Cargando…
A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception
Changes in the frequency content of sounds over time are arguably the most basic form of information about the behavior of sound-emitting objects. In perceptual studies, such changes have mostly been investigated separately, as aspects of either pitch or timbre. Here, we propose a unitary account of...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9876382/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36634121 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010307 |
_version_ | 1784878154240753664 |
---|---|
author | Siedenburg, Kai Graves, Jackson Pressnitzer, Daniel |
author_facet | Siedenburg, Kai Graves, Jackson Pressnitzer, Daniel |
author_sort | Siedenburg, Kai |
collection | PubMed |
description | Changes in the frequency content of sounds over time are arguably the most basic form of information about the behavior of sound-emitting objects. In perceptual studies, such changes have mostly been investigated separately, as aspects of either pitch or timbre. Here, we propose a unitary account of “up” and “down” subjective judgments of frequency change, based on a model combining auditory correlates of acoustic cues in a sound-specific and listener-specific manner. To do so, we introduce a generalized version of so-called Shepard tones, allowing symmetric manipulations of spectral information on a fine scale, usually associated to pitch (spectral fine structure, SFS), and on a coarse scale, usually associated timbre (spectral envelope, SE). In a series of behavioral experiments, listeners reported “up” or “down” shifts across pairs of generalized Shepard tones that differed in SFS, in SE, or in both. We observed the classic properties of Shepard tones for either SFS or SE shifts: subjective judgements followed the smallest log-frequency change direction, with cases of ambiguity and circularity. Interestingly, when both SFS and SE changes were applied concurrently (synergistically or antagonistically), we observed a trade-off between cues. Listeners were encouraged to report when they perceived “both” directions of change concurrently, but this rarely happened, suggesting a unitary percept. A computational model could accurately fit the behavioral data by combining different cues reflecting frequency changes after auditory filtering. The model revealed that cue weighting depended on the nature of the sound. When presented with harmonic sounds, listeners put more weight on SFS-related cues, whereas inharmonic sounds led to more weight on SE-related cues. Moreover, these stimulus-based factors were modulated by inter-individual differences, revealing variability across listeners in the detailed recipe for “up” and “down” judgments. We argue that frequency changes are tracked perceptually via the adaptive combination of a diverse set of cues, in a manner that is in fact similar to the derivation of other basic auditory dimensions such as spatial location. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9876382 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-98763822023-01-26 A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception Siedenburg, Kai Graves, Jackson Pressnitzer, Daniel PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Changes in the frequency content of sounds over time are arguably the most basic form of information about the behavior of sound-emitting objects. In perceptual studies, such changes have mostly been investigated separately, as aspects of either pitch or timbre. Here, we propose a unitary account of “up” and “down” subjective judgments of frequency change, based on a model combining auditory correlates of acoustic cues in a sound-specific and listener-specific manner. To do so, we introduce a generalized version of so-called Shepard tones, allowing symmetric manipulations of spectral information on a fine scale, usually associated to pitch (spectral fine structure, SFS), and on a coarse scale, usually associated timbre (spectral envelope, SE). In a series of behavioral experiments, listeners reported “up” or “down” shifts across pairs of generalized Shepard tones that differed in SFS, in SE, or in both. We observed the classic properties of Shepard tones for either SFS or SE shifts: subjective judgements followed the smallest log-frequency change direction, with cases of ambiguity and circularity. Interestingly, when both SFS and SE changes were applied concurrently (synergistically or antagonistically), we observed a trade-off between cues. Listeners were encouraged to report when they perceived “both” directions of change concurrently, but this rarely happened, suggesting a unitary percept. A computational model could accurately fit the behavioral data by combining different cues reflecting frequency changes after auditory filtering. The model revealed that cue weighting depended on the nature of the sound. When presented with harmonic sounds, listeners put more weight on SFS-related cues, whereas inharmonic sounds led to more weight on SE-related cues. Moreover, these stimulus-based factors were modulated by inter-individual differences, revealing variability across listeners in the detailed recipe for “up” and “down” judgments. We argue that frequency changes are tracked perceptually via the adaptive combination of a diverse set of cues, in a manner that is in fact similar to the derivation of other basic auditory dimensions such as spatial location. Public Library of Science 2023-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9876382/ /pubmed/36634121 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010307 Text en © 2023 Siedenburg et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Siedenburg, Kai Graves, Jackson Pressnitzer, Daniel A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title | A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title_full | A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title_fullStr | A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title_full_unstemmed | A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title_short | A unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
title_sort | unitary model of auditory frequency change perception |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9876382/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36634121 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010307 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT siedenburgkai aunitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception AT gravesjackson aunitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception AT pressnitzerdaniel aunitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception AT siedenburgkai unitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception AT gravesjackson unitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception AT pressnitzerdaniel unitarymodelofauditoryfrequencychangeperception |