided into two groups of six rats. The study group was exposed to the electromagnetic waves over a period of 30 days. The control group was not given any exposure to the electromagnetic fields. After the completion of the electromagnetic wave application, the auditory brainstem responses of both groups were recorded under anesthesia. The degeneration of cochlear nuclei was graded by two different histologists, both of whom were blinded to group information. The histopathologic and immunohistochemical analysis showed neuronal degeneration signs, such as increased vacuolization in the cochlear nucleus, pyknotic cell appearance, and edema in the group exposed to the electromagnetic fields compared to the control group. The average latency of wave in the ABR was similar in both groups (p > 0.05).

Transcriptional maturation of the mouse auditory forebrain.

Science.gov (United States)

Hackett, Troy A; Guo, Yan; Clause, Amanda; Hackett, Nicholas J; Garbett, Krassimira; Zhang, Pan; Polley, Daniel B; Mirnics, Karoly

2015-08-14

The maturation of the brain involves the coordinated expression of thousands of genes, proteins and regulatory elements over time. In sensory pathways, gene expression profiles are modified by age and sensory experience in a manner that differs between brain regions and cell types. In the auditory system of altricial animals, neuronal activity increases markedly after the opening of the ear canals, initiating events that culminate in the maturation of auditory circuitry in the brain. This window provides a unique opportunity to study how gene expression patterns are modified by the onset of sensory experience through maturity. As a tool for capturing these features, next-generation sequencing of total RNA (RNAseq) has tremendous utility, because the entire transcriptome can be screened to index expression of any gene. To date, whole transcriptome profiles have not been generated for any central auditory structure in any species at any age. In the present study, RNAseq was used to profile two regions of the mouse auditory forebrain (A1, primary auditory cortex; MG, medial geniculate) at key stages of postnatal development (P7, P14, P21, adult) before and after the onset of hearing (~P12). Hierarchical clustering, differential expression, and functional geneset enrichment analyses (GSEA) were used to profile the expression patterns of all genes. Selected genesets related to neurotransmission, developmental plasticity, critical periods and brain structure were highlighted. An accessible repository of the entire dataset was also constructed that permits extraction and screening of all data from the global through single-gene levels. To our knowledge, this is the first whole transcriptome sequencing study of the forebrain of any mammalian sensory system. Although the data are most relevant for the auditory system, they are generally applicable to forebrain structures in the visual and somatosensory systems, as well. The main findings were: (1) Global gene expression

Psychoacoustic parameters and its measuring system; Onshitsu hyoka wo hyokasuru tame no parameter to keisoku system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ohashi, M.; Imaizumi, H.; Ono, T. [Ono Sokki Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1998-05-01

Human auditory sensation has both extremely excellent performance and general versatility as sound analyzer. At present, it is impossible to make equipment with the same functions as human being, and describe an auditory sensation function as acoustic sensor even by any physical analysis techniques. However, extraction of auditory sensation parameters is becoming possible by using psychoacoustics and binaural signal processing. This paper mainly explains the calculation method of sound quality evaluation parameters derived from psychoacoustic results based on a sound quality evaluation system under development by the authors. This system is based on binaural measurement by dummy head, and calculates psychoacoustic parameters such as loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength and tonality through frequency analysis of the measured stereo signals. The system also calculates 2-D parameters such as sensory pleasantness and unbiased annoyance based on the above parameters. 12 refs., 4 figs.

Visual Input Enhances Selective Speech Envelope Tracking in Auditory Cortex at a ‘Cocktail Party’

Science.gov (United States)

Golumbic, Elana Zion; Cogan, Gregory B.; Schroeder, Charles E.; Poeppel, David

2013-01-01

Our ability to selectively attend to one auditory signal amidst competing input streams, epitomized by the ‘Cocktail Party’ problem, continues to stimulate research from various approaches. How this demanding perceptual feat is achieved from a neural systems perspective remains unclear and controversial. It is well established that neural responses to attended stimuli are enhanced compared to responses to ignored ones, but responses to ignored stimuli are nonetheless highly significant, leading to interference in performance. We investigated whether congruent visual input of an attended speaker enhances cortical selectivity in auditory cortex, leading to diminished representation of ignored stimuli. We recorded magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals from human participants as they attended to segments of natural continuous speech. Using two complementary methods of quantifying the neural response to speech, we found that viewing a speaker’s face enhances the capacity of auditory cortex to track the temporal speech envelope of that speaker. This mechanism was most effective in a ‘Cocktail Party’ setting, promoting preferential tracking of the attended speaker, whereas without visual input no significant attentional modulation was observed. These neurophysiological results underscore the importance of visual input in resolving perceptual ambiguity in a noisy environment. Since visual cues in speech precede the associated auditory signals, they likely serve a predictive role in facilitating auditory processing of speech, perhaps by directing attentional resources to appropriate points in time when to-be-attended acoustic input is expected to arrive. PMID:23345218

Auditory cross-modal reorganization in cochlear implant users indicates audio-visual integration.

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Stropahl, Maren; Debener, Stefan

2017-01-01

There is clear evidence for cross-modal cortical reorganization in the auditory system of post-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) users. A recent report suggests that moderate sensori-neural hearing loss is already sufficient to initiate corresponding cortical changes. To what extend these changes are deprivation-induced or related to sensory recovery is still debated. Moreover, the influence of cross-modal reorganization on CI benefit is also still unclear. While reorganization during deafness may impede speech recovery, reorganization also has beneficial influences on face recognition and lip-reading. As CI users were observed to show differences in multisensory integration, the question arises if cross-modal reorganization is related to audio-visual integration skills. The current electroencephalography study investigated cortical reorganization in experienced post-lingually deafened CI users ( n  = 18), untreated mild to moderately hearing impaired individuals (n = 18) and normal hearing controls ( n  = 17). Cross-modal activation of the auditory cortex by means of EEG source localization in response to human faces and audio-visual integration, quantified with the McGurk illusion, were measured. CI users revealed stronger cross-modal activations compared to age-matched normal hearing individuals. Furthermore, CI users showed a relationship between cross-modal activation and audio-visual integration strength. This may further support a beneficial relationship between cross-modal activation and daily-life communication skills that may not be fully captured by laboratory-based speech perception tests. Interestingly, hearing impaired individuals showed behavioral and neurophysiological results that were numerically between the other two groups, and they showed a moderate relationship between cross-modal activation and the degree of hearing loss. This further supports the notion that auditory deprivation evokes a reorganization of the auditory system

Auditory cross-modal reorganization in cochlear implant users indicates audio-visual integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maren Stropahl

2017-01-01

Full Text Available There is clear evidence for cross-modal cortical reorganization in the auditory system of post-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI users. A recent report suggests that moderate sensori-neural hearing loss is already sufficient to initiate corresponding cortical changes. To what extend these changes are deprivation-induced or related to sensory recovery is still debated. Moreover, the influence of cross-modal reorganization on CI benefit is also still unclear. While reorganization during deafness may impede speech recovery, reorganization also has beneficial influences on face recognition and lip-reading. As CI users were observed to show differences in multisensory integration, the question arises if cross-modal reorganization is related to audio-visual integration skills. The current electroencephalography study investigated cortical reorganization in experienced post-lingually deafened CI users (n = 18, untreated mild to moderately hearing impaired individuals (n = 18 and normal hearing controls (n = 17. Cross-modal activation of the auditory cortex by means of EEG source localization in response to human faces and audio-visual integration, quantified with the McGurk illusion, were measured. CI users revealed stronger cross-modal activations compared to age-matched normal hearing individuals. Furthermore, CI users showed a relationship between cross-modal activation and audio-visual integration strength. This may further support a beneficial relationship between cross-modal activation and daily-life communication skills that may not be fully captured by laboratory-based speech perception tests. Interestingly, hearing impaired individuals showed behavioral and neurophysiological results that were numerically between the other two groups, and they showed a moderate relationship between cross-modal activation and the degree of hearing loss. This further supports the notion that auditory deprivation evokes a reorganization of the

Auditory temporal preparation induced by rhythmic cues during concurrent auditory working memory tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Cutanda, Diana; Correa, Ángel; Sanabria, Daniel

2015-06-01

The present study investigated whether participants can develop temporal preparation driven by auditory isochronous rhythms when concurrently performing an auditory working memory (WM) task. In Experiment 1, participants had to respond to an auditory target presented after a regular or an irregular sequence of auditory stimuli while concurrently performing a Sternberg-type WM task. Results showed that participants responded faster after regular compared with irregular rhythms and that this effect was not affected by WM load; however, the lack of a significant main effect of WM load made it difficult to draw any conclusion regarding the influence of the dual-task manipulation in Experiment 1. In order to enhance dual-task interference, Experiment 2 combined the auditory rhythm procedure with an auditory N-Back task, which required WM updating (monitoring and coding of the information) and was presumably more demanding than the mere rehearsal of the WM task used in Experiment 1. Results now clearly showed dual-task interference effects (slower reaction times [RTs] in the high- vs. the low-load condition). However, such interference did not affect temporal preparation induced by rhythms, with faster RTs after regular than after irregular sequences in the high-load and low-load conditions. These results revealed that secondary tasks demanding memory updating, relative to tasks just demanding rehearsal, produced larger interference effects on overall RTs in the auditory rhythm task. Nevertheless, rhythm regularity exerted a strong temporal preparation effect that survived the interference of the WM task even when both tasks competed for processing resources within the auditory modality. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Stimulator with arbitrary waveform for auditory evoked potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, H R; Romao, M; Placido, D; Provenzano, F; Tierra-Criollo, C J

2007-01-01

The technological improvement helps many medical areas. The audiometric exams involving the auditory evoked potentials can make better diagnoses of auditory disorders. This paper proposes the development of a stimulator based on Digital Signal Processor. This stimulator is the first step of an auditory evoked potential system based on the ADSP-BF533 EZ KIT LITE (Analog Devices Company - USA). The stimulator can generate arbitrary waveform like Sine Waves, Modulated Amplitude, Pulses, Bursts and Pips. The waveforms are generated through a graphical interface programmed in C++ in which the user can define the parameters of the waveform. Furthermore, the user can set the exam parameters as number of stimuli, time with stimulation (Time ON) and time without stimulus (Time OFF). In future works will be implemented another parts of the system that includes the acquirement of electroencephalogram and signal processing to estimate and analyze the evoked potential

Stimulator with arbitrary waveform for auditory evoked potentials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martins, H R; Romao, M; Placido, D; Provenzano, F; Tierra-Criollo, C J [Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Departamento de Engenharia Eletrica (DEE), Nucleo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Engenharia Biomedica NEPEB, Av. Ant. Carlos, 6627, sala 2206, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31.270-901 (Brazil)

2007-11-15

The technological improvement helps many medical areas. The audiometric exams involving the auditory evoked potentials can make better diagnoses of auditory disorders. This paper proposes the development of a stimulator based on Digital Signal Processor. This stimulator is the first step of an auditory evoked potential system based on the ADSP-BF533 EZ KIT LITE (Analog Devices Company - USA). The stimulator can generate arbitrary waveform like Sine Waves, Modulated Amplitude, Pulses, Bursts and Pips. The waveforms are generated through a graphical interface programmed in C++ in which the user can define the parameters of the waveform. Furthermore, the user can set the exam parameters as number of stimuli, time with stimulation (Time ON) and time without stimulus (Time OFF). In future works will be implemented another parts of the system that includes the acquirement of electroencephalogram and signal processing to estimate and analyze the evoked potential.

Validation of a loudspeaker-based room auralization system using speech intelligibility measures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Favrot, Sylvain Emmanuel; Buchholz, Jörg

2009-01-01

A novel loudspeaker-based room auralization (LoRA) system has been proposed to generate versatile and realistic virtual auditory environments (VAEs) for investigating human auditory perception. This system efficiently combines modern room acoustic models with loudspeaker auralization using either...

Auditory Processing Disorder (For Parents)

Science.gov (United States)

... role. Auditory cohesion problems: This is when higher-level listening tasks are difficult. Auditory cohesion skills — drawing inferences from conversations, understanding riddles, or comprehending verbal math problems — require heightened auditory processing and language levels. ...

Trait aspects of auditory mismatch negativity predict response to auditory training in individuals with early illness schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Biagianti, Bruno; Roach, Brian J; Fisher, Melissa; Loewy, Rachel; Ford, Judith M; Vinogradov, Sophia; Mathalon, Daniel H

2017-01-01

Individuals with schizophrenia have heterogeneous impairments of the auditory processing system that likely mediate differences in the cognitive gains induced by auditory training (AT). Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential component reflecting auditory echoic memory, and its amplitude reduction in schizophrenia has been linked to cognitive deficits. Therefore, MMN may predict response to AT and identify individuals with schizophrenia who have the most to gain from AT. Furthermore, to the extent that AT strengthens auditory deviance processing, MMN may also serve as a readout of the underlying changes in the auditory system induced by AT. Fifty-six individuals early in the course of a schizophrenia-spectrum illness (ESZ) were randomly assigned to 40 h of AT or Computer Games (CG). Cognitive assessments and EEG recordings during a multi-deviant MMN paradigm were obtained before and after AT and CG. Changes in these measures were compared between the treatment groups. Baseline and trait-like MMN data were evaluated as predictors of treatment response. MMN data collected with the same paradigm from a sample of Healthy Controls (HC; n = 105) were compared to baseline MMN data from the ESZ group. Compared to HC, ESZ individuals showed significant MMN reductions at baseline ( p = .003). Reduced Double-Deviant MMN was associated with greater general cognitive impairment in ESZ individuals ( p = .020). Neither ESZ intervention group showed significant change in MMN. We found high correlations in all MMN deviant types (rs = .59-.68, all ps < .001) between baseline and post-intervention amplitudes irrespective of treatment group, suggesting trait-like stability of the MMN signal. Greater deficits in trait-like Double-Deviant MMN predicted greater cognitive improvements in the AT group ( p = .02), but not in the CG group. In this sample of ESZ individuals, AT had no effect on auditory deviance processing as assessed by MMN. In ESZ individuals, baseline MMN

Dynamic Correlations between Intrinsic Connectivity and Extrinsic Connectivity of the Auditory Cortex in Humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Zhuang; Wang, Qian; Gao, Yayue; Wang, Jing; Wang, Mengyang; Teng, Pengfei; Guan, Yuguang; Zhou, Jian; Li, Tianfu; Luan, Guoming; Li, Liang

2017-01-01

The arrival of sound signals in the auditory cortex (AC) triggers both local and inter-regional signal propagations over time up to hundreds of milliseconds and builds up both intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) and extrinsic functional connectivity (eFC) of the AC. However, interactions between iFC and eFC are largely unknown. Using intracranial stereo-electroencephalographic recordings in people with drug-refractory epilepsy, this study mainly investigated the temporal dynamic of the relationships between iFC and eFC of the AC. The results showed that a Gaussian wideband-noise burst markedly elicited potentials in both the AC and numerous higher-order cortical regions outside the AC (non-auditory cortices). Granger causality analyses revealed that in the earlier time window, iFC of the AC was positively correlated with both eFC from the AC to the inferior temporal gyrus and that to the inferior parietal lobule. While in later periods, the iFC of the AC was positively correlated with eFC from the precentral gyrus to the AC and that from the insula to the AC. In conclusion, dual-directional interactions occur between iFC and eFC of the AC at different time windows following the sound stimulation and may form the foundation underlying various central auditory processes, including auditory sensory memory, object formation, integrations between sensory, perceptional, attentional, motor, emotional, and executive processes.

The Effect of Working Memory Training on Auditory Stream Segregation in Auditory Processing Disorders Children

OpenAIRE

Abdollah Moossavi; Saeideh Mehrkian; Yones Lotfi; Soghrat Faghih zadeh; Hamed Adjedi

2015-01-01

Objectives: This study investigated the efficacy of working memory training for improving working memory capacity and related auditory stream segregation in auditory processing disorders children. Methods: Fifteen subjects (9-11 years), clinically diagnosed with auditory processing disorder participated in this non-randomized case-controlled trial. Working memory abilities and auditory stream segregation were evaluated prior to beginning and six weeks after completing the training program...

The Effect of Early Visual Deprivation on the Neural Bases of Auditory Processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Guerreiro, Maria J S; Putzar, Lisa; Röder, Brigitte

2016-02-03

Transient congenital visual deprivation affects visual and multisensory processing. In contrast, the extent to which it affects auditory processing has not been investigated systematically. Research in permanently blind individuals has revealed brain reorganization during auditory processing, involving both intramodal and crossmodal plasticity. The present study investigated the effect of transient congenital visual deprivation on the neural bases of auditory processing in humans. Cataract-reversal individuals and normally sighted controls performed a speech-in-noise task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Although there were no behavioral group differences, groups differed in auditory cortical responses: in the normally sighted group, auditory cortex activation increased with increasing noise level, whereas in the cataract-reversal group, no activation difference was observed across noise levels. An auditory activation of visual cortex was not observed at the group level in cataract-reversal individuals. The present data suggest prevailing auditory processing advantages after transient congenital visual deprivation, even many years after sight restoration. The present study demonstrates that people whose sight was restored after a transient period of congenital blindness show more efficient cortical processing of auditory stimuli (here speech), similarly to what has been observed in congenitally permanently blind individuals. These results underscore the importance of early sensory experience in permanently shaping brain function. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/361620-11$15.00/0.

Neural dynamics underlying attentional orienting to auditory representations in short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Backer, Kristina C; Binns, Malcolm A; Alain, Claude

2015-01-21

Sounds are ephemeral. Thus, coherent auditory perception depends on "hearing" back in time: retrospectively attending that which was lost externally but preserved in short-term memory (STM). Current theories of auditory attention assume that sound features are integrated into a perceptual object, that multiple objects can coexist in STM, and that attention can be deployed to an object in STM. Recording electroencephalography from humans, we tested these assumptions, elucidating feature-general and feature-specific neural correlates of auditory attention to STM. Alpha/beta oscillations and frontal and posterior event-related potentials indexed feature-general top-down attentional control to one of several coexisting auditory representations in STM. Particularly, task performance during attentional orienting was correlated with alpha/low-beta desynchronization (i.e., power suppression). However, attention to one feature could occur without simultaneous processing of the second feature of the representation. Therefore, auditory attention to memory relies on both feature-specific and feature-general neural dynamics. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/351307-12$15.00/0.

The effect of noise exposure during the developmental period on the function of the auditory system

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bureš, Zbyněk; Popelář, Jiří; Syka, Josef

2017-01-01

Roč. 352, sep (2017), s. 1-11 ISSN 0378-5955 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP303/12/1347 Institutional support: RVO:68378041 Keywords : auditory system * development * noise exposure Subject RIV: FH - Neurology OBOR OECD: Other medical science Impact factor: 2.906, year: 2016

Three-dimensional Acoustic Localisation via Directed Movements of a Two-dimensional Model of the Lizard Peripheral Auditory System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaikh, Danish; Kjær Schmidt, Michael

2017-01-01

of the acoustic target with respect to one plane of rotation. A multi-layer perceptron neural network is trained via supervised learning to translate the combination of the two measurements into an estimate of the relative location of the acoustic target in terms of its azimuth and elevation. The acoustic...... localisation performance of the system is evaluated in simulation for noiseless as well as noisy sinusoidal auditory signals with a 20 dB signal-to-noise ratio for four different sound frequencies of 1450 Hz, 1650 Hz, 1850 Hz and 2050 Hz that span the response frequency range of the peripheral auditory model...

Auditory interfaces in automated driving: an international survey

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Pavlo Bazilinskyy

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This study investigated peoples’ opinion on auditory interfaces in contemporary cars and their willingness to be exposed to auditory feedback in automated driving. We used an Internet-based survey to collect 1,205 responses from 91 countries. The respondents stated their attitudes towards two existing auditory driver assistance systems, a parking assistant (PA and a forward collision warning system (FCWS, as well as towards a futuristic augmented sound system (FS proposed for fully automated driving. The respondents were positive towards the PA and FCWS, and rated the willingness to have automated versions of these systems as 3.87 and 3.77, respectively (on a scale from 1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly. The respondents tolerated the FS (the mean willingness to use it was 3.00 on the same scale. The results showed that among the available response options, the female voice was the most preferred feedback type for takeover requests in highly automated driving, regardless of whether the respondents’ country was English speaking or not. The present results could be useful for designers of automated vehicles and other stakeholders.

Are mirror neurons the basis of speech perception? Evidence from five cases with damage to the purported human mirror system

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Rogalsky, Corianne; Love, Tracy; Driscoll, David; Anderson, Steven W.; Hickok, Gregory

2013-01-01

The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque has led to a resurrection of motor theories of speech perception. Although the majority of lesion and functional imaging studies have associated perception with the temporal lobes, it has also been proposed that the ‘human mirror system’, which prominently includes Broca’s area, is the neurophysiological substrate of speech perception. Although numerous studies have demonstrated a tight link between sensory and motor speech processes, few have directly assessed the critical prediction of mirror neuron theories of speech perception, namely that damage to the human mirror system should cause severe deficits in speech perception. The present study measured speech perception abilities of patients with lesions involving motor regions in the left posterior frontal lobe and/or inferior parietal lobule (i.e., the proposed human ‘mirror system’). Performance was at or near ceiling in patients with fronto-parietal lesions. It is only when the lesion encroaches on auditory regions in the temporal lobe that perceptual deficits are evident. This suggests that ‘mirror system’ damage does not disrupt speech perception, but rather that auditory systems are the primary substrate for speech perception. PMID:21207313

Test of a motor theory of long-term auditory memory.

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Schulze, Katrin; Vargha-Khadem, Faraneh; Mishkin, Mortimer

2012-05-01

Monkeys can easily form lasting central representations of visual and tactile stimuli, yet they seem unable to do the same with sounds. Humans, by contrast, are highly proficient in auditory long-term memory (LTM). These mnemonic differences within and between species raise the question of whether the human ability is supported in some way by speech and language, e.g., through subvocal reproduction of speech sounds and by covert verbal labeling of environmental stimuli. If so, the explanation could be that storing rapidly fluctuating acoustic signals requires assistance from the motor system, which is uniquely organized to chain-link rapid sequences. To test this hypothesis, we compared the ability of normal participants to recognize lists of stimuli that can be easily reproduced, labeled, or both (pseudowords, nonverbal sounds, and words, respectively) versus their ability to recognize a list of stimuli that can be reproduced or labeled only with great difficulty (reversed words, i.e., words played backward). Recognition scores after 5-min delays filled with articulatory-suppression tasks were relatively high (75-80% correct) for all sound types except reversed words; the latter yielded scores that were not far above chance (58% correct), even though these stimuli were discriminated nearly perfectly when presented as reversed-word pairs at short intrapair intervals. The combined results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that participation of the oromotor system may be essential for laying down the memory of speech sounds and, indeed, that speech and auditory memory may be so critically dependent on each other that they had to coevolve.

Peripheral Auditory Mechanisms

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Hall, J; Hubbard, A; Neely, S; Tubis, A

1986-01-01

How weIl can we model experimental observations of the peripheral auditory system'? What theoretical predictions can we make that might be tested'? It was with these questions in mind that we organized the 1985 Mechanics of Hearing Workshop, to bring together auditory researchers to compare models with experimental observations. Tbe workshop forum was inspired by the very successful 1983 Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Delft [1]. Boston University was chosen as the site of our meeting because of the Boston area's role as a center for hearing research in this country. We made a special effort at this meeting to attract students from around the world, because without students this field will not progress. Financial support for the workshop was provided in part by grant BNS- 8412878 from the National Science Foundation. Modeling is a traditional strategy in science and plays an important role in the scientific method. Models are the bridge between theory and experiment. Tbey test the assumptions made in experim...

What determines auditory distraction? On the roles of local auditory changes and expectation violations.

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Jan P Röer

Full Text Available Both the acoustic variability of a distractor sequence and the degree to which it violates expectations are important determinants of auditory distraction. In four experiments we examined the relative contribution of local auditory changes on the one hand and expectation violations on the other hand in the disruption of serial recall by irrelevant sound. We present evidence for a greater disruption by auditory sequences ending in unexpected steady state distractor repetitions compared to auditory sequences with expected changing state endings even though the former contained fewer local changes. This effect was demonstrated with piano melodies (Experiment 1 and speech distractors (Experiment 2. Furthermore, it was replicated when the expectation violation occurred after the encoding of the target items (Experiment 3, indicating that the items' maintenance in short-term memory was disrupted by attentional capture and not their encoding. This seems to be primarily due to the violation of a model of the specific auditory distractor sequences because the effect vanishes and even reverses when the experiment provides no opportunity to build up a specific neural model about the distractor sequence (Experiment 4. Nevertheless, the violation of abstract long-term knowledge about auditory regularities seems to cause a small and transient capture effect: Disruption decreased markedly over the course of the experiments indicating that participants habituated to the unexpected distractor repetitions across trials. The overall pattern of results adds to the growing literature that the degree to which auditory distractors violate situation-specific expectations is a more important determinant of auditory distraction than the degree to which a distractor sequence contains local auditory changes.

Direct recordings from the auditory cortex in a cochlear implant user.

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Nourski, Kirill V; Etler, Christine P; Brugge, John F; Oya, Hiroyuki; Kawasaki, Hiroto; Reale, Richard A; Abbas, Paul J; Brown, Carolyn J; Howard, Matthew A

2013-06-01

Electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve with a cochlear implant (CI) is the method of choice for treatment of severe-to-profound hearing loss. Understanding how the human auditory cortex responds to CI stimulation is important for advances in stimulation paradigms and rehabilitation strategies. In this study, auditory cortical responses to CI stimulation were recorded intracranially in a neurosurgical patient to examine directly the functional organization of the auditory cortex and compare the findings with those obtained in normal-hearing subjects. The subject was a bilateral CI user with a 20-year history of deafness and refractory epilepsy. As part of the epilepsy treatment, a subdural grid electrode was implanted over the left temporal lobe. Pure tones, click trains, sinusoidal amplitude-modulated noise, and speech were presented via the auxiliary input of the right CI speech processor. Additional experiments were conducted with bilateral CI stimulation. Auditory event-related changes in cortical activity, characterized by the averaged evoked potential and event-related band power, were localized to posterolateral superior temporal gyrus. Responses were stable across recording sessions and were abolished under general anesthesia. Response latency decreased and magnitude increased with increasing stimulus level. More apical intracochlear stimulation yielded the largest responses. Cortical evoked potentials were phase-locked to the temporal modulations of periodic stimuli and speech utterances. Bilateral electrical stimulation resulted in minimal artifact contamination. This study demonstrates the feasibility of intracranial electrophysiological recordings of responses to CI stimulation in a human subject, shows that cortical response properties may be similar to those obtained in normal-hearing individuals, and provides a basis for future comparisons with extracranial recordings.

No auditory experience, no tinnitus: Lessons from subjects with congenital- and acquired single-sided deafness.

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Lee, Sang-Yeon; Nam, Dong Woo; Koo, Ja-Won; De Ridder, Dirk; Vanneste, Sven; Song, Jae-Jin

2017-10-01

Recent studies have adopted the Bayesian brain model to explain the generation of tinnitus in subjects with auditory deafferentation. That is, as the human brain works in a Bayesian manner to reduce environmental uncertainty, missing auditory information due to hearing loss may cause auditory phantom percepts, i.e., tinnitus. This type of deafferentation-induced auditory phantom percept should be preceded by auditory experience because the fill-in phenomenon, namely tinnitus, is based upon auditory prediction and the resultant prediction error. For example, a recent animal study observed the absence of tinnitus in cats with congenital single-sided deafness (SSD; Eggermont and Kral, Hear Res 2016). However, no human studies have investigated the presence and characteristics of tinnitus in subjects with congenital SSD. Thus, the present study sought to reveal differences in the generation of tinnitus between subjects with congenital SSD and those with acquired SSD to evaluate the replicability of previous animal studies. This study enrolled 20 subjects with congenital SSD and 44 subjects with acquired SSD and examined the presence and characteristics of tinnitus in the groups. None of the 20 subjects with congenital SSD perceived tinnitus on the affected side, whereas 30 of 44 subjects with acquired SSD experienced tinnitus on the affected side. Additionally, there were significant positive correlations between tinnitus characteristics and the audiometric characteristics of the SSD. In accordance with the findings of the recent animal study, tinnitus was absent in subjects with congenital SSD, but relatively frequent in subjects with acquired SSD, which suggests that the development of tinnitus should be preceded by auditory experience. In other words, subjects with profound congenital peripheral deafferentation do not develop auditory phantom percepts because no auditory predictions are available from the Bayesian brain. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights

Feature conjunctions and auditory sensory memory.

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Sussman, E; Gomes, H; Nousak, J M; Ritter, W; Vaughan, H G

1998-05-18

This study sought to obtain additional evidence that transient auditory memory stores information about conjunctions of features on an automatic basis. The mismatch negativity of event-related potentials was employed because its operations are based on information that is stored in transient auditory memory. The mismatch negativity was found to be elicited by a tone that differed from standard tones in a combination of its perceived location and frequency. The result lends further support to the hypothesis that the system upon which the mismatch negativity relies processes stimuli in an holistic manner. Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

A hardware model of the auditory periphery to transduce acoustic signals into neural activity

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Takashi eTateno

2013-11-01

Full Text Available To improve the performance of cochlear implants, we have integrated a microdevice into a model of the auditory periphery with the goal of creating a microprocessor. We constructed an artificial peripheral auditory system using a hybrid model in which polyvinylidene difluoride was used as a piezoelectric sensor to convert mechanical stimuli into electric signals. To produce frequency selectivity, the slit on a stainless steel base plate was designed such that the local resonance frequency of the membrane over the slit reflected the transfer function. In the acoustic sensor, electric signals were generated based on the piezoelectric effect from local stress in the membrane. The electrodes on the resonating plate produced relatively large electric output signals. The signals were fed into a computer model that mimicked some functions of inner hair cells, inner hair cell–auditory nerve synapses, and auditory nerve fibers. In general, the responses of the model to pure-tone burst and complex stimuli accurately represented the discharge rates of high-spontaneous-rate auditory nerve fibers across a range of frequencies greater than 1 kHz and middle to high sound pressure levels. Thus, the model provides a tool to understand information processing in the peripheral auditory system and a basic design for connecting artificial acoustic sensors to the peripheral auditory nervous system. Finally, we discuss the need for stimulus control with an appropriate model of the auditory periphery based on auditory brainstem responses that were electrically evoked by different temporal pulse patterns with the same pulse number.

Recovery function of the human brain stem auditory-evoked potential.

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Kevanishvili, Z; Lagidze, Z

1979-01-01

Amplitude reduction and peak latency prolongation were observed in the human brain stem auditory-evoked potential (BEP) with preceding (conditioning) stimulation. At a conditioning interval (CI) of 5 ms the alteration of BEP was greater than at a CI of 10 ms. At a CI of 10 ms the amplitudes of some BEP components (e.g. waves I and II) were more decreased than those of others (e.g. wave V), while the peak latency prolongation did not show any obvious component selectivity. At a CI of 5 ms, the extent of the amplitude decrement of individual BEP components differed less, while the increase in the peak latencies of the later components was greater than that of the earlier components. The alterations of the parameters of the test BEPs at both CIs are ascribed to the desynchronization of intrinsic neural events. The differential amplitude reduction at a CI of 10 ms is explained by the different durations of neural firings determining various effects of desynchronization upon the amplitudes of individual BEP components. The decrease in the extent of the component selectivity and the preferential increase in the peak latencies of the later BEP components observed at a CI of 5 ms are explained by the intensification of the mechanism of the relative refractory period.

Auditory-visual integration in fields of the auditory cortex.

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Kubota, Michinori; Sugimoto, Shunji; Hosokawa, Yutaka; Ojima, Hisayuki; Horikawa, Junsei

2017-03-01

While multimodal interactions have been known to exist in the early sensory cortices, the response properties and spatiotemporal organization of these interactions are poorly understood. To elucidate the characteristics of multimodal sensory interactions in the cerebral cortex, neuronal responses to visual stimuli with or without auditory stimuli were investigated in core and belt fields of guinea pig auditory cortex using real-time optical imaging with a voltage-sensitive dye. On average, visual responses consisted of short excitation followed by long inhibition. Although visual responses were observed in core and belt fields, there were regional and temporal differences in responses. The most salient visual responses were observed in the caudal belt fields, especially posterior (P) and dorsocaudal belt (DCB) fields. Visual responses emerged first in fields P and DCB and then spread rostroventrally to core and ventrocaudal belt (VCB) fields. Absolute values of positive and negative peak amplitudes of visual responses were both larger in fields P and DCB than in core and VCB fields. When combined visual and auditory stimuli were applied, fields P and DCB were more inhibited than core and VCB fields beginning approximately 110 ms after stimuli. Correspondingly, differences between responses to auditory stimuli alone and combined audiovisual stimuli became larger in fields P and DCB than in core and VCB fields after approximately 110 ms after stimuli. These data indicate that visual influences are most salient in fields P and DCB, which manifest mainly as inhibition, and that they enhance differences in auditory responses among fields. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temporal Sequence of Visuo-Auditory Interaction in Multiple Areas of the Guinea Pig Visual Cortex

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Nishimura, Masataka; Song, Wen-Jie

2012-01-01

Recent studies in humans and monkeys have reported that acoustic stimulation influences visual responses in the primary visual cortex (V1). Such influences can be generated in V1, either by direct auditory projections or by feedback projections from extrastriate cortices. To test these hypotheses, cortical activities were recorded using optical imaging at a high spatiotemporal resolution from multiple areas of the guinea pig visual cortex, to visual and/or acoustic stimulations. Visuo-auditory interactions were evaluated according to differences between responses evoked by combined auditory and visual stimulation, and the sum of responses evoked by separate visual and auditory stimulations. Simultaneous presentation of visual and acoustic stimulations resulted in significant interactions in V1, which occurred earlier than in other visual areas. When acoustic stimulation preceded visual stimulation, significant visuo-auditory interactions were detected only in V1. These results suggest that V1 is a cortical origin of visuo-auditory interaction. PMID:23029483

Brain correlates of the orientation of auditory spatial attention onto speaker location in a "cocktail-party" situation.

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Lewald, Jörg; Hanenberg, Christina; Getzmann, Stephan

2016-10-01

Successful speech perception in complex auditory scenes with multiple competing speakers requires spatial segregation of auditory streams into perceptually distinct and coherent auditory objects and focusing of attention toward the speaker of interest. Here, we focused on the neural basis of this remarkable capacity of the human auditory system and investigated the spatiotemporal sequence of neural activity within the cortical network engaged in solving the "cocktail-party" problem. Twenty-eight subjects localized a target word in the presence of three competing sound sources. The analysis of the ERPs revealed an anterior contralateral subcomponent of the N2 (N2ac), computed as the difference waveform for targets to the left minus targets to the right. The N2ac peaked at about 500 ms after stimulus onset, and its amplitude was correlated with better localization performance. Cortical source localization for the contrast of left versus right targets at the time of the N2ac revealed a maximum in the region around left superior frontal sulcus and frontal eye field, both of which are known to be involved in processing of auditory spatial information. In addition, a posterior-contralateral late positive subcomponent (LPCpc) occurred at a latency of about 700 ms. Both these subcomponents are potential correlates of allocation of spatial attention to the target under cocktail-party conditions. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Assessing the aging effect on auditory-verbal memory by Persian version of dichotic auditory verbal memory test

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Zahra Shahidipour

2014-01-01

Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, significant reduction in auditory memory was seen in aged group and the Persian version of dichotic auditory-verbal memory test, like many other auditory verbal memory tests, showed the aging effects on auditory verbal memory performance.

[Assessment of the efficiency of the auditory training in children with dyslalia and auditory processing disorders].

Science.gov (United States)

Włodarczyk, Elżbieta; Szkiełkowska, Agata; Skarżyński, Henryk; Piłka, Adam

2011-01-01

To assess effectiveness of the auditory training in children with dyslalia and central auditory processing disorders. Material consisted of 50 children aged 7-9-years-old. Children with articulation disorders stayed under long-term speech therapy care in the Auditory and Phoniatrics Clinic. All children were examined by a laryngologist and a phoniatrician. Assessment included tonal and impedance audiometry and speech therapists' and psychologist's consultations. Additionally, a set of electrophysiological examinations was performed - registration of N2, P2, N2, P2, P300 waves and psychoacoustic test of central auditory functions: FPT - frequency pattern test. Next children took part in the regular auditory training and attended speech therapy. Speech assessment followed treatment and therapy, again psychoacoustic tests were performed and P300 cortical potentials were recorded. After that statistical analyses were performed. Analyses revealed that application of auditory training in patients with dyslalia and other central auditory disorders is very efficient. Auditory training may be a very efficient therapy supporting speech therapy in children suffering from dyslalia coexisting with articulation and central auditory disorders and in children with educational problems of audiogenic origin. Copyright © 2011 Polish Otolaryngology Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner (Poland). All rights reserved.

Auditory Integration Training

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Zahra Jafari

2002-07-01

Full Text Available Auditory integration training (AIT is a hearing enhancement training process for sensory input anomalies found in individuals with autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, dyslexia, hyperactivity, learning disability, language impairments, pervasive developmental disorder, central auditory processing disorder, attention deficit disorder, depressin, and hyperacute hearing. AIT, recently introduced in the United States, and has received much notice of late following the release of The Sound of a Moracle, by Annabel Stehli. In her book, Mrs. Stehli describes before and after auditory integration training experiences with her daughter, who was diagnosed at age four as having autism.

Speech processing: from peripheral to hemispheric asymmetry of the auditory system.

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Lazard, Diane S; Collette, Jean-Louis; Perrot, Xavier

2012-01-01

Language processing from the cochlea to auditory association cortices shows side-dependent specificities with an apparent left hemispheric dominance. The aim of this article was to propose to nonspeech specialists a didactic review of two complementary theories about hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Starting from anatomico-physiological and clinical observations of auditory asymmetry and interhemispheric connections, this review then exposes behavioral (dichotic listening paradigm) as well as functional (functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography) experiments that assessed hemispheric specialization for speech processing. Even though speech at an early phonological level is regarded as being processed bilaterally, a left-hemispheric dominance exists for higher-level processing. This asymmetry may arise from a segregation of the speech signal, broken apart within nonprimary auditory areas in two distinct temporal integration windows--a fast one on the left and a slower one on the right--modeled through the asymmetric sampling in time theory or a spectro-temporal trade-off, with a higher temporal resolution in the left hemisphere and a higher spectral resolution in the right hemisphere, modeled through the spectral/temporal resolution trade-off theory. Both theories deal with the concept that lower-order tuning principles for acoustic signal might drive higher-order organization for speech processing. However, the precise nature, mechanisms, and origin of speech processing asymmetry are still being debated. Finally, an example of hemispheric asymmetry alteration, which has direct clinical implications, is given through the case of auditory aging that mixes peripheral disorder and modifications of central processing. Copyright © 2011 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

Neural Correlates of Auditory Figure-Ground Segregation Based on Temporal Coherence

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Teki, Sundeep; Barascud, Nicolas; Picard, Samuel; Payne, Christopher; Griffiths, Timothy D.; Chait, Maria

2016-01-01

To make sense of natural acoustic environments, listeners must parse complex mixtures of sounds that vary in frequency, space, and time. Emerging work suggests that, in addition to the well-studied spectral cues for segregation, sensitivity to temporal coherence—the coincidence of sound elements in and across time—is also critical for the perceptual organization of acoustic scenes. Here, we examine pre-attentive, stimulus-driven neural processes underlying auditory figure-ground segregation using stimuli that capture the challenges of listening in complex scenes where segregation cannot be achieved based on spectral cues alone. Signals (“stochastic figure-ground”: SFG) comprised a sequence of brief broadband chords containing random pure tone components that vary from 1 chord to another. Occasional tone repetitions across chords are perceived as “figures” popping out of a stochastic “ground.” Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurement in naïve, distracted, human subjects revealed robust evoked responses, commencing from about 150 ms after figure onset that reflect the emergence of the “figure” from the randomly varying “ground.” Neural sources underlying this bottom-up driven figure-ground segregation were localized to planum temporale, and the intraparietal sulcus, demonstrating that this area, outside the “classic” auditory system, is also involved in the early stages of auditory scene analysis.” PMID:27325682

Dynamic Correlations between Intrinsic Connectivity and Extrinsic Connectivity of the Auditory Cortex in Humans

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Zhuang Cui

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The arrival of sound signals in the auditory cortex (AC triggers both local and inter-regional signal propagations over time up to hundreds of milliseconds and builds up both intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC and extrinsic functional connectivity (eFC of the AC. However, interactions between iFC and eFC are largely unknown. Using intracranial stereo-electroencephalographic recordings in people with drug-refractory epilepsy, this study mainly investigated the temporal dynamic of the relationships between iFC and eFC of the AC. The results showed that a Gaussian wideband-noise burst markedly elicited potentials in both the AC and numerous higher-order cortical regions outside the AC (non-auditory cortices. Granger causality analyses revealed that in the earlier time window, iFC of the AC was positively correlated with both eFC from the AC to the inferior temporal gyrus and that to the inferior parietal lobule. While in later periods, the iFC of the AC was positively correlated with eFC from the precentral gyrus to the AC and that from the insula to the AC. In conclusion, dual-directional interactions occur between iFC and eFC of the AC at different time windows following the sound stimulation and may form the foundation underlying various central auditory processes, including auditory sensory memory, object formation, integrations between sensory, perceptional, attentional, motor, emotional, and executive processes.

Dichotic auditory-verbal memory in adults with cerebro-vascular accident

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Samaneh Yekta

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Cerebrovascular accident is a neurological disorder involves central nervous system. Studies have shown that it affects the outputs of behavioral auditory tests such as dichotic auditory verbal memory test. The purpose of this study was to compare this memory test results between patients with cerebrovascular accident and normal subjects.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 20 patients with cerebrovascular accident aged 50-70 years and 20 controls matched for age and gender in Emam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Dichotic auditory verbal memory test was performed on each subject.Results: The mean score in the two groups was significantly different (p<0.0001. The results indicated that the right-ear score was significantly greater than the left-ear score in normal subjects (p<0.0001 and in patients with right hemisphere lesion (p<0.0001. The right-ear and left-ear scores were not significantly different in patients with left hemisphere lesion (p=0.0860.Conclusion: Among other methods, Dichotic auditory verbal memory test is a beneficial test in assessing the central auditory nervous system of patients with cerebrovascular accident. It seems that it is sensitive to the damages occur following temporal lobe strokes.

Neural Correlates of Auditory Processing, Learning and Memory Formation in Songbirds

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Pinaud, R.; Terleph, T. A.; Wynne, R. D.; Tremere, L. A.

Songbirds have emerged as powerful experimental models for the study of auditory processing of complex natural communication signals. Intact hearing is necessary for several behaviors in developing and adult animals including vocal learning, territorial defense, mate selection and individual recognition. These behaviors are thought to require the processing, discrimination and memorization of songs. Although much is known about the brain circuits that participate in sensorimotor (auditory-vocal) integration, especially the ``song-control" system, less is known about the anatomical and functional organization of central auditory pathways. Here we discuss findings associated with a telencephalic auditory area known as the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). NCM has attracted significant interest as it exhibits functional properties that may support higher order auditory functions such as stimulus discrimination and the formation of auditory memories. NCM neurons are vigorously dr iven by auditory stimuli. Interestingly, these responses are selective to conspecific, relative to heterospecific songs and artificial stimuli. In addition, forms of experience-dependent plasticity occur in NCM and are song-specific. Finally, recent experiments employing high-throughput quantitative proteomics suggest that complex protein regulatory pathways are engaged in NCM as a result of auditory experience. These molecular cascades are likely central to experience-associated plasticity of NCM circuitry and may be part of a network of calcium-driven molecular events that support the formation of auditory memory traces.

Auditory intensity processing: Effect of MRI background noise.

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Angenstein, Nicole; Stadler, Jörg; Brechmann, André

2016-03-01

Studies on active auditory intensity discrimination in humans showed equivocal results regarding the lateralization of processing. Whereas experiments with a moderate background found evidence for right lateralized processing of intensity, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies with background scanner noise suggest more left lateralized processing. With the present fMRI study, we compared the task dependent lateralization of intensity processing between a conventional continuous echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with a loud background scanner noise and a fast low-angle shot (FLASH) sequence with a soft background scanner noise. To determine the lateralization of the processing, we employed the contralateral noise procedure. Linearly frequency modulated (FM) tones were presented monaurally with and without contralateral noise. During both the EPI and the FLASH measurement, the left auditory cortex was more strongly involved than the right auditory cortex while participants categorized the intensity of FM tones. This was shown by a strong effect of the additional contralateral noise on the activity in the left auditory cortex. This means a massive reduction in background scanner noise still leads to a significant left lateralized effect. This suggests that the reversed lateralization in fMRI studies with loud background noise in contrast to studies with softer background cannot be fully explained by the MRI background noise. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fronto-parietal and fronto-temporal theta phase synchronization for visual and auditory-verbal working memory.

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Kawasaki, Masahiro; Kitajo, Keiichi; Yamaguchi, Yoko

2014-01-01

In humans, theta phase (4-8 Hz) synchronization observed on electroencephalography (EEG) plays an important role in the manipulation of mental representations during working memory (WM) tasks; fronto-temporal synchronization is involved in auditory-verbal WM tasks and fronto-parietal synchronization is involved in visual WM tasks. However, whether or not theta phase synchronization is able to select the to-be-manipulated modalities is uncertain. To address the issue, we recorded EEG data from subjects who were performing auditory-verbal and visual WM tasks; we compared the theta synchronizations when subjects performed either auditory-verbal or visual manipulations in separate WM tasks, or performed both two manipulations in the same WM task. The auditory-verbal WM task required subjects to calculate numbers presented by an auditory-verbal stimulus, whereas the visual WM task required subjects to move a spatial location in a mental representation in response to a visual stimulus. The dual WM task required subjects to manipulate auditory-verbal, visual, or both auditory-verbal and visual representations while maintaining auditory-verbal and visual representations. Our time-frequency EEG analyses revealed significant fronto-temporal theta phase synchronization during auditory-verbal manipulation in both auditory-verbal and auditory-verbal/visual WM tasks, but not during visual manipulation tasks. Similarly, we observed significant fronto-parietal theta phase synchronization during visual manipulation tasks, but not during auditory-verbal manipulation tasks. Moreover, we observed significant synchronization in both the fronto-temporal and fronto-parietal theta signals during simultaneous auditory-verbal/visual manipulations. These findings suggest that theta synchronization seems to flexibly connect the brain areas that manipulate WM.

Fronto-parietal and fronto-temporal theta phase synchronization for visual and auditory-verbal working memory

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Masahiro eKawasaki

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In humans, theta phase (4–8 Hz synchronization observed on electroencephalography (EEG plays an important role in the manipulation of mental representations during working memory (WM tasks; fronto-temporal synchronization is involved in auditory-verbal WM tasks and fronto-parietal synchronization is involved in visual WM tasks. However, whether or not theta phase synchronization is able to select the to-be-manipulated modalities is uncertain. To address the issue, we recorded EEG data from subjects who were performing auditory-verbal and visual WM tasks; we compared the theta synchronizations when subjects performed either auditory-verbal or visual manipulations in separate WM tasks, or performed both two manipulations in the same WM task. The auditory-verbal WM task required subjects to calculate numbers presented by an auditory-verbal stimulus, whereas the visual WM task required subjects to move a spatial location in a mental representation in response to a visual stimulus. The dual WM task required subjects to manipulate auditory-verbal, visual, or both auditory-verbal and visual representations while maintaining auditory-verbal and visual representations. Our time-frequency EEG analyses revealed significant fronto-temporal theta phase synchronization during auditory-verbal manipulation in both auditory-verbal and auditory-verbal/visual WM tasks, but not during visual manipulation tasks. Similarly, we observed significant fronto-parietal theta phase synchronization during visual manipulation tasks, but not during auditory-verbal manipulation tasks. Moreover, we observed significant synchronization in both the fronto-temporal and fronto-parietal theta signals during simultaneous auditory-verbal/visual manipulations. These findings suggest that theta synchronization seems to flexibly connect the brain areas that manipulate WM.

BDNF Increases Survival and Neuronal Differentiation of Human Neural Precursor Cells Cotransplanted with a Nanofiber Gel to the Auditory Nerve in a Rat Model of Neuronal Damage

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Yu Jiao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To study possible nerve regeneration of a damaged auditory nerve by the use of stem cell transplantation. Methods. We transplanted HNPCs to the rat AN trunk by the internal auditory meatus (IAM. Furthermore, we studied if addition of BDNF affects survival and phenotypic differentiation of the grafted HNPCs. A bioactive nanofiber gel (PA gel, in selected groups mixed with BDNF, was applied close to the implanted cells. Before transplantation, all rats had been deafened by a round window niche application of β-bungarotoxin. This neurotoxin causes a selective toxic destruction of the AN while keeping the hair cells intact. Results. Overall, HNPCs survived well for up to six weeks in all groups. However, transplants receiving the BDNF-containing PA gel demonstrated significantly higher numbers of HNPCs and neuronal differentiation. At six weeks, a majority of the HNPCs had migrated into the brain stem and differentiated. Differentiated human cells as well as neurites were observed in the vicinity of the cochlear nucleus. Conclusion. Our results indicate that human neural precursor cells (HNPC integration with host tissue benefits from additional brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF treatment and that these cells appear to be good candidates for further regenerative studies on the auditory nerve (AN.

Areas activated during naturalistic reading comprehension overlap topological visual, auditory, and somatotomotor maps.

Science.gov (United States)

Sood, Mariam R; Sereno, Martin I

2016-08-01

Cortical mapping techniques using fMRI have been instrumental in identifying the boundaries of topological (neighbor-preserving) maps in early sensory areas. The presence of topological maps beyond early sensory areas raises the possibility that they might play a significant role in other cognitive systems, and that topological mapping might help to delineate areas involved in higher cognitive processes. In this study, we combine surface-based visual, auditory, and somatomotor mapping methods with a naturalistic reading comprehension task in the same group of subjects to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the cortical overlap between sensory-motor maps in all major sensory modalities, and reading processing regions. Our results suggest that cortical activation during naturalistic reading comprehension overlaps more extensively with topological sensory-motor maps than has been heretofore appreciated. Reading activation in regions adjacent to occipital lobe and inferior parietal lobe almost completely overlaps visual maps, whereas a significant portion of frontal activation for reading in dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortex overlaps both visual and auditory maps. Even classical language regions in superior temporal cortex are partially overlapped by topological visual and auditory maps. By contrast, the main overlap with somatomotor maps is restricted to a small region on the anterior bank of the central sulcus near the border between the face and hand representations of M-I. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2784-2810, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Auditory Attention and Comprehension During a Simulated Night Shift: Effects of Task Characteristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Pilcher, June J; Jennings, Kristen S; Phillips, Ginger E; McCubbin, James A

2016-11-01

The current study investigated performance on a dual auditory task during a simulated night shift. Night shifts and sleep deprivation negatively affect performance on vigilance-based tasks, but less is known about the effects on complex tasks. Because language processing is necessary for successful work performance, it is important to understand how it is affected by night work and sleep deprivation. Sixty-two participants completed a simulated night shift resulting in 28 hr of total sleep deprivation. Performance on a vigilance task and a dual auditory language task was examined across four testing sessions. The results indicate that working at night negatively impacts vigilance, auditory attention, and comprehension. The effects on the auditory task varied based on the content of the auditory material. When the material was interesting and easy, the participants performed better. Night work had a greater negative effect when the auditory material was less interesting and more difficult. These findings support research that vigilance decreases during the night. The results suggest that auditory comprehension suffers when individuals are required to work at night. Maintaining attention and controlling effort especially on passages that are less interesting or more difficult could improve performance during night shifts. The results from the current study apply to many work environments where decision making is necessary in response to complex auditory information. Better predicting the effects of night work on language processing is important for developing improved means of coping with shiftwork. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Sensory Intelligence for Extraction of an Abstract Auditory Rule: A Cross-Linguistic Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Xiao-Tao; Wang, Xiao-Dong; Liang, Xiu-Yuan; Wang, Ming; Chen, Lin

2018-02-21

In a complex linguistic environment, while speech sounds can greatly vary, some shared features are often invariant. These invariant features constitute so-called abstract auditory rules. Our previous study has shown that with auditory sensory intelligence, the human brain can automatically extract the abstract auditory rules in the speech sound stream, presumably serving as the neural basis for speech comprehension. However, whether the sensory intelligence for extraction of abstract auditory rules in speech is inherent or experience-dependent remains unclear. To address this issue, we constructed a complex speech sound stream using auditory materials in Mandarin Chinese, in which syllables had a flat lexical tone but differed in other acoustic features to form an abstract auditory rule. This rule was occasionally and randomly violated by the syllables with the rising, dipping or falling tone. We found that both Chinese and foreign speakers detected the violations of the abstract auditory rule in the speech sound stream at a pre-attentive stage, as revealed by the whole-head recordings of mismatch negativity (MMN) in a passive paradigm. However, MMNs peaked earlier in Chinese speakers than in foreign speakers. Furthermore, Chinese speakers showed different MMN peak latencies for the three deviant types, which paralleled recognition points. These findings indicate that the sensory intelligence for extraction of abstract auditory rules in speech sounds is innate but shaped by language experience. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of a Combined 3-D Auditory/visual Cueing System on Visual Target Detection Using a Helmet-Mounted Display

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Pinedo, Carlos; Young, Laurence; Esken, Robert

2005-01-01

..., and the development and evaluation of the NDFR symbology for on/off-boresight viewing. The localized auditory research includes looking at the benefits of augmenting the Terrain Collision Avoidance System (TCAS...

Feeling music: integration of auditory and tactile inputs in musical meter perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Juan; Gamble, Darik; Sarnlertsophon, Kristine; Wang, Xiaoqin; Hsiao, Steven

2012-01-01

Musicians often say that they not only hear, but also "feel" music. To explore the contribution of tactile information in "feeling" musical rhythm, we investigated the degree that auditory and tactile inputs are integrated in humans performing a musical meter recognition task. Subjects discriminated between two types of sequences, 'duple' (march-like rhythms) and 'triple' (waltz-like rhythms) presented in three conditions: 1) Unimodal inputs (auditory or tactile alone), 2) Various combinations of bimodal inputs, where sequences were distributed between the auditory and tactile channels such that a single channel did not produce coherent meter percepts, and 3) Simultaneously presented bimodal inputs where the two channels contained congruent or incongruent meter cues. We first show that meter is perceived similarly well (70%-85%) when tactile or auditory cues are presented alone. We next show in the bimodal experiments that auditory and tactile cues are integrated to produce coherent meter percepts. Performance is high (70%-90%) when all of the metrically important notes are assigned to one channel and is reduced to 60% when half of these notes are assigned to one channel. When the important notes are presented simultaneously to both channels, congruent cues enhance meter recognition (90%). Performance drops dramatically when subjects were presented with incongruent auditory cues (10%), as opposed to incongruent tactile cues (60%), demonstrating that auditory input dominates meter perception. We believe that these results are the first demonstration of cross-modal sensory grouping between any two senses.

Absence of both auditory evoked potentials and auditory percepts dependent on timing cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Starr, A; McPherson, D; Patterson, J; Don, M; Luxford, W; Shannon, R; Sininger, Y; Tonakawa, L; Waring, M

1991-06-01

An 11-yr-old girl had an absence of sensory components of auditory evoked potentials (brainstem, middle and long-latency) to click and tone burst stimuli that she could clearly hear. Psychoacoustic tests revealed a marked impairment of those auditory perceptions dependent on temporal cues, that is, lateralization of binaural clicks, change of binaural masked threshold with changes in signal phase, binaural beats, detection of paired monaural clicks, monaural detection of a silent gap in a sound, and monaural threshold elevation for short duration tones. In contrast, auditory functions reflecting intensity or frequency discriminations (difference limens) were only minimally impaired. Pure tone audiometry showed a moderate (50 dB) bilateral hearing loss with a disproportionate severe loss of word intelligibility. Those auditory evoked potentials that were preserved included (1) cochlear microphonics reflecting hair cell activity; (2) cortical sustained potentials reflecting processing of slowly changing signals; and (3) long-latency cognitive components (P300, processing negativity) reflecting endogenous auditory cognitive processes. Both the evoked potential and perceptual deficits are attributed to changes in temporal encoding of acoustic signals perhaps occurring at the synapse between hair cell and eighth nerve dendrites. The results from this patient are discussed in relation to previously published cases with absent auditory evoked potentials and preserved hearing.

Age at implantation and auditory memory in cochlear implanted children.

Science.gov (United States)

Mikic, B; Miric, D; Nikolic-Mikic, M; Ostojic, S; Asanovic, M

2014-05-01

Early cochlear implantation, before the age of 3 years, provides the best outcome regarding listening, speech, cognition an memory due to maximal central nervous system plasticity. Intensive postoperative training improves not only auditory performance and language, but affects auditory memory as well. The aim of this study was to discover if the age at implantation affects auditory memory function in cochlear implanted children. A total of 50 cochlear implanted children aged 4 to 8 years were enrolled in this study: early implanted (1-3y) n = 27 and late implanted (4-6y) n = 23. Two types of memory tests were used: Immediate Verbal Memory Test and Forward and Backward Digit Span Test. Early implanted children performed better on both verbal and numeric tasks of auditory memory. The difference was statistically significant, especially on the complex tasks. Early cochlear implantation, before the age of 3 years, significantly improve auditory memory and contribute to better cognitive and education outcomes.

Diffusion tensor imaging and MR morphometry of the central auditory pathway and auditory cortex in aging.

Science.gov (United States)

Profant, O; Škoch, A; Balogová, Z; Tintěra, J; Hlinka, J; Syka, J

2014-02-28

Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) is caused mainly by the hypofunction of the inner ear, but recent findings point also toward a central component of presbycusis. We used MR morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with a 3T MR system with the aim to study the state of the central auditory system in a group of elderly subjects (>65years) with mild presbycusis, in a group of elderly subjects with expressed presbycusis and in young controls. Cortical reconstruction, volumetric segmentation and auditory pathway tractography were performed. Three parameters were evaluated by morphometry: the volume of the gray matter, the surface area of the gyrus and the thickness of the cortex. In all experimental groups the surface area and gray matter volume were larger on the left side in Heschl's gyrus and planum temporale and slightly larger in the gyrus frontalis superior, whereas they were larger on the right side in the primary visual cortex. Almost all of the measured parameters were significantly smaller in the elderly subjects in Heschl's gyrus, planum temporale and gyrus frontalis superior. Aging did not change the side asymmetry (laterality) of the gyri. In the central part of the auditory pathway above the inferior colliculus, a trend toward an effect of aging was present in the axial vector of the diffusion (L1) variable of DTI, with increased values observed in elderly subjects. A trend toward a decrease of L1 on the left side, which was more pronounced in the elderly groups, was observed. The effect of hearing loss was present in subjects with expressed presbycusis as a trend toward an increase of the radial vectors (L2L3) in the white matter under Heschl's gyrus. These results suggest that in addition to peripheral changes, changes in the central part of the auditory system in elderly subjects are also present; however, the extent of hearing loss does not play a significant role in the central changes. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd

The impact of auditory feedback on neuronavigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willems, PWA; Noordmans, HJ; van Overbeeke, JJ; Viergever, MA; Tulleken, CAF; van der Sprenkel, JWB

Object. We aimed to develop an auditory feedback system to be used in addition to regular neuronavigation, in an attempt to improve the usefulness of the information offered by neuronavigation systems. Instrumentation. Using a serial connection, instrument co-ordinates determined by a commercially

The Auditory Enhancement Effect is Not Reflected in the 80-Hz Auditory Steady-State Response

OpenAIRE

Carcagno, Samuele; Plack, Christopher J.; Portron, Arthur; Semal, Catherine; Demany, Laurent

2014-01-01

The perceptual salience of a target tone presented in a multitone background is increased by the presentation of a precursor sound consisting of the multitone background alone. It has been proposed that this “enhancement” phenomenon results from an effective amplification of the neural response to the target tone. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in humans, by comparing the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) to a target tone that was enhanced by a precursor sound with the ASSR to a...

Benzodiazepine temazepam suppresses the transient auditory 40-Hz response amplitude in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Jääskeläinen, I P; Hirvonen, J; Saher, M; Pekkonen, E; Sillanaukee, P; Näätänen, R; Tiitinen, H

1999-06-18

To discern the role of the GABA(A) receptors in the generation and attentive modulation of the transient auditory 40-Hz response, the effects of the benzodiazepine temazepam (10 mg) were studied in 10 healthy social drinkers, using a double-blind placebo-controlled design. Three hundred Hertz standard and 330 Hz rare deviant tones were presented to the left, and 1000 Hz standards and 1100 Hz deviants to the right ear of the subjects. Subjects attended to a designated ear and were to detect deviants therein while ignoring tones to the other. Temazepam significantly suppressed the amplitude of the 40-Hz response, the effect being equal for attended and non-attended tone responses. This suggests involvement of GABA(A) receptors in transient auditory 40-Hz response generation, however, not in the attentive modulation of the 40-Hz response.

The influence of presentation method on auditory length perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirkwood, Brent Christopher

2005-01-01

Humans are capable of hearing the lengths of wooden rods dropped onto hard floors. In an attempt to understand the influence of the stimulus presentation method for testing this kind of everyday listening task, listener performance was compared for three presentation methods in an auditory length...

The Influence of Presentation Method on Auditory Length Perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirkwood, Brent Christopher

Humans are capable of hearing the lengths of wooden rods dropped onto hard floors. In an attempt to understand the influence of the stimulus presentation method for testing this kind of everyday listening task, listener performance was compared for three presentation methods in an auditory length...

Blindness enhances auditory obstacle circumvention: Assessing echolocation, sensory substitution, and visual-based navigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolarik, Andrew J; Scarfe, Amy C; Moore, Brian C J; Pardhan, Shahina

2017-01-01

Performance for an obstacle circumvention task was assessed under conditions of visual, auditory only (using echolocation) and tactile (using a sensory substitution device, SSD) guidance. A Vicon motion capture system was used to measure human movement kinematics objectively. Ten normally sighted participants, 8 blind non-echolocators, and 1 blind expert echolocator navigated around a 0.6 x 2 m obstacle that was varied in position across trials, at the midline of the participant or 25 cm to the right or left. Although visual guidance was the most effective, participants successfully circumvented the obstacle in the majority of trials under auditory or SSD guidance. Using audition, blind non-echolocators navigated more effectively than blindfolded sighted individuals with fewer collisions, lower movement times, fewer velocity corrections and greater obstacle detection ranges. The blind expert echolocator displayed performance similar to or better than that for the other groups using audition, but was comparable to that for the other groups using the SSD. The generally better performance of blind than of sighted participants is consistent with the perceptual enhancement hypothesis that individuals with severe visual deficits develop improved auditory abilities to compensate for visual loss, here shown by faster, more fluid, and more accurate navigation around obstacles using sound.

Blindness enhances auditory obstacle circumvention: Assessing echolocation, sensory substitution, and visual-based navigation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew J Kolarik

Full Text Available Performance for an obstacle circumvention task was assessed under conditions of visual, auditory only (using echolocation and tactile (using a sensory substitution device, SSD guidance. A Vicon motion capture system was used to measure human movement kinematics objectively. Ten normally sighted participants, 8 blind non-echolocators, and 1 blind expert echolocator navigated around a 0.6 x 2 m obstacle that was varied in position across trials, at the midline of the participant or 25 cm to the right or left. Although visual guidance was the most effective, participants successfully circumvented the obstacle in the majority of trials under auditory or SSD guidance. Using audition, blind non-echolocators navigated more effectively than blindfolded sighted individuals with fewer collisions, lower movement times, fewer velocity corrections and greater obstacle detection ranges. The blind expert echolocator displayed performance similar to or better than that for the other groups using audition, but was comparable to that for the other groups using the SSD. The generally better performance of blind than of sighted participants is consistent with the perceptual enhancement hypothesis that individuals with severe visual deficits develop improved auditory abilities to compensate for visual loss, here shown by faster, more fluid, and more accurate navigation around obstacles using sound.

Auditory, Visual and Audiovisual Speech Processing Streams in Superior Temporal Sulcus.

Science.gov (United States)

Venezia, Jonathan H; Vaden, Kenneth I; Rong, Feng; Maddox, Dale; Saberi, Kourosh; Hickok, Gregory