Sound Processing Research Articles

Predicting Matrix Test Effectiveness for Evaluating Auditory Performance in Noise Using Pure-Tone Audiometry and Speech Recognition in Quiet in Cochlear Implant Recipients

Introduction: Auditory performance in noise of cochlear implant recipients can be assessed with the adaptive Matrix test (MT); however, when the speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) exceeds 15 dB, the background noise has any negative impact on the speech recognition. Here, we aim to evaluate the predictive power of aided pure-tone audiometry and speech recognition in quiet and establish cut-off values for both tests that indicate whether auditory performance in noise can be assessed using the Matrix sentence test in a diffuse noise environment. Methods: Here, we assessed the power of pure-tone audiometry and speech recognition in quiet to predict the response to the MT. Ninety-eight cochlear implant recipients were assessed using different sound processors from Advanced Bionics (n = 56) and CochlearTM (n = 42). Auditory tests were performed at least 1 year after cochlear implantation or upgrading the sound processor to ensure the best benefit of the implant. Auditory assessment of the implanted ear in free-field conditions included: pure-tone average (PTA), speech discrimination score (SDS) in quiet at 65 dB, and speech recognition threshold (SRT) in noise that is the SNR at which the patient can correctly recognize 50% of the words using the MT in a diffuse sound field. Results: The SRT in noise was determined in 60 patients (61%) and undetermined in 38 (39%) using the MT. When cut-off values for PTA <36 dB and SDS >41% were used separately, they were able to predict a positive response to the MT in 83% of recipients; using both cut-off values together, the predictive value reached 92%. Discussion: As the pure-tone audiometry is standardized universally and the speech recognition in quiet could vary depending on the language used; we propose that the MT should be performed in recipients with PTA <36 dB, and in recipients with PTA >36 dB, a list of Matrix sentences at a fixed SNR should be presented to determine the percentage of words understood. This approach should enable clinicians to obtain information about auditory performance in noise whenever possible.

Electronic Information System Signal Noise for Noise Reduction using Variational Bayesian based Robust Adaptive Filter

The most significant issues for a thousand users is the unwanted or loud signals in sound files, it is impossible to eliminate or minimize these noise signals without knowledge their types and ranges. To overcome this issue, present an Electronic Information System Signal Noise for Noise Reduction using Variational Bayesian based Robust Adaptive Filter (EIS-SNR-VBRAF) is proposed. Initially, the data is collected from Adaptive Myriad Filter using Time-Varying Noise and Signal-Dependent Parameters dataset. Then, the data is given for Pre-processing section, Variational Bayesian based Robust Adaptive Filter (VBRAF) is used to reduce the signal noise from Gaussian Noise, Traffic noise and Audio signal back ground noise. The proposed technique is implemented and efficacy of EIS-SNR-VBRAF technique is assessed by support of numerous performances such as BER, Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR), Mean Squared Error, Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error, Structural Similarity Index, Cross-Correlation and Computational Complexity is analyzed. The proposed EIS-SNR-VBRAF method attains 21.18%, 23.52% and 23.65% lower RMSE, 21.52%, 21.76% and 23.24% higher PSNR, 21.19%, 21.73% and 20.48% higher Structural Similarity Index are compared with existing methods like early detection of mechanical malfunctions in vehicles utilizing sound signal processing (ED-MMV-SSP),noise reduction in infrasound signals based on mask coefficient binary weighting generalized cross correlation non-negative matrix factorization algorithm (NRID-MCWG-NMFA) and Click-event sound detection in automotive industry using machine/deep learning (CE-SDSI-DL) respectively.

Long-Term Cochlear Implant Sound Processor Usage in Children with Single-Sided Deafness.

To assess cochlear implant (CI) sound processor usage over time in children with single-sided deafness (SSD) and identify factors influencing device use. Retrospective, chart review study. Pediatric tertiary referral center. Children with SSD who received CI between 2014 and 2020. Primary outcome was average daily CI sound processor usage over follow-up. Fifteen children with SSD who underwent CI surgery were categorized based on age of diagnosis and surgery timing. Over an average of 4.3-year follow-up, patients averaged 4.6 hours/day of CI usage. Declining usage trends were noted over time, with the first 2 years postactivation showing higher rates. No significant usage differences emerged based on age, surgery timing, or hearing loss etiology. Long-term usage decline necessitates further research into barriers and enablers for continued CI use in pediatric SSD cases.

Genres Classification of Popular Songs Listening by Using Keras

Listening to the music affects the brain in ways which might help to promote the human health and arrange various diseases symptoms. Music is a phenomenon that is intertwined at every stage of human life. In the modern era music is shaped by the combination of an incredible number of genres, some of which are contemporary, and some come from the previous times. The music genre represents a collection of musical works that develop according to a certain shape, expression and technique. The music genre of interest varies from person to person in society. Most listeners today do not know what kind of music they listen to. In this study, sound features were extracted from music data and the Keras model was trained using these attributes. The correct classification rate of a music genre of the trained model was determined as 71.66%. Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), Mel Spectrogram, Chroma Vector and Tonnetz methods in the Librosa library were used to extract sound properties from music data. Using the features probed by means of the library, the most listened songs with Shazam in Türkiye were categorized in with TensorFlow/Keras. Many methods can be used in classification. It is uncertain which method the researchers should opt. It has been emphasized that classification of the genres of newly released songs by using Keras in this study. At result, it is said that the study has presented a sound processing are Keras classification of musical parts.

Evaluation of the Baha SoundArc in children

ObjectiveThe Baha SoundArc coupling system has been developed as a non-surgical coupling of a Baha sound processor to the skull allowing the transfer of vibrational energy to the cochlear partition via bone conduction pathways. Today, there are several alternatives to this non-surgical approach as the Baha headband/test band, or the Baha Softband, or adhesive patches. Each of these current options have benefits and liabilities. The aim of the study was to evaluate pediatric experience and performance when using two non-surgical options, the Baha SoundArc compared to the Baha Softband. MethodsTwenty-five children with unilateral mixed or conductive hearing loss aged 5–12 years of age evaluated the use of the Baha SoundArc compared to their existing Baha Softband in a one month take home trial. Participants had a minimum of 3 months experience using the control, Baha Softband. Participants were assessed at baseline and one month following fit of the Baha SoundArc. Measures included an experience and use patient reported outcome, speech perception testing in quiet using Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten (PBK) words, and sound field audiometry. ResultsMean aided soundfield thresholds across the frequency range were 27.6 dB HL for Softband and 26.0 dB HL for SoundArc, which were not significantly different (P = >.05). Mean word recognition score was 80.8% when aided with the Softband device and 85.1% with the SoundArc, which was also not significantly different (P = >.05). Most children favored the aesthetics and usability of the SoundArc over Softband, but comfort ratings were largely similar for both devices. ConclusionsBone conduction sound processors mounted on a SoundArc or a Softband resulted in comparable improvements in aided thresholds and speech understanding in children suffering from conductive or mixed hearing loss. Both wearing modalities can be considered equivalent in terms of audiological outcomes, although both patients and clinicians preferred the usability and aesthetics of the SoundArc. The SoundArc provides an alternative wearing option for patients that may otherwise be discouraged by the aesthetics and usability of the Softband device. Clinicaltrials.gov identifierNCT03333577.

Prismatic adaptation coupled with cognitive training as novel treatment for developmental dyslexia: a randomized controlled trial

Despite intense and costly treatments, developmental dyslexia (DD) often persists into adulthood. Several brain skills unrelated to speech sound processing (i.e., phonology), including the spatial distribution of visual attention, are abnormal in DD and may represent possible treatment targets. This study explores the efficacy in DD of rightward prismatic adaptation (rPA), a visuomotor adaptation technique that enables visuo-attentive recalibration through shifts in the visual field induced by prismatic goggles. A digital intervention of rPA plus cognitive training was delivered weekly over 10 weeks to adolescents with DD (aged 13–17) assigned either to treatment (N = 35) or waitlist (N = 35) group. Efficacy was evaluated by repeated measures MANOVA assessing changes in working memory index (WMI), processing speed index (PSI), text reading speed, and words/pseudowords reading accuracy. rPA treatment was significantly more effective than waitlist (p ≤ 0.001; ηp2 = 0.815). WMI, PSI, and reading speed increased in the intervention group only (p ≤ 0.001, ηp2 = 0.67; p ≤ 0.001, ηp2 = 0.58; p ≤ 0.001, ηp2 = 0.29, respectively). Although modest change was detected for words and pseudowords accuracy in the waitlist group only (words: p ≤ 0.001, d = 0.17, pseudowords: p = 0.028; d = 0.27), between-group differences were non-significant. rPA-coupled cognitive training enhances cognitive and reading abilities in adolescents with DD. This innovative approach could have implications for early remedial treatment.

Making a day out of records: Phonographic pedagogies of the Afro-sonic diaspora

This article develops the concept of “low-end phonographic pedagogies” through a life-long engagement with vinyl records and the Afro-diasporic music practices of reggae, dub, and dancehall. Approaching my record collection as a counter-archive of vibrational feeling and learning, I explore everyday practices of playing and listening to records as a field of inquiry into the pedagogical potentials of phonographic technologies. Focusing on the dub styles of record production and bass-heavy sound systems that have spread globally from Jamaica since the 1970s, the article engages scholarship in decolonial sound studies and process philosophy to explore the vibratory, affective, and social dynamics of sub-bass frequencies and polyrhythms. This leads to a conceptualization of low-end phonographic pedagogies as situated within a wider continuum of vibratory learning events that stretch from the sub-atomic to the cosmic.

El paisaje sonoro en la cultura

The articles in this thematic issue of Encartes were written by researchers who participated in the project Paisaje sonoro, música, ruidos y sonidos de las fronteras, carried out in Tijuana at the end of 2022. Some of the participating researchers were also part of previous projects carried out at El COLEF on music and the processes of modernity. However, on this occasion the theme was directed to sound, music and the processes of listening from culture. In such a way that the writings derived from this project not only focus on sound, but also on listening, which is an indispensable conceptual binomial to think about sound processes and constitute fundamental categories for cultural processes, analogous to the opposition between identity and otherness, in the understanding that it is not possible to analyze one without the presence of the other.

Population coding of time-varying sounds in the nonlemniscal inferior colliculus.

The inferior colliculus (IC) of the midbrain is important for complex sound processing, such as discriminating conspecific vocalizations and human speech. The IC's nonlemniscal, dorsal "shell" region is likely important for this process, as neurons in these layers project to higher-order thalamic nuclei that subsequently funnel acoustic signals to the amygdala and nonprimary auditory cortices, forebrain circuits important for vocalization coding in a variety of mammals, including humans. However, the extent to which shell IC neurons transmit acoustic features necessary to discern vocalizations is less clear, owing to the technical difficulty of recording from neurons in the IC's superficial layers via traditional approaches. Here, we use two-photon Ca2+ imaging in mice of either sex to test how shell IC neuron populations encode the rate and depth of amplitude modulation, important sound cues for speech perception. Most shell IC neurons were broadly tuned, with a low neurometric discrimination of amplitude modulation rate; only a subset was highly selective to specific modulation rates. Nevertheless, neural network classifier trained on fluorescence data from shell IC neuron populations accurately classified amplitude modulation rate, and decoding accuracy was only marginally reduced when highly tuned neurons were omitted from training data. Rather, classifier accuracy increased monotonically with the modulation depth of the training data, such that classifiers trained on full-depth modulated sounds had median decoding errors of ∼0.2 octaves. Thus, shell IC neurons may transmit time-varying signals via a population code, with perhaps limited reliance on the discriminative capacity of any individual neuron.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The IC's shell layers originate a "nonlemniscal" pathway important for perceiving vocalization sounds. However, prior studies suggest that individual shell IC neurons are broadly tuned and have high response thresholds, implying a limited reliability of efferent signals. Using Ca2+ imaging, we show that amplitude modulation is accurately represented in the population activity of shell IC neurons. Thus, downstream targets can read out sounds' temporal envelopes from distributed rate codes transmitted by populations of broadly tuned neurons.

Does bankruptcy law affect the relation between leverage and firm performance?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of bankruptcy reform in the year 2016 on the relation between leverage and firm performance for Indian firms, separately for business group and standalone firms.Design/methodology/approachFixed effects panel regression is used to understand the role of bankruptcy reform on firm-level data to examine the relationship between leverage and firm performance after controlling for size, growth, age, liquidity and promoter shareholding. The authors also apply the generalized method of moments (GMM) to control for the endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe authors show that the introduction of the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC) positively moderates the relation between leverage and firm performance such that the extent of negative relation between leverage and firm performance is less in the post-IBC period. The positive impact of IBC on the relation between leverage and firm performance holds only for firms not affiliated to business groups and for firms with higher debt in their capital structure.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings will help the regulators appreciate the effectiveness of bankruptcy reforms resulting from IBC implementation in terms of sound bankruptcy process and leading to safeguard the interests of minority shareholders.Originality/valueThe authors provide the only study to examine the role of bankruptcy law in moderating the relation between leverage and firm performance across a sample of business group and standalone firms.

Jailing is failing: psychiatry can help.

There is accumulating evidence that imprisonment is expensive but does little to address the underlying drivers of offending. At the same time, it is now recognised that a large proportion of prisoners are diagnosable with significant psychiatric disorders. In this piece we explore the potential role of psychiatry in addressing the societal challenge of a failing prison system. We argue that core psychiatric skills of engaging in balanced, values-based thinking and implementing sound clinical processes can play an important role in reducing reoffending risk. We briefly discuss some of the key challenges involved and outline several relevant service models.

Manual switching between programs intended for specific real-life listening environments by adult cochlear implant users: do they use the intended program?

Objective The aim of the current study was to investigate the use of manually and automatically switching programs in everyday day life by adult cochlear implant (CI) users Design Participants were fitted with an automatically switching sound processor setting and 2 manual programs for 3-week study periods. They received an extensive counselling session. Datalog information was used to analyse the listening environments identified by the sound processor, the program used and the number of program switches. Study samples Fifteen adult Cochlear CI users. Average age 69 years (range: 57–85 years). Results Speech recognition in noise was significantly better with the “noise” program than with the “quiet” program. On average, participants correctly classified 4 out of 5 listening environments in a laboratory setting. Participants switched, on average, less than once a day between the 2 manual programs and the sound processor was in the intended program 60% of the time. Conclusion Adult CI users switch rarely between two manual programs and leave the sound processor often in a program not intended for the specific listening environment. A program that switches automatically between settings, therefore, seems to be a more appropriate option to optimise speech recognition performance in daily listening environments.

Ambient sound stimulation tunes axonal conduction velocity by regulating radial growth of myelin on an individual, axon-by-axon basis

Adaptive myelination is the emerging concept of tuning axonal conduction velocity to the activity within specific neural circuits over time. Sound processing circuits exhibit structural and functional specifications to process signals with microsecond precision: a time scale that is amenable to adjustment in length and thickness of myelin. Increasing activity of auditory axons by introducing sound-evoked responses during postnatal development enhances myelin thickness, while sensory deprivation prevents such radial growth during development. When deprivation occurs during adulthood, myelin thickness was reduced. However, it is unclear whether sensory stimulation adjusts myelination in a global fashion (whole fiber bundles) or whether such adaptation occurs at the level of individual fibers. Using temporary monaural deprivation in mice provided an internal control for a) differentially tracing structural changes in active and deprived fibers and b) for monitoring neural activity in response to acoustic stimulation of the control and the deprived ear within the same animal. The data show that sound-evoked activity increased the number of myelin layers around individual active axons, even when located in mixed bundles of active and deprived fibers. Thicker myelination correlated with faster axonal conduction velocity and caused shorter auditory brainstem response wave VI-I delays, providing a physiologically relevant readout. The lack of global compensation emphasizes the importance of balanced sensory experience in both ears throughout the lifespan of an individual.

The effective connectivity analysis of fMRI based on asymmetric detection of transfer brain entropy.

It is important to explore causal relationships in functional magnetic resonance imaging study. However, the traditional effective connectivity analysis method is easy to produce false causality, and the detection accuracy needs to be improved. In this paper, we introduce a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging effective connectivity method based on the asymmetry detection of transfer entropy, which quantifies the disparity in predictive information between forward and backward time, subsequently normalizing this disparity to establish a more precise criterion for detecting causal relationships while concurrently reducing computational complexity. Then, we evaluate the effectiveness of this method on the simulated data with different level of nonlinearity, and the results demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms others methods on the detection of both linear and nonlinear causal relationships, including Granger Causality, Partial Granger Causality, Kernel Granger Causality, Copula Granger Causality, and traditional transfer entropy. Furthermore, we applied it to study the effective connectivity of brain functional activities in seafarers. The results showed that there are significantly different causal relationships between different brain regions in seafarers compared with non-seafarers, such as Temporal lobe related to sound and auditory information processing, Hippocampus related to spatial navigation, Precuneus related to emotion processing as well as Supp_Motor_Area associated with motor control and coordination, which reflects the occupational specificity of brain function of seafarers.

Video clips in physics education

Film recordings – video clips – have been used in the teaching and learning processes for decades. At the very beginning, the dominant role was played by television and professionally prepared recordings on portable media (e.g. LaserDiscs). With the advancement of technology and the emergence of new media, as well as the revolution in access to image and sound recording and processing devices, video clips – including amateur ones – have become the dominant path of contemporary visual communication. The paper is of an overview character and discusses examples of educational use of video in physics education in the past and at present, including TV lectures, popular science programs, dedicated video materials and educational environments, software for video measurement and evaluation of learning outcomes. Various illustrations along with literature references are given to outline potential educational pathways in making use of video clips as didactically valuable medium in teaching - learning physics.

Impact of visual enhancement and color conversion algorithms on remote sound recovery from silent videos

AbstractThe visual microphone is a technique for remote sound recovery that extracts sound information from tiny pixel‐scale vibrations in a video. Despite having demonstrated success in sound recovery, the impact of various visual enhancement and color conversion algorithms applied on the video before the sound recovery process has not been explored. Thus, it is important to investigate these effects have on the recovered sound quality, as the vibrations are so small the effects play an important role. This work experimented with different color to grayscale conversions and visual enhancement algorithms on 576 videos, and found that the recovered sound quality is indeed greatly affected by the choice of algorithms. The best conversion algorithms were found to be the average of the red, green and blue color channels and the perceptual lightness in the CIELAB color space, improving the recovered sound quality by up to 23.22%. Furthermore, visual enhancement techniques such as gamma correction have been found to corrupt vibration information, leading to a 22.47% drop in recovered sound quality in one of the tested videos. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid or minimize the use of visual enhancement techniques for remote sound recovery to prevent the elimination of useful subtle vibrations.

Numerical simulation of sound attenuation in an acoustically lined duct in high-temperature air flows

Noise reduction structures are important for the vibration and noise reduction design of aerospace engines. The design of noise-reducing structures often needs to be quickly evaluated via numerical simulations. Hence, the simulation results of the corresponding system are very important for guiding the design of noise-reducing structures. High temperature is one of the key environmental factors that need to be considered when evaluating the sound attenuation process via numerical methods. In this study, numerical simulations of acoustic wave propagation on an acoustic liner structure considering air temperature variations are carried out by using compressible Navier–Stokes equations and the ideal gas equation of state. The results showed that the effect of temperature on sound attenuation under grazing flow conditions is complex. Moreover, an increase in temperature will reduce the transmission loss of the acoustic liner in the grazing flow at high air speed.

Feel sounds with your hands: Exploring tactile frequency-following response

Auditory perception is often influence by other senses. Prior studies have documented that the auditory cortex can respond to vibration, but the nature of this neural response remains unclear. The frequency-following response (FFR) is a non-invasive evoked brain response that can be used to study the fidelity of periodicity encoding of complex sounds. The main goal of this study was to investigate if tactile processing of sounds retains periodicity information as measured by the FFR. We acquired electroencephalography while participants were presented with repetitions of a synthesized speech syllable /da/ under three conditions (Auditory, Tactile, and both). A technology developed within our laboratory (Multichannel Vibrotactile Glove) was used to present sounds to all fingers. Results reveal that it is possible to measure a tactile FFR using vibrotactile stimulation, which is similar to the auditory FFR, but exhibits somewhat different characteristics as compared to unimodal auditory FFR, including lower amplitude and no sensitivity to harmonics. These findings suggest that these modalities interact, opening up questions about the origins and pathways responsible for the phenomena and introduces potential uses of tactile perception to mitigate the effect of hearing loss in speech and music perception.

Auditory-inspired adaptive frequency tracking

One of the best frequency trackers to date is the human (mammalian) auditory system, which has evolved through millions of years of resolving classification problems. It is a versatile, elegant and powerful sound processing unit. It excels in detecting, estimating, and classifying multiple targets simultaneously even in noisy environments. Hence, mimicking even some features of the auditory system could be beneficial in developing superior frequency tracking and classification algorithms. An auditory inspired adaptive synchrony capture filterbank (SCFB) signal processing architecture for tracking signal frequency components was proposed in a related paper [JASA-2013]. The SCFB architecture consists of a fixed array of traditional, passive linear, gammatone filters in cascade with a bank of three adaptively tunable bandpass filters that form a frequency-discriminator-loop (FDL). The SCFB exhibits many desirable properties for processing speech, music, and other complex sounds. In recent work [Dec2021], the algorithm was modified using adaptive tuning parameters, and a generalized way to determine/suppress voiced and unvoiced (silent) regions. This modified algorithm estimates frequencies with higher accuracy even in the presence of closely spaced input tones. Preliminary analysis with synthetic, human speech and humpback/whale-call signals demonstrates that the revised algorithm performs well. This talk will focus on follow-on work.

Auditory processing in neurodiverse children

Many neurodiverse individuals experience auditory processing differences including hyper- or hyposensitivity to sound, attraction or aversions to sound, and difficulty listening under noisy conditions. However, the origins of these auditory symptoms are not well understood. In this study, we tested 7-to-10-year-old autistic children and age and sex-matched neurotypical comparison participants. To simulate a realistic classroom situation where many people are often speaking simultaneously, we obtained neural and behavioral measures of speech perception in both quiet and noise conditions. Using electroencephalography, we recorded neural responses to naturalistic, continuous speech to assess the cortical encoding of the speech envelope. We also obtained behavioral multitalker speech perception thresholds and estimates of spatial release from masking, a binaural hearing phenomenon in which speech perception improves when distracting speakers are spatially separated from the target speaker. Our preliminary results from both neural and behavioral measures suggest that the autistic group shows worse speech perception in noise and less spatial release from masking than the neurotypical group. These findings suggest that autistic children may benefit from environments with reduced noise to facilitate speech perception. These findings also warrant further investigation into speech perception under real-world conditions and the neural mechanisms underlying sound processing in autistic children.