Exploring the Role of Feedback-Based Auditory Reflexes in Forward Masking by Schroeder-Phase Complexes

Wojtczak, Magdalena; Beim, Jordan A.; Oxenham, Andrew J.

doi:10.1007/s10162-014-0495-3

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Hence, the phase effects observed by Houtsma and Smurzynski (1990) may have been enhanced by the presence of distortion products in the sine-phase, but not Schroeder phase, condition. The absence of significant phase effects both in the data and in the model predictions suggests that the interactions between the stimulus and the basilar-membrane phase curvature may be more complex to explain than previously thought (Kohlrausch and Sanders 1995; Lentz and Leek 2001; Oxenham and Dau 2001; Wojtczak and Oxenham 2009; Wojtczak et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Effects of Musical Training and Hearing Loss on Fundamental Frequency Discrimination and Temporal Fine Structure Processing: Psychophysics and Modeling

Bianchi

Carney

Dau

et al. 2019

JARO

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Several studies have shown that musical training leads to improved fundamental frequency ( F 0 ) discrimination for young listeners with normal hearing (NH). It is unclear whether a comparable effect of musical training occurs for listeners whose sensory encoding of F 0 is degraded. To address this question, the effect of musical training was investigated for three groups of listeners (young NH, older NH, and older listeners with hearing impairment, HI). In a first experiment, F 0 discrimination was investigated using complex tones that differed in harmonic content and phase configuration (sine, positive, or negative Schroeder). Musical training was associated with significantly better F 0 discrimination of complex tones containing low-numbered harmonics for all groups of listeners. Part of this effect was caused by the fact that musicians were more robust than non-musicians to harmonic roving. Despite the benefit relative to their non-musicians counterparts, the older musicians, with or without HI, performed worse than the young musicians. In a second experiment, binaural sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) cues was assessed for the same listeners by estimating the highest frequency at which an interaural phase difference was perceived. Performance was better for musicians for all groups of listeners and the use of TFS cues was degraded for the two older groups of listeners. These findings suggest that musical training is associated with an enhancement of both TFS cues encoding and F 0 discrimination in young and older listeners with or without HI, although the musicians’ benefit decreased with increasing hearing loss. Additionally, models of the auditory periphery and midbrain were used to examine the effect of HI on F 0 encoding. The model predictions reflected the worsening in F 0 discrimination with increasing HI and accounted for up to 80 % of the variance in the data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Effects of Musical Training and Hearing Loss on Fundamental Frequency Discrimination and Temporal Fine Structure Processing: Psychophysics and Modeling

Bianchi

Carney

Dau

et al. 2019

JARO

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“…Psychophysical methods are another approach to quantify MOC effects on total cochlear output (e.g., Kawase et al 2000; Aguilar et al 2013; Wicher & Moore 2014; Strickland 2001, 2004, 2008; Wojtczak et al 2014; Jennings et al 2009; Roverud & Strickland 2010; Yasin et al 2014). Perhaps the most suitable measurements for comparison with our data are those of Yasin et al (2014), although an exact comparison is not possible because we examined the effect of the contralateral MOC reflex on click-evoked CAPs (an objective measure) and they examined the effect of the ipsilateral MOC reflex effects on psychophysical measurements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, each of these reports has issues that prevent it from giving a clear picture of MOC effects on cochlear neural output in awake, alert, normal-hearing humans. Indirect measurements of MOC inhibition have been made psychophysically (e.g., Kawase et al 2000; Aguilar et al 2013; Wicher & Moore 2014; Strickland 2001, 2004, 2008; Wojtczak et al 2014; Jennings et al 2009; Roverud & Strickland 2010; Yasin et al 2014). But, psychophysical measurements are confounded by the possibility that the MOC reflex, the sound used to elicit MOC reflex, or the attention required for the psychophysical measurements, may change signal processing in the brain as well as in the cochlea (Keefe et al 2009; Wittekindt et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medial olivocochlear efferent reflex inhibition of human cochlear nerve responses

et al. 2016

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Inhibition of cochlear amplifier gain by the medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent system has several putative roles: aiding listening in noise, protection against damage from acoustic overexposure, and slowing age-induced hearing loss. The human MOC reflex has been studied almost exclusively by measuring changes in otoacoustic emissions. However, to help understand how the MOC system influences what we hear, it is important to have measurements of the MOC effect on the total output of the organ of Corti, i.e., on cochlear nerve responses that couple sounds to the brain. In this work we measured the inhibition produced by the MOC reflex on the amplitude of cochlear nerve compound action potentials (CAPs) in response to moderate level (52–60 dB peSPL) clicks from five, young, normal hearing, awake, alert, human adults. MOC activity was elicited by 65 dB SPL, contralateral broadband noise (CAS). Using tympanic membrane electrodes, approximately 10 hours of data collection were needed from each subject to yield reliable measurements of the MOC reflex inhibition on CAP amplitudes from one click level. The CAS produced a 16% reduction of CAP amplitude, equivalent to a 1.98 dB effective attenuation (averaged over five subjects). Based on previous reports of efferent effects as functions of level and frequency, it is possible that much larger effective attenuations would be observed at lower sound levels or with clicks of higher frequency content. For a preliminary comparison, we also measured MOC reflex inhibition of DPOAEs evoked from the same ears with f2’s near 4 kHz. The resulting effective attenuations on DPOAEs were, on average, less than half the effective attenuations on CAPs.

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“…It is also worth noting that the MOCR is just one of a class of possible mechanisms whereby masker phase exerts its influence via the response of neurons tuned to the masker, without changing the amount of masker excitation in neurons tuned to the signal frequency. One other such mechanism, MEM activation, was mentioned in the “ Introduction ” and investigated by Wojtczak et al ( 2015 ). Another possibility could arise if forward masking were due to adaptation; when the BM response to the masker is very peaky, adaptation might recover during the low-amplitude portions between each peak.…”

Section: Experiments 3 Off-frequency Backward Maskingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another potential mechanism, the middle-ear muscle (MEM) reflex, could in principle also allow masker phase to influence thresholds by virtue of its effect on masker excitation in a frequency region remote from that of the signal. A subsequent study (Wojtczak et al, 2015 ) combined behavioural measures with recordings of oto-acoustic emissions. The results were complex to interpret, and the authors concluded that there was no strong evidence either for an effect of the MOCR or of the MEM reflex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Re-examination of the Effect of Masker Phase Curvature on Non-simultaneous Masking

Carlyon

Flanagan

Deeks

2017

JARO

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Forward masking of a sinusoidal signal is determined not only by the masker’s power spectrum but also by its phase spectrum. Specifically, when the phase spectrum is such that the output of an auditory filter centred on the signal has a highly modulated (“peaked”) envelope, there is less masking than when that envelope is flat. This finding has been attributed to non-linearities, such as compression, reducing the average neural response to maskers that produce more peaked auditory filter outputs (Carlyon and Datta, J Acoust Soc Am 101:3636–3647, 1997). Here we evaluate an alternative explanation proposed by Wotcjzak and Oxenham (Wojtczak and Oxenham, J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 10:595–607, 2009). They reported a masker phase effect for 6-kHz signals when the masker components were at least an octave below the signal frequency. Wotcjzak and Oxenham argued that this effect was inconsistent with cochlear compression, and, because it did not occur at lower signal frequencies, was also inconsistent with more central compression. It was instead attributed to activation of the efferent system reducing the response to the subsequent probe. Here, experiment 1 replicated their main findings. Experiment 2 showed that the phase effect on off-frequency forward masking is similar at signal frequencies of 2 and 6 kHz, provided that one equates the number of components likely to interact within an auditory filter centred on the signal, thereby roughly equating the effect of masker phase on the peakiness of that filter output. Experiment 3 showed that for some subjects, masker phase also had a strong influence on off-frequency backward masking of the signal, and that the size of this effect correlated across subjects with that observed in forward masking. We conclude that the masker phase effect is mediated mainly by cochlear non-linearities, with a possible additional effect of more central compression. The data are not consistent with a role for the efferent system.

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Exploring the Role of Feedback-Based Auditory Reflexes in Forward Masking by Schroeder-Phase Complexes

Cited by 8 publications

References 83 publications

Effects of Musical Training and Hearing Loss on Fundamental Frequency Discrimination and Temporal Fine Structure Processing: Psychophysics and Modeling

Effects of Musical Training and Hearing Loss on Fundamental Frequency Discrimination and Temporal Fine Structure Processing: Psychophysics and Modeling

Medial olivocochlear efferent reflex inhibition of human cochlear nerve responses

A Re-examination of the Effect of Masker Phase Curvature on Non-simultaneous Masking

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