Characteristics of Frequency Resolution and Speech Perception Using Bone Conduction on Different Human Facial Parts.

In conventional bone-conduction (BC) devices, a vibrator is typically attached to the mastoid process of the temporal bone or the condyle process of the mandible. However, BC-sound presentations to facial parts such as the nose and cheek have also been investigated recently. As the face is the among the most complex structures of the human body, transmission of sounds using BC on different facial parts are likely to show different perception and propagation characteristics than those presented to conventional parts. However, the characteristics of BC sound presented to different part of the face have not yet been studied in detail. To test the frequency discrimination ability, we measured difference limens for frequency (DLFs). We also conducted monosyllable articulation tests in Japanese to assess the speech-perception characteristics when BC sounds are presented to various facial (nasal, infraorbital region, zygomatic, jaw angle, and chin) and conventional (mastoid and condyle process) parts of a normal-hearing subject. The results suggest that, at least in the parts investigated in the current study, the frequency resolution and intelligibility of the facial parts were about the same as those of the conventional parts. These results indicate that practical frequency information and speech perception are possible with BC devices attached to different facial parts.

Characteristics of speech perception by distantly-presented bone-conducted ultrasound assessed by word intelligibility and monosyllable articulation tests.

High-frequency sounds above 20 kHz presented via bone conduction can be heard clearly and transmit speech information using amplitude modulation. Additionally, bone-conducted ultrasound (BCU) can be perceived even when the vibrator is presented to body parts distant from the head, such as the neck, arm, and trunk. To evaluate this previously presented BCU hearing, word intelligibility and monosyllable articulation tests were conducted in Japanese. The results suggested that a practical speech transmission, comparable to ordinary BCUs presented onto the head, can be obtained by distantly presented BCU.

Expectations of the timing and intensity of a stimulus propagate to the auditory periphery through the medial olivocochlear reflex.

Expectations concerning the timing of a stimulus enhance attention at the time at which the event occurs, which confers significant sensory and behavioral benefits. Herein, we show that temporal expectations modulate even the sensory transduction in the auditory periphery via the descending pathway. We measured the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR), a sound-activated efferent feedback that controls outer hair cell motility and optimizes the dynamic range of the sensory system. MOCR was noninvasively assessed using otoacoustic emissions. We found that the MOCR was enhanced by a visual cue presented at a fixed interval before a sound but was unaffected if the interval was changing between trials. The MOCR was also observed to be stronger when the learned timing expectation matched with the timing of the sound but remained unvaried when these two factors did not match. This implies that the MOCR can be voluntarily controlled in a stimulus- and goal-directed manner. Moreover, we found that the MOCR was enhanced by the expectation of a strong but not a weak, sound intensity. This asymmetrical enhancement could facilitate antimasking and noise protective effects without disrupting the detection of faint signals. Therefore, the descending pathway conveys temporal and intensity expectations to modulate auditory processing.

Conversion of amplitude modulation to phase modulation in the human cochlea.

When an amplitude modulated signal with a constant-frequency carrier is fed into a generic nonlinear amplifier, the phase of the carrier of the output signal is also modulated. This phenomenon is referred to as amplitude-modulation-to-phase-modulation (AM-to-PM) conversion and regarded as an unwanted signal distortion in the field of electro-communication engineering. Herein, we offer evidence that AM-to-PM conversion also occurs in the human cochlea and that listeners can use the PM information effectively to process the AM of sounds. We recorded otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) evoked by AM signals. The results showed that the OAE phase was modulated at the same rate as the stimulus modulation. The magnitude of the AM-induced PM of the OAE peaked generally around the stimulus level corresponding to the compression point of individual cochlear input-output functions, as estimated using a psychoacoustic method. A computational cochlear model incorporating a nonlinear active process replicates the abovementioned key features of the AM-induced PM observed in OAEs. These results indicate that AM-induced PM occurring at the cochlear partition can be estimated by measuring OAEs. Psychophysical experiments further revealed that, for individuals with higher sensitivity to PM, the PM magnitude is correlated with AM-detection performance. This result implies that the AM-induced PM information cannot be a dominant cue for AM detection, but listeners with higher sensitivity may partly rely on the AM-induced PM cue.

Assessment of the difference limens for frequency, monosyllable articulation and word intelligibility by distantly-presented bone-conducted ultrasound.

Ultrasound can be clearly perceived by bone-conduction, and this "bone-conducted ultrasound (BCU)" can transmit speech information by using amplitude modulation (AM). Further, BCU can be perceived not only on the head but also on the distal parts of the body like the neck, trunk and arms. This "distantly-presented BCU" can be applied to the novel interface that can transmit sound information selectively to specific users who touches the vibrator. However, the ability to transmit sound information of distantly-presented BCU is unclear. First, to assess frequency discrimination ability, difference limens for frequency (DLFs) of the distantly-presented AM-BCU were measured with/without a low-pass masking noise that masked the self-demodulated components generated by the nonlinearity of biological tissues. DLFs comparable to that of air-conducted sounds were observed, whereas DLFs significantly increased above 1 kHz under the masking condition. These results suggest that practical frequency discrimination ability can be obtained even when BCUs were presented to distal body parts. Additionally, it is indicated that the demodulated components may contribute to transmitting frequency information above 1 kHz. Second, monosyllable articulation and word intelligibility tests were conducted in Japanese. The intelligibility and articulation at the neck were 55% and 38% respectively, whereas they decreased as the stimulus placement gets farther from the head. The results suggest the distantly-presented BCU device can be applied to transmission of speech information.

Effect of interlateral time and intensity differences of distantly-presented bone-conducted ultrasound on lateralization.

Bone-conducted ultrasound (BCU) is perceived even by the profoundly sensorineural deaf and has been applied to the development of a novel hearing aid. In the BCU hearing aid, the vibrator is pressed onto the mastoid process of the temporal bone (the osseous bulge behind the ear). However, BCU can be heard on distal parts of the body; e.g., the muscle of the neck, the clavicle and the upper limbs. Some studies have been carried out to develop other BCU hearing devices using this "distant presentation". However, the possibility of the localization of distantly-presented BCU has not been verified. In this study, we investigated whether listeners could use the interaural time differences (ITDs) and intensity differences (IIDs) as cues for lateralization (left/right discrimination) of distantly-presented BCU. The results showed that lateralization based on ITDs and IIDs is possible to some extent, even for the distant presentation, whereas lateralization become difficult as the stimulus placement gets further from the head. Lateralization based on IIDs was more accurate than that based on ITDs. IIDs seem to give more effective cues than ITDs in the lateralization of BCU.

Relationship between cochlear mechanics and speech-in-noise reception performance.

Some normal-hearing listeners report difficulties in speech perception in noisy environments, and the cause is not well understood. The present study explores the correlation between speech-in-noise reception performance and cochlear mechanical characteristics, which were evaluated using a principal component analysis of the otoacoustic emission (OAE) spectra. A principal component, specifically a characteristic dip at around 2-2.5 kHz in OAE spectra, correlated with speech reception thresholds in noise but not in quiet. The results suggest that subclinical cochlear dysfunction specifically contributes to difficulties in speech perception in noisy environments, which is possibly a new form of "hidden hearing deficits."

Assessments of basic properties of distal-presented bone-conducted ultrasonic hearing.

Bone-conducted ultrasound (BCU) is perceived even by the profoundly sensorineural deaf and a novel hearing aid using the perception of amplitude-modulated BCU (BCU hearing aid) has been developed. In the BCU hearing aid, the vibrator is pressed onto a part of the cranial bone behind the ear (mastoid process). However, BCU can be heard on distal parts of the body; i. e., the muscle of the neck, the clavicle, and the upper limb. In this study, to assess basic properties of such distal-presented BCU hearing, hearing thresholds were measured when 30-kHz tone bursts were presented to the neck and the upper and lower arms in normal hearing participants. Further, to assess the basic capability of transferring information by the distal-presented BCU hearing, temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs), that reflect the temporal resolution of the hearing, were estimated for 30-kHz carrier. The results showed that BCUs presented to the distal parts, including the lower arm, can be perceived at least in the normal hearing, whereas threshold increased depending on the distance from the head. Also, the temporal resolutions of the distal-presented BCU hearing at the neck, and the upper and lower arms were comparable to that of the mastoid process of the temporal bone. These results provide useful information not only for the improvement of the existing BCU hearing aid, but also for the development of novel distal-presented BCU devices that can provide sound information selectively to the specific person who touches the device by the arms or so.

Comparison of perceptual properties of auditory streaming between spectral and amplitude modulation domains.

The two-tone sequence (ABA_), which comprises two different sounds (A and B) and a silent gap, has been used to investigate how the auditory system organizes sequential sounds depending on various stimulus conditions or brain states. Auditory streaming can be evoked by differences not only in the tone frequency ("spectral cue": ΔFTONE, TONE condition) but also in the amplitude modulation rate ("AM cue": ΔFAM, AM condition). The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the perceptual properties of auditory streaming for the TONE and AM conditions. A sequence with a long duration (400 repetitions of ABA_) was used to examine the property of the bistability of streaming. The ratio of feature differences that evoked an equivalent probability of the segregated percept was close to the ratio of the Q-values of the auditory and modulation filters, consistent with a "channeling theory" of auditory streaming. On the other hand, for values of ΔFAM and ΔFTONE evoking equal probabilities of the segregated percept, the number of perceptual switches was larger for the TONE condition than for the AM condition, indicating that the mechanism(s) that determine the bistability of auditory streaming are different between or sensitive to the two domains. Nevertheless, the number of switches for individual listeners was positively correlated between the spectral and AM domains. The results suggest a possibility that the neural substrates for spectral and AM processes share a common switching mechanism but differ in location and/or in the properties of neural activity or the strength of internal noise at each level.

Interindividual variation of sensitivity to frequency modulation: its relation with click-evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emissions.

The frequency modulation detection limen (FMDL) with a low modulation rate has been used as a measure of the listener's sensitivity to the temporal fine structure of a stimulus, which is represented by the pattern of neural phase locking at the auditory periphery. An alternative to the phase locking cue, the excitation pattern cue, has been suggested to contribute to frequency modulation (FM) detection. If the excitation pattern cue has a significant contribution to low-rate FM detection, the functionality of cochlear mechanics underlying the excitation pattern should be reflected in low-rate FMDLs. This study explored the relationship between cochlear mechanics and low-rate FMDLs by evaluating physiological measures of cochlear functions, namely distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) and click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs). DPOAEs and CEOAEs reflect nonlinear cochlear gain. CEOAEs have been considered also to reflect the degree of irregularity, such as spatial variations in number or geometry of outer hair cells, on the basilar membrane. The irregularity profile could affect the reliability of the phase locking cue, thereby influencing the FMDLs. The features extracted from DPOAEs and CEOAEs, when combined, could account for more than 30 % of the inter-listener variation of low-rate FMDLs. This implies that both cochlear gain and irregularity on the basilar membrane have some influence on sensitivity to low-rate FM: the loss of cochlear gain or broader tuning might influence the excitation pattern cue, and the irregularity on the basilar membrane might disturb the ability to use the phase locking cue.