scholarly journals Is Sensitivity (Audibility) Related to Frequency of the Acoustic Stimulus Showing Maximum Efferent Inhibition?

1970 ◽  
Vol 48 (1A) ◽  
pp. 122-123
Author(s):  
D. W. Nielsen ◽  
D. C. Teas ◽  
T. Konishi
1968 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1441-1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D. Richard

A series of tests were conducted to determine the effectiveness of pulsed low-frequency acoustic signals for attracting fishes. The acoustic signals were contrived to simulate the hydrodynamically generated disturbances normally associated with active predation. Underwater television was used to observe fish arrivals during both control and test periods. Demersal predatory fishes were successfully attracted although they habituated rapidly to the acoustic stimulus. Members of the families Serranidae, Lutjanidae, and Pomadasyidae were particularly well represented among the fishes attracted. Sharks were also attracted in considerable numbers. Herbivorous reef fishes, although common around the test site, were not attracted. Possible relationships between the test results and the hearing capabilities of fishes are discussed. It is concluded that acoustic attraction techniques have potential applications in certain existing commercial fisheries.


eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Elia Forte ◽  
Octave Etard ◽  
Tobias Reichenbach

Humans excel at selectively listening to a target speaker in background noise such as competing voices. While the encoding of speech in the auditory cortex is modulated by selective attention, it remains debated whether such modulation occurs already in subcortical auditory structures. Investigating the contribution of the human brainstem to attention has, in particular, been hindered by the tiny amplitude of the brainstem response. Its measurement normally requires a large number of repetitions of the same short sound stimuli, which may lead to a loss of attention and to neural adaptation. Here we develop a mathematical method to measure the auditory brainstem response to running speech, an acoustic stimulus that does not repeat and that has a high ecological validity. We employ this method to assess the brainstem's activity when a subject listens to one of two competing speakers, and show that the brainstem response is consistently modulated by attention.


2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1625-1643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shveta Malhotra ◽  
Amee J. Hall ◽  
Stephen G. Lomber

We examined the ability of mature cats to accurately orient to, and approach, an acoustic stimulus during unilateral reversible cooling deactivation of primary auditory cortex (AI) or 1 of 18 other cerebral loci. After attending to a central visual stimulus, the cats learned to orient to a 100-ms broad-band, white-noise stimulus emitted from a central speaker or 1 of 12 peripheral sites (at 15° intervals) positioned along the horizontal plane. Twenty-eight cats had two to six cryoloops implanted over multiple cerebral loci. Within auditory cortex, unilateral deactivation of AI, the posterior auditory field (PAF) or the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES) resulted in orienting deficits throughout the contralateral field. However, unilateral deactivation of the anterior auditory field, the second auditory cortex, or the ventroposterior auditory field resulted in no deficits on the orienting task. In multisensory cortex, unilateral deactivation of neither ventral or dorsal posterior ectosylvian cortices nor anterior or posterior area 7 resulted in any deficits. No deficits were identified during unilateral cooling of the five visual regions flanking auditory or multisensory cortices: posterior or anterior ii suprasylvian sulcus, posterior suprasylvian sulcus or dorsal or ventral posterior suprasylvian gyrus. In motor cortex, we identified contralateral orienting deficits during unilateral cooling of lateral area 5 (5L) or medial area 6 (6m) but not medial area 5 or lateral area 6. In a control visual-orienting task, areas 5L and 6m also yielded deficits to visual stimuli presented in the contralateral field. Thus the sound-localization deficits identified during unilateral deactivation of area 5L or 6m were not unimodal and are most likely the result of motor rather than perceptual impairments. Overall, three regions in auditory cortex (AI, PAF, AES) are critical for accurate sound localization as assessed by orienting.


1989 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Batra ◽  
S. Kuwada ◽  
T. R. Stanford

1. The difference in the time of arrival of a sound at the two ears can be used to locate its source along the azimuth. Traditionally, it has been thought that only the on-going interaural temporal disparities (ITDs) produced by sounds of lower frequency (approximately less than 2 kHz) could be used for this purpose. However, ongoing ITDs of low frequency are also produced by envelopes of amplitude-modulated (AM) tones. These ITDs can be detected and used to lateralize complex high-frequency sounds (1, 8, 12, 15, 22, 24, 26). Auditory neurons synchronize to the modulation envelope, but do so at progressively lower modulation frequencies at higher levels of the auditory pathway. Some neurons of the cochlear nucleus synchronize best to frequencies as high as 700 Hz, but those of the inferior colliculus (IC) exhibit their best synchrony below 200 Hz. Even though synchrony to higher modulation frequencies is reduced at higher levels of the auditory pathway, is information about ITDs retained? 2. We answered this question by extracellularly recording the responses of neurons in the IC of the unanesthetized rabbit. We used an unanesthetized preparation because anesthesia alters the responses of neurons in the IC to both monaurally presented tones and ITDs. The unanesthetized rabbit is ideal for auditory research. Recordings can be maintained for long periods, and the acoustic stimulus to each ear can be independently controlled. 3. We studied the responses of 89 units to sinusoidally AM tones presented to the contralateral ear. For each unit, we recorded the response at several modulation frequencies. The degree of phase locking to the envelope at each frequency was measured using the synchronization coefficient. Two measures were used to assess the range of modulation frequencies over which phase locking occurred. The "best AM frequency" was the frequency at which we observed the greatest phase locking. The "highest AM frequency" was the highest frequency at which significant phase locking (0.001 level) was observed. We could not assess synchrony to ipsilateral AM tones directly, because most units did not respond to ipsilateral stimulation. 4. We studied the sensitivity of 63 units to ITDs produced by the envelopes of AM tones. Sensitivity to ITDs was tested by presenting AM tones to the two ears that had the same carrier frequency, but modulation frequencies that differed by 1 Hz. Units that were sensitive to ITDs responded to this stimulus by varying their response rate cyclically at the difference frequency, i.e., 1 Hz.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


1997 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Canlon

Sound conditioning provides protection against a subsequent noise trauma. The sound conditioning paradigm consists of a low-level, long-term, non-damaging acoustic stimulus (1 kHz, 81 dB SPL x 24 days). Morphological and physiological alterations are not induced by the sound conditioning stimulus alone. In addition, the middle ear muscles have been shown not to be influenced by sound conditioning. It has been shown that after exposure to a traumatic stimulus, sound conditioning protects the outer hair cell morphology (fewer missing outer hair cells), as well as physiology (distortion product otoacoustic emissions) compared to an unconditioned group exposed only to the traumatic stimulus. Further studies are needed in order to establish the underlying mechanisms for the phenomenon of sound conditioning. Nevertheless, since sound-conditioning experiments have been successfully applied to human subjects our understanding of hearing impaired individuals has been enhanced.


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