An Introduction to Binaural Processing

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kohlrausch ◽  
J. Braasch ◽  
D. Kolossa ◽  
J. Blauert
Keyword(s):  
Binaural Processing

scholarly journals Stereausis: Binaural processing without neural delays

1989 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 989-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihab A. Shamma ◽  
Naiming Shen ◽  
Preetham Gopalaswamy
Keyword(s):  
Binaural Processing

Binaural Processing in the Cat. I. Lateralization

1973 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 335-335
Author(s):  
O. S. Wakeford ◽  
D. E. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Binaural Processing

Early Appearance of Inhibitory Input to the MNTB Supports Binaural Processing During Development

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 3826-3835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Green ◽  
Dan H. Sanes
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Inhibitory Neurons ◽  
Superior Olivary Complex ◽  
Inhibitory Input ◽  
Inhibitory Influence ◽  
Binaural Processing ◽  
Medial Nucleus ◽  
Level Difference ◽  
Postsynaptic Action ◽  
Trapezoid Body

Despite the peripheral and central immaturities that limit auditory processing in juvenile animals, they are able to lateralize sounds using binaural cues. This study explores a central mechanism that may compensate for these limitations during development. Interaural time and level difference processing by neurons in the superior olivary complex depends on synaptic inhibition from the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), a group of inhibitory neurons that is activated by contralateral sound stimuli. In this study, we examined the maturation of coding properties of MNTB neurons and found that they receive an inhibitory influence from the ipsilateral ear that is modified during the course of postnatal development. Single neuron recordings were obtained from the MNTB in juvenile (postnatal day 15–19) and adult gerbils. Approximately 50% of all recorded MNTB neurons were inhibited by ipsilateral sound stimuli, but juvenile neurons displayed a much greater suppression of firing as compared with those in adults. A comparison of the prepotential and postsynaptic action potential indicated that inhibition occurred at the presynaptic level, likely within the cochlear nucleus. A simple linear model of level difference detection by lateral superior olivary neurons that receive input from MNTB suggested that inhibition of the MNTB may expand the response of LSO neurons to physiologically realistic level differences, particularly in juvenile animals, at a time when these cues are reduced.

scholarly journals Age-related differences in binaural masking level differences: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (6) ◽  
pp. 2939-2952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Anderson ◽  
Robert Ellis ◽  
Julie Mehta ◽  
Matthew J. Goupell
Keyword(s):  
Aging Effect ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Sound Sources ◽  
Frequency Following Response ◽  
Binaural Processing ◽  
Threshold Difference ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Effects Of Aging

The effects of aging and stimulus configuration on binaural masking level differences (BMLDs) were measured behaviorally and electrophysiologically, using the frequency-following response (FFR) to target brainstem/midbrain encoding. The tests were performed in 15 younger normal-hearing (<30 yr) and 15 older normal-hearing (>60 yr) participants. The stimuli consisted of a 500-Hz target tone embedded in a narrowband (50-Hz bandwidth) or wideband (1,500-Hz bandwidth) noise masker. The interaural phase conditions included NoSo (tone and noise presented interaurally in-phase), NoSπ (noise presented interaurally in-phase and tone presented out-of-phase), and NπSo (noise presented interaurally out-of-phase and tone presented in-phase) configurations. In the behavioral experiment, aging reduced the magnitude of the BMLD. The magnitude of the BMLD was smaller for the NoSo–NπSo threshold difference compared with the NoSo–NoSπ threshold difference, and it was also smaller in narrowband compared with wideband conditions, consistent with previous measurements. In the electrophysiology experiment, older participants had reduced FFR magnitudes and smaller differences between configurations. There were significant changes in FFR magnitude between the NoSo to NoSπ configurations but not between the NoSo to NπSo configurations. The age-related reduction in FFR magnitudes suggests a temporal processing deficit, but no correlation was found between FFR magnitudes and behavioral BMLDs. Therefore, independent mechanisms may be contributing to the behavioral and neural deficits. Specifically, older participants had higher behavioral thresholds than younger participants for the NoSπ and NπSo configurations but had equivalent thresholds for the NoSo configuration. However, FFR magnitudes were reduced in older participants across all configurations. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Behavioral and electrophysiological testing reveal an aging effect for stimuli presented in wideband and narrowband noise conditions, such that behavioral binaural masking level differences and subcortical spectral magnitudes are reduced in older compared with younger participants. These deficits in binaural processing may limit the older participant's ability to use spatial cues to understand speech in environments containing competing sound sources.

MODELING AUDITORY PATHWAY FOR INTELLIGENT INFORMATION ACQUISITION

2004 ◽  
Vol 01 (04) ◽  
pp. 345-356
Author(s):  
HYUNG-MIN PARK ◽  
JONG-HWAN LEE ◽  
TAESU KIM ◽  
UN-MIN BAE ◽  
BYUNG TAEK KIM ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Extraction ◽  
Real World ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Blind Signal Separation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Auditory Model ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Binaural Processing

An auditory model has been developed for an intelligent speech information acquisition system in real-world noisy environment. The developed mathematical model of the human auditory pathway consists of three components, i.e. the nonlinear feature extraction from cochlea to auditory cortex, the binaural processing at superior olivery complex, and the top-down attention from higher brain to the cochlea. The feature extraction is based on information-theoretic sparse coding throughout the auditory pathway. Also, the time-frequency masking is incorporated as a model of the lateral inhibition in both time and frequency domain. The binaural processing is modeled as the blind signal separation and adaptive noise canceling based on the independent component analysis with hundreds of time-delays for noisy reverberated signals. The Top-Down (TD) attention comes from familiarity and/or importance of the sensory information, i.e. the sound, and a simple but efficient TD attention model had been developed based on the error backpropagation algorithm. Also, the binaural processing and top-down attention are combined for speech signals with heavy noises. This auditory model requires extensive computing, and special hardware had been developed for real-time applications. Experimental results demonstrate much better recognition performance in real-world noisy environments.

Evidence for spatio-topic organization of binaural processing in the human brainstem

1996 ◽  
Vol 94 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 107-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Polyakov ◽  
Hillel Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Binaural Processing

Binaural Processing of Sounds

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ruth Y. Litovsky ◽  
Matthew J. Goupell
Keyword(s):  
Binaural Processing

scholarly journals Modeling Binaural Unmasking of Speech Using a Blind Binaural Processing Stage

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 233121652097563
Author(s):  
Christopher F. Hauth ◽  
Simon C. Berning ◽  
Birger Kollmeier ◽  
Thomas Brand
Keyword(s):  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Binaural Processing ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
Masking Level Difference ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Speech Intelligibility Index ◽  
Filtered Speech

The equalization cancellation model is often used to predict the binaural masking level difference. Previously its application to speech in noise has required separate knowledge about the speech and noise signals to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Here, a novel, blind equalization cancellation model is introduced that can use the mixed signals. This approach does not require any assumptions about particular sound source directions. It uses different strategies for positive and negative SNRs, with the switching between the two steered by a blind decision stage utilizing modulation cues. The output of the model is a single-channel signal with enhanced SNR, which we analyzed using the speech intelligibility index to compare speech intelligibility predictions. In a first experiment, the model was tested on experimental data obtained in a scenario with spatially separated target and masker signals. Predicted speech recognition thresholds were in good agreement with measured speech recognition thresholds with a root mean square error less than 1 dB. A second experiment investigated signals at positive SNRs, which was achieved using time compressed and low-pass filtered speech. The results demonstrated that binaural unmasking of speech occurs at positive SNRs and that the modulation-based switching strategy can predict the experimental results.

Interdependence of Spatial and Temporal Coding in the Auditory Midbrain

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 2300-2314 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Koch ◽  
B. Grothe
Keyword(s):  
Sound Localization ◽  
Feature Detection ◽  
Transfer Functions ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Temporal Coding ◽  
Sound Recognition ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Auditory Midbrain ◽  
Binaural Cues ◽  
Binaural Processing

To date, most physiological studies that investigated binaural auditory processing have addressed the topic rather exclusively in the context of sound localization. However, there is strong psychophysical evidence that binaural processing serves more than only sound localization. This raises the question of how binaural processing of spatial cues interacts with cues important for feature detection. The temporal structure of a sound is one such feature important for sound recognition. As a first approach, we investigated the influence of binaural cues on temporal processing in the mammalian auditory system. Here, we present evidence that binaural cues, namely interaural intensity differences (IIDs), have profound effects on filter properties for stimulus periodicity of auditory midbrain neurons in the echolocating big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Our data indicate that these effects are partially due to changes in strength and timing of binaural inhibitory inputs. We measured filter characteristics for the periodicity (modulation frequency) of sinusoidally frequency modulated sounds (SFM) under different binaural conditions. As criteria, we used 50% filter cutoff frequencies of modulation transfer functions based on discharge rate as well as synchronicity of discharge to the sound envelope. The binaural conditions were contralateral stimulation only, equal stimulation at both ears (IID = 0 dB), and more intense at the ipsilateral ear (IID = −20, −30 dB). In 32% of neurons, the range of modulation frequencies the neurons responded to changed considerably comparing monaural and binaural (IID =0) stimulation. Moreover, in ∼50% of neurons the range of modulation frequencies was narrower when the ipsilateral ear was favored (IID = −20) compared with equal stimulation at both ears (IID = 0). In ∼10% of the neurons synchronization differed when comparing different binaural cues. Blockade of the GABAergic or glycinergic inputs to the cells recorded from revealed that inhibitory inputs were at least partially responsible for the observed changes in SFM filtering. In 25% of the neurons, drug application abolished those changes. Experiments using electronically introduced interaural time differences showed that the strength of ipsilaterally evoked inhibition increased with increasing modulation frequencies in one third of the cells tested. Thus glycinergic and GABAergic inhibition is at least one source responsible for the observed interdependence of temporal structure of a sound and spatial cues.

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