Presentation Of Auditory Stimuli Research Articles

Consonant beginnings and vowel endings lead to higher liking judgments.

Across languages, syllables more likely begin with consonants (vs. vowels) and end with vowels (vs. consonants), so that words that follow (vs. do not follow) this pattern are more familiar. In six experiments (total N = 638), we investigated the influence of beginning and ending letters (vowels vs. consonants) of pseudowords on preferences. Pseudowords that begin with consonants (vs. vowels) were preferred; independently, pseudowords that end with vowels (vs. consonants) were also preferred. Both of these consonant-vowel-preference effects generalized across stimulus sets and across speakers of German and English (Experiments 1a-1c). Additionally, consistent with familiarity as the underlying mechanism, pseudowords with consonant (vs. vowel) beginnings and vowel (vs. consonant) endings were more frequently judged to be real words (Experiment 2). The word-ending effect-but surprisingly, not the word-beginning effect-generalized to auditory stimulus presentation (Experiments 3a-3b). Thus, we find that preferences for vowel (vs. consonant) at word endings are more robust than preferences for consonant (vs. vowel) at word beginnings. By showing that consonant-vowel structure systematically influences preferences, we demonstrate two new associations between word form and affective meaning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Pupil Data Upon Stimulation by Auditory Stimuli

Evaluating hearing in newborns and uncooperative patients can pose a considerable challenge. One potential solution might be to employ the Pupil Dilation Response (PDR) as an objective physiological metric. In this dataset descriptor paper, we present a collection of data showing changes in pupil dimension and shape upon presentation of auditory stimuli. In particular, we collected pupil data from 16 subjects, with no known hearing loss, upon different lighting conditions, measured in response to a series of 60–100 audible tones, all of the same frequency and amplitude, which may serve to further investigate any relationship between hearing capabilities and PDRs.

Diagnosing awareness in disorders of consciousness with gamma-band auditory responses.

The prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDOC) describe a group of neurological conditions characterized by severe impairment of consciousness resulting from the injury of the central nervous system. As the behavioral diagnosis of pDOC remains challenging, the methods based on observing brain activity appear as promising alternatives. One of these methods is electroencephalography, which allows for noninvasive assessment of brain function. In this study, we evaluated evoked auditory responses to the chirp-modulated auditory stimulation as a potential biomarker of awareness in pDOC. Chirp-modulated stimulation is based on the repetitive presentation of auditory stimuli with a changing frequency over time. Two protocols were tested: amplitude-modulated narrow-band chirps (frequency range 25-55 Hz) and click-based wide-band chirps (30-100 Hz). The studied pDOC patient group included 62 patients (19 females and 43 males, mean age 40.72 years) diagnosed with Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. Envelope-following responses to stimulation were examined using the intertrial phase clustering coefficient. For both types of stimulation, the strength of the response in the low-gamma range (around 40 Hz) was related to the diagnosis of pDOC. Patients diagnosed with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome exhibited diminished responses, while more favorable diagnoses, suggesting awareness (minimally conscious state or emergence from the minimally conscious state), showed elevated responses. The variations in the integrity of the auditory pathway and the etiology of brain injury altered the observed response strength. Narrow-band stimulation yielded a more systematic relationship between low-gamma response and pDOC diagnosis. The results suggest the potential role of low gamma-band responses to chirp-modulated stimulation as the supportive diagnostic tool to detect awareness in the pDOC patient group.

A wearable EEG system for closed-loop neuromodulation of sleep-related oscillations

Objective. Healthy sleep plays a critical role in general well-being. Enhancement of slow-wave sleep by targeting acoustic stimuli to particular phases of delta (0.5–2 Hz) waves has shown promise as a non-invasive approach to improve sleep quality. Closed-loop stimulation during other sleep phases targeting oscillations at higher frequencies such as theta (4–7 Hz) or alpha (8–12 Hz) could be another approach to realize additional health benefits. However, systems to track and deliver stimulation relative to the instantaneous phase of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals at these higher frequencies have yet to be demonstrated outside of controlled laboratory settings. Approach. Here we examine the feasibility of using an endpoint-corrected version of the Hilbert transform (ecHT) algorithm implemented on a headband wearable device to measure alpha phase and deliver phase-locked auditory stimulation during the transition from wakefulness to sleep, during which alpha power is greatest. First, the ecHT algorithm is implemented in silico to evaluate the performance characteristics of this algorithm across a range of sleep-related oscillatory frequencies. Secondly, a pilot sleep study tests feasibility to use the wearable device by users in the home setting for measurement of EEG activity during sleep and delivery of real-time phase-locked stimulation. Main results. The ecHT is capable of computing the instantaneous phase of oscillating signals with high precision, allowing auditory stimulation to be delivered at the intended phases of neural oscillations with low phase error. The wearable system was capable of measuring sleep-related neural activity with sufficient fidelity for sleep stage scoring during the at-home study, and phase-tracking performance matched simulated results. Users were able to successfully operate the system independently using the companion smartphone app to collect data and administer stimulation, and presentation of auditory stimuli during sleep initiation did not negatively impact sleep onset. Significance. This study demonstrates the feasibility of closed-loop real-time tracking and neuromodulation of a range of sleep-related oscillations using a wearable EEG device. Preliminary results suggest that this approach could be used to deliver non-invasive neuromodulation across all phases of sleep.

Event-Related Desynchronization of MEG Alpha-Band Oscillations during Simultaneous Presentation of Audio and Visual Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Alpha-band (8-12 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) or a decrease in alpha power in electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG and MEG) reflects the involvement of a neural tissue in information processing. It is known that most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in information processing, and, thus, investigation of alpha oscillations is of particular interest in this population. Previous studies have demonstrated alterations in this neural activity in individuals with ASD; however, little is known about alpha ERD during simultaneous presentation of auditory and visual stimuli in children with and without ASD. As alpha oscillations are intimately related to attention, and attention deficit is one of the common co-occurring conditions of ASD, we predict that children with ASD can have altered alpha ERD in one of the sensory domains. In the present study, we used MEG to investigate alpha ERD in groups of 20 children with ASD and 20 age-matched typically developing controls. Simple amplitude-modulated tones were presented together with a fixation cross appearing on the screen. The results showed that children with ASD had a bilateral reduction in alpha-band ERD in the auditory but not visual cortex. Moreover, alterations in the auditory cortex were associated with a higher presence of autistic traits measured in behavioral assessment.

Comparing online versus in-person auditory experiments on talker adaptation

Online experiments are increasingly used as an alternative to in-person lab-based experiments. While online experimental platforms offer convenience, conducting auditory experiments online also presents several challenges, including variations in latency and jitter in auditory stimulus presentation across participants’ devices. Therefore, it is important to carefully examine whether response time data collected online are comparable to the reliability and precision of data collected in well-controlled laboratory settings. Here, we directly compared whether well-documented context- and talker-adaptation effects on response times are replicable between the laboratory and an online platform. Participants (N = 58) performed an established word identification task measuring response time in a 2 × 2 manipulation of context (isolated words versus continuous speech) and talker variability (single versus mixed talkers). The results from the laboratory session, but not the online platform, reliably replicated all main and interaction effects found in prior laboratory-based studies. While mean response times were comparable between environments, the variance of online data was significantly greater than in the lab, even after discarding outliers. These results suggest that careful considerations are needed when implementing online experiments that depend on precise auditory timing, particularly in considering how greater measurement error will impact power, sample sizes, and statistical inferences.

Relationships between fear of flying, loudness dependence of auditory evoked potentials and frontal alpha asymmetry

Previous research has suggested that fear of flying, which is defined as a situational, specific phobia, could overlap with depressive and anxiety disorders. Whether the neuronal dysfunctions including altered serotonergic activity in the brain and altered neural oscillations observed for depressive and anxiety disorders also overlap with alterations in fear of flying is unclear. Here, thirty-six participants with self-reported fear of flying (FF) and forty-one unaffected participants (NFF) were recruited. The participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), the State-trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Fear of Flying Scale (FFS). EEG-recording was conducted during resting-state and during presentation of auditory stimuli with varying loudness levels for analysis of the Loudness Dependence of Auditory Evoked Potentials (LDAEP), which is suggested to be inversely related to central serotonergic activity. Participants with fear of flying did not differ from the control group with regard to BDI-II and STAI data. The LDAEP was higher over F4 electrode in the FF group compared to controls, whereas exploratory analysis suggest that differences between groups were conveyed by female participants. Moreover, the FF group showed relatively higher right frontal alpha activity compared to the control group, whereas no difference in frequency power (alpha, beta and theta) was observed. Thus, this study brought the first hint for reduced serotonergic activity in individuals with fear of flying and relatively higher right frontal activity. Thus, based on the preliminary findings, future research should aim to examine the boundaries with anxiety and depressive disorders and to clarify the distinct neural mechanisms.

Modality, presentation, domain and training effects in statistical learning

While several studies suggest that the nature and properties of the input have significant effects on statistical learning, they have rarely been investigated systematically. In order to understand how input characteristics and their interactions impact statistical learning, we explored the effects of modality (auditory vs. visual), presentation type (serial vs. simultaneous), domain (linguistic vs. non-linguistic), and training type (random, starting small, starting big) on artificial grammar learning in young adults (N = 360). With serial presentation of stimuli, learning was more effective in the auditory than in the visual modality. However, with simultaneous presentation of visual and serial presentation of auditory stimuli, the modality effect was not present. We found a significant domain effect as well: a linguistic advantage over nonlinguistic material, which was driven by the domain effect in the auditory modality. Overall, the auditory linguistic condition had an advantage over other modality-domain types. Training types did not have any overall effect on learning; starting big enhanced performance only in the case of serial visual presentation. These results show that input characteristics such as modality, presentation type, domain and training type influence statistical learning, and suggest that their effects are also dependent on the specific stimuli and structure to be learned.

Sensory tetanisation to induce long-term-potentiation-like plasticity: A review and reassessment of the approach.

There is great interest in developing non-invasive approaches for studying cortical plasticity in humans. High-frequency presentation of auditory and visual stimuli, or sensory tetanisation, can induce long-term-potentiation-like (LTP-like) changes in cortical activity. However, contrasting effects across studies suggest that sensory tetanisation may be unreliable. We review these contrasting effects, conduct our own study of auditory and visual tetanisation, and perform meta-analyses to determine the average effect of sensory tetanisation across studies. We measured auditory-evoked amplitude changes in a group of younger (18-29 years of age) and older (55-83 years of age) adults following tetanisation to 1 and 4 kHz tone bursts and following a slow-presentation control. We also measured visual-evoked amplitude changes following tetanisation to horizontal and vertical sign gradients. Auditory and visual response amplitudes decreased following tetanisation, consistent with some studies but contrasting with others finding amplitude increases (i.e. LTP-like changes). Older adults exhibited more modest auditory-evoked amplitude decreases, but visual-evoked amplitude decreases like those of younger adults. Changes in response amplitude were not specific to tetanised stimuli. Importantly, slow presentation of auditory tone bursts produced response amplitude changes approximating those observed following tetanisation in younger adults. Meta-analyses of visual and auditory tetanisation studies found that the overall effect of sensory tetanisation was not significant across studies or study sites. The results suggest that sensory tetanisation may not produce reliable changes in cortical responses and more work is needed to determine the validity of sensory tetanisation as a method for inducing human cortical plasticity in vivo.

GREATER EFFECT OF AUDITORY STIMULI THAN VISUAL STIMULI ON ANTICIPATORY POSTURAL ADJUSTMENTS INCREASE

Purpose: The role of visual stimuli as the primary stimulus and the effect of auditory stimulus before external perturbation on Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APAs) releases has been investigated, but which type of stimulus (auditory or visual) before perturbation has a more significant effect on initial APAs release, needs to be investigated. So, this study aimed to investigate the role of visual-auditory contributions before external perturbation on APAs and the effect of stimulus presentation on the release of APAs at different time intervals.
 Methods: Participants in this study were fourteen physical education students (Meanage 22.4 ± 2.14 years) exposed to five trials of visual stimulus and five trials of an audible stimulus (80 dB) while standing on the Biodex balance sheet. Then, 1.4 seconds after presenting the stimulus, external perturbation was applied. Electromyography (EMG) activity of the postural muscles was recorded during all trials. APAs were extracted at intervals of -100 to 50 ms (APA1), 50 to 200 ms (APA2), and 200 to 350 ms (APA3). The mixed ANOVA and repeated measures analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction test were used for data analysis.
 Results: The results showed that the presentation of visual and auditory stimuli increased the APAs of the postural muscles. According to these results, APA3 was greater than APA2 and APA2 than APA1(P≤0.05). Also, the results showed that auditory stimulus increased the APAs of the postural muscles more than the visual stimulus (P≤0.05).
 Conclusion: Generally, the researchers concluded that providing an auditory stimulus before perturbation has a greater effect on APA than a visual stimulus in healthy young girls. Therefore, it is suggested that in order to prevent imbalance or maintain greater balance, auditory stimuli with appropriate intensity can be used. Furthermore, subsequent research on this topic could include comparing APA release under the influence of visual and auditory stimuli in men and women, athletes and non-athletes, and healthy individuals with individuals with mobility impairments.

Effects of Simultaneous Presentation of Tactile and Auditory Stimulus on Prevention of Vigilance Decrements in Manual and Autonomous Driving

Effects of Simultaneous Presentation of Tactile and Auditory Stimulus on Prevention of Vigilance Decrements in Manual and Autonomous Driving

An Exploratory Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Human-Robot Interactions With Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been gaining increasing interest as a practical mobile functional brain imaging technology for understanding the neural correlates of social cognition and emotional processing in the human prefrontal cortex (PFC). Considering the cognitive complexity of human-robot interactions, the aim of this study was to explore the neural correlates of emotional processing of congruent and incongruent pairs of human and robot audio-visual stimuli in the human PFC with fNIRS methodology. Hemodynamic responses from the PFC region of 29 subjects were recorded with fNIRS during an experimental paradigm which consisted of auditory and visual presentation of human and robot stimuli. Distinct neural responses to human and robot stimuli were detected at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) regions. Presentation of robot voice elicited significantly less hemodynamic response than presentation of human voice in a left OFC channel. Meanwhile, processing of human faces elicited significantly higher hemodynamic activity when compared to processing of robot faces in two left DLPFC channels and a left OFC channel. Significant correlation between the hemodynamic and behavioral responses for the face-voice mismatch effect was found in the left OFC. Our results highlight the potential of fNIRS for unraveling the neural processing of human and robot audio-visual stimuli, which might enable optimization of social robot designs and contribute to elucidation of the neural processing of human and robot stimuli in the PFC in naturalistic conditions.

The lasting effects of sandwiched events

ABSTRACT It’s been reported that the presentation of auditory flickering stimuli (click trains) induces time dilation. However, this effect could be associated with the presence rather than the discontinuity of the auditory signal. We hypothesized that based on the internal clock models, flickering would further manipulate the speed of the internal clock. To this end, we examined the impact of sandwiched events (click train, auditory continuous stimulus, or no sound) and a very short gap (150 ms) between target and comparison interval) on duration perception. Our results showed that regardless of the type of the sound, an addition of an auditory stimulus improves the accuracy and response time of comparison judgment, which can be interpreted as a result of increasing the speed of the pacemaker. Besides, click train has a stronger footprint on time dilation than a continuous sound. We conclusively ascertain that the effect of dilation does not wear off within the applied gap.

Information flow in the rat thalamo-cortical system: spontaneous vs. stimulus-evoked activities

The interaction between the thalamus and sensory cortex plays critical roles in sensory processing. Previous studies have revealed pathway-specific synaptic properties of thalamo-cortical connections. However, few studies to date have investigated how each pathway routes moment-to-moment information. Here, we simultaneously recorded neural activity in the auditory thalamus (or ventral division of the medial geniculate body; MGv) and primary auditory cortex (A1) with a laminar resolution in anesthetized rats. Transfer entropy (TE) was used as an information theoretic measure to operationalize “information flow”. Our analyses confirmed that communication between the thalamus and cortex was strengthened during presentation of auditory stimuli. In the resting state, thalamo-cortical communications almost disappeared, whereas intracortical communications were strengthened. The predominant source of information was the MGv at the onset of stimulus presentation and layer 5 during spontaneous activity. In turn, MGv was the major recipient of information from layer 6. TE suggested that a small but significant population of MGv-to-A1 pairs was “information-bearing,” whereas A1-to-MGv pairs typically exhibiting small effects played modulatory roles. These results highlight the capability of TE analyses to unlock novel avenues for bridging the gap between well-established anatomical knowledge of canonical microcircuits and physiological correlates via the concept of dynamic information flow.

Accuracy and precision of visual and auditory stimulus presentation in virtual reality in Python 2 and 3 environments for human behavior research

Virtual reality (VR) is a new methodology for behavioral studies. In such studies, the millisecond accuracy and precision of stimulus presentation are critical for data replicability. Recently, Python, which is a widely used programming language for scientific research, has contributed to reliable accuracy and precision in experimental control. However, little is known about whether modern VR environments have millisecond accuracy and precision for stimulus presentation, since most standard methods in laboratory studies are not optimized for VR environments. The purpose of this study was to systematically evaluate the accuracy and precision of visual and auditory stimuli generated in modern VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) from HTC and Oculus using Python 2 and 3. We used the newest Python tools for VR and Black Box Toolkit to measure the actual time lag and jitter. The results showed that there was an 18-ms time lag for visual stimulus in both HMDs. For the auditory stimulus, the time lag varied between 40 and 60 ms, depending on the HMD. The jitters of those time lags were 1 ms for visual stimulus and 4 ms for auditory stimulus, which are sufficiently low for general experiments. These time lags were robustly equal, even when auditory and visual stimuli were presented simultaneously. Interestingly, all results were perfectly consistent in both Python 2 and 3 environments. Thus, the present study will help establish a more reliable stimulus control for psychological and neuroscientific research controlled by Python environments.

Reliability of web-based affective auditory stimulus presentation

Web-based experimental testing has seen exponential growth in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. However, paradigms involving affective auditory stimuli have yet to adapt to the online approach due to concerns about the lack of experimental control and other technical challenges. In this study, we assessed whether sounds commonly used to evoke affective responses in-lab can be used online. Using recent developments to increase sound presentation quality, we selected 15 commonly used sound stimuli and assessed their impact on valence and arousal states in a web-based experiment. Our results reveal good inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities, with results comparable to in-lab studies. Additionally, we compared a variety of previously used unpleasant stimuli, allowing us to identify the most aversive among these sounds. Our findings demonstrate that affective sounds can be reliably delivered through web-based platforms, which help facilitate the development of new auditory paradigms for affective online experiments.

Abnormalities in cortical pattern of coherence in migraine detected using ultra high-density EEG.

Individuals with migraine generally experience photophobia and/or phonophobia during and between migraine attacks. Many different mechanisms have been postulated to explain these migraine phenomena including abnormal patterns of connectivity across the cortex. The results, however, remain contradictory and there is no clear consensus on the nature of the cortical abnormalities in migraine. Here, we uncover alterations in cortical patterns of coherence (connectivity) in interictal migraineurs during the presentation of visual and auditory stimuli and during rest. We used a high-density EEG system, with 128 customized electrode locations, to compare inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence in the interictal period from 17 individuals with migraine (12 female) and 18 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects. During presentations of visual (vertical grating pattern) and auditory (modulated tone) stimulation which varied in temporal frequency (4 and 6 Hz), and during rest, participants performed a colour detection task at fixation. Analyses included characterizing the inter- and intra-hemisphere coherence between the scalp EEG channels over 2-s time intervals and over different frequency bands at different spatial distances and spatial clusters. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were estimated at zero-lag. Repeated measures analyses-of-variance revealed that, relative to controls, migraineurs exhibited significantly (i) faster colour detection performance, (ii) lower spatial coherence of alpha-band activity, for both inter- and intra-hemisphere connections, and (iii) the reduced coherence occurred predominantly in frontal clusters during both sensory conditions, regardless of the stimulation frequency, as well as during the resting-state. The abnormal patterns of EEG coherence in interictal migraineurs during visual and auditory stimuli, as well as at rest (eyes open), may be associated with the cortical hyper-responsivity that is characteristic of abnormal sensory processing in migraineurs.

A Novel Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Paradigm to Study Freezing and Flight Behavior.

Fear- and anxiety-related behaviors significantly contribute to an organism's survival. However, exaggerated defensive responses to perceived threat are characteristic of various anxiety disorders, which are the most prevalent form of mental illness in the United States. Discovering the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for defensive behaviors will aid in the development of novel therapeutic interventions. Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used laboratory paradigm to study fear-related learning and memory. A major limitation of traditional Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigms is that freezing is the only defensive behavior monitored. We recently developed a modified Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm that allows us to study both conditioned freezing and flight (also known as escape) behavior within individual subjects. This model employs higher intensity footshocks and a greater number of pairings between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. Additionally, this conditioned flight paradigm utilizes serial presentation of pure tone and white noise auditory stimuli as the conditioned stimulus. Following conditioning in this paradigm, mice exhibit freezing behavior in response to the tone stimulus, and flight responses during the white noise. This conditioning model can be applied to the study of rapid and flexible transitions between behavioral responses necessary for survival.

The influence of the cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect on audiovisual integration.

Previous studies have shown that the cross-modal pre-preparation effect is an important factor for audiovisual integration. However, the facilitating influence of the pre-preparation effect on the integration of emotional cues remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the emotional pre-preparation effect during the multistage process of audiovisual integration. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a synchronous or asynchronous integration task with fearful or neutral stimuli. The results indicated that, compared with the sum of the unisensory presentation of visual (V) and auditory (A) stimuli (A+V), only fearful audiovisual stimuli induced a decreased N1 and an enhanced P2; this was not found for the neutral stimuli. Moreover, the fearful stimuli triggered a larger P2 than the neutral stimuli in the audiovisual condition, but not in the sum of the combined (A+V) waveforms. Our findings imply that, in the early perceptual processing stage and perceptual fine processing stage, fear improves the processing efficiency of the emotional audiovisual integration. In the last cognitively assessing stage, the fearful audiovisual induced a larger late positive component (LPC) than the neutral audiovisual. Moreover, the asynchronous-audiovisual induced a greater LPC than the synchronous-audiovisual during the 400-550 ms period. The different integration effects between the fearful and neutral stimuli may reflect the existence of distinct mechanisms of the pre-preparation in terms of the emotional dimension. In light of these results, we present a cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect involving a three-phase emotional audiovisual integration.

An Introduction to the Objective Psychophysics Toolbox.

The Psychophysics Toolbox (PTB) is one of the most popular toolboxes for the development of experimental paradigms. It is a very powerful library, providing low-level, platform independent access to the devices used in an experiment such as the graphics and the sound card. While this low-level design results in a high degree of flexibility and power, writing paradigms that interface the PTB directly might lead to code that is hard to read, maintain, reuse, and debug. Running an experiment in different facilities or organizations further requires it to work with various setups that differ in the availability of specialized hardware for response collection, triggering, and presentation of auditory stimuli. The Objective Psychophysics Toolbox (o_ptb) provides an intuitive, unified, and clear interface, built on top of the PTB that enables researchers to write readable, clean, and concise code. In addition to presenting the architecture of the o_ptb, the results of a timing accuracy test are presented. Exactly the same MATLAB code was run on two different systems, one of those using the VPixx system. Both systems showed sub-millisecond accuracy.