Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Renata Filippini, Carlos Alberto Leite Filho, Gabriela Melo Santos Bonassa Barros, Frank E. Musiek, Eliane Schochat
Summary: This study developed and standardized a behavioral test for assessing backward masking (BM) and provided preliminary evidence of its validity. Normative values were obtained for the BM test (BMT).
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Min Zhang, Nima Alamatsaz, Antje Ihlefeld
Summary: Research confirms that speech identification thresholds differ significantly between low-IM and high-IM background sound, while speech detection thresholds are comparable across the two conditions. Functional near infrared spectroscopy recordings suggest that blood oxygenation changes near the superior temporal gyrus correlate with behavioral speech detection performance for high-IM background sound, indicating the involvement of the STG in an IM-dependent network. Hemodynamic recruitment near the STG is increased in listeners more vulnerable to IM, suggesting that cortical gating plays a role in individual sensitivity to IM.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Christopher E. Niemczak, Kathy R. Vander Werff
Summary: This study investigated informational masking effects by manipulating linguistic similarity and stimulus uncertainty. Results showed that the native language English masker had the largest impact on outcomes, while Mandarin and Dutch maskers did not significantly differ. Stimulus uncertainty affected latency outcomes for N1 and P3 components.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Min Zhang, Rachel N. Denison, Denis G. Pelli, Thuy Tien C. Le, Antje Ihlefeld
Summary: The study reveals a negative correlation between susceptibility to auditory informational masking and visual crowding across participants, showing a tradeoff in the brain between auditory and visual processing. Individuals with low susceptibility to auditory clutter tend to have high susceptibility to visual clutter, and vice versa. This suggests a complex relationship between auditory and visual mechanisms in sensory cortical processing.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
John Leschke, Gerardo Rodriguez Orellana, Christopher A. Shera, Andrew J. Oxenham
Summary: Behavioral forward-masking thresholds provide accurate estimates of cochlear tuning, while estimates using simultaneous masking are broader, possibly due to nonlinear cochlear suppression effects. This study focused on frequency selectivity between 200 and 1000 Hz and found that estimates at lower frequencies were broader and the influence of simultaneous masking was greater.
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Parisa Heidari, Ghassem Mohammadkhani, Arash Bayat, Nematollah Rouhbakhsh, Brian C. J. Moore
Summary: One of the main complaints of older adults is difficulty understanding speech in noise, which may partly reflect deficits in temporal processing. This study evaluated the effect of age on the rate of recovery from forward masking and found that older adults with normal audiometric thresholds had lower processing efficiency and poorer temporal resolution compared to young adults.
Article
Neurosciences
Travis White-Schwoch, Jennifer Krizman, Trent Nicol, Nina Kraus
Summary: A person with auditory neuropathy did not show frequency-following responses to musical notes within 65-130 Hz octaves, while a control subject did exhibit synchronized responses. This study suggests that subcortical neural synchrony is crucial for generating frequency-following responses, even when cortical onset responses are present.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Daniel Wallace, Jordan Cheer
Summary: This article discusses the creation of a private sound zone using a loudspeaker array and the importance of maintaining privacy by masking leaked speech with noise. It highlights the impact of ambient noise on designing a private audio system and proposes using a combination of background noise and an additional masker to reduce acoustic contrast requirements.
COMPUTER SPEECH AND LANGUAGE
(2022)
Review
Clinical Neurology
Panting Liu, Huiqin Zhu, Mingxia Chen, Qin Hong, Xia Chi
Summary: This research aimed to provide evidence for early identification and intervention of children at risk for auditory processing disorder. Through systematic review of electrophysiological studies, it was found that auditory electrophysiological testing can be used for characteristic identification of children with suspected APD, but the value of different methods needs further study.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Joseph Sollini, Katarina C. Poole, Dominic Blauth-Muszkowski, Jennifer K. Bizley
Summary: The cochlea decomposes sounds into different frequency channels, from which the auditory brain reconstructs the auditory scene, with key cues being temporal coherence and temporal predictability. Experimental results indicate that both temporal predictability and temporal coherence contribute to masking/unmasking of sounds.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Acoustics
Christopher Conroy, Emily Buss, Gerald Kidd Jr
Summary: This study examined the effectiveness of contextual cues in reducing modulation informational masking. The results showed that a pretrial cue to the masker signal significantly improved sensitivity for the target signal, while a cue to the target signal did not have the same effect.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Bonnie K. K. Lau, Katherine A. A. Emmons, Adrian K. C. Lee, Jeff Munson, Stephen R. R. Dager, Annette M. M. Estes
Summary: Auditory processing differences, including hyper- or hyposensitivity to sound, aversions to sound, and difficulty listening under noisy, real-world conditions, are prevalent in autistic children and persist throughout childhood. These differences are associated with increased disruptive/concerning behaviors and difficulties with adaptive behaviors. Early identification of auditory processing differences may help predict future behavioral challenges and guide interventions for autistic children.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jennifer Krizman, Elena K. Rotondo, Trent Nicol, Nina Kraus, Kasia Bieszczad
Summary: Research suggests that female rodents process sound harmonics more robustly than males, and this difference is related to levels of circulating estrogen. Hormonal differences, specifically estrogen signaling, may underlie sex differences in harmonic encoding in rodents.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Vibha Viswanathan, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham, Michael G. Heinz
Summary: Temporal coherence of sound fluctuations plays an important role in auditory grouping and scene segregation, not only in the cortex but also in early auditory areas. By studying consonant categorization and using computational models, it was found that speech understanding in noise is influenced by temporal-coherence processing, and physiological computations in the early auditory pathway may contribute to this process.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Carlos Alberto Leite Filho, Caroline Nunes Rocha-Muniz, Liliane Desgualdo Pereira, Eliane Schochat
Summary: Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between absolute pitch and auditory temporal processing. Results from the first experiment showed that although there was no significant difference between participants with and without absolute pitch in the Gaps-in-Noise test, the test scores were significantly correlated with pitch naming precision. In the second experiment, no difference or correlation was found between the two groups in the backward masking test. These findings suggest that only a part of temporal processing is involved in absolute pitch, and possible explanations include the overlap of brain areas involved in temporal resolution and absolute pitch, as well as the relevance of temporal resolution in the analysis of temporal fine structure for pitch perception.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Abigail L. Noyce, Ray W. Lefco, James A. Brissenden, Sean M. Tobyne, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham, David C. Somers
Summary: Working memory supports the persistent representation of transient sensory information and involves different visual and auditory networks. Specific regions in the frontal lobes show robust activation during visual and auditory working memory tasks, exhibiting sensory preferences and stronger activation during task engagement. Overall, the sensory-biased frontal regions segregate into visual and auditory networks with interdigitated anatomical connections.
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Subong Kim, Yu-Hsiang Wu, Hari M. Bharadwaj, Inyong Choi
Summary: The study aims to investigate the effect of noise reduction on speech-in-noise perception and individual differences in its efficacy. The findings suggest that noise reduction can improve neural processing of target speech without improving behavioral performance, and individual noise tolerance is a factor in determining the benefits of noise reduction.
Article
Neurosciences
Vibha Viswanathan, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham, Michael G. Heinz
Summary: Temporal coherence of sound fluctuations plays an important role in auditory grouping and scene segregation, not only in the cortex but also in early auditory areas. By studying consonant categorization and using computational models, it was found that speech understanding in noise is influenced by temporal-coherence processing, and physiological computations in the early auditory pathway may contribute to this process.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hari Bharadwaj, Fahimeh Mamashli, Sheraz Khan, Ravinderjit Singh, Robert M. Joseph, Ainsley Losh, Stephanie Pawlyszyn, Nicole M. McGuiggan, Steven Graham, Matti S. Hamalainen, Tal Kenet
Summary: Organizing sensory information into coherent perceptual objects is crucial for everyday perception and communication. This study aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene segregation in children with ASD. The results showed that children with ASD exhibited abnormal growth of cortical neural responses with increasing temporal coherence of the auditory figure, providing new insights into the pathophysiology of auditory perceptual deficits and sensory overload in ASD.
Article
Neurosciences
Agudemu Borjigin, Alexandra R. Hustedt-Mai, Hari M. Bharadwaj
Summary: Neural phase-locking is a fundamental mechanism for encoding acoustic information, but its role in perception is still debatable. Existing methods lack the ability to quantify individual levels of temporal fine structure (TFS) coding. This study compared behavioral and EEG-based measures and found that external factors significantly influenced the results. However, after adjusting behavioral scores and extracting latency or growth metrics from EEG, measures of interaural timing sensitivity showed strong behavior-EEG correlations.
Article
Acoustics
Wusheng Liang, Christopher A. Brown, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham
Summary: This study examined the impact of interrupters on target stream recall, finding that interrupters disrupt target stream recall regardless of their direction, especially when they occur during the target stream.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Acoustics
Z. Ellen Peng, Sebastian Waz, Emily Buss, Yi Shen, Virginia Richards, Hari Bharadwaj, G. Christopher Stecker, Jordan A. Beim, Adam K. Bosen, Meredith D. Braza, Anna C. Diedesch, Claire M. Dorey, Andrew R. Dykstra, Frederick J. Gallun, Raymond L. Goldsworthy, Lincoln Gray, Eric C. Hoover, Antje Ihlefeld, Thomas Koelewijn, Judy G. Kopun, Juraj Mesik, Daniel E. Shub, Jonathan H. Venezia
Summary: Acoustics research is typically conducted in specialized laboratory settings, but remote testing allows for greater participant access and larger sample sizes in everyday environments. However, remote testing also has limitations such as reduced control over environmental conditions and potential inconsistencies in attentional state and response behaviors.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Abigail L. Noyce, Jasmine A. C. Kwasa, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham
Summary: Attention prioritizes certain information across sensory modalities, influencing how information is represented and processed in the brain. It is not limited to visual tasks, but also plays a role in auditory perception.
WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-COGNITIVE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Hari M. Bharadwaj, Alexandra R. Hustedt-Mai, Hannah M. Ginsberg, Kelsey M. Dougherty, Vijaya Prakash Krishnan Muthaiah, Anna Hagedorn, Jennifer M. Simpson, Michael G. Heinz
Summary: Cross-species experiments on chinchillas and at-risk humans suggest that cochlear synaptopathy from noise exposure and aging are widespread even among individuals with clinically normal hearing status.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Alexander Pei, Barbara G. G. Shinn-Cunningham
Summary: Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) is a non-invasive technique that modulates neural dynamics by injecting external electrical current. The neurophysiological mechanisms of tES are still unknown. In this study, a two-column Jansen and Rit model was used to simulate neuronal dynamics. An echo-state network (ESN) was utilized as a closed-loop feedback controller to predict and inject stimulation current to interfere with endogenous currents, reducing the energy of pyramidal cells. This simulation approach provides a framework for a model-free closed-loop tES control system.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Acoustics
William B. Salloom, Hari Bharadwaj, Elizabeth A. Strickland
Summary: Physiological and psychoacoustic studies have used long duration elicitors (>100 ms) to investigate the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) in humans. Previous research using otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) found time constants in the range of 100s of milliseconds when elicited by broadband noise. However, the effect of broadband noise duration on psychoacoustic tasks is currently unknown.
JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Seppo P. Ahlfors, Steven Graham, Hari Bharadwaj, Fahimeh Mamashli, Sheraz Khan, Robert M. Joseph, Ainsley Losh, Stephanie Pawlyszyn, Nicole M. McGuiggan, Mark Vangel, Matti S. Hamalainen, Tal Kenet
Summary: This study investigated the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) as a biomarker for abnormal auditory processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The findings showed no significant differences in ASSR between ASD and typically developing (TD) children, suggesting that ASSR is not a reliable biomarker for abnormal auditory processing in ASD. Additionally, the previously observed atypical double-frequency somatosensory response in ASD did not apply to the auditory modality, indicating that abnormal local connectivity in ASD may not be modality-independent.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sophie Schwartz, Le Wang, Sofia Uribe, Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham, Helen Tager-Flusberg
Summary: This study compared auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) in autistic adolescents with neurotypical controls and found that autistic adolescents had smaller neural responses and AEP morphology that resembled neurotypical peers. These differences were not due to developmental delays. Nonverbal intelligence significantly predicted how closely each adolescent's AEP resembled the age-normed waveform. These findings suggest that disruptions in early neural responses to low-level inputs are associated with intellectual impairments in autism.
Article
Biology
Ravinderjit Singh, Hari M. Bharadwaj
Summary: The study found that the auditory cortex can synchronize to dynamic binaural cues at lower modulation rates, which aligns with the limits of perceiving dynamic spatial information and utilizing dynamic binaural cues for spatial unmasking. The tracking limit for frequency modulation (FM) is similar to the limit for spatial tracking, suggesting a general perceptual limit that can be accounted for by cortical temporal integration limits. Human cortical synchronization measured via EEG can predict limits of auditory spatial tracking.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
Brittany A. Mok, Vibha Viswanathan, Agudemu Borjigin, Ravinderjit Singh, Homeira Kafi, Hari M. Bharadwaj
Summary: Anonymous web-based experiments are being used more and more in behavioral research, but studying auditory perception online is challenging due to limited control over acoustics and the inability to perform audiometry. This study outlines an approach to address these challenges and validates the procedures using web-based measurements compared to lab-based data.
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
(2023)