Pitch Perception Research Articles

Emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorder across age groups: A cross-sectional investigation of various visual and auditory communicative domains.

Previous research on emotion processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has predominantly focused on human faces and speech prosody, with little attention paid to other domains such as nonhuman faces and music. In addition, emotion processing in different domains was often examined in separate studies, making it challenging to evaluate whether emotion recognition difficulties in ASD generalize across domains and age cohorts. The present study investigated: (i) the recognition of basic emotions (angry, scared, happy, and sad) across four domains (human faces, face-like objects, speech prosody, and song) in 38 autistic and 38 neurotypical (NT) children, adolescents, and adults in a forced-choice labeling task, and (ii) the impact of pitch and visual processing profiles on this ability. Results showed similar recognition accuracy between the ASD and NT groups across age groups for all domains and emotion types, although processing speed was slower in the ASD compared to the NT group. Age-related differences were seen in both groups, which varied by emotion, domain, and performance index. Visual processing style was associated with facial emotion recognition speed and pitch perception ability with auditory emotion recognition in the NT group but not in the ASD group. These findings suggest that autistic individuals may employ different emotion processing strategies compared to NT individuals, and that emotion recognition difficulties as manifested by slower response times may result from a generalized, rather than a domain-specific underlying mechanism that governs emotion recognition processes across domains in ASD.

High Frequency Response of Non-Volatile Memristors

This paper presents an analytical investigation of the transient and steady-state response of non-volatile memristors to high frequency periodic inputs, using as a case study a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\textrm {TaO}_{\textrm {x}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -based nano-scale memristor model derived at HP Labs. For the first time, we provide a mathematical proof for the fading memory phenomenon in memristors stimulated by periodic inputs in the high frequency limit. Specifically, we demonstrate that the steady-state response of a non-volatile memristor, exhibiting asymmetric switching kinetics with respect to the polarity of the input, depends only on the amplitude of the testing signal and not on the device initial conditions. Based on the results of our analyses, we provide an alternative method for tuning the memristor state by using high-frequency AC inputs, and introduce a new system-theoretic visualization tool, namely the input-referred High-Frequency Dynamic Route Map (HF-DRM), that allows the reproduction of the memristor time-response to any high-frequency periodic input from each admissible initial condition. The purely theoretical results introduced in this paper could inspire new approaches for modulating the memory states of practical non-volatile memristors.

Prediction methodology and assessment of low frequency noise break-in for a science building

More often than not the effects of anthropogenic (or man-made) noise are evident in all facets of the built environment: from residencies and offices through to state-of-the-art R&amp;D facilities. Often external ambient noise can penetrate the fabric of these buildings and adversely affect, for instance, human symbiosis on a socio-political level or mar the outcome of advanced technological research in scientific facilities. The principles of acoustic design of buildings are mainly limited to a specific frequency range, i.e. within the standard sonic range, and usually do not account for the effect of lower frequency noise, such as sound in the less audible range (infrasound). It is in the remit of this work to outline a practical method of estimating the impact of lower frequency noise on a science building housing particularly sensitive experiments susceptible to infrasound. An analytical model of the excitation mechanism of the external building fabric will therefore be outlined and used in tandem with a structural/acoustical numerical model of a science building in order to predict the low frequency acoustic levels within the labs. A set of measured noise data in the actual labs will also lend a level of support to the described method of predictions.

Using light to study sound: Stimulating hair cells with photonic pressure.

Hair cells, the receptors of the inner ear, detect sounds by transducing mechanical vibrations into electrical signals. From the top surface of each hair cell protrudes a mechanical antenna, the hair bundle, which the cell uses to detect and amplify auditory stimuli, thus sharpening frequency selectivity and providing a broad dynamic range. Current methods for mechanically stimulating hair bundles are too slow to encompass the frequency range of mammalian hearing and are plagued by inconsistencies. To overcome these challenges, we developed a method to move individual hair bundles with light. This technique uses an optical fiber whose tip is tapered to a diameter of a few micrometers and endowed with a ball lens to minimize divergence of the light beam. Here we describe the fabrication, characterization, and application of this optical system and demonstrate the rapid application of photonic force to vestibular and cochlear hair cells.

A comparison between the high-frequency Boundary Element Method and Surface-Based Geometrical Acoustics

The audible frequency range covers many octaves in which the wavelength changes from being large with respect to dominant features of a space to being comparatively much smaller. This makes numerical prediction of a space's acoustic response, e.g. for auralisation, extremely challenging if all frequencies are to be represented accurately. Different classes of algorithm give the best balance of accuracy to computational cost in different frequency bands - 'wave solvers' such as Boundary Element Method (BEM) at low frequencies and Geometrical Acoustics (GA) methods at high frequencies. But combining their output data can be an awkward process due to their very different formulations. This is particularly important for early reflections, which give crucial spatial perceptual cues. Hence there is a need for a unified full audible bandwidth algorithm for early reflections. This paper will describe ongoing research to develop such an algorithm by exploiting synergies between high-frequency BEM and GA. It will describe how appropriately chosen oscillatory basis functions in BEM can produce leading-order GA behaviour at high frequencies and explore how interactions between these compare to the same interactions arising in a surface-based Geometrical Acoustics scheme.

Experimental study of the effects of the long chimney of a closed tonehole on the sound of a bassoon.

The bassoon has side holes a few tens of millimeters long, much longer than in other woodwinds. When they are closed, the "quarter-wave" resonances of these "chimneys" create short circuits in parallel with the bore. At these resonance frequencies, near 2 kHz-within the sensitive range of hearing-it is expected that the waves will not propagate beyond the chimney, affecting both the input impedance and the radiated sound. Using parametric studies with varying chimney lengths, these effects on impedance and radiated sound are measured for a French bassoon and a simplified conical model instrument. The effects are clear on the model instrument, especially when several chimneys have equal length. For the bassoon, the passive filter effect remains, but its importance in the sound is blurred due to changes in the oscillation regime and in the directivity, as simulations confirmed. The effect is audible under laboratory conditions, but on the same order of magnitude as the spatial level variations due to the directivity. It is, therefore, unlikely that the difference in timbre between the French and the German bassoon is mainly due to longer tonehole chimneys.

No Heightened Musical Pitch Weighting For Tone Language Speakers in Early Childhood

Numerous studies suggest that speakers of some tone languages show advantages in musical pitch processing compared to non-tone language speakers. A recent study in adults (Jasmin et al., 2021) suggests that in addition to heightened pitch sensitivity, tone language speakers weight pitch information more strongly than other auditory cues (amplitude, duration) in both linguistic and nonlinguistic settings compared to non-tone language speakers. The current study asks whether pitch upweighting is evident in early childhood. To test this, two groups of 3- to 5-year-old children—tone-language speakers (n = 48), a group previously shown to have a perceptual advantage in musical pitch tasks (Creel et al., 2018), and non-tone-language speakers (n = 48)—took part in a musical “word learning” task. Children associated two cartoon characters with two brief musical phrases differing in both musical instrument and contour. If tone language speakers weight pitch more strongly, cue conflict trials should show stronger pitch responding than for non-tone speakers. In contrast to both adult speakers’ stronger pitch weighting and child and adult pitch perception advantages, tone-language-speaking children did not show greater weighting of pitch information than non-tone-language speaking children. This suggests a slow developmental course for pitch reweighting, contrasting with apparent early emergence of pitch sensitivity.

Altered binaural hearing in pre-ataxic and ataxic mutation carriers of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3

Brainstem degeneration is a prominent feature of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), involving structures that execute binaural synchronization with microsecond precision. As a consequence, auditory processing may deteriorate during the course of disease. We tested whether the binaural “Huggins pitch” effect is suitable to study the temporal precision of brainstem functioning in SCA3 mutation carriers. We expected that they would have difficulties perceiving Huggins pitch at high frequencies, and that they would show attenuated neuromagnetic responses to Huggins pitch. The upper limit of Huggins pitch perception was psychoacoustically determined in 18 pre-ataxic and ataxic SCA3 mutation carriers and in 18 age-matched healthy controls. Moreover, the cortical N100 response following Huggins pitch onset was acquired by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG recordings were analyzed using dipole source modeling and comprised a monaural pitch condition and a no-pitch condition with simple binaural correlation changes. Compared with age-matched controls, ataxic but not pre-ataxic SCA3 mutation carriers had significantly lower frequency limits up to which Huggins pitch could be heard. Listeners with lower frequency limits also showed diminished MEG responses to Huggins pitch, but not in the two control conditions. Huggins pitch is a promising tool to assess brainstem functioning in ataxic SCA3 patients. Future studies should refine the psychophysiological setup to capture possible performance decrements also in pre-ataxic mutation carriers. Longitudinal observations will be needed to prove the potential of the assessment of Huggins pitch as a biomarker to track brainstem functioning during the disease course in SCA3.

Cetacean evoked potential audiometry by stranding networks enables more rapid accumulation of hearing information in stranded odontocetes

Knowing the hearing range and sensitivity of a marine mammal is fundamental to determining its potential for being impacted by ocean noise. Enabling stranding responders to perform hearing tests on stranded odontocetes is the most likely means by which most odontocete species will be tested and by which population-level variability in hearing will be determined. A portable auditory evoked potential (AEP) system was modified for use by stranding response teams and optimised to test odontocete hearing. Stranding responders were trained on the system and deployed it to strandings from 2010–2013. Eighteen partial or complete audiograms from common dolphins (n = 15) and Atlantic white-sided dolphins (n = 3) were obtained. Both species demonstrated typically delphinid audiograms with upper frequency limits of hearing between 113–160kHz; however, the region of best sensitivity in the Atlantic white-sided dolphin (28–56kHz) was 18–28 dB less sensitive than that of the common dolphin. A single common dolphin presented with severe hearing loss consistent with presbycusis in delphinids, but with undefined etiology. The number of audiograms obtained during the study greatly increases our knowledge about hearing in these species, neither of which are common to managed care facilities. In the case of the common dolphin, the number of animals tested allows a first estimate of population-level variability. Continued use of AEP systems by stranding responders will expedite the collection of audiometric information for previously untested species and permit sufficient sample sizes to determine population-level variability in the hearing of tested species.

The Resilience of the Phonological Network May Have Implications for Developmental and Acquired Disorders.

A central tenet of network science states that the structure of the network influences processing. In this study of a phonological network of English words we asked: how does damage alter the network structure (Study 1)? How does the damaged structure influence lexical processing (Study 2)? How does the structure of the intact network "protect" processing with a less efficient algorithm (Study 3)? In Study 1, connections in the network were randomly removed to increasingly damage the network. Various measures showed the network remained well-connected (i.e., it is resilient to damage) until ~90% of the connections were removed. In Study 2, computer simulations examined the retrieval of a set of words. The performance of the model was positively correlated with naming accuracy by people with aphasia (PWA) on the Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT) across four types of aphasia. In Study 3, we demonstrated another way to model developmental or acquired disorders by manipulating how efficiently activation spread through the network. We found that the structure of the network "protects" word retrieval despite decreases in processing efficiency; words that are relatively easy to retrieve with efficient transmission of priming remain relatively easy to retrieve with less efficient transmission of priming. Cognitive network science and computer simulations may provide insight to a wide range of speech, language, hearing, and cognitive disorders.

Characterization of the superior olivary complex of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in comparison to humans

The superior olivary complex (SOC) is a collection of nuclei in the hindbrain of mammals with numerous roles in hearing, including localization of sound sources in the environment, encoding temporal and spectral elements of sound, and descending modulation of the cochlea. While there have been several investigations of the SOC in primates, there are discrepancies in the descriptions of nuclear borders and even the presence of certain cell groups among studies and species. Herein, we aimed to clarify some of these issues by characterizing the SOC from chimpanzees using Nissl staining, quantitative morphometry and immunohistochemistry. We found the medial superior olive (MSO) to be the largest of the SOC nuclei and the arrangement of its neurons and peri-MSO to be very similar to humans. Additionally, we found neurons in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) to be immunopositive for the calcium binding protein calbindin. Further, most neurons in the MNTB, and some neurons in the lateral nucleus of the trapezoid body were associated with large, calretinin-immunoreactive calyx terminals. Together, these findings indicate the organization of the SOC of chimpanzees is organized very similar to the SOC in humans and suggests modifications to this region among species consistent with differences in head/body size, restricted hearing range and sensitivity to low frequency sounds.

Stapes vibrations induced by piezoelectric floating mass transducer

The paper presents a problem of nonlinear vibrations in the human middle ear stimulated by a piezoelectric floating mass transducer. The transducer is connected to the malleus by means of a coupler that is nonlinear. This nonlinearity together with the transducer has a key meaning for the middle ear behaviour because the improved model of piezoelectric transducer is used compared to previous papers. Nonlinear coupler stiffness and the applied voltage to the transducer produce a change of middle ear natural frequency. Moreover, a bistability effect of periodic solution and irregular vibrations are observed as well. The chaotic motion can exist in the hearing range that is especially harmful for patients who use implants with piezoelectric floating mass transducer.

Training Programs for Improving Speech Perception in Noise: A Review.

Understanding speech in the presence of noise is difficult and challenging, even for people with normal hearing. Accurate pitch perception, coding and decoding of temporal and intensity cues, and cognitive factors are involved in speech perception in noise (SPIN); disruption in any of these can be a barrier to SPIN. Because the physiological representations of sounds can be corrected by exercises, training methods for any impairment can be used to improve speech perception. This study describes the various types of bottom-up training methods: pitch training based on fundamental frequency (F0) and harmonics; spatial, temporal, and phoneme training; and top-down training methods, such as cognitive training of functional memory. This study also discusses music training that affects both bottom-up and top-down components and speech training in noise. Given the effectiveness of all these training methods, we recommend identifying the defects underlying SPIN disorders and selecting the best training approach.

Questions and controversies surrounding the perception and neural coding of pitch.

Pitch is a fundamental aspect of auditory perception that plays an important role in our ability to understand speech, appreciate music, and attend to one sound while ignoring others. The questions surrounding how pitch is represented in the auditory system, and how our percept relates to the underlying acoustic waveform, have been a topic of inquiry and debate for well over a century. New findings and technological innovations have led to challenges of some long-standing assumptions and have raised new questions. This article reviews some recent developments in the study of pitch coding and perception and focuses on the topic of how pitch information is extracted from peripheral representations based on frequency-to-place mapping (tonotopy), stimulus-driven auditory-nerve spike timing (phase locking), or a combination of both. Although a definitive resolution has proved elusive, the answers to these questions have potentially important implications for mitigating the effects of hearing loss via devices such as cochlear implants.

Periodically driven model with quasiperiodic potential and staggered hopping amplitudes: Engineering of mobility gaps and multifractal states

In this study, we examine whether periodic driving of a model with a quasiperiodic potential can generate interesting Floquet phases that have no counterparts in the static model. Specifically, we consider the Aubry-Andr\'e model, which is a one-dimensional time-independent model with an on-site quasiperiodic potential ${V}_{0}$ and a nearest-neighbor hopping amplitude that is taken to have a staggered form. We add a uniform hopping amplitude that varies in time either sinusoidally or as a square pulse with a frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$. Unlike the static Aubry-Andr\'e model, which has a simple phase diagram with only two phases (only extended or only localized states), we find that the driven model has four possible phases for the Floquet eigenstates: a phase with gapless quasienergy bands and only extended states, a phase with multiple mobility gaps separating different quasienergy bands, a mixed phase with coexisting extended, multifractal, and localized states, and a phase with only localized states. The multifractal states have generalized inverse participation ratios that scale with the system size with exponents that are different from the values for both extended and localized states. In addition, we observe intricate reentrant transitions between the different kinds of states when $\ensuremath{\omega}$ and ${V}_{0}$ are varied. The appearance of such transitions is confirmed by the behavior of the Shannon entropy. Many of our numerical results can be understood from an analytic Floquet Hamiltonian derived using a Floquet perturbation theory that uses the inverse of the driving amplitude as the perturbation parameter. In the limit of high frequency and large driving amplitude, we find that the Floquet quasienergies match the energies of the undriven system, but the Floquet eigenstates are much more extended. We also study the spreading of a one-particle wave packet, and we find that it is always ballistic but the ballistic velocity varies significantly with the system parameters, sometimes showing a nonmonotonic dependence on ${V}_{0}$ that does not occur in the static model. Finally, we compare the results for the driven model, which has a static staggered hopping amplitude, with a model that has a static uniform hopping amplitude, and we find some significant differences between the two cases. All of our results are found to be independent of the driving protocol, either sinusoidal or square pulse. We conclude that the interplay of the quasiperiodic potential and driving produces a rich phase diagram that does not appear in the static model.

An Investigation in the Measurable Differences between Pitch Perception in the Voice and Pitch Perception of External Sound Sources

ObjectivesPitch perception is an important part of accurate singing. Therefore, accurate singing requires the ability to accurately assess the pitch in one's own voice.There are two objectives of this study the first was to investigate whether there is a measurable difference in perceived pitch in one's voice to the pitch one perceives from an external sound source. The second, to measure the effects of occlusion on pitch accuracy over a melodic phrase. Study DesignWe recruited 16 participants for this study. The study that was designed to investigate the perceptual difference was split into two parts. The first is a one-to-one pitch matching test where they would recreate a pitch with singing and matching external pitches. The second was singing the familiar song ‘Happy Birthday’ which was used to measure pitch accuracy over a melodic phrase and to measure the effects of occlusion on pitch accuracy while singing. MethodsThe one-to-one study involved singing back a series of 5 notes to a set vowel which were the same 5 notes used when matching them to a series of possible pitches on the button test. The melodic test was to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ 3 times, the first normally, the second wearing headphones to occlude the ear to reduce air conductive hearing and the third time with white noise to mask all hearing. ResultsThe results showed a higher accuracy of pitch matching with external sounds over using their voice, and some form of occlusion (wearing headphones or headphones with white noise) showed the version with higher pitch accuracy. ConclusionsThe results of this study showed that there was improved pitch accuracy when comparing two external sounds in pitch and when singing occlusion of some form improved pitch accuracy. This could suggest a difference when recreating pitch between the voice and matching external sound sources. Furthermore, with the improvements shown from occluding the ears, it could further suggest a difference in pitch perception abilities between the voice and external sound sources. This could have implications of improving pitch accuracy in a studio environment.

Stability of determining the potential from partial boundary data in a Schrödinger equation in the high frequency limit

Stability of determining the potential from partial boundary data in a Schrödinger equation in the high frequency limit

Auditory temporal resolution and backward masking in musicians with absolute pitch.

Among the many questions regarding the ability to effortlessly name musical notes without a reference, also known as absolute pitch, the neural processes by which this phenomenon operates are still a matter of debate. Although a perceptual subprocess is currently accepted by the literature, the participation of some aspects of auditory processing still needs to be determined. We conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between absolute pitch and two aspects of auditory temporal processing, namely temporal resolution and backward masking. In the first experiment, musicians were organized into two groups according to the presence of absolute pitch, as determined by a pitch identification test, and compared regarding their performance in the Gaps-in-Noise test, a gap detection task for assessing temporal resolution. Despite the lack of statistically significant difference between the groups, the Gaps-in-Noise test measures were significant predictors of the measures for pitch naming precision, even after controlling for possible confounding variables. In the second experiment, another two groups of musicians with and without absolute pitch were submitted to the backward masking test, with no difference between the groups and no correlation between backward masking and absolute pitch measures. The results from both experiments suggest that only part of temporal processing is involved in absolute pitch, indicating that not all aspects of auditory perception are related to the perceptual subprocess. Possible explanations for these findings include the notable overlap of brain areas involved in both temporal resolution and absolute pitch, which is not present in the case of backward masking, and the relevance of temporal resolution to analyze the temporal fine structure of sound in pitch perception.

Auditory brainstem response and cochlear microphonic potentials evoked by the bone-conducted ultrasound above the hearing range in guinea pigs.

Auditory brainstem response and cochlear microphonic potentials evoked by the bone-conducted ultrasound above the hearing range in guinea pigs.

A Retrospective Study on Tinnitus Prevalence and Disease Associations in the Hospital-Based Population

Background: Tinnitus is the perception of sound, which is not generated by external stimulus. Due to its clinical heterogeneity, lack of objective measurements and accompanying symptoms, a gold standard treatment, i.e., effective for every patient has not been established yet. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus, disease, and lifestyle factors associated with tinnitus. Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from a total of 224 patients (mean age 46.21 ± 12.65), 141 men and 83 women, who attended the audiology department between 2015 and 2021. Results: We found that the tinnitus pitch perception (PP) of males was significantly higher than females (P &lt; 0.001). In addition, we observed a significant positive correlation between tinnitus PP and tinnitus loudness perception (P &lt; 0,005). 12.1% (27 patients) of the individuals included in the study had metabolic disorders (Vitamin D deficiency, diabetes, and cholesterol). Fifty-four percent (121 patients) of the individuals included in the study had normal hearing. Conclusions: Metabolic and cardiovascular diseases should be taken into account for tinnitus anamnesis. The amount of tinnitus patients with normal hearing is also notable.