Psychoacoustic Abilities Research Articles

Test-retest Reliability of Various Psychoacoustic Tests in Psycon Application

Background and Aim: Psychoacoustics includes studying the perceived effects of changes in sound intensity, temporal, and frequency aspects that are critical for speech perception. Psycon is one such software used in studies to assess psychoacoustic abilities. Psycon has the potential for wide clinical applications in psychoacoustic research and relies on Auditory syntaX (AUX), a program designed specifically to handle auditory signals. The current study aimed to determine the test-retest reliability of the Psycon application for differential sensitivity measures of frequency, intensity, duration and silence. Methods: The study included 39 participants with normal hearing sensitivity. Psychoacoustic measures, namely, gap detection threshold, duration discrimination threshold, difference limen of intensity, and difference limen of frequency, were used to assess test-retest reliability. The test-retest reliability of all measures was checked in two separate sessions within one day. Results: The reliability of each measure was measured using Cronbach’s alpha. Test-retest reliability of various psychoacoustic tests measured with Psycon ranges from good to excellent. difference limen of frequency had the highest reliability, followed by duration discrimination thresholds, difference limen of intensity, and gap detection thresholds. Conclusion: Psycon appears to be a reliable tool for assessing different psychoacoustic abilities. Keywords: Psycon; psychoacoustics; reliability; difference limen; perception

Psychoacoustic abilities in pediatric cochlear implant recipients: The relation with short-term memory and working memory capacity.

The aim was to investigate school-age children with cochlear implants (CIs) and their typically developing peers in terms of auditory short-term memory (ASTM), auditory working memory (AWM), visuospatial short-term memory (VSTM), visuospatial working memory (VWM), spectral resolution and monosyllabic word recognition in noise. Twenty-three prelingually deaf CI users and twenty-three typically developing (TD) peers aged 7-10 years participated. Twelve children with CI were earlier-implanted (i.e., age at implantation ≤24 months). Children with CIs were compared to typically developing peers and correlations between cognitive and psychoacoustic abilities were computed separately for the groups. Besides, regression analyses were conducted to develop models that could predict SMRT (spectral-temporally modulated ripple test) and speech recognition scores. The AWM scores of the later-implanted group were significantly lower than both earlier-implanted and TD groups. ASTM scores of TD children were significantly higher than both earlier-implanted and later-implanted participants. There was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of VSTM and VWM. AWM performance was positively correlated with ASTM, SMRT scores, and speech recognition under noisy conditions for pediatric CI recipients. The AWM was a statistically significant predictor of the SMRT score and the SMRT score was an indicator of speech recognition score under 0dB SNR condition. Most of children using CI are at risk for clinically remarkable deficits across cognitive abilities such as AWM and ASTM. While evaluating cognitive and psychoacoustic abilities in the clinic routine, it should be kept in mind that they can be influenced by each other.

Strong Relationship Between Rapid Auditory Processing and Affective Prosody Recognition Among Adults with High Autistic Traits.

This study investigated whether individuals with high autistic traits rely on psychoacoustic abilities in affective prosody recognition (APR). In 94 college students, Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and psychoacoustic abilities were measured. Results indicated that higher AQ, higher rapid auditory processing (RAP), and maleness were associated with a lower APR accuracy for low-intensity prosodies. There was a strong positive association between RAP and APR for participants with high AQ, whereas low-AQ participants showed no such pattern. The findings suggest a reliance on psychoacoustic abilities as compensatory mechanism for deficits in higher-order processing of emotional signals in social interactions, and imply potential benefits of auditory interventions in improving APR among individuals with high autistic traits.

Links Between Musicality and Vocal Emotion Perception

Links between musicality and vocal emotion perception skills have only recently emerged as a focus of study. Here we review current evidence for or against such links. Based on a systematic literature search, we identified 33 studies that addressed either (a) vocal emotion perception in musicians and nonmusicians, (b) vocal emotion perception in individuals with congenital amusia, (c) the role of individual differences (e.g., musical interests, psychoacoustic abilities), or (d) effects of musical training interventions on both the normal hearing population and cochlear implant users. Overall, the evidence supports a link between musicality and vocal emotion perception abilities. We discuss potential factors moderating the link between emotions and music, and possible directions for future research.

POWTARZALNOŚĆ TEST–RETEST RÓŻNYCH POMIARÓW PSYCHOAKUSTYCZNYCH PRZY UŻYCIU PROCEDURY NAJWIĘKSZEGO PRAWDOPODOBIEŃSTWA

ObjectivePsychoacoustic abilities include the perception of frequency, intensity, and the temporal parameters of sound, which are necessary for speech perception. These abilities can be measured using adaptive and non-adaptive procedures. The maximum likelihood procedure (MLP) is an adaptive psychophysical procedure that is usually utilized in psychoacoustic tasks. The present study aimed to assess the testretest reliability of various psychoacoustic measures assessed using the MLP toolbox implemented in Matlab.Material and methodsA total of 20 participants with normal hearing sensitivity were selected for the study. The test–retest reliability of psychoacoustic measures was studied in terms of frequency difference limen, intensity difference limen, duration discrimination thresholds, gap detection thresholds, and modulation detection thresholds (4 Hz and 128 Hz). To check test–retest reliability all measures were assessed twice within a span of one day.ResultsThe results showed no significant difference in the various psychoacoustic measures obtained across the two sessions. The reliability of each measure was tested using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).The results indicated that the test-retest reliability of various psychoacoustic measures assessed using the MLP toolbox was fair to good.ConclusionsIt can be concluded that MLP is a reliable tool to assess various psychoacoustic abilities.

Music and psychoacoustic perception abilities in cochlear implant users with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

ObjectiveAuditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a condition wherein the pre-neural or cochlear outer hair cell activity is intact, but the neural activity in the auditory nerve is disrupted. Cochlear implant (CI) can be beneficial for subjects with ANSD; however, little is known about the music perception and psychoacoustic abilities of CI users with ANSD. Music perception in CI users is a multidimensional and complex ability requiring the contribution of both auditory and nonauditory abilities. Even though auditory abilities lay the foundation, the contribution of patient-related variables such as ANSD may affect the music perception. This study aimed to evaluate the psychoacoustic and music perception abilities of CI recipients with ANSD. Study designTwelve CI users with ANSD and twelve age- and gendermatched CI users with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) were evaluated. Music perception abilities were measured using the Turkish version of the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception (T-CAMP) test. Psychoacoustic abilities were measured using the spectral ripple discrimination (SRD) and temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) tests. In addition, the age of diagnosis and implantation was recorded. ResultsPitch direction discrimination (PDD), timbre recognition, SRD, and TMTF performance of CI users with ANSD were concordant with those reported in previous studies, and differences between ANSD and SNHL groups were not statistically significant. However, the ANSD group performed poorly compared with SNHL group in melody recognition subtest of T-CAMP, and the difference was statistically significant. ConclusionCI can prove beneficial for patients with ANSD with respect to their music and psychoacoustic abilities, similar to patients with SNHL, except for melody recognition. Recognition of melodies requires both auditory and non-auditory abilities, and ANSD may have an extensive but subtle effect in the life of CI users.

Effects of Low Frequency Residual Hearing on Music Perception and Psychoacoustic Abilities in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Studies have demonstrated the benefits of low frequency residual hearing in music perception and for psychoacoustic abilities of adult cochlear implant (CI) users, but less is known about these effects in the pediatric group. Understanding the contribution of combined electric and acoustic stimulation in this group can help to gain a better perspective on decisions regarding bilateral implantation. We evaluated the performance of six unilaterally implanted children between 9 and 13 years of age with contralateral residual hearing using the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception (CAMP), spectral ripple discrimination (SRD), and temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) tests and compared findings with previous research. Our study sample performed similarly to normal hearing subjects in pitch direction discrimination (0.81 semitones) and performed well above typical CI users in melody recognition (43.37%). The performance difference was less in timbre recognition (48.61%), SRD (1.47 ripple/octave), and TMTF for four modulation frequencies. These findings suggest that the combination of low frequency acoustic hearing with the broader frequency range of electric hearing can help to increase clinical CI benefit in pediatric users and decisions regarding second-side implantation should consider these factors.

The Musical Emotion Discrimination Task: A New Measure for Assessing the Ability to Discriminate Emotions in Music.

Previous research has shown that levels of musical training and emotional engagement with music are associated with an individual’s ability to decode the intended emotional expression from a music performance. The present study aimed to assess traits and abilities that might influence emotion recognition, and to create a new test of emotion discrimination ability. The first experiment investigated musical features that influenced the difficulty of the stimulus items (length, type of melody, instrument, target-/comparison emotion) to inform the creation of a short test of emotion discrimination. The second experiment assessed the contribution of individual differences measures of emotional and musical abilities as well as psychoacoustic abilities. Finally, the third experiment established the validity of the new test against other measures currently used to assess similar abilities. Performance on the Musical Emotion Discrimination Task (MEDT) was significantly associated with high levels of self-reported emotional engagement with music as well as with performance on a facial emotion recognition task. Results are discussed in the context of a process model for emotion discrimination in music and psychometric properties of the MEDT are provided. The MEDT is freely available for research use.

Correction: Differences in phonetic discrimination stem from differences in psychoacoustic abilities in learning the sounds of a second language: Evidence from ERP research.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187135.].

Comprehension of “Narrow Focus” by Adolescents in the Autism Spectrum

Objective: The study compared the performance of adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) to that of age-matched peers with typical development (TD) and cognitive language-matched peers with TD on measures of identification and comprehension of “narrow focus.” Participants: Forty-nine participants, 17 autistic, 17 TD peers matched for age and sex, and 15 TD children matched for expressive vocabulary participated in the study. Method: The Hebrew Narrow Focus Test (HNFT) was used. The HNFT includes 3 subtests. The first subtest (A) required identification of the stressed word in the sentence based on psychoacoustic abilities alone. The second (B) and third (C) subtests required understanding the meaning of focused stress in different contexts. In subtest B, the meaning of “narrow focus” was to contrast other possibilities related to the lexical-grammatical role of the stressed word in the sentence, whereas in subtest C, the meaning was to indicate a mistake. Results: ASD participants showed reduced performance compared to peers across all the subtests of the HNFT, but similar performance compared to TD children in subtests A and B and better performance on subtest C. A significant correlation was found between the Raven test for assessing nonverbal intelligence and subtests B and C of the HNFT in the group of adolescents with ASD. Conclusions: Comprehension of narrow focus in adolescents with ASD who study in a special educational system is related to their cognitive-linguistic abilities and not to the autistic condition by itself or to its severity.

Differences in phonetic discrimination stem from differences in psychoacoustic abilities in learning the sounds of a second language: Evidence from ERP research.

The scientific community has been divided as to the origin of individual differences in perceiving the sounds of a second language (L2). There are two alternative explanations: a general psychoacoustic origin vs. a speech-specific one. A previous study showed that such individual variability is linked to the perceivers’ speech-specific capabilities, rather than the perceivers’ psychoacoustic abilities. However, we assume that the selection of participants and parameters of sound stimuli might not appropriate. Therefore, we adjusted the sound stimuli and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from two groups of early, proficient Cantonese (L1)-Mandarin (L2) bilinguals who differed in their mastery of the Mandarin (L2) phonetic contrast /in-ing/, to explore whether the individual differences in perceiving L2 stem from participants’ ability to discriminate various pure tones (frequency, duration and pattern). To precisely measure the participants’ acoustic discrimination, mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited by the oddball paradigm was recorded in the experiment. The results showed that significant differences between good perceivers (GPs) and poor perceivers (PPs) were found in the three general acoustic conditions (frequency, duration and pattern), and the MMN amplitude for GP was significantly larger than for PP. Therefore, our results support a general psychoacoustic origin of individual variability in L2 phonetic mastery.

Comparison of psychoacoustic abilities in many vertebrate species

Psychoacoustic research with non-human species is very time consuming, but provides invaluable information about the underlying bases of hearing and its importance to humans and other species. Although most of Dick Fay's research has been evaluated the psychoacoustic abilities of one species of fish, he consistently compared this data with similar data from other vertebrates. He was not content to present data from one or two other species, but searched the literature to ensure that all possible comparisons were accessed to produce excellent figures combining this data. He made all the data he extracted from the literature available in an invaluable book (Fay, R. R. (1988). Hearing in Vertebrates: A Psychophysics Databook. Winnetka, IL: Hill-Fay Associates). This data are now being made available online on http://www.fayfoundation.org/category/hearing-in-vertebrates-a-psychophysics-databook/, a tool which will continue to stimulate research into the similarities and differences of psychoacoustic abilities in vertebrate species.

Effect of tinnitus location on the psychoacoustic measures of hearing

Objective: The present study was designed to assess psychoacoustic abilities in individuals with the complaint of tinnitus, the emphasis being on the location of tinnitus in the head.Study design: Psychoacoustic abilities were measured with temporal processing tests using four common measures. Gap-in-noise and modulation function tests were used to measure temporal resolution ability; duration pattern and duration discrimination tests were used to assess temporal ordering and temporal discrimination skills, respectively; and finally a backwards masking test was employed to determine temporal masking abilities. A clinical research design using standard group comparison was used with a cohort of 76 normal hearing participants divided into three groups: one with no complaint of tinnitus (n = 38), a second with tinnitus localized to either one of the ears (n = 22), and a third with tinnitus localized to both ears (n = 16).Results: A comparison between the normal and tinnitus groups revealed poor temporal processing skills in individuals with tinnitus. Within the tinnitus group, a comparison between those with unilateral and bilateral tinnitus indicated poor performance of the participants with bilateral tinnitus for most of the tests. The individuals with unilateral tinnitus were also assessed for tinnitus ear effect and no statistically significant difference was observed.Conclusion: Temporal processing skills were affected in individuals with tinnitus and the severity was more in those with bilateral tinnitus. As persons with temporal processing disorders are at high risk of developing speech perception problems, the early investigation and timely management of tinnitus is essential.

Relation between measures of psychoacoustic abilities and masking release for unprocessed, envelope, and temporal fine-structure speech in listeners with normal and impaired hearing

Léger et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 135, 2160, 2014] studied masking release in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners using unprocessed speech and speech processed to convey envelope (ENV) or temporal fine-structure (TFS) cues. Consonant identification scores in speech-shaped background noise (continuous and square-wave interrupted at a rate of 10 Hz) indicated a substantial masking release (MR, better performance in the interrupted noise) for all speech types for normal-hearing listeners but only for the TFS speech in most hearing-impaired listeners. The current study was concerned with relating consonant identification scores and masking release to SRTs for sentences in both types of noise as well as to measurements of basic psychoacoustic abilities. These measures included absolute pure-tone detection thresholds, estimates of auditory bandwidth using a notched-noise procedure, and estimates of cochlear compression obtained using a forward-masking paradigm. For both unprocessed and ENV speech, intelligibility scores and MR were correlated with absolute thresholds and auditory bandwidths in the mid-frequency region (but not at a lower frequency). These correlations were less strong for TFS speech intelligibility and did not predict MR. Cochlear compression was not related to speech intelligibility when controlling for the effect of absolute thresholds. [Work supported by NIH R01 DC000117.]

Prosody recognition in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: from psychoacoustics to cognition.

Prosody is an important tool of human communication, carrying both affective and pragmatic messages in speech. Prosody recognition relies on processing of acoustic cues, such as the fundamental frequency of the voice signal, and their interpretation according to acquired socioemotional scripts. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show deficiencies in affective prosody recognition. These deficiencies have been mostly associated with general difficulties in emotion recognition. The current study explored an additional association between affective prosody recognition in ASD and auditory perceptual abilities. Twenty high-functioning male adults with ASD and 32 typically developing male adults, matched on age and verbal abilities undertook a battery of auditory tasks. These included affective and pragmatic prosody recognition tasks, two psychoacoustic tasks (pitch direction recognition and pitch discrimination), and a facial emotion recognition task, representing nonvocal emotion recognition. Compared with controls, the ASD group demonstrated poorer performance on both vocal and facial emotion recognition, but not on pragmatic prosody recognition or on any of the psychoacoustic tasks. Both groups showed strong associations between psychoacoustic abilities and prosody recognition, both affective and pragmatic, although these were more pronounced in the ASD group. Facial emotion recognition predicted vocal emotion recognition in the ASD group only. These findings suggest that auditory perceptual abilities, alongside general emotion recognition abilities, play a significant role in affective prosody recognition in ASD.

The effect of tinnitus on some psychoacoustical abilities in individuals with normal hearing sensitivity.

Tinnitus is the perception of a sound without an external source. It can affect auditory perception abilities in individuals with normal hearing sensitivity. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of tinnitus on psychoacoustic abilities in individuals with normal hearing sensitivity. The study was conducted on twenty subjects with tinnitus and twenty subjects without tinnitus. Tinnitus group was again divided into mild and moderate tinnitus based on the tinnitus handicap inventory. Differential limen of intensity, differential limen of frequency, gap detection test, modulation detection thresholds were done through the mlp toolbox in Matlab and speech in noise test was done with the help of Quick SIN in Kannada. RESULTS of the study showed that the clinical group performed poorly in all the tests except for differential limen of intensity. Tinnitus affects aspects of auditory perception like temporal resolution, speech perception in noise and frequency discrimination in individuals with normal hearing. This could be due to subtle changes in the central auditory system which is not reflected in the pure tone audiogram.

A Brief Overview of Factors Affecting Speech Intelligibility of People With Hearing Loss: Implications for Amplification

The authors aimed to determine the predictability of speech intelligibility of people with different degrees of hearing loss from audibility and other factors. After a brief overview of why people with hearing loss have greater difficulty in understanding speech than people with normal hearing, the authors describe a study that was aimed to predict speech intelligibility from audibility, psychoacoustic abilities, cognitive ability, and age. The study showed that the ability of people with hearing loss to extract speech information from an audible signal decreased with increase in hearing loss. This hearing loss desensitization was significantly related to hearing thresholds, sharpness of psychophysical tuning curves, presence of dead regions, age, and cognitive ability. After allowing for the effects of hearing loss, the authors found that speech intelligibility was significantly related to age and cognitive ability. The effects did not vary with frequency. The current evidence supports the allowance of hearing loss desensitization in prescribing amplification that is aimed to maximize speech intelligibility. There is insufficient evidence to recommend the inclusion of estimates of frequency resolution or dead regions in prescribing amplification.

Psychoacoustic abilities as predictors of vocal emotion recognition

Prosodic attributes of speech, such as intonation, influence our ability to recognize, comprehend, and produce affect, as well as semantic and pragmatic meaning, in vocal utterances. The present study examines associations between auditory perceptual abilities and the perception of prosody, both pragmatic and affective. This association has not been previously examined. Ninety-seven participants (49 female and 48 male participants) with normal hearing thresholds took part in two experiments, involving both prosody recognition and psychoacoustic tasks. The prosody recognition tasks included a vocal emotion recognition task and a focus perception task requiring recognition of an accented word in a spoken sentence. The psychoacoustic tasks included a task requiring pitch discrimination and three tasks also requiring pitch direction (i.e., high/low, rising/falling, changing/steady pitch). Results demonstrate that psychoacoustic thresholds can predict 31% and 38% of affective and pragmatic prosody recognition scores, respectively. Psychoacoustic tasks requiring pitch direction recognition were the only significant predictors of prosody recognition scores. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying prosody recognition and may have an impact on the assessment and rehabilitation of individuals suffering from deficient prosodic perception.

Lexical tone development in children with cochlear implants

Most of the languages in the world are tonal. In a tonal language, voice pitch variation (i.e., tone) at the syllable level is a segmental structure that conveys lexical meaning of words. Multichannel cochlear implants (CIs) have shown great success in providing profoundly-deafened individuals with satisfactory speech perception in quiet. However, contemporary speech-processing strategies used in CIs do not explicitly code pitch information. This presentation will be focused on (1) acoustic cues for recognition of lexical tones, primarily the Mandarin Chinese tones, and the relative contributions of various cues to tone recognition, (2) results of tone recognition experiments in implant recipients in relation to their differences in demographics, devices, strategies, and psychoacoustic abilities, (3) relationship between music pitch perception and lexical tone recognition, and (4) results on tone production and vocal singing in prelingually-deafened, native tonal-language speaking children with CIs. It is...

Psychoacoustic Abilities Associated With Music Perception in Cochlear Implant Users

This study was designed to determine what acoustic elements are associated with musical perception ability in cochlear implant (CI) users and to understand how acoustic elements, which are important to good speech perception, contribute to music perception in CI users. It was hypothesized that the variability in the performance of music and speech perception may be related to differences in the sensitivity to specific acoustic features such as spectral changes or temporal modulations, or both. A battery of hearing tasks was administered to 42 CI listeners. The Clinical Assessment of Music Perception was used, which evaluates complex-tone pitch-direction discrimination, melody recognition, and timbre recognition. To investigate spectral and temporal processing, spectral-ripple discrimination and Schroeder-phase discrimination abilities were evaluated. Speech perception ability in quiet and noise was also evaluated. Relationships between Clinical Assessment of Music Perception subtest scores, spectral-ripple discrimination thresholds, Schroeder-phase discrimination scores, and speech recognition scores were assessed. Spectral-ripple discrimination was shown to correlate with all three aspects of music perception studied. Schroeder-phase discrimination was generally not predictive of music perception outcomes. Music perception ability was significantly correlated with speech perception ability. Nearly half of the variance in melody and timbre recognition was predicted jointly by spectral-ripple and pitch-direction discrimination thresholds. Similar results were observed on speech recognition as well. This study suggests that spectral-ripple discrimination is significantly associated with music perception in CI users. A previous report showed that spectral-ripple discrimination is significantly correlated with speech recognition in quiet and in noise. This study also showed that speech recognition and music perception are also related to one another. Spectral-ripple discrimination ability seems to reflect a wide range of hearing abilities in CI users. The results suggest that materially improving spectral resolution could provide significant benefits in music and speech perception outcomes in CI users.