Dataset Information

A neuronal network model for context-dependence of pitch change perception.

ABSTRACT: Many natural stimuli have perceptual ambiguities that can be cognitively resolved by the surrounding context. In audition, preceding context can bias the perception of speech and non-speech stimuli. Here, we develop a neuronal network model that can account for how context affects the perception of pitch change between a pair of successive complex tones. We focus especially on an ambiguous comparison-listeners experience opposite percepts (either ascending or descending) for an ambiguous tone pair depending on the spectral location of preceding context tones. We developed a recurrent, firing-rate network model, which detects frequency-change-direction of successively played stimuli and successfully accounts for the context-dependent perception demonstrated in behavioral experiments. The model consists of two tonotopically organized, excitatory populations, E up and E down, that respond preferentially to ascending or descending stimuli in pitch, respectively. These preferences are generated by an inhibitory population that provides inhibition asymmetric in frequency to the two populations; context dependence arises from slow facilitation of inhibition. We show that contextual influence depends on the spectral distribution of preceding tones and the tuning width of inhibitory neurons. Further, we demonstrate, using phase-space analysis, how the facilitated inhibition from previous stimuli and the waning inhibition from the just-preceding tone shape the competition between the E up and E down populations. In sum, our model accounts for contextual influences on the pitch change perception of an ambiguous tone pair by introducing a novel decoding strategy based on direction-selective units. The model's network architecture and slow facilitating inhibition emerge as predictions of neuronal mechanisms for these perceptual dynamics. Since the model structure does not depend on the specific stimuli, we show that it generalizes to other contextual effects and stimulus types.

SUBMITTER: Huang C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4526807 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A neuronal network model for context-dependence of pitch change perception.

Huang Chengcheng C Englitz Bernhard B Shamma Shihab S Rinzel John J

Frontiers in computational neuroscience 20150806

Many natural stimuli have perceptual ambiguities that can be cognitively resolved by the surrounding context. In audition, preceding context can bias the perception of speech and non-speech stimuli. Here, we develop a neuronal network model that can account for how context affects the perception of pitch change between a pair of successive complex tones. We focus especially on an ambiguous comparison-listeners experience opposite percepts (either ascending or descending) for an ambiguous tone pa ...[more]

PMID: 26300767

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Project description:The strong association between music and speech has been supported by recent research focusing on musicians' superior abilities in second language learning and neural encoding of foreign speech sounds. However, evidence for a double association--the influence of linguistic background on music pitch processing and disorders--remains elusive. Because languages differ in their usage of elements (e.g., pitch) that are also essential for music, a unique opportunity for examining such language-to-music associations comes from a cross-cultural (linguistic) comparison of congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder affecting the music (pitch and rhythm) processing of about 5% of the Western population. In the present study, two populations (Hong Kong and Canada) were compared. One spoke a tone language in which differences in voice pitch correspond to differences in word meaning (in Hong Kong Cantonese, /si/ means 'teacher' and 'to try' when spoken in a high and mid pitch pattern, respectively). Using the On-line Identification Test of Congenital Amusia, we found Cantonese speakers as a group tend to show enhanced pitch perception ability compared to speakers of Canadian French and English (non-tone languages). This enhanced ability occurs in the absence of differences in rhythmic perception and persists even after relevant factors such as musical background and age were controlled. Following a common definition of amusia (5% of the population), we found Hong Kong pitch amusics also show enhanced pitch abilities relative to their Canadian counterparts. These findings not only provide critical evidence for a double association of music and speech, but also argue for the reconceptualization of communicative disorders within a cultural framework. Along with recent studies documenting cultural differences in visual perception, our auditory evidence challenges the common assumption of universality of basic mental processes and speaks to the domain generality of culture-to-perception influences.

Dataset Information

A neuronal network model for context-dependence of pitch change perception.

Publications

A neuronal network model for context-dependence of pitch change perception.

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