Tone Intensity Research Articles

The influence of variability on mismatch negativity amplitude

Mismatch Negativity (MMN) to pattern deviations reveals exquisite pattern detection ability in the brain. MMN amplitude is proposed to be precision-weighted, being inversely proportional to variability within a patterned sound sequence. Two experiments were conducted to determine whether pattern variability, shown to influence MMN to simple pattern deviance, also extends to MMN elicited to abstract pattern deviants. Participants were presented with 3-tone triplet sequences that were defined by regular frequency ascendance with adjacent (A<B<C) or non-adjacent (A<C) dependency. The triplets were defined by an abstract pattern in that the starting frequency of A roamed randomly between 500–3700 Hz. Using variants of these sequences over two studies the results show that MMN was elicited to rare A >C deviants for adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies, was smaller for the latter, was impervious to variance in tone loudness, but showed prolonged sensitivity to the level of variability at sequence onset.

Cognitive Conflict in Technological Environment: Cognitive Process and Emotions through Intuitive Errors in Area, Perimeter and Volume

This study was conducted among 28 seventh-grade students. They worked in groups in an activity with modeling features; the activity consisted of three tasks dealing with an intuitive error, namely, same A–same B. The data source was nine video recordings of three groups across the three activities. The results obtained from analyses of students’ discussions and interactions indicate that they moved through three central stages: the intuitive error stage, the revealing of the intuitive error connected with cognitive conflict and the stage of overcoming the intuitive errors. In each of the three stages in the three tasks, we identified similar emotion features among the three groups across the three tasks. In the intuitive error stage, the participants were characterized by confidence, comfort and enjoyment. In revealing the intuitive errors, we identified several indicators and signs of non-comfortable situations by revealing the errors in the three tasks, such as a high sound or sad tone of voice, physical movements such as moving closer to the computer screen and other physical indicators such as opening the mouth and putting a hand on the head or the face. After overcoming and understanding the sources of the errors, the participants showed confidence that was clear in their facial signs, joy and smiles, loud tone and eye contact between students and the teacher, or between students.

Autonomic activity, posttraumatic and nontraumatic nightmares, and PTSD after trauma exposure.

Nightmares are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This strong association may reflect a shared pathophysiology in the form of altered autonomic activity and increased reactivity. Using an acoustic startle paradigm, we investigated the interrelationships of psychophysiological measures during wakefulness and PTSD diagnosis, posttraumatic nightmares, and nontraumatic nightmares. A community sample of 122 trauma survivors were presented with a series of brief loud tones, while heart rate (HRR), skin conductance (SCR), and orbicularis oculi electromyogram (EMGR) responses were measured. Prior to the tone presentations, resting heart rate variability (HRV) was assessed. Nightmares were measured using nightmare logs. Three dichotomous groupings of participants were compared: (1) current PTSD diagnosis (n = 59), no PTSD diagnosis (n = 63), (2) those with (n = 26) or without (n = 96) frequent posttraumatic nightmares, and (3) those with (n = 22) or without (n = 100) frequent nontraumatic nightmares. PTSD diagnosis was associated with posttraumatic but not with nontraumatic nightmares. Both PTSD and posttraumatic nightmares were associated with a larger mean HRR to loud tones, whereas nontraumatic nightmare frequency was associated with a larger SCR. EMGR and resting HRV were not associated with PTSD diagnosis or nightmares. Our findings suggest a shared pathophysiology between PTSD and posttraumatic nightmares in the form of increased HR reactivity to startling tones, which might reflect reduced parasympathetic tone. This shared pathophysiology could explain why PTSD is more strongly related to posttraumatic than nontraumatic nightmares, which could have important clinical implications.

In situ acoustic analysis of two twentieth-century heritage carillons

Carillons are a diverse and global form of musical and civic heritage: musical instruments comprised of a series of 23 or more bells, typically hung in a tower-like structure, tuned chromatically and played from a touch-sensitive manual and pedal console using an elaborate mechanical action. Carillon bells have a distinct series of musical overtones which should be accurately tuned to one another and with other bells they sound alongside. Although these overtones have been previously studied ex situ, this study assesses the acoustic characteristics of two early-twentieth century carillons in Toronto, Canada as a combination of structure, bells, and mechanical action. Thus, the instrument and its context are considered holistically, more accurately reflecting the musical sensitivity of a carillonist. Spectral analysis of audio samples of each bell at different musical dynamic levels enabled the analysis of the acoustic qualities of the bells and the mechanical action of the instruments. The tuning of bells in the instruments varied; most importantly, there was a significant difference between the audial intensity of the bell tones produced by the instruments, demonstrating the importance of the mechanical action as part of the ‘carillon system’. This was represented with a resistive power-law model, that represents the sensitivity of intensity to carillonist musical dynamic level. A discussion of the implications for artistic and heritage practice follows. Understanding the in situ physical acoustics of the carillon as a holistic instrument in its context informs performers, arrangers, and composers of how they can best embrace the instrument’s unique qualities to improve artistic pursuits and support the appreciation of carillons as heritage instruments and function as civic voices.

Spontaneous firing patterns in the medial geniculate nucleus in a guinea pig model of tinnitus

The mechanism of tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of acoustic stimulation, remains as yet unknown. It has been proposed that tinnitus is caused by altered spontaneous activity in the auditory pathway following cochlear damage in combination with inadequate gating at the level of the auditory thalamus, the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN). To investigate this further we made electrophysiological recordings in MGN of guinea pigs (n = 9) with and without tinnitus after acoustic trauma (continuous loud tone at 10 kHz, 124 dB SPL for 2 h). Parameters of interest were spontaneous tonic and burst firing. After acoustic trauma, 5 out of 9 guinea pigs developed signs of tinnitus as determined by the gap prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle. Spontaneous firing rates were significantly increased in the tinnitus animals as compared to the non-tinnitus animals and this change was specific to pure-tone responsive MGN neurons. However, burst firing parameters, including number of bursts per minute, burst duration, number of spikes in each burst, and percentage of spikes occurring in a burst, were not different between tinnitus and non-tinnitus animals. In addition, our data showed a strong dependence of spontaneous firing rates with heart rate, which implies that monitoring physiological status in animals is pertinent to obtaining reliable data when recording at higher levels of the auditory pathway. Our results suggest that increases in the tonic spontaneous fining rate of pure-tone responsive MGN neurons but not changes in burst firing parameters, are a robust neural signature of tinnitus in anaesthetised animals.

Measuring implanted patient response to tone pips

BackgroundAn electrical potential not previously reported—electrical cochlear response (ECR)—observed only in implanted patients is described. Its amplitude and growth slope are a measurement of the stimulation achieved by a tone pip on the auditory nerve. The stimulation and recording system constructed for this purpose, the features of this potential obtained in a group of 43 children, and its possible clinical use are described. The ECR is obtained by averaging the EEG epochs acquired each time the cochlear implant (CI) processes a tone pip of known frequency and intensity when the patient is sleeping and using the CI in everyday mode. The ECR is sensitive to tone pip intensity level, microphone sensitivity, sound processor gain, dynamic range of electrical current, and responsiveness to electrical current of the auditory nerve portion involved with the electrode under test. It allows individual evaluation of intracochlear electrodes by choosing, one at the time, the central frequency of the electrode as the test tone pip frequency, so the ECR measurement due to a variable intensity tone pip allows to establish the suitability of the dynamic range of the electrode current.ResultsThere is a difference in ECR measurements when patients are grouped based on their auditory behavior. The ECR slope and amplitude for the Sensitive group is 0.2 μV/dBHL and 10 μV at 50 dBHL compared with 0.04 μV/dBHL and 3 μV at 50dBHL for the Inconsistent group. The clinical cases show that adjusting the dynamic range of current based on the ECR improved the patient’s auditory behavior.ConclusionsECR can be recorded regardless of the artifact due to the electromyographic activity of the patient and the functioning of the CI. Its amplitude and growth slope versus the intensity of the stimulus differs between electrodes. The relationship between minimum ECR detection intensity level and auditory threshold suggests the possibility of estimating patient auditory thresholds this way. ECR does not depend on the subject’s age, cooperation, or health status. It can be obtained at any time after implant surgery and the test procedure is the same regardless of device manufacturer.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ СКЛАДОВІ ДОМІНАНТНОЇ УВАГИ ЯК ПРОВІДНОЇ ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ЯКОСТІ АНСАМБЛІСТА

The article considers the psychological components that reveal the essence of the method of dominant attention in ensemble performance. The psychological factors concerning improvement of ensemble game are analyzed. Dominant in culture is identified with the main artistic ideas, values. In aesthetics – with the dominant ideal. In the literature – with ideas, context, concept, style characteristics. In design – with shape and space. In architecture – with the dominant element of the composition of space. Dominant – in music theory – V degree of the system relative to the main tone (tonic). The fifth degree of tonality is also called dominant. In European music, the dominant key has always been given a special role, the dominant meant a contrast to the main key. Among all related tonalities, the dominant was considered the dominant (hence the name), the most intense tone, which requires a solution. The professional qualities of an ensemble player are a system of appropriate psychophysiological and mental resources, namely attention, intuition, reflection, empathy, coordination, which is a chain of psychodial elements required for the formation of dominant attention as a generalizing link in the creative realization of a musician-ensemble player. Thus, the considered structural elements of dominant attention as the leading professional quality of the ensemble player, namely intuition, reflection, empathy, coordination are perceived by us as semantic unity. The components are analyzed in terms of content, and a chain of theoretical conclusions is presented, which embody the substantiation of the concept of «dominant attention» of a musician-ensemble player. Analysis of musical-cognitive processes and practical training of specialists contributes to the successful functioning of the dominant attention in the process of its creative realization. Further research may be related to the study of the intuitive component of the musician-ensemble.

Effects of intensity, attention and medication on auditory-evoked potentials in patients with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) has been associated to an increased processing of somatosensory stimuli, but its generalization to other sensory modalities is under discussion. To clarify this, we studied auditory event-related potentials (AEPs) to stimuli of different intensity in patients with FM and healthy controls (HCs), considering the effects of attention mechanisms and medication. We performed two experiments: In study 1 (n = 50 FM, 60 HCs), the stimuli were presented randomly within the sequence; in study 2 (n = 28 FM, 30 HCs), they were presented in blocks of the same intensity. We analyzed intensity and group effects on N1-P2 amplitude and, only for the FM group, the effect of medication and the correlation between AEPs and clinical variables. Contrary to the expectation, the patients showed a trend of reduced AEPs to the loudest tones (study 1) or no significant differences with the HCs (study 2). Medication with central effects significantly reduced AEPs, while no significant relationships between the N1-P2 amplitude/intensity function and patients’ symptoms were observed. The findings do not provide evidence of augmented auditory processing in FM. Nevertheless, given the observed effect of medication, the role of sensory amplification as an underlying pathophysiological mechanism in fibromyalgia cannot be discarded.

Signal modeling of the conditioning stage of a parametric array loudspeaker by statistical design of experiments

Parametric Array Loudspeaker is a directional sound technology that uses ultrasound amplitude modulation to generate audible sound in a specific propagation path. The mathematical modeling of this technology is an interesting problem that cannot be tackled analytically due to a nonlinear phenomenon associated with the production of sound from ultrasound, i.e. self-demodulation. Self-demodulation affects sound quality by both introducing undesired harmonic content and reducing drastically the intensity of low frequencies. The steps within the Digital Signal Processor having the greatest effect on self-demodulation at the conditioning stage of the ultrasonic signal were detected and empirical mathematical models that account for response variables such as the total harmonic distortion and the perceived intensity of the fundamental tone were elaborated by using statistical Design of Experiments. This methodology permitted the identification of the mono peak compressor as the variable with the largest influence with regard to the response variables.

Suggested deafness during hypnosis and simulation of hypnosis compared to a distraction and control condition: A study on subjective experience and cortical brain responses.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool to affect the processing and perception of stimuli. Here, we investigated the effects of hypnosis on the processing of auditory stimuli, the time course of event-related-potentials (ERP; N1 and P3b amplitudes) and the activity of cortical sources of the P3b component. Forty-eight participants completed an auditory oddball paradigm composed of standard, distractor, and target stimuli during a hypnosis (HYP), a simulation of hypnosis (SIM), a distraction (DIS), and a control (CON) condition. During HYP, participants were suggested that an earplug would obstruct the perception of tones and during SIM they should pretend being hypnotized and obstructed to hear the tones. During DIS, participants’ attention was withdrawn from the tones by focusing participants’ attention onto a film. In each condition, subjects were asked to press a key whenever a target stimulus was presented. Behavioral data show that target hit rates and response time became significantly reduced during HYP and SIM and loudness ratings of tones were only reduced during HYP. Distraction from stimuli by the film was less effective in reducing target hit rate and tone loudness. Although, the N1 amplitude was not affected by the experimental conditions, the P3b amplitude was significantly reduced in HYP and SIM compared to CON and DIS. In addition, source localization results indicate that only a small number of neural sources organize the differences of tone processing between the control condition and the distraction, hypnosis, and simulation of hypnosis conditions. These sources belong to brain areas that control the focus of attention, the discrimination of auditory stimuli, and the organization of behavioral responses to targets. Our data confirm that deafness suggestions significantly change auditory processing and perception but complete deafness is hard to achieve during HYP. Therefore, the term ‘deafness’ may be misleading and should better be replaced by ‘hypoacusis’.

Ability of 3- to 5-year-old children to use simplified self-report measures of pain intensity.

Little is known about self-report pain intensity scales best suited for young children. We tested the ability of preschool children to use two simplified scales (concrete ordinal and faces). Three- to 5-year-olds (n = 123) were asked to make binary discriminations ('less' vs 'more' pain) between response options using the Simplified Faces Pain Scale and Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale and to complete a seriation task. Eighty participants were also asked to use the Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale, with modified verbal anchors, to rate the loudness of tones and to assess practice effects. Binary discrimination accuracy and seriation ability improved with age. When using the Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale to rate the loudness of tones, even the 3-year-olds performed significantly better than chance, and performance was better in 4- and 5-year-olds. Little evidence supported the ability of 3-year-olds to use either of the simplified tools in the pain context. The 4-year-olds demonstrated greater accuracy in using the Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale than the Simplified Faces Pain Scale, suggesting that the Simplified Concrete Ordinal Scale may be more appropriate for this age group.

The first experiences with the palliative tumor board discussions in the University of Pécs

Palliative, symptomatic and end-of-life care of advanced and metastatic cancer patients is a great challenge for every health care system. With the initiation and establishment of the multidisciplinary palliative tumor board (MPTB), our aims were the timely referral of patients to palliative care, and the avoidance of multiple unnecessary emergency visits and over-diagnostics without further treatment consequences. The MPTB meetings were held biweekly. The core members of the team were: palliative care consultant, medical oncologist, internal medicine physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, and oncology and palliative medicine nurses. From May 2019 till January 2020, we discussed the medical history of 97 cases of 93 cancer patients with advanced disease states; in one meeting the team usually discussed over 6-10 complex patient histories. In every case we determined the actual form of the necessary palliative care, e.g., outpatient clinic, home care, or institutional referral, and we decided on further possible and realistic oncology treatment regimes. A few months after the introduction of the new MPTB, we detected a decrease of the unnecessary emergency unit referrals considering the patients whose histories were discussed. Although the initial MPTB discussions had an intense emotional tone, they shortly became thoughtful and operational expert meetings. We believe that the MPTB system fully promotes the early and timely access of advanced cancer patients to appropriate palliative care and facilitates gradual changes in the medical oncologists' approach from the absolute curative determination to a supportive medical attitude. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(34): 1423-1430.

Brainstem BOLD response to visual and acoustic stimuli.

Understanding the fundamental roles of brainstem function resulting in proper motor control is critical to motor-rehabilitation after brain injuries. In particular, vestibular and reticular formation nuclei are thought to be associated with spasticity in chronic stroke patients. We used two kinds of stimuli in 10 healthy subjects to activate these nuclei while collecting high-resolution (1.5-mm) fMRI across the majority of brainstem. Optokinetic stimuli evoked illusory self-motion to activate the vestibular nuclei. Acoustic-startle stimuli were sets of loud tones designed to activate of the reticular formation. We summarized the response represented in a form of activation volume, mean percent signal change, and the phase delay (time lag) following the stimulus. We observed patterns of significant activations in the brainstem but did not find significant differences between the stimulus. We conclude that more sensitive measurement techniques are needed to reliably detect vestibular and reticular formation nuclei responses.

Effects of Trunk Motion, Touch, and Articulation on Upper-Limb Velocities and on Joint Contribution to Endpoint Velocities During the Production of Loud Piano Tones.

Piano performance involves several levels of motor abundancy. Identification of kinematic strategies that enhance performance and reduce risks of practice-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMD) represents an important research topic since more than half of professional pianists might suffer from PRMD during their career. Studies in biomechanics have highlighted the benefits of using proximal upper-limb joints to reduce the load on distal segments by effectively creating velocity and force at the finger–key interaction. If scientific research has documented postural and expressive features of pianists’ trunk motion, there is currently a lack of scientific evidence assessing the role of trunk motion in sound production and in injury prevention. We address this gap by integrating motion of the pelvis and thorax in the analysis of both upper-limb linear velocities and joint angular contribution to endpoint velocities. Specifically, this study aims to assess kinematic features of different types of touch and articulation and the impact of trunk motion on these features. Twelve pianists performed repetitive loud and slow-paced keystrokes. They were asked to vary (i) body implication (use of trunk and upper-limb motion or use of only upper-limb motion), (ii) touch (struck touch, initiating the attack with the fingertip at a certain distance from the key surface, or pressed touch, initiating the attack with the fingertip in contact with the key surface), and (iii) articulation (staccato, short finger–key contact time, or tenuto, sustained finger–key contact time). Data were collected using a 3D motion capture system and a sound recording device. Results show that body implication, touch, and articulation modified kinematic features of loud keystrokes, which exhibited not only downward but also important forward segmental velocities (particularly in pressed touch and staccato articulation). Pelvic anterior rotation had a prominent role in the production of loud tones as it effectively contributed to creating forward linear velocities at the upper limb. The reported findings have implications for the performance, teaching, and research domains since they provide evidence of how pianists’ trunk motion can actively contribute to the sound production and might not only be associated with either postural or expressive features.

Visual Colorimetric Determination of Sulfate Ion in Water Using Coprecipitation Phenomenon of Potassium Permanganate and Barium Sulfate

An on-site analytical technique for the colorimetric determination of sulfate ion in a water sample was developed based on the formation of purple precipitates as mixed crystals composed of barium sulfate with permanganate. Potassium permanganate solution and acidic barium chloride solution with hydrochloric acid were added in sequence into 1.5 mL of the sample, then the mixed crystals precipitated and suspended. The residual excess of permanganate ion remaining in the mother solution was reduced with ascorbic acid to turn it colorless. At that time, colors of the suspended precipitates became observable. The intensity of purple color tone of the suspension varied depending on the concentration of sulfate ion. The concentration was determined semi-quantitatively by visual comparison of the intensity with standard color charts. The proposed colorimetry permitted us to determine sulfate ion at the range of 50 to 2000 mg L−1. The time required for the on-site analysis was less than one minute. We applied the colorimetry to the real drainage samples taken from biological desulfurization systems and obtained good results useful for maintenance of them.

Numerical Investigation of the Unsteady Flow Past an Iced Multi-Element Airfoil

Unsteady flow characteristics are investigated using wall-modeled large-eddy simulation for a 30P30N three-element airfoil with streamwise ice and horn ice accreted at its slat leading edge, respectively. The ice accretions cause massive flow separation above the slat, which results in a surface pressure plateau on the slat and further unloads the downstream wing elements. The above mentioned two ice shapes lead to lift decreases of 10.66 and 16.45% and drag increases of 44.58 and 59.42%, respectively. Ice-induced vortices first roll up due to Kelvin–Helmholtz instability above the slat with ice accretions, and the subsequent vortex pairing halves their characteristic motion frequency. The developed vortices, composed of multiscale structures, dominate the slat upper surface and are convected through the main element to aggravate the flow separation over the flap. Moreover, extremely strong acoustic resonance occurs in the iced slat cove, and its tonal frequencies are consistent with theoretical model predictions. These intense tones are believed to result from the elevated pressure fluctuations along the cavity free shear layer, which are in turn related to the propagation of the ice-induced pressure fluctuations from above the slat because their most dominant frequencies identified by proper orthogonal decomposition are nearly equal to the resonant frequencies.

S197. PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONED HALLUCINATIONS TASKS AND PSYCHOMETRIC THRESHOLDING IN ENRICHED ONLINE SAMPLE

BackgroundThe predictive coding framework of perception postulates that we automatically infer what is around us by combining our sensory input with our prior beliefs. Mathematical models based in Bayesian statistics can describe this process, elucidating both typical as well as atypical brain processes, such as emergence of hallucinations. A previous study using a Pavlovian conditioning task showed that hallucinations are a result of over-weighting of prior beliefs over incoming sensory evidence. Participants with Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVH) were more susceptible to auditory conditioned hallucinations (ACH) than individuals without AVH, regardless of a diagnosis of psychosis. This suggests a common underlying mechanism for the emergence of hallucinations irrespective of functional status.To further investigate these mechanisms, we developed a visual conditioned hallucinations (VCH) task, modeled after the original ACH task. Together, these tasks can elucidate the specificity of conditioned hallucinations with regards to sensory modality.In addition to the deployment of the VCH, we also tested the feasibility of the first known online deployment of QUEST, an adaptive psychometric thresholding method, in a targeted population.MethodsTask Methodology. Individual trials of the task consist of simultaneous presentation of a faintly-presented (low-contrast) visual stimulus (Gaussian stripes embedded in visual white noise) and a salient auditory stimulus (loud tone). An association between visual and auditory stimuli is established, followed by testing of the strength of this association by presenting the auditory stimulus alone. Trials where the visual stimulus is not presented, but nevertheless reported to be perceived are considered as CH trials.Data Collection and Analysis. Subjects were recruited on two platforms, the Amazon-powered Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and the COPE Project an initiative targeted at individuals with unusual experiences. Analyses were conducted by pooling across the four groups and grouping based on presence of visual or auditory hallucinations, creating four groups: AH+/VH+, AH+/VH-, AH-/VH+, AH-/VH-. Between-group differences were analyzed using two-sample t-tests.ResultsThe responses of participants across the board, both in the control sample and in those with perceptual experiences, validates the efficacy of using the QUEST thresholding paradigm to predict response to threshold levels.Participants who were assigned VH+ groups showed a significantly higher rate of reporting CHs, compared to the control group with no hallucinatory experiences (p < 0.01). Similarly, participants assigned to AH+ groups also showed a significantly higher rate of reporting CHs (p < 0.01). Differential parameter values for a computational model assessing perceptual inference were computational signatures of CH were also examined between groups, as were neural signatures encoding visual versus auditory-mediated conditioned hallucinations.DiscussionIn this study, we show the feasibility of psychometric experiments in a targeted online sample of individuals with unusual experiences. We also demonstrate that the differential parameter values of the computational modeling of visually conditioned hallucinations differentiate between individuals with and without hallucinations, leading to better understanding of the neural signatures of hallucinations and potential therapeutic targets in clinical populations.

Flexible weighting of body-related effects in action production.

A previous study on ideomotor action control showed that predictable action effects in the agent's environment influenced how an action is carried out. If participants were required to perform a forceful keypress, they exerted more force when these actions would produce a quiet compared to a loud tone, and this observation suggests that anticipated proprioceptive and auditory action effects are integrated with each other during action planning and control. In light of the typically weak influence of body-related effect found in recent work, we aimed to extend this pattern of results to the intra-modal case of integrating proprioceptive/tactile feedback of a movement and following vibro-tactile effects. Our results suggest that the same weighted integration process as for the cross-modal case applies to the intra-modal case. These observations support the idea of a common mechanism which binds all action-related features in an integrated action representation, irrespective of whether these features relate to exafferent or reafferent signals.

Experimental-Phonetic Analysis of Suprasentential Units in the English Language

The current article deals mainly with the suprasentential units in English and their characteristic peculiarities. Some viewpoints of western, Russian and Azerbaijani linguists are discussed here. One of the important matters discussed here is to distinguish the notions &amp;ldquo;text&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;suprasentential units&amp;rdquo;, which was possible owing to the viewpoints and investigations of specialists in this field. To determine &amp;ldquo;suprasentential units&amp;rdquo;, some other terms such as, &amp;ldquo;micro-text&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;macro-text&amp;rdquo; are discussed here, too.&#x0D; &#x0D; To get a detailed information on &amp;ldquo;suprasentential units&amp;rdquo;, phonetic experiment was carried out. The essence of the article is to determine the phoneticparameters of &amp;ldquo;suprasentential units&amp;rdquo; in the form of a short text. The experiment was realised at the Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. For acoustic analysis of the recorded materials, &amp;ldquo;Speech Analyser&amp;rdquo;, &amp;ldquo;WinCecil&amp;rdquo;, &amp;ldquo;PRAAT&amp;rdquo;, &amp;ldquo;MacSpeech Lab&amp;rdquo; programs have been used. In the acoustic analysis of speech signals of the given short text, the valuable &amp;ldquo;PRAAT&amp;rdquo; computer program created by the professors of Amsterdam University Paul Boersman and David Veenik has been widely used. &amp;ldquo;PRAAT&amp;rdquo; computer program has wide opportunities, such as to hold ossillographic and spectographic analysis of language materials (in our case, short texts), to get indicators of tonal frequency intensity, and length of language materials, etc. The above mentioned computer program provides specialists and learners with the chance of learning speech fragments having the recording time from several m/sec to several hours.

Conditioned attenuation of dolphin monaural and binaural auditory evoked potentials after preferential stimulation of one ear.

Previous studies have demonstrated that some species of odontocetes can be conditioned to reduce hearing sensitivity when warned of an impending intense sound; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, conditioned hearing attenuation was elicited in two bottlenose dolphins by pairing a 10-kHz tone (the conditioned stimulus) with a more intense tone (the unconditioned stimulus) at 28 kHz. Testing was performed in air, with sounds presented via contact transducers. Hearing was assessed via noninvasive measurement of monaural auditory nerve responses (ANR) and binaural auditory brainstem responses (ABR). ABRs/ANRs were measured in response to 40-kHz tone bursts, over 2 to 3-s time intervals before and after the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. Results showed reductions in ABR/ANR amplitude and increases in latency after pairing the warning and more intense tones. Monaural ANRs from the left and right ears were attenuated by similar amounts when the warning and more intense sounds were preferentially applied to the right ear. The data support a neural mechanism operating at the level of the cochlea and/or auditory nerve and suggest the involvement of neural projections that can affect the contralateral ear.