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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Siedenburg, Kai, Graves, Jackson, Pressnitzer, Daniel
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