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The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds
BACKGROUND: When stimuli are presented over headphones, they are typically perceived as internalized; i.e., they appear to emanate from inside the head. Sounds presented in the free-field tend to be externalized, i.e., perceived to be emanating from a source in the world. This phenomenon is frequent...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846779/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24312677 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083068 |
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author | Brimijoin, W. Owen Boyd, Alan W. Akeroyd, Michael A. |
author_facet | Brimijoin, W. Owen Boyd, Alan W. Akeroyd, Michael A. |
author_sort | Brimijoin, W. Owen |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: When stimuli are presented over headphones, they are typically perceived as internalized; i.e., they appear to emanate from inside the head. Sounds presented in the free-field tend to be externalized, i.e., perceived to be emanating from a source in the world. This phenomenon is frequently attributed to reverberation and to the spectral characteristics of the sounds: those sounds whose spectrum and reverberation matches that of free-field signals arriving at the ear canal tend to be more frequently externalized. Another factor, however, is that the virtual location of signals presented over headphones moves in perfect concert with any movements of the head, whereas the location of free-field signals moves in opposition to head movements. The effects of head movement have not been systematically disentangled from reverberation and/or spectral cues, so we measured the degree to which movements contribute to externalization. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed two experiments: 1) Using motion tracking and free-field loudspeaker presentation, we presented signals that moved in their spatial location to match listeners’ head movements. 2) Using motion tracking and binaural room impulse responses, we presented filtered signals over headphones that appeared to remain static relative to the world. The results from experiment 1 showed that free-field signals from the front that move with the head are less likely to be externalized (23%) than those that remain fixed (63%). Experiment 2 showed that virtual signals whose position was fixed relative to the world are more likely to be externalized (65%) than those fixed relative to the head (20%), regardless of the fidelity of the individual impulse responses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Head movements play a significant role in the externalization of sound sources. These findings imply tight integration between binaural cues and self motion cues and underscore the importance of self motion for spatial auditory perception. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3846779 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38467792013-12-05 The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds Brimijoin, W. Owen Boyd, Alan W. Akeroyd, Michael A. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: When stimuli are presented over headphones, they are typically perceived as internalized; i.e., they appear to emanate from inside the head. Sounds presented in the free-field tend to be externalized, i.e., perceived to be emanating from a source in the world. This phenomenon is frequently attributed to reverberation and to the spectral characteristics of the sounds: those sounds whose spectrum and reverberation matches that of free-field signals arriving at the ear canal tend to be more frequently externalized. Another factor, however, is that the virtual location of signals presented over headphones moves in perfect concert with any movements of the head, whereas the location of free-field signals moves in opposition to head movements. The effects of head movement have not been systematically disentangled from reverberation and/or spectral cues, so we measured the degree to which movements contribute to externalization. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed two experiments: 1) Using motion tracking and free-field loudspeaker presentation, we presented signals that moved in their spatial location to match listeners’ head movements. 2) Using motion tracking and binaural room impulse responses, we presented filtered signals over headphones that appeared to remain static relative to the world. The results from experiment 1 showed that free-field signals from the front that move with the head are less likely to be externalized (23%) than those that remain fixed (63%). Experiment 2 showed that virtual signals whose position was fixed relative to the world are more likely to be externalized (65%) than those fixed relative to the head (20%), regardless of the fidelity of the individual impulse responses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Head movements play a significant role in the externalization of sound sources. These findings imply tight integration between binaural cues and self motion cues and underscore the importance of self motion for spatial auditory perception. Public Library of Science 2013-12-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3846779/ /pubmed/24312677 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083068 Text en © 2013 Brimijoin et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Brimijoin, W. Owen Boyd, Alan W. Akeroyd, Michael A. The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title | The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title_full | The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title_fullStr | The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title_full_unstemmed | The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title_short | The Contribution of Head Movement to the Externalization and Internalization of Sounds |
title_sort | contribution of head movement to the externalization and internalization of sounds |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846779/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24312677 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083068 |
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