Are auditory percepts determined by experience?
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Monson BB
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3646789 | biostudies-literature | 2013
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Are auditory percepts determined by experience?
Monson Brian B BB Han Shui'Er S Purves Dale D
PloS one 20130507 5
Audition--what listeners hear--is generally studied in terms of the physical properties of sound stimuli and physiological properties of the auditory system. Based on recent work in vision, we here consider an alternative perspective that sensory percepts are based on past experience. In this framework, basic auditory qualities (e.g., loudness and pitch) are based on the frequency of occurrence of stimulus patterns in natural acoustic stimuli. To explore this concept of audition, we examined fiv ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:ImportanceAnimal models have shown altered dorsal cochlear nucleus circuitry in animals that develop tinnitus; however, precise treatment using bisensory (auditory and somatosensory) stimuli can reverse altered neural patterns and lessen tinnitus.ObjectiveTo confirm and extend the findings of a pilot study, which suggested an increased efficacy of bisensory stimulation, to a clinical trial with a greater duration and greater number of participants.Design, setting, and participantsThis double-blind, crossover, single-center randomized clinical trial was conducted from March 2019, with a 3-month follow-up per participant ending in July 2022. Eligible adults were recruited from the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Eligibility criteria included bothersome tinnitus (Tinnitus Functional Index [TFI] score, ≥17 points), somatic tinnitus, normal to moderate hearing loss, and no other tinnitus treatments in the 6 months prior to the trial. Included participants were randomized to either treatment group 1, which received active (bisensory) treatment, or group 2, which received the control (auditory-only) treatment. Results were analyzed using intent-to-treat (ITT) and per protocol (PP) populations.InterventionPrecisely timed bisensory (combined auditory and somatosensory) treatment was delivered through a portable, custom, take-home device that was provided to each participant for daily, at-home treatments. Group 1 participants received 30 minutes per day of the bisensory treatment for 6 weeks, followed by a 6-week washout phase, and then 30 minutes per day of the auditory-only treatment followed by a second 6-week washout phase. Group 2 participants received the auditory-only treatment first, followed by a washout phase, and then the bisensory treatment followed by a second washout phase.Main outcomes and measuresPrimary end points were changes in TFI score and tinnitus loudness level from baseline through week 6 and week 12.ResultsOf 337 screened individuals, 99 (mean [SD] age, 47 [12.7] years; 59 males [60%]; 85 with non-Hispanic White [86%] race and ethnicity) were enrolled into the study and randomized to treatment group 1 (n = 49) or group 2 (n = 50). The active but not the control treatment resulted in clinically significant decreases in TFI scores at week 6 of phase 1 (ITT population: -12.0 [95% CI, -16.9 to -7.9] points; P < .001; PP population: -13.2 [95% CI, -16.0 to -10.5] points; P < .001). Decreases in tinnitus loudness level were greater than 6 dB sensation level (SL; >half as loud) at week 6 for the bisensory treatment group, with little effect for the auditory-only treatment control group at week 6 of phase 1 (ITT population: -5.8 [95% CI, -9.5 to -2.2] dB; P = .08; PP population: -7.2 [95% CI, -11.4 to -3.1] dB; P = .03), and up to 11 dB SL at week 12 of phase 2 (ITT population: -10.9 [95% CI, -15.2 to -6.5] dB; P = .001; PP population: -14.1 [95% CI, -18.4 to -9.8] dB; P < .001). Decreased tinnitus loudness level and TFI scores extended into the washout phase, indicating a prolonged treatment effect.Conclusions and relevanceThis trial found that precisely timed bisensory treatment using stimuli and timing developed in a validated animal model was effective for adults with somatic tinnitus. Prolonged reduction in tinnitus symptoms can result from using an extended treatment duration.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03621735.
| S-EPMC10238951 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Songbirds learn to sing much as humans learn to speak. In zebra finches, one of the premier songbird models, males learn to sing for later courtship through a multistep learning process during the developmental period. They first listen to and memorize the song of a tutor (normally their father) during the sensory learning period. Then, in the subsequent sensory-motor learning phase (with large overlap), they match their vocalizations to the memorized tutor song via auditory feedback and develop their own unique songs, which they maintain throughout their lives. Previous studies have suggested that memories of tutor songs are shaped in the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) of the brain, which is analogous to the mammalian higher auditory cortex. Isolation during development, which extends the sensory learning period in males, alters song preference in adult females, and NCM inactivation decreases song preference. However, the development of neurophysiological properties of neurons in this area and the effect of isolation on these neurons have not yet been explained. Here, we performed whole-cell patch-clamp recording on NCM neurons from juvenile zebra finches during the sensory learning period, 20, 40, or 60 days post-hatching (DPH) and examined their neurophysiological properties. In contrast to previous reports in adult NCM neurons, the majority of NCM neurons of juvenile zebra finches showed spontaneous firing with or without burst firing patterns, and the percentage of neurons that fired increased in the middle of the sensory learning period (40 DPH) and then decreased at the end (60 DPH) in both males and females. We further found that auditory isolation from tutor songs alters developmental changes in the proportions of firing neurons both in males and females, and also changes those of burst neurons differently between males that sing and females that do not. Taken together, these findings suggest that NCM neurons develop their neurophysiological properties depending on auditory experiences during the sensory song learning period, which underlies memory formation for song learning in males and song discrimination in females.
| S-EPMC7578418 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Some aspects of decision-making are known to decline with normal aging. One of the known perceptual decision-making processes which is vastly studied is binocular rivalry. It is well-established that the older the person, the slower the perceptual dynamics. However, the underlying neurobiological cause is unknown. So, to understand how age affects visual decision-making, we investigated age-related changes in perception during binocular rivalry. In binocular rivalry, the image presented to one eye competes for perceptual dominance with the image presented to the other eye. Perception during binocular rivalry consists of alternations between exclusive percepts. However, frequently, mixed percepts with combinations of the two monocular images occur. The mixed percepts reflect a transition from the percept of one eye to the other but frequently the transitions do not complete the full cycle and the previous exclusive percept becomes dominant again. The transitional idiosyncrasy of mixed percepts has not been studied systematically in different age groups. Previously, we have found evidence for adaptation and noise, and not inhibition, as underlying neural factors that are related to age-dependent perceptual decisions. Based on those conclusions, we predict that mixed percepts/inhibitory interactions should not change with aging. Therefore, in an old and a young age group, we studied binocular rivalry dynamics considering both exclusive and mixed percepts by using two paradigms: percept-choice and percept-switch. We found a decrease in perceptual alternation Probability for older adults, although the rate of mixed percepts did not differ significantly compared to younger adults. Interestingly, the mixed percepts play a very similar transitional idiosyncrasy in our different age groups. Further analyses suggest that differences in synaptic depression, gain modulation at the input level, and/or slower execution of motor commands are not the determining factors to explain these findings. We then argue that changes in perceptual decisions at an older age are the result of changes in neural adaptation and noise.
| S-EPMC6917811 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Spatial hearing skills are essential for children as they grow, learn and play. These skills provide critical cues for determining the locations of sources in the environment, and enable segregation of important sounds, such as speech, from background maskers or interferers. Spatial hearing depends on availability of monaural cues and binaural cues. The latter result from integration of inputs arriving at the two ears from sounds that vary in location. The binaural system has exquisite mechanisms for capturing differences between the ears in both time of arrival and intensity. The major cues that are thus referred to as being vital for binaural hearing are: interaural differences in time (ITDs) and interaural differences in levels (ILDs). In children with normal hearing (NH), spatial hearing abilities are fairly well developed by age 4-5 years. In contrast, most children who are deaf and hear through cochlear implants (CIs) do not have an opportunity to experience normal, binaural acoustic hearing early in life. These children may function by having to utilize auditory cues that are degraded with regard to numerous stimulus features. In recent years there has been a notable increase in the number of children receiving bilateral CIs, and evidence suggests that while having two CIs helps them function better than when listening through a single CI, these children generally perform worse than their NH peers. This paper reviews some of the recent work on bilaterally implanted children. The focus is on measures of spatial hearing, including sound localization, release from masking for speech understanding in noise and binaural sensitivity using research processors. Data from behavioral and electrophysiological studies are included, with a focus on the recent work of the authors and their collaborators. The effects of auditory plasticity and deprivation on the emergence of binaural and spatial hearing are discussed along with evidence for reorganized processing from both behavioral and electrophysiological studies. The consequences of both unilateral and bilateral auditory deprivation during development suggest that the relevant set of issues is highly complex with regard to successes and the limitations experienced by children receiving bilateral cochlear implants. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled <Annual Reviews 2016>.
| S-EPMC5647834 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Our visual system briefly retains a trace of a stimulus after it disappears. This phenomenon is known as iconic memory and its contents are thought to be temporally integrated with subsequent visual inputs to produce a single composite representation. However, there is little consensus on the temporal integration between iconic memory and subsequent visual inputs. Here, we show that iconic memory revises its contents depending upon the configuration of the newly produced single representation with particular temporal characteristics. The Poggendorff illusion, in which two collinear line segments are perceived as non-collinear by an intervening rectangle, was observed when the rectangle was presented during a period spanning from 50?ms before to 200?ms after the presentation of the line segments. The illusion was most prominent when the rectangle was presented approximately 100 to 150?ms after the line segments. Furthermore, the illusion was observed at the center of a moving object, but only when the line segments were presented before the rectangle. These results indicate that the contents of iconic memory are susceptible to the modulatory influence of subsequent visual inputs before being translated into conscious perception in a time-locked manner both in retinotopic and non-retinotopic, object-centered frames of reference.
| S-EPMC6127220 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Crossmodal plasticity refers to the reorganization of sensory cortices in the absence of their typical main sensory input. Understanding this phenomenon provides insights into brain function and its potential for change and enhancement. Using functional MRI, we investigated how early deafness influences crossmodal plasticity and the organization of executive functions in the adult human brain. Deaf (n = 25; age: mean = 41.68, range = 19-66, SD = 14.38; 16 female, 9 male) and hearing (n = 20; age: mean = 37.50, range = 18-66, SD = 16.85; 15 female, 5 male) participants performed four visual tasks tapping into different components of executive processing: task switching, working memory, planning and inhibition. Our results show that deaf individuals specifically recruit 'auditory' regions during task switching. Neural activity in superior temporal regions, most significantly in the right hemisphere, are good predictors of behavioural performance during task switching in the group of deaf individuals, highlighting the functional relevance of the observed cortical reorganization. Our results show executive processing in typically sensory regions, suggesting that the development and ultimate role of brain regions are influenced by perceptual environmental experience.
| S-EPMC9586534 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Number sense is the ability to estimate the number of items, and it is common to many species. Despite the numerous studies dedicated to unveiling how numerosity is processed in the human brain, to date, it is not clear whether the representation of numerosity is supported by a single general mechanism or by multiple mechanisms. Since it is known that deafness entails a selective impairment in the processing of temporal information, we assessed the approximate numerical abilities of deaf individuals to disentangle these two hypotheses. We used a numerosity discrimination task (2AFC) and an estimation task, in both cases using sequential (temporal) or simultaneous (spatial) stimuli. The results showed a selective impairment of the deaf participants compared with the controls (hearing) in the temporal numerosity discrimination task, while no difference was found to discriminate spatial numerosity. Interestingly, the deaf and hearing participants did not differ in spatial or temporal numerosity estimation. Overall, our results suggest that the deficit in temporal processing induced by deafness also impacts perception in other domains such as numerosity, where sensory information is conveyed in a temporal format, which further suggests the existence of separate mechanisms subserving the processing of temporal and spatial numerosity.
| S-EPMC8869924 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Faces are important visual objects for humans and other social animals. A complex network of specialized brain areas is involved in the recognition and interpretation of faces. This network needs to strike a balance between being sensitive enough to distinguish between different faces with similar features, and being tolerant of low-level visual changes so that a given face is stably perceived as a particular individual. Such stability may require feedback from higher brain regions down to the level where details are represented. Here, we describe a phenomenon in which interocular competition between face features is stabilized and eliminated when observers attend high-level face characteristics. Two different face images presented to the individual eyes do not cause the perceptual fluctuations that are typically observed in binocular rivalry. Instead, they merge into a stable percept of an intermediate face that combines features from both eyes' images. The stability of the intermediate face percept depends on the observer attending holistic face properties such as identity or gender. It disappears when observers explicitly attend facial features, suggesting a crucial role of top-down stabilizing feedback from high-level areas that represent holistic faces back to lower processing levels where detailed face features compete for conscious representation.
| S-EPMC5548737 | biostudies-other
Project description:Sensory systems influence one another during development and deprivation can lead to cross-modal plasticity. As auditory function begins before vision, we investigate the effect of manipulating visual experience during auditory cortex critical periods (CPs) by assessing the influence of early, normal and delayed eyelid opening on hearing loss-induced changes to membrane and inhibitory synaptic properties. Early eyelid opening closes the auditory cortex CPs precociously and dark rearing prevents this effect. In contrast, delayed eyelid opening extends the auditory cortex CPs by several additional days. The CP for recovery from hearing loss is also closed prematurely by early eyelid opening and extended by delayed eyelid opening. Furthermore, when coupled with transient hearing loss that animals normally fully recover from, very early visual experience leads to inhibitory deficits that persist into adulthood. Finally, we demonstrate a functional projection from the visual to auditory cortex that could mediate these effects.
| S-EPMC4736048 | biostudies-other
Project description:It is widely accepted that vision plays a key role in the development of spatial skills of the other senses. Recent works have shown that blindness is often associated with auditory spatial deficits. The majority of previous studies have focused on understanding the representation of the upper frontal body space where vision and actions have a central role in mapping the space, however less research has investigated the back space and the space around the legs. Here we investigate space perception around the legs and the role of previous visual experience, by studying sighted and blind participants in an audio localization task (front-back discrimination). Participants judged if a sound was delivered in their frontal or back space. The results showed that blindfolded sighted participants were more accurate than blind participants in the frontal space. However, both groups were similarly accurate when auditory information was delivered in the back space. Blind individuals performed the task with similar accuracy for sounds delivered in the frontal and back space, while sighted people performed better in the frontal space. These results suggest that visual experience influences auditory spatial representations around the legs. Moreover, these results suggest that hearing and vision play different roles in different spaces.
| S-EPMC6662833 | biostudies-literature