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  1. Article: Questions and controversies surrounding the perception and neural coding of pitch.

    Oxenham, Andrew J

    Frontiers in neuroscience

    2023  Volume 16, Page(s) 1074752

    Abstract: Pitch is a fundamental aspect of auditory perception that plays an important role in our ability to understand speech, appreciate music, and attend to one sound while ignoring others. The questions surrounding how pitch is represented in the auditory ... ...

    Abstract Pitch is a fundamental aspect of auditory perception that plays an important role in our ability to understand speech, appreciate music, and attend to one sound while ignoring others. The questions surrounding how pitch is represented in the auditory system, and how our percept relates to the underlying acoustic waveform, have been a topic of inquiry and debate for well over a century. New findings and technological innovations have led to challenges of some long-standing assumptions and have raised new questions. This article reviews some recent developments in the study of pitch coding and perception and focuses on the topic of how pitch information is extracted from peripheral representations based on frequency-to-place mapping (tonotopy), stimulus-driven auditory-nerve spike timing (phase locking), or a combination of both. Although a definitive resolution has proved elusive, the answers to these questions have potentially important implications for mitigating the effects of hearing loss
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-01-09
    Publishing country Switzerland
    Document type Journal Article
    ZDB-ID 2411902-7
    ISSN 1662-453X ; 1662-4548
    ISSN (online) 1662-453X
    ISSN 1662-4548
    DOI 10.3389/fnins.2022.1074752
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  2. Article ; Online: Role of perceptual integration in pitch discrimination at high frequenciesa).

    Mehta, Anahita H / Oxenham, Andrew J

    JASA express letters

    2023  Volume 2, Issue 8

    Abstract: At very high frequencies, fundamental-frequency difference limens (F0DLs) for five-component harmonic complex tones can be better than predicted by optimal integration of information, assuming performance is limited by noise at the peripheral level, but ... ...

    Abstract At very high frequencies, fundamental-frequency difference limens (F0DLs) for five-component harmonic complex tones can be better than predicted by optimal integration of information, assuming performance is limited by noise at the peripheral level, but are in line with predictions based on more central sources of noise. This study investigates whether there is a minimum number of harmonic components needed for such super-optimal integration effects and if harmonic range or inharmonicity affects this super-optimal integration. Results show super-optimal integration, even with two harmonic components and for most combinations of consecutive harmonic, but not inharmonic, components.
    MeSH term(s) Pitch Discrimination ; Caffeine ; Differential Threshold ; Niacinamide
    Chemical Substances Caffeine (3G6A5W338E) ; Niacinamide (25X51I8RD4)
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-03-23
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
    ISSN 2691-1191
    ISSN (online) 2691-1191
    DOI 10.1121/10.0013429
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  3. Article ; Online: Sensitivity to Frequency Modulation is Limited Centrally.

    Whiteford, Kelly L / Oxenham, Andrew J

    The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience

    2023  Volume 43, Issue 20, Page(s) 3687–3695

    Abstract: Modulations in both amplitude and frequency are prevalent in natural sounds and are critical in defining their properties. Humans are exquisitely sensitive to frequency modulation (FM) at the slow modulation rates and low carrier frequencies that are ... ...

    Abstract Modulations in both amplitude and frequency are prevalent in natural sounds and are critical in defining their properties. Humans are exquisitely sensitive to frequency modulation (FM) at the slow modulation rates and low carrier frequencies that are common in speech and music. This enhanced sensitivity to slow-rate and low-frequency FM has been widely believed to reflect precise, stimulus-driven phase locking to temporal fine structure in the auditory nerve. At faster modulation rates and/or higher carrier frequencies, FM is instead thought to be coded by coarser frequency-to-place mapping, where FM is converted to amplitude modulation (AM) via cochlear filtering. Here, we show that patterns of human FM perception that have classically been explained by limits in peripheral temporal coding are instead better accounted for by constraints in the central processing of fundamental frequency (F0) or pitch. We measured FM detection in male and female humans using harmonic complex tones with an F0 within the range of musical pitch but with resolved harmonic components that were all above the putative limits of temporal phase locking (>8 kHz). Listeners were more sensitive to slow than fast FM rates, even though all components were beyond the limits of phase locking. In contrast, AM sensitivity remained better at faster than slower rates, regardless of carrier frequency. These findings demonstrate that classic trends in human FM sensitivity, previously attributed to auditory nerve phase locking, may instead reflect the constraints of a unitary code that operates at a more central level of processing.
    MeSH term(s) Male ; Humans ; Female ; Cochlear Nerve/physiology ; Cochlea/physiology ; Sound ; Speech ; Music ; Acoustic Stimulation
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-04-07
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
    ZDB-ID 604637-x
    ISSN 1529-2401 ; 0270-6474
    ISSN (online) 1529-2401
    ISSN 0270-6474
    DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0995-22.2023
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  4. Article ; Online: Auditory enhancement in younger and older listeners with normal and impaired hearinga).

    Kreft, Heather A / Oxenham, Andrew J

    The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

    2023  Volume 154, Issue 6, Page(s) 3821–3832

    Abstract: Auditory enhancement is a spectral contrast aftereffect that can facilitate the detection of novel events in an ongoing background. A single-interval paradigm combined with roved frequency content between trials can yield as much as 20 dB enhancement in ... ...

    Abstract Auditory enhancement is a spectral contrast aftereffect that can facilitate the detection of novel events in an ongoing background. A single-interval paradigm combined with roved frequency content between trials can yield as much as 20 dB enhancement in young normal-hearing listeners. This study compared such enhancement in 15 listeners with sensorineural hearing loss with that in 15 age-matched adults and 15 young adults with normal audiograms. All groups were presented with stimulus levels of 70 dB sound pressure level (SPL) per component. The two groups with normal hearing were also tested at 45 dB SPL per component. The hearing-impaired listeners showed very little enhancement overall. However, when tested at the same high (70-dB) level, both young and age-matched normal-hearing listeners also showed substantially reduced enhancement, relative to that found at 45 dB SPL. Some differences in enhancement emerged between young and older normal-hearing listeners at the lower sound level. The results suggest that enhancement is highly level-dependent and may also decrease somewhat with age or slight hearing loss. Implications for hearing-impaired listeners may include a poorer ability to adapt to real-world acoustic variability, due in part to the higher levels at which sound must be presented to be audible.
    MeSH term(s) Young Adult ; Humans ; Acoustic Stimulation ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural/diagnosis ; Sound ; Deafness ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Auditory Threshold ; Speech Perception
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-12-18
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
    ZDB-ID 219231-7
    ISSN 1520-8524 ; 0001-4966
    ISSN (online) 1520-8524
    ISSN 0001-4966
    DOI 10.1121/10.0023937
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  5. Article: Spectral contrast effects and auditory enhancement under normal and impaired hearing.

    Oxenham, Andrew J

    Acoustical science and technology

    2020  Volume 41, Issue 1, Page(s) 108–112

    Abstract: We are generally able to identify sounds and understand speech with ease, despite the large variations in the acoustics of each sound, which occur due to factors such as different talkers, background noise, and room acoustics. This form of perceptual ... ...

    Abstract We are generally able to identify sounds and understand speech with ease, despite the large variations in the acoustics of each sound, which occur due to factors such as different talkers, background noise, and room acoustics. This form of perceptual constancy is likely to be mediated in part by the auditory system's ability to adapt to the ongoing environment or context in which sounds are presented. Auditory context effects have been studied under different names, such as spectral contrast effects in speech and auditory enhancement effects in psychoacoustics, but they share some important properties and may be mediated by similar underlying neural mechanisms. This review provides a survey of recent studies from our laboratory that investigate the mechanisms of speech spectral contrast effects and auditory enhancement in people with normal hearing, hearing loss, and cochlear implants. We argue that a better understanding of such context effects in people with normal hearing may allow us to restore some of these important effects for people with hearing loss via signal processing in hearing aids and cochlear implants, thereby potentially improving auditory and speech perception in the complex and variable everyday acoustic backgrounds that surround us.
    Language English
    Publishing date 2020-03-09
    Publishing country Japan
    Document type Journal Article
    ZDB-ID 2039148-1
    ISSN 1347-5177 ; 1346-3969
    ISSN (online) 1347-5177
    ISSN 1346-3969
    DOI 10.1250/ast.41.108
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  6. Article ; Online: Human discrimination and modeling of high-frequency complex tones shed light on the neural codes for pitch.

    Guest, Daniel R / Oxenham, Andrew J

    PLoS computational biology

    2022  Volume 18, Issue 3, Page(s) e1009889

    Abstract: Accurate pitch perception of harmonic complex tones is widely believed to rely on temporal fine structure information conveyed by the precise phase-locked responses of auditory-nerve fibers. However, accurate pitch perception remains possible even when ... ...

    Abstract Accurate pitch perception of harmonic complex tones is widely believed to rely on temporal fine structure information conveyed by the precise phase-locked responses of auditory-nerve fibers. However, accurate pitch perception remains possible even when spectrally resolved harmonics are presented at frequencies beyond the putative limits of neural phase locking, and it is unclear whether residual temporal information, or a coarser rate-place code, underlies this ability. We addressed this question by measuring human pitch discrimination at low and high frequencies for harmonic complex tones, presented either in isolation or in the presence of concurrent complex-tone maskers. We found that concurrent complex-tone maskers impaired performance at both low and high frequencies, although the impairment introduced by adding maskers at high frequencies relative to low frequencies differed between the tested masker types. We then combined simulated auditory-nerve responses to our stimuli with ideal-observer analysis to quantify the extent to which performance was limited by peripheral factors. We found that the worsening of both frequency discrimination and F0 discrimination at high frequencies could be well accounted for (in relative terms) by optimal decoding of all available information at the level of the auditory nerve. A Python package is provided to reproduce these results, and to simulate responses to acoustic stimuli from the three previously published models of the human auditory nerve used in our analyses.
    MeSH term(s) Acoustic Stimulation/methods ; Cochlear Nerve/physiology ; Humans ; Pitch Perception/physiology
    Language English
    Publishing date 2022-03-03
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
    ZDB-ID 2193340-6
    ISSN 1553-7358 ; 1553-734X
    ISSN (online) 1553-7358
    ISSN 1553-734X
    DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009889
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  7. Article ; Online: Voice disadvantage effects in absolute and relative pitch judgments.

    Gao, Zi / Oxenham, Andrew J

    The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

    2022  Volume 151, Issue 4, Page(s) 2414

    Abstract: Absolute pitch (AP) possessors can identify musical notes without an external reference. Most AP studies have used musical instruments and pure tones for testing, rather than the human voice. However, the voice is crucial for human communication in both ... ...

    Abstract Absolute pitch (AP) possessors can identify musical notes without an external reference. Most AP studies have used musical instruments and pure tones for testing, rather than the human voice. However, the voice is crucial for human communication in both speech and music, and evidence for voice-specific neural processing mechanisms and brain regions suggests that AP processing of voice may be different. Here, musicians with AP or relative pitch (RP) completed online AP or RP note-naming tasks, respectively. Four synthetic sound categories were tested: voice, viola, simplified voice, and simplified viola. Simplified sounds had the same long-term spectral information but no temporal fluctuations (such as vibrato). The AP group was less accurate in judging the note names for voice than for viola in both the original and simplified conditions. A smaller, marginally significant effect was observed in the RP group. A voice disadvantage effect was also observed in a simple pitch discrimination task, even with simplified stimuli. To reconcile these results with voice-advantage effects in other domains, it is proposed that voices are processed in a way that voice- or speech-relevant features are facilitated at the expense of features that are less relevant to voice processing, such as fine-grained pitch information.
    MeSH term(s) Humans ; Judgment ; Music ; Pitch Discrimination ; Pitch Perception ; Speech Perception ; Voice
    Language English
    Publishing date 2022-04-22
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
    ZDB-ID 219231-7
    ISSN 1520-8524 ; 0001-4966
    ISSN (online) 1520-8524
    ISSN 0001-4966
    DOI 10.1121/10.0010123
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  8. Article: Benefits of Harmonicity for Hearing in Noise Are Limited to Detection and Pitch-Related Discrimination Tasks.

    Rajappa, Neha / Guest, Daniel R / Oxenham, Andrew J

    Biology

    2023  Volume 12, Issue 12

    Abstract: Harmonic complex tones are easier to detect in noise than inharmonic complex tones, providing a potential perceptual advantage in complex auditory environments. Here, we explored whether the harmonic advantage extends to other auditory tasks that are ... ...

    Abstract Harmonic complex tones are easier to detect in noise than inharmonic complex tones, providing a potential perceptual advantage in complex auditory environments. Here, we explored whether the harmonic advantage extends to other auditory tasks that are important for navigating a noisy auditory environment, such as amplitude- and frequency-modulation detection. Sixty young normal-hearing listeners were tested, divided into two equal groups with and without musical training. Consistent with earlier studies, harmonic tones were easier to detect in noise than inharmonic tones, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) advantage of about 2.5 dB, and the pitch discrimination of the harmonic tones was more accurate than that of inharmonic tones, even after differences in audibility were accounted for. In contrast, neither amplitude- nor frequency-modulation detection was superior with harmonic tones once differences in audibility were accounted for. Musical training was associated with better performance only in pitch-discrimination and frequency-modulation-detection tasks. The results confirm a detection and pitch-perception advantage for harmonic tones but reveal that the harmonic benefits do not extend to suprathreshold tasks that do not rely on extracting the fundamental frequency. A general theory is proposed that may account for the effects of both noise and memory on pitch-discrimination differences between harmonic and inharmonic tones.
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-12-13
    Publishing country Switzerland
    Document type Journal Article
    ZDB-ID 2661517-4
    ISSN 2079-7737
    ISSN 2079-7737
    DOI 10.3390/biology12121522
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  9. Article ; Online: Dissociating sensitivity from bias in the Mini Profile of Music Perception Skills.

    Whiteford, Kelly L / Goh, Pui Yii / Stevens, Kara L / Oxenham, Andrew J

    JASA express letters

    2023  Volume 3, Issue 9

    Abstract: The Mini Profile of Music Perception Skills (Mini-PROMS) is a rapid performance-based measure of musical perceptual competence. The present study was designed to determine the optimal way to evaluate and score the Mini-PROMS results. Two traditional ... ...

    Abstract The Mini Profile of Music Perception Skills (Mini-PROMS) is a rapid performance-based measure of musical perceptual competence. The present study was designed to determine the optimal way to evaluate and score the Mini-PROMS results. Two traditional methods for scoring the Mini-PROMS, the weighted composite score and the parametric sensitivity index (d'), were compared with nonparametric alternatives, also derived from signal detection theory. Performance estimates using the traditional methods were found to depend on response bias (e.g., confidence), making them suboptimal. The simple nonparametric alternatives provided unbiased and reliable performance estimates from the Mini-PROMS and are therefore recommended instead.
    MeSH term(s) Music ; Bias ; Drama ; Perception
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-09-25
    Publishing country United States
    Document type Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
    ISSN 2691-1191
    ISSN (online) 2691-1191
    DOI 10.1121/10.0021096
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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  10. Article ; Online: Benefits of Harmonicity for Hearing in Noise Are Limited to Detection and Pitch-Related Discrimination Tasks

    Neha Rajappa / Daniel R. Guest / Andrew J. Oxenham

    Biology, Vol 12, Iss 12, p

    2023  Volume 1522

    Abstract: Harmonic complex tones are easier to detect in noise than inharmonic complex tones, providing a potential perceptual advantage in complex auditory environments. Here, we explored whether the harmonic advantage extends to other auditory tasks that are ... ...

    Abstract Harmonic complex tones are easier to detect in noise than inharmonic complex tones, providing a potential perceptual advantage in complex auditory environments. Here, we explored whether the harmonic advantage extends to other auditory tasks that are important for navigating a noisy auditory environment, such as amplitude- and frequency-modulation detection. Sixty young normal-hearing listeners were tested, divided into two equal groups with and without musical training. Consistent with earlier studies, harmonic tones were easier to detect in noise than inharmonic tones, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) advantage of about 2.5 dB, and the pitch discrimination of the harmonic tones was more accurate than that of inharmonic tones, even after differences in audibility were accounted for. In contrast, neither amplitude- nor frequency-modulation detection was superior with harmonic tones once differences in audibility were accounted for. Musical training was associated with better performance only in pitch-discrimination and frequency-modulation-detection tasks. The results confirm a detection and pitch-perception advantage for harmonic tones but reveal that the harmonic benefits do not extend to suprathreshold tasks that do not rely on extracting the fundamental frequency. A general theory is proposed that may account for the effects of both noise and memory on pitch-discrimination differences between harmonic and inharmonic tones.
    Keywords amplitude modulation ; fundamental frequency ; frequency modulation ; harmonicity ; harmonic benefit ; pitch discrimination ; Biology (General) ; QH301-705.5
    Subject code 780 ; 612
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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