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Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality

Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) capture the direction-dependant way that sound interacts with the head and torso. In virtual audio systems, which aim to emulate these effects, non-individualized, generic HRTFs are typically used leading to an inaccurate perception of virtual sound location....

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Autores principales: Steadman, Mark A., Kim, Chungeun, Lestang, Jean-Hugues, Goodman, Dan F. M., Picinali, Lorenzo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31798004
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54811-w
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author Steadman, Mark A.
Kim, Chungeun
Lestang, Jean-Hugues
Goodman, Dan F. M.
Picinali, Lorenzo
author_facet Steadman, Mark A.
Kim, Chungeun
Lestang, Jean-Hugues
Goodman, Dan F. M.
Picinali, Lorenzo
author_sort Steadman, Mark A.
collection PubMed
description Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) capture the direction-dependant way that sound interacts with the head and torso. In virtual audio systems, which aim to emulate these effects, non-individualized, generic HRTFs are typically used leading to an inaccurate perception of virtual sound location. Training has the potential to exploit the brain’s ability to adapt to these unfamiliar cues. In this study, three virtual sound localization training paradigms were evaluated; one provided simple visual positional confirmation of sound source location, a second introduced game design elements (“gamification”) and a final version additionally utilized head-tracking to provide listeners with experience of relative sound source motion (“active listening”). The results demonstrate a significant effect of training after a small number of short (12-minute) training sessions, which is retained across multiple days. Gamification alone had no significant effect on the efficacy of the training, but active listening resulted in a significantly greater improvements in localization accuracy. In general, improvements in virtual sound localization following training generalized to a second set of non-individualized HRTFs, although some HRTF-specific changes were observed in polar angle judgement for the active listening group. The implications of this on the putative mechanisms of the adaptation process are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-68930382019-12-11 Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality Steadman, Mark A. Kim, Chungeun Lestang, Jean-Hugues Goodman, Dan F. M. Picinali, Lorenzo Sci Rep Article Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) capture the direction-dependant way that sound interacts with the head and torso. In virtual audio systems, which aim to emulate these effects, non-individualized, generic HRTFs are typically used leading to an inaccurate perception of virtual sound location. Training has the potential to exploit the brain’s ability to adapt to these unfamiliar cues. In this study, three virtual sound localization training paradigms were evaluated; one provided simple visual positional confirmation of sound source location, a second introduced game design elements (“gamification”) and a final version additionally utilized head-tracking to provide listeners with experience of relative sound source motion (“active listening”). The results demonstrate a significant effect of training after a small number of short (12-minute) training sessions, which is retained across multiple days. Gamification alone had no significant effect on the efficacy of the training, but active listening resulted in a significantly greater improvements in localization accuracy. In general, improvements in virtual sound localization following training generalized to a second set of non-individualized HRTFs, although some HRTF-specific changes were observed in polar angle judgement for the active listening group. The implications of this on the putative mechanisms of the adaptation process are discussed. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-12-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6893038/ /pubmed/31798004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54811-w Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Steadman, Mark A.
Kim, Chungeun
Lestang, Jean-Hugues
Goodman, Dan F. M.
Picinali, Lorenzo
Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title_full Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title_fullStr Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title_full_unstemmed Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title_short Short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
title_sort short-term effects of sound localization training in virtual reality
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31798004
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54811-w
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