High-resolution frequency tuning but not temporal coding in the human cochlea

Verschooten, Eric; Desloovere, Christian; Joris, Philip X.

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2005164

Cited by 45 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This conclusion is 285 consistent with other studies showing that pitch perception is possible even with spectrally 286 resolved harmonics that are too high in frequency to elicit phase locking (Oxenham et al, 2011;287 Lau et al, 2017). In addition, the fact that timing fidelity in the human auditory nerve is no 288 greater than that found in smaller mammals (Verschooten et al, 2018), supports our conclusion 289 that differences in pitch perception between humans and other mammals cannot be ascribed to 290 differences in timing fidelity and phase locking, but instead may be due to differences in the 291 sharpness of cochlear tuning. 292 293…”

Section: Effects Of Hearing Loss On Masking Functions 117supporting

confidence: 66%

Perception of frequency modulation is mediated by cochlear place coding

Whiteford

Kreft

Oxenham

2018

Preprint

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24Natural sounds convey information via frequency and amplitude modulations (FM and AM). 25 Humans are acutely sensitive to the slow rates of FM that are crucial for speech and music. Two 26 coding mechanisms are believed to underlie FM sensitivity, one based on precise stimulus-driven 27 spike timing (time code) for slow FM rates, and another coarser code based on cochlear place of 28 stimulation (place code) for fast FM rates. We tested this long-standing explanation by studying 29 individual differences in listeners with varying degrees of hearing loss that resulted in widely 30 varying fidelity of place-based or tonotopic coding. Our findings reveal that FM detection at both 31 slow and fast rates is closely related to the fidelity of place coding in the cochlea, suggesting a 32 unitary neural code for all FM rates. These insights into the initial coding of important sound 33 features provide a new impetus for improving place coding in auditory prostheses. 34 35 36

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Section: Effects Of Hearing Loss On Masking Functions 117supporting

confidence: 66%

Perception of frequency modulation is mediated by cochlear place coding

Whiteford

Kreft

Oxenham

2018

Preprint

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“…Early in the study of the efficient coding of speech using ICA, a parallel was drawn between the theoretical optimal decomposition of speech and cochlear tuning [11]. Estimates of the frequency selectivity of the inner ear based on physiological measurements in mammals are consistent with the power law model used in this work [35,36]. The exponent is about the same than for ICA filters, although slightly lower (0.6 compared to 0.7-0.8).…”

Section: Agreement With the Efficient Coding Hypothesis And Cochlear supporting

confidence: 63%

“…The specificity of human auditory tuning is still a subject of controversy. While it has been argued that it is not very different from unspecialized mammals [38], there is increasing evidence that frequency selectivity is significantly higher in humans [36,39], especially in response to low intensity sounds [40]. Lewicki also suggested that an explanation for the median β value is the right balance between transient and sustained sounds in speech.…”

Section: Agreement With the Efficient Coding Hypothesis And Cochlear mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-grained statistical structure of speech

Deloche

2020

PLoS ONE

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In spite of its acoustic diversity, the speech signal presents statistical regularities that can be exploited by biological or artificial systems for efficient coding. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) revealed that on small time scales (* 10 ms), the overall structure of speech is well captured by a time-frequency representation whose frequency selectivity follows the same power law in the high frequency range 1-8 kHz as cochlear frequency selectivity in mammals. Variations in the power-law exponent, i.e. different time-frequency trade-offs, have been shown to provide additional adaptation to phonetic categories. Here, we adopt a parametric approach to investigate the variations of the exponent at a finer level of speech. The estimation procedure is based on a measure that reflects the sparsity of decompositions in a set of Gabor dictionaries whose atoms are Gaussian-modulated sinusoids. We examine the variations of the exponent associated with the best decomposition, first at the level of phonemes, then at an intra-phonemic level. We show that this analysis offers a rich interpretation of the fine-grained statistical structure of speech, and that the exponent values can be related to key acoustic properties. Two main results are: i) for plosives, the exponent is lowered by the release bursts, concealing higher values during the opening phases; ii) for vowels, the exponent is bound to formant bandwidths and decreases with the degree of acoustic radiation at the lips. This work further suggests that an efficient coding strategy is to reduce frequency selectivity with sound intensity level, congruent with the nonlinear behavior of cochlear filtering.

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“…Second, scaling symmetry, a key principle commonly evoked in modeling cochlear mechanics, appears to break down below 1–1.5 kHz ( van der Heijden and Joris, 2006 ; Abdala et al, 2011) . Third, various neurophysiological measures [e.g., van der Heijden and Joris (2006) ; Verschooten et al (2018) ] suggest auditory nerve responses encode information differently between base and apex, with a steep drop in the ability to encode timing information above 1–2 kHz ( Verschooten et al, 2018) . Fourth, it is well known that harmonic components of perceived pitch transition from resolved to unresolved around 1–2 kHz ( Plack et al, 2006) .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overtone focusing in biphonic Tuvan throat singing

Bergevin

Narayan

Williams

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Khoomei is a unique singing style originating from the Central Asian republic of Tuva. 12 Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a 13 hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not 14 well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal 15 tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. 16 Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics 17 (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the 18 fundamental pitch and a focused lter state, which is at the higher pitch (1-2 kHz) and formed by 19 merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency 20 range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from 21 linear ltering rather than a nonlinear source. 22 30 words, "a man with two voices". Khoomei, now a part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage 31 of Humanity, is characterized as "the simultaneous performance by one singer of a held pitch in 32 the lower register and a melody ... in the higher register" (Aksenov, 1973). How, indeed, does one 33 singer produce two pitches at one time? Even today, the biophysical underpinnings of this biphonic 34 human vocal style are not fully understood. 35

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High-resolution frequency tuning but not temporal coding in the human cochlea

Cited by 45 publications

References 45 publications

Perception of frequency modulation is mediated by cochlear place coding

Perception of frequency modulation is mediated by cochlear place coding

Fine-grained statistical structure of speech

Overtone focusing in biphonic Tuvan throat singing

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