Embodied auditory perception: The emotional impact of approaching and receding sound sources.

Tajadura‐Jiménez, Ana; Väljamäe, Aleksander; Asutay, Erkin; Västfjäll, Daniel

doi:10.1037/a0018422

Cited by 99 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…This effect was also demonstrated with tones, chords and vowels stimuli lasting 1.8 and 3.6 s (Olsen, Stevens, & Tardieu, 2010;. Neuroscience and psychophysiological experiments on humans showed that rising-intensity tonal stimuli from 750 ms to 2 s produce neural activity in the amygdala, recruit specific attentional and physiological resources and induce higher emotional ratings compared to falling-intensity sounds (Bach et al, 2008;Bach, Neuhoff, Perrig, & Seifritz, 2009;Seifritz et al, 2002;Tajadura-Jiménez, Väljamäe, Asutay, & Västfjäll, 2010). Similar results are observed in non-human primates, for whom behavioral and neural differences are also found between the two types of stimuli (Ghazanfar, Neuhoff, & Logothetis, 2002;Maier & Ghazanfar, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

A robust asymmetry in loudness between rising- and falling-intensity tones

Ponsot

Susini

Meunier

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Tones rising in intensity over a few seconds are perceived as louder than symmetrical tones falling in intensity. However, the causes for such perceptual asymmetry, as well as its magnitude and dependency on contextual and methodological factors remain unclear. In this paper, two psychophysical experiments were conducted to measure the magnitude of this asymmetry for 2-s, 15-dB intensity-varying tones in different conditions. In the first experiment, participants assessed the global loudness of rising-and falling-intensity sounds with an absolute magnitude estimation procedure (AME); in the second experiment, they compared sounds relatively in an adaptive, two-interval, two-alternative forcedchoice task (2I-2AFC). In both experiments, the region of intensity change, the design of experimental blocks, and the type of comparison stimulus were systematically manipulated to test for contextual and methodological factors. Remarkably, the asymmetry was virtually unaffected by the different contexts of presentation and similar results with 2I-2AFC and AME measurements were obtained. In addition, the size of the effect was comparable over all but the highest intensity regions (80-90 dB SPL), at which it was significantly smaller. All together, these results indicate that the loudness asymmetry is preserved under different measurement methods and contexts, and suggest that the underlying mechanism is strong and robust. In short, falling tones have to be about 4 dB higher in level than symmetrically rising tones in order to be perceived with the same global loudness, a finding that is still not predicted by current loudness models.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

A robust asymmetry in loudness between rising- and falling-intensity tones

Ponsot

Susini

Meunier

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…Several studies have shown increased autonomic nervous system responses to looming sounds consistent with a protective mechanism (Bach et al, 2009; Fletcher et al, 2015; Tajadura-Jimenez, Valjamae, Asutay, & Vastfjall, 2010). If the decision to engage the motor system in the face of a looming sound source was entirely under conscious control, then anyone engaged with a high cognitive load at the time would be disadvantaged in that there would be fewer cognitive resources to devote to the approaching danger.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Looming sounds are perceived as faster than receding sounds

Neuhoff

2016

Cogn. Research

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Each year thousands of people are killed by looming motor vehicles. Throughout our evolutionary history looming objects have posed a threat to survival and perceptual systems have evolved unique solutions to confront these environmental challenges. Vision provides an accurate representation of time-to-contact with a looming object and usually allows us to interact successfully with the object if required. However, audition functions as a warning system and yields an anticipatory representation of arrival time, indicating that the object has arrived when it is still some distance away. The bias provides a temporal margin of safety that allows more time to initiate defensive actions. In two studies this bias was shown to influence the perception of the speed of looming and receding sound sources. Listeners heard looming and receding sound sources and judged how fast they were moving. Listeners perceived the speed of looming sounds as faster than that of equivalent receding sounds. Listeners also showed better discrimination of the speed of looming sounds than receding sounds. Finally, close sounds were perceived as faster than distant sounds. The results suggest a prioritization of the perception of the speed of looming and receding sounds that mirrors the level of threat posed by moving objects in the environment.

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“…Approaching unpleasant sounds trigger a particularly intense emotional response suggesting an activation of defensive responses (16). Previous results demonstrated that at distances wherein individuals non-sensitive to cynophobia still feel comfortable, a virtual visual looming dog triggers high discomfort for individuals sensitive to cynophobia (17).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cynophobic Fear Adaptively Extends Peri-Personal Space

Taffou

Viaud‐Delmon

2014

Front. Psychiatry

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Peri-personal space (PPS) is defined as the space immediately surrounding our bodies, which is critical in the adaptation of our social behavior. As a space of interaction with the external world, PPS is involved in the control of motor action as well as in the protection of the body. The boundaries of this PPS are known to be flexible but so far, little is known about how PPS boundaries are influenced by unreasonable fear. We hypothesized that unreasonable fear extends the neural representation of the multisensory space immediately surrounding the body in the presence of a feared object, with the aim of expanding the space of protection around the body. To test this hypothesis, we explored the impact of unreasonable fear on the size of PPS in two groups of non-clinical participants: dog-fearful and non-fearful participants. The sensitivity to cynophobia was assessed with a questionnaire. We measured participants’ PPS extent in the presence of threatening (dog growling) and non-threatening (sheep bleating) auditory stimuli. The sound stimuli were processed through binaural rendering so that the virtual sound sources were looming toward participants from their rear hemi-field. We found that, when in the presence of the auditory dog stimulus, the PPS of dog-fearful participants is larger than that of non-fearful participants. Our results demonstrate that PPS size is adaptively modulated by cynophobia and suggest that anxiety tailors PPS boundaries when exposed to fear-relevant features. Anxiety, with the exception of social phobia, has rarely been studied as a disorder of social interaction. These findings could help develop new treatment strategies for anxious disorders by involving the link between space and interpersonal interaction in the approach of the disorder.

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Embodied auditory perception: The emotional impact of approaching and receding sound sources.

Cited by 99 publications

References 63 publications

A robust asymmetry in loudness between rising- and falling-intensity tones

A robust asymmetry in loudness between rising- and falling-intensity tones

Looming sounds are perceived as faster than receding sounds

Cynophobic Fear Adaptively Extends Peri-Personal Space

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