Rapid auditory learning of temporal gap detection (original) (raw)
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Independence of frequency channels in auditory temporal gap detection
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2000
The ability of listeners to detect a temporal gap in a 1600-Hz-wide noiseband ͑target͒ was studied as a function of the absence and presence of concurrent stimulation by a second 1600-Hz-wide noiseband ͑distractor͒ with a nonoverlapping spectrum. Gap detection thresholds for single noisebands centered on 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 5.0 kHz were in the range from 4 to 6 ms, and were comparable to those described in previous studies. Gap thresholds for the same target noisebands were only modestly improved by the presence of a synchronously gated gap in a second frequency band. Gap thresholds were unaffected by the presence of a continuous distractor that was either proximate or remote from the target frequency band. Gap thresholds for the target noiseband were elevated if the distractor noiseband also contained a gap which ''roved'' in time in temporal proximity to the target gap. This effect was most marked in inexperienced listeners. Between-channel gap thresholds, obtained using leading and trailing markers that differed in frequency, were high in all listeners, again consistent with previous findings. The data are discussed in terms of the levels of the auditory perceptual processing stream at which the listener can voluntarily access auditory events in distinct frequency channels.
Human Auditory Brainstem Response to Temporal Gaps in Noise
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2001
Gap detection is a commonly used measure of temporal resolution, although the mechanisms underlying gap detection are not well understood. To the extent that gap detection depends on processes within, or peripheral to, the auditory brainstem, one would predict that a measure of gap threshold based on the auditory brainstem response (ABR) would be similar to the psychophysical gap detection threshold. Three experiments were performed to examine the relationship between ABR gap threshold and gap detection. Thresholds for gaps in a broadband noise were measured in young adults with normal hearing, using both psychophysical techniques and electrophysiological techniques that use the ABR. The mean gap thresholds obtained with the two methods were very similar, although ABR gap thresholds tended to be lower than psychophysical gap thresholds. There was a modest correlation between psychophysical and ABR gap thresholds across participants.
The detection of a temporal gap between two disparate stimuli
Perception & Psychophysics, 1974
When a temporal gap is bounded by a light and a tone, gap detection performance as a function of gap duration is well described by a simple model which characterizes the discrimination as a purely temporal one. When the gap is bounded by two tones, performance is superior and seems to depend on the frequency difference between the tones, but is not well described by the same model. It is suggested that the light-tone performance represents the operation of a central temporal discrimination mechanism, while the tone-tone cases represent the use by Os of nontemporal cues originating in the peripheral auditory system.
Auditory gap detection in the early blind
Hearing Research, 2006
For blind individuals, audition provides critical information for interacting with the environment. Individuals blinded early in life (EB) typically show enhanced auditory abilities relative to sighted controls as measured by tasks requiring complex discrimination, attention and memory. In contrast, few deficits have been reported on tasks involving auditory sensory thresholds (e.g., Yates, J.T., Johnson, R.M., Starz, W.J., 1972. Loudness perception of the blind. Audiology 11(5), 368-376; Starlinger, I., Niemeyer, W., 1981. Do the blind hear better? Investigations on auditory processing in congenital or early acquired blindness. I. Peripheral functions. Audiology 20(6), 503-509). A study of gap detection stands at odds with this distinction [Muchnik, C., Efrati, M., Nemeth, E., Malin, M., Hildesheimer, M., 1991. Central auditory skills in blind and sighted subjects. Scand. Audiol. 20(1), 19-23]. In the current investigation we re-examined gap detection abilities in the EB using a single-interval, yes/no method. A group of younger sighted control individuals (SCy) was included in the analysis in addition to EB and sighted age matched control individuals (SCm) in order to examine the effect of age on gap detection performance. Estimates of gap detection thresholds for EB subjects were nearly identical to SCm subjects and slightly poorer relative to the SCy subjects. These results suggest some limits on the extent of auditory temporal advantages in the EB.
Additivity of perceptual channel-crossing effects in auditory gap detection
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1999
Five normal listeners were tested in detail for their auditory gap-detection thresholds, using stimuli in which the narrow-band noise markers of the gap differed in one or both of two auditory dimensions ͑frequency composition and ear stimulated͒. Gap thresholds for stimuli in which the markers differed along either single dimension averaged about 18 ms, while thresholds for markers differing across both dimensions were closer to 28 ms. These data suggest that the perceptual relative-timing operation that mediates between-channel gap detection is shared across auditory dimensions.
Infant Auditory Temporal Acuity: Gap Detection
Child Development, 1992
. The development of auditory temporal acuity during infancy was examined in 3-, 6-, and 12-month-old infants and in adults using the gap detection paradigm. Listeners detected a series of gaps, or silent intervals, of variable duration in a broadband noise. In order to vary the acoustic frequencies available to the listener, a high-pass noise was used to mask frequencies above specified cutoffs. High-pass maskers with cutoffs of 500, 2,000, and 8,000 Hz were used. The minimum detectable gap was determined using the Observer-based Psychoacoustic Procedure. The thresholds of 3-and 6-month-olds were considerably poorer than those of the adults, although the effect of masker condition was about the same for these 3 groups. The thresholds of 12-month-olds were significantly worse than the adults when the stimulus was unmasked or when the masker cutoff frequency was 2,000 or 8,000 Hz. When the masker cutoff frequency was 500 Hz, 12-month-olds fell into 2 groups: some had gap thresholds that were about the same as 3-and 6-month-oIds, while some had gap thresholds that approached those of adults. In a second experiment, a larger group of 12-month-olds were tested with a 500-Hz masker cutoff. Average performance of 12-month-olds was about the same as that of 3-and 6-month-olds in Experiment 1. Some infants attained thresholds close to those of adults. Thus, gap detection thresholds are quite poor in infants, although the similarity of the effect of frequency on performance in infants and adults suggests that the mechanisms governing temporal resolution in infants operate qualitiatively like those in adults. Temporal cues have frequently been creased progressively between 3 and 11 shown to be critical to both human and non-years. A similar age effect was observed for human communication (e.g., all tone frequencies and intensities. Irwin, Pisoni, 1977). Moreover, a relation between meatemporal acuity and the ability to under-sured gap detection threshold, or the ministand speech has been demonstrated among mally detectable silent interval in a continuhuman listeners (e.g., Dreschler & Plomp, ous sound, for children and adults. They 1980). The few studies examining the devel-found that 6-year-olds had higher gap detecopment of temporal acuity suggest that im-tion thresholds than older children or adults, maturity of this capacity may even persist This effect was more pronounced at lower into childhood. intensities and when a low-frequency noise determined the duration of a silent interval band was the stimulus. In contrast, Wightbetween two tone bursts required for chil-man, Allen, Dolan, Kistler, and Jamieson dren to report hearing two sounds rather (1989) found that 6-year-olds were adultlike than one sound. The threshold duration de-in gap detection at both 400 and 2,000 Hz.
Ear and contralateral masker effects on auditory temporal gap detection thresholds
Hearing research, 2008
A temporal processing advantage is thought to underlie the left hemisphere dominance for language. One measure of a temporal processing advantage is temporal acuity or resolution. A standard paradigm for measuring auditory temporal resolution is gap detection in its ''within-channel" and ''between-channel" forms. Previous experiments investigating a right ear advantage for within-channel gap detection have yielded conflicting results, and between-channel gap detection has not previously been studied for ear differences. In the present study, the two types of gap detection task were employed, under each of three contralateral masking conditions (no noise, continuous noise and interrupted noise). An adaptive tracking procedure was used to measure the minimal detectable gap at each ear (and therefore, the temporal acuity of the contralateral hemisphere). A significant effect of masking noise was observed in both of the gap detection tasks. Within-channel gap threshold durations were longer in the interrupted noise condition for both ears. Between-channel gap threshold durations were shorter in the interrupted noise condition at the left ear, with a trend in the same direction at the right ear. The study found no significant difference between the ears in thresholds in either gap detection task in any of the masking conditions. This suggests that if the left cerebral hemisphere has a temporal processing advantage, then it is not in the form of acuity for temporal gap detection.
Neural correlates of gap detection in three auditory cortical fields in the Cat
Journal of neurophysiology, 1999
Neural correlates of gap detection in three auditory cortical fields in the cat. Mimimum detectable gaps in noise in humans are independent of the position of the gap, whereas in cat primary auditory cortex (AI) they are position dependent. The position dependence in other cortical areas is not known and may resolve this contrast. This study presents minimum detectable gap-in-noise values for which single-unit (SU), multiunit (MU) recordings and local field potentials (LFPs) show an onset response to the noise after the gap. The gap, which varied in duration between 5 and 70 ms, was preceded by a noise burst of either 5 ms (early gap) or 500 ms (late gap) duration. In 10 cats, simultaneous recordings were made with one electrode each in AI, anterior auditory field (AAF), and secondary auditory cortex (AII). In nine additional cats, two electrodes were inserted in AI and one in AAF. Minimum detectable gaps based on SU, MU, or LFP data in each cortical area were the same. In addition,...
Journal of neurophysiology, 2000
Responses of single- and multi-units in primary auditory cortex were recorded for gap-in-noise stimuli for different durations of the leading noise burst. Both firing rate and inter-spike interval representations were evaluated. The minimum detectable gap decreased in exponential fashion with the duration of the leading burst to reach an asymptote for durations of 100 ms. Despite the fact that leading and trailing noise bursts had the same frequency content, the dependence on leading burst duration was correlated with psychophysical estimates of across frequency channel (different frequency content of leading and trailing burst) gap thresholds in humans. The duration of the leading burst plus that of the gap was represented in the all-order inter-spike interval histograms for cortical neurons. The recovery functions for cortical neurons could be modeled on basis of fast synaptic depression and after-hyperpolarization produced by the onset response to the leading noise burst. This su...