Coding Of Amplitude Modulation Research Articles

Improving the Structure of a Signal Used for Real-Time Calibrating of the Receiving Channels of Digital Transceiver Modules in Digital Phased Antenna Arrays

Introduction. Modern digital phased array antenna (DPAA) systems incorporate a large number of identical transceiver modules (TMs). These modules require real-time calibration with a high level of accuracy. In a previous work, we proposed a real-time calibration method for all receiver channels, which is based on the use of a calibration signal (CalSig) of the same frequency spectrum as the reflected signal and modulated in phase and amplitude by BPSK and OOK codes, respectively. This method was found to have a number of advantages over conventional approaches. However, the use of the same CalSig sample for all receiving channels increases the noise power gain at the output of a digital beam-forming unit (DBU). To overcome this limitation, we set out to improve the structure of CalSigs by making them pseudo-orthogonal. As a result, the noise power gain at the DBU output can be significantly reduced compared to that obtained in our previous work.Aim. To propose an improved design of a controlled amplitude modulation code OOK generator, which allows creation of pseudo-orthogonal CalSigs. As a result, the noise power gain at the output will increase insignificantly, thus having no negative effect on the quality of digital beam forming, signal processing and calibration.Materials and methods. Theory of system engineering and technology; theory of digital signal processing; system analysis; mathematical modeling.Results. An improved CalSig for calibrating the receiving channels of TMs was obtained. A structural diagram allowing the formation of pseudo-orthogonal CalSigs was synthesized.Conclusions. We proposed a new approach to improving the structure of signals used for real-time calibrating the DPAA receiving channels. A structural diagram of an amplitude-modulated OOK code generator for pseudo-orthogonal CalSigs was developed.

CNN-based demodulation for a complex amplitude modulation code in holographic data storage

CNN-based demodulation for a complex amplitude modulation code in holographic data storage

Noise tolerance in optical waveguide circuits for recognition of optical 16 quadrature amplitude modulation codes

In photonic label routers, various optical signal processing functions are required; these include optical label extraction, recognition of the label, optical switching and buffering controlled by signals based on the label information and network routing tables, and label rewriting. Among these functions, we focus on photonic label recognition. We have proposed two kinds of optical waveguide circuits to recognize 16 quadrature amplitude modulation codes, i.e., recognition from the minimum output port and from the maximum output port. The recognition function was theoretically analyzed and numerically simulated by finite-difference beam-propagation method. We discuss noise tolerance in the circuit and show numerically simulated results to evaluate bit-error-rate (BER) characteristics against optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). The OSNR required to obtain a BER less than 1.0×10−3 for the symbol rate of 2.5 GBaud was 14.5 and 27.0 dB for recognition from the minimum and maximum output, respectively.

Evidence that hidden hearing loss underlies amplitude modulation encoding deficits in individuals with and without tinnitus

Damage to auditory nerve fibers that expresses with suprathreshold sounds but is hidden from the audiogram has been proposed to underlie deficits in temporal coding ability observed among individuals with otherwise normal hearing, and to be present in individuals experiencing chronic tinnitus with clinically normal audiograms. We tested whether these individuals may have hidden synaptic losses on auditory nerve fibers with low spontaneous rates of firing (low-SR fibers) that are important for coding suprathreshold sounds in noise while high-SR fibers determining threshold responses in quiet remain relatively unaffected. Tinnitus and control subjects were required to detect the presence of amplitude modulation (AM) in a 5 kHz, suprathreshold tone (a frequency in the tinnitus frequency region of the tinnitus subjects, whose audiometric thresholds were normal to 12 kHz). The AM tone was embedded within background noise intended to degrade the contribution of high-SR fibers, such that AM coding was preferentially reliant on low-SR fibers. We also recorded by electroencephalography the “envelope following response” (EFR, generated in the auditory midbrain) to a 5 kHz, 85 Hz AM tone presented in the same background noise, and also in quiet (both low-SR and high-SR fibers contributing to AM coding in the latter condition). Control subjects with EFRs that were comparatively resistant to the addition of background noise had better AM detection thresholds than controls whose EFRs were more affected by noise. Simulated auditory nerve responses to our stimulus conditions using a well-established peripheral model suggested that low-SR fibers were better preserved in the former cases. Tinnitus subjects had worse AM detection thresholds and reduced EFRs overall compared to controls. Simulated auditory nerve responses found that in addition to severe low-SR fiber loss, a degree of high-SR fiber loss that would not be expected to affect audiometric thresholds was needed to explain the results in tinnitus subjects. The results indicate that hidden hearing loss could be sufficient to account for impaired temporal coding in individuals with normal audiograms as well as for cases of tinnitus without audiometric hearing loss.

Effects of age and hearing loss on coding frequency and amplitude modulation

Is phase-locking to temporal fine structure (TFS) selectively affected by hearing loss or ageing? This question has clinical relevance because audiometric measures may be insensitive to TFS deficits linked to auditory neuropathy/dyssynchrony and synaptopathy (“hidden hearing loss”). Previous work has suggested that slow-rate FM is coded via phase-locking to TFS, whereas fast-rate FM is converted to amplitude modulation (AM) via cochlear filtering. This hypothesis was tested by correlating performance in slow- and fast-rate FM with performance in tasks known to reflect TFS coding (interaural-time-difference detection, ITD) and cochlear filtering (forward masking patterns). Subjects with clinically normal hearing at low frequencies between the ages of 20 and 80 years were tested, with approximately 10 subjects per decade. Effects of low- and high-frequency hearing loss were also examined, while controlling for age. Although correlations were found between all measures of FM and AM, no clear specific effect of age was found on TFS coding (independent of AM coding). Preliminary results with hearing-impaired listeners suggest an effect of cochlear filtering that may not be specific to the fast-rate FM detection. Overall, the results do not provide strong evidence for TFS-specific deficits with either age or hearing loss. [Work supported by NIH grant R01DC005216.]

Multiresolution Coding Using Amplitude and Phase Modulations for Holographic Data Storage

A new data coding method using both amplitude and phase modulations is proposed for increasing the coding rate in a holographic memory. The phase modulation code has a lower resolution than the conventional sparse block code used as the amplitude modulation code. The phase modulation code can add more than 1 bit to the amplitude modulation code. We show that the coding rate can be increased up to 0.78 from 0.67 in the 3:9 amplitude modulation code when the binary phase code is added. We also show that the bit error rate and signal-to-noise ratio in the amplitude data are improved by adding the phase modulation code in speckle shift multiplexing. The histogram of the phase distribution is also separated well.

A model of anuran auditory periphery reveals frequency-dependent adaptation to be a contributing mechanism for two-tone suppression and amplitude modulation coding

Anuran auditory nerve fibers (ANF) tuned to low frequencies display unusual frequency-dependent adaptation which results in a more phasic response to signals above best frequency (BF) and a more tonic response to signals below. A network model of the first two layers of the anuran auditory system was used to test the contribution of this dynamic peripheral adaptation on two-tone suppression and amplitude modulation (AM) tuning. The model included a peripheral sandwich component, leaky-integrate-and-fire cells and adaptation was implemented by means of a non-linear increase in threshold weighted by the signal frequency. The results of simulations showed that frequency-dependent adaptation was both necessary and sufficient to produce high-frequency-side two-tone suppression for the ANF and cells of the dorsal medullary nucleus (DMN). It seems likely that both suppression and this dynamic adaptation share a common mechanism. The response of ANFs to AM signals was influenced by adaptation and carrier frequency. Vector strength synchronization to an AM signal improved with increased adaptation. The spike rate response to a carrier at BF was the expected flat function with AM rate. However, for non-BF carrier frequencies the response showed a weak band-pass pattern due to the influence of signal sidebands and adaptation. The DMN received inputs from three ANFs and when the frequency tuning of inputs was near the carrier, then the rate response was a low-pass or all-pass shape. When most of the inputs were biased above or below the carrier, then band-pass responses were observed. Frequency-dependent adaptation enhanced the band-pass tuning for AM rate, particularly when the response of the inputs was predominantly phasic for a given carrier. Different combinations of inputs can therefore bias a DMN cell to be especially well suited to detect specific ranges of AM rates for a particular carrier frequency. Such selection of inputs would clearly be advantageous to the frog in recognizing distinct spectral and temporal parameters in communication calls.

Coding of Amplitude Modulation in Primary Auditory Cortex

Conflicting results have led to different views about how temporal modulation is encoded in primary auditory cortex (A1). Some studies find a substantial population of neurons that change firing rate without synchronizing to temporal modulation, whereas other studies fail to see these nonsynchronized neurons. As a result, the role and scope of synchronized temporal and nonsynchronized rate codes in AM processing in A1 remains unresolved. We recorded A1 neurons' responses in awake macaques to sinusoidal AM noise. We find most (37-78%) neurons synchronize to at least one modulation frequency (MF) without exhibiting nonsynchronized responses. However, we find both exclusively nonsynchronized neurons (7-29%) and "mixed-mode" neurons (13-40%) that synchronize to at least one MF and fire nonsynchronously to at least one other. We introduce new measures for modulation encoding and temporal synchrony that can improve the analysis of how neurons encode temporal modulation. These include comparing AM responses to the responses to unmodulated sounds, and a vector strength measure that is suitable for single-trial analysis. Our data support a transformation from a temporally based population code of AM to a rate-based code as information ascends the auditory pathway. The number of mixed-mode neurons found in A1 indicates this transformation is not yet complete, and A1 neurons may carry multiplexed temporal and rate codes.

Similarities of FM and AM receptive space of single units at the auditory midbrain

Complex sounds, including human speech, contain time-varying signals like frequency modulation (FM) and amplitude modulation (AM) components. In spite of various attempts to characterize their neuronal coding in the mammalian auditory systems, a unified view of their responses has not been reached. We compared FM and AM coding in terms of receptive space with reference to the input–output relationship of the underlying neural circuits. Using extracellular recording, single unit responses to a novel stimulus (i.e. random AM or FM tone) were obtained at the auditory midbrain of the anesthetized rat. Responses could be classified into three general types, corresponding to selective sensitivity to one of the following aspects of the modulation: (a) steady state, (b) dynamic state, or (c) steady-and-dynamic states. Such response typing was basically similar between FM and AM stimuli. Furthermore, the receptive space of each unit could be characterized in a three-dimensional Cartesian co-ordinate system formed by three modulation parameters: velocity, range and intensity. This representation applies to both FM and AM responses. We concluded that the FM and AM codings are very similar at the auditory midbrain and may likely involve similar neural mechanisms.

γ-Aminobutyric acidergic and glycinergic inputs shape coding of amplitude modulation in the chinchilla cochlear nucleus

Amplitude modulation is a prominent acoustic feature of biologically relevant sounds, such as speech and animal vocalizations. Enhanced temporal coding of amplitude modulation signals is found in certain dorsal and posteroventral cochlear nucleus neurons when they are compared to auditory nerve. Although mechanisms underlying this improved temporal selectivity are not known, involvement of inhibition has been suggested. γ-Aminobutyric acid- and glycine-mediated inhibition have been shown to shape the dorsal cochlear nucleus and posteroventral cochlear nucleus response properties to other acoustic stimuli. In the present study, responses to amplitude modulation tones were obtained from chinchilla dorsal cochlear nucleus and posteroventral cochlear nucleus neurons. The amplitude modulation carrier was set to the neuron’s characteristic frequency and the modulating frequency varied from 10 Hz. Rate and temporal modulation transfer functions were compared across neurons. Bandpass temporal modulation transfer functions were observed in 74% of the neurons studied. Most cochlear nucleus neurons (90%) displayed flat or lowpass rate modulation transfer functions to amplitude modulation signals presented at 25–40 dB (re: characteristic frequency threshold). The role of inhibition in shaping responses to amplitude modulation stimuli was examined using iontophoretic application of glycine or γ-aminobutyric acid A receptor agonists and antagonists. Blockade of γ-aminobutyric acid A or glycine receptors increased stimulus-evoked discharge rates for a majority of neurons tested. Synchronization to the envelope was reduced, particularly at low and middle modulating frequencies, with temporal modulation transfer functions becoming flattened and less bandpass in appearance. Application of glycine, γ-aminobutyric acid or muscimol increased the modulation gain over the low- and mid-modulation frequencies and reduced the discharge rate across envelope frequencies for most neurons tested. These findings support the hypothesis that glycinergic and γ-aminobutyric acidergic inputs onto certain dorsal cochlear nucleus and posteroventral cochlear nucleus neurons play a role in shaping responses to amplitude modulation stimuli and may be responsible for the reported preservation of amplitude modulation temporal coding in dorsal cochlear nucleus and posteroventral cochlear nucleus neurons at high stimulus intensities or in background noise.

Coding of amplitude modulation in the auditory midbrain of the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) across metamorphosis.

The functional development of the auditory system across metamorphosis was examined by recording neural activity from the torus semicircularis of larval and postmetamorphic bullfrog froglets in response to amplitude-modulated sound. Multiunit activity in the torus semicircularis during early larval stages showed significant phase-locking to the envelopes of amplitude-modulated noise bursts, up to modulation rates as high as 250 Hz. Beginning at metamorphic climax and continuing into the froglet period, phase locking was restricted to the more limited frequency range characteristic of adult frogs. The onset of operation of the tympanic pathway does not reinstate the highly synchronous neural activity characteristic of the operation of the fenestral pathway. Modulation transfer functions based on spike count did not show tuning for modulation rate in early stage tadpoles, but a greater variety of shapes of these functions emerged as development proceeded. Most of the different kinds of modulation transfer functions seen in adult frogs were also observed in froglets, but band-pass functions were not as sharply peaked. These data suggest that different neural codes for processing of the periodicity of complex signals operate in early stage tadpoles than in postmetamorphic froglets.

Coding of amplitude modulation in the central auditory system

The coding of temporal information, as reflected in the response to amplitude-modulated signals, changes dramatically between the auditory midbrain and the auditory cortex. Most neurons in the inferior colliculus are tuned to specific AM rates between ten and several hundred Hertz. This tuning is expressed either in their capacity to phaselock their response to the AM rate or by their overall response magnitude. In the primary auditory cortex, this capacity is largely reduced to AM rates below 20 Hz. Other cortical fields show even lower AM limiting rates and usually only one field (the anterior field in the cat, and the posterior field in New World monkeys) shows a slightly higher following capacity. The consequences of this overall reduction in repetition coding capacity for the representation of temporal properties of complex signals, such as fundamental frequency or details of the temporal envelope, are profound. A second property of the temporal coding in the midbrain, its systematic distribution along the isofrequency-axis of the nucleus, is also diminished or absent at the cortical level. Potential origins of this transformation in temporal coding and consequences for the perception of temporal information will be discussed. [Work supported by NIH R01-02660.]

Preservation of amplitude modulation coding in the presence of background noise by chinchilla auditory-nerve fibers

Sound envelope temporal fluctuations are important for effective processing of biologically relevant acoustic information including speech, animal vocalizations, sound-source location, and pitch. Amplitude modulation (AM) of sound envelopes can be encoded in quiet with high fidelity by many auditory neurons including those of the auditory nerve (AN) and cochlear nucleus. From both neurophysiological and clinical perspectives, it is critical to understand the effects of background masking noise on the processing of AM. To further this goal, single-unit recordings were made from AN fibers in anesthetized chinchillas. Units were classified according to spontaneous firing rate (SR) and threshold. Best frequency (BF) pure-tone bursts and AM (10-500 Hz) tone bursts were employed as stimuli at several sound levels, both in quiet and in the presence of a continuous wideband noise. It was found that (1) in quiet, low SR AN fibers show the strongest AM coding, followed in order by medium SR and high SR fibers, respectively. (2) AN units of all three classes generally preserve their AM coding even in the presence of loud (0 or +6 dB S/N) background noise and at high sound levels (over 75 dB SPL). (3) This preservation is usually achieved by lowering the average firing rate proportionately to decreases in the synchronous (fundamental frequency) response. (4) For a few AN fibers, the AM coding increases or is reduced in the presence of the background noise. These findings suggest that AN preservation of AM coding in the presence of a continuous masking noise results from shifts in the operating ranges and firing rates of AN fibers resulting from cochlear nonlinearities and adaptive mechanisms.

Neuronal correlates of perceptual amplitude-modulation detection

The goal of the present paper is to relate the coding of amplitude modulation (AM) in the auditory pathway to the behavioral detection performance. To address this issue, the detectability of AM was estimated by modelling a single neuron located in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (IC). The computational model is based on cochlear nucleus responses and a coincidence detection mechanism. The model replicated the main feature of the neuronal AM transfer function, namely a bandpass function. The IC-unit model was initially tuned to a 200-Hz modulation frequency. A single neurometric function for AM detection at this modulation frequency was generated using a 2-interval, 2-alternative forced-choice paradigm. On each trial of the experiments, AM was taken to be correctly detected by the model if the humber of spikes in response to the modulated signal exceeded the number of spikes in an otherwise identical interval that contained an unmodulated signal. Psychometric functions for 4 human subjects were also measured under the same stimulus conditions. Comparison of the simulated neurometric and psychometric functions suggested that there was sufficient information in the rate esponse of an IC neuron well-tuned in the modulation-frequency domain to support behavioral detection performance.

Across-channel processing of amplitude modulation in cochlear hearing-impaired listeners

Over the past few years, there have been several studies that have examined across-channel effects related to amplitude modulation (AM). Some of these effects, notably comodulation masking release (CMR), modulation detection interference (MDI), and monaural envelope correlation perception, have been hypothesized to be related to the analysis of signals in complex noise backgrounds, and to auditory grouping. Several studies of cochlear-impaired listeners using these paradigms have recently been completed. Cochlear-impaired listeners often report having difficulty processing signals in noisy backgrounds, and it is possible that the study of across-channel processes involving the coding of AM can shed light upon some components of this disability. Because physiological studies have indicated that neural/central abnormalities can occur secondary to cochlear lesions, it is worthwhile to consider the effect of cochlear hearing loss on across-channel auditory processes. At this point, the extent to which cochlear-based losses in humans are associated with some degree of concomitant neural deficit is largely unknown. One of the specific goals of the research was to determine the peripheral versus central contributions to the hearing loss related deficits in the processing of across-channel AM cues. The results of the studies indicated that relatively mild acquired cochlear losses in adults are associated with effects that can be accounted for in terms of peripheral processing deficits. [Research supported by NIH NIDCD.]