Perceptual weighting in fricative/vowel syllables for speakers of English and Mandarin

Studies of children’s speech perception have shown that young children process speech signals differently than adults. Specifically, the relative contributions made by various acoustic parameters to some linguistic decisions seem to differ for children and adults. Such findings have led to the hypothesis that there is a developmental shift in the perceptual weighting of acoustic parameters that results from experience with a native language (i.e., the Developmental Weighting Shift). This developmental shift eventually leads the child to adopt the optimal perceptual weighting strategy for the native language being learned (i.e., one that allows the listener to make accurate decisions about the phonemic structure of his or her native language). Although this proposal has intuitive appeal, there is at least one serious challenge that can be leveled against it: Perhaps age-related differences inspeech perception can more appropriately be explained by age-related differences in basic auditory-processing abilities. That is, perhaps children are not as sensitive as adults to subtle differences in acoustic structure and so make linguistic decisions based on the acoustic information that is most perceptually salient. The present study tested this hypothesis for the acoustic cues relevant to fricative identity in fricative-vowel syllables. Results indicated that 3-year-olds were not as sensitive to changes in these acoustic cues as adults are, but that these age-related differences in auditory sensitivity could not entirely account for age-related differences in perceptual weighting strategies.

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Perceptual weighting of pain behaviours of others, not information integration, varies with expertise

European Journal of Pain ◽

10.1002/j.1532-2149.2013.00354.x ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 110-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

E. Prigent ◽

M.-A. Amorim ◽

P. Leconte ◽

D. Pradon

Keyword(s):

Information Integration ◽

Perceptual Weighting

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Perceptual weighting strategies of children with cochlear implants and normal hearing

Journal of Communication Disorders ◽

10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.09.003 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 111-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Susan Nittrouer ◽

Amanda Caldwell-Tarr ◽

Aaron C. Moberly ◽

Joanna H. Lowenstein

Keyword(s):

Cochlear Implants ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Perceptual Weighting

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Perceptual Weighting of V1 Spikes Revealed by Optogenetic White Noise Stimulation

10.1101/2021.01.25.428138 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Julian R. Day-Cooney ◽

Jackson J. Cone ◽

John H.R. Maunsell

Keyword(s):

White Noise ◽

Sensory Input ◽

Perception And Action ◽

Visual Detection ◽

Visually Guided ◽

Neuronal Populations ◽

Optogenetic Stimulation ◽

Electrophysiological Recordings ◽

Perceptual Weighting ◽

Reverse Correlation Analysis

SummaryDuring visually guided behaviors, mere hundreds of milliseconds can elapse between a sensory input and its associated behavioral response. How spikes occurring at different times are integrated to drive perception and action remains poorly understood. We delivered random trains of optogenetic stimulation (white noise) to excite inhibitory interneurons in V1 of mice while they performed a visual detection task. We then performed a reverse correlation analysis on the optogenetic stimuli to generate a neuronal-behavioral kernel: an unbiased, temporally-precise estimate of how suppression of V1 spiking at different moments around the onset of a visual stimulus affects detection of that stimulus. Electrophysiological recordings enabled us to capture the effects of optogenetic stimuli on V1 responsivity and revealed that the earliest stimulus-evoked spikes are preferentially weighted for guiding behavior. These data demonstrate that white noise optogenetic stimulation is a powerful tool for understanding how patterns of spiking in neuronal populations are decoded in generating perception and action.

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