Auditory Scene Analysis and the Role of Phenomenology in Experimental Psychology.

Abstract The evolutionary origins of complex capacities such as musicality are not simple, and likely involved many interacting steps of musicality-specific adaptations, exaptations, and cultural creation. A full account of the origins of musicality needs to consider the role of ancient adaptations such as credible singing, auditory scene analysis, and prediction-reward circuits in constraining the emergence of musicality.

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A role of the claustrum in auditory scene analysis by reflecting sensory change

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnsys.2014.00044 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Ryan Remedios ◽

Nikos K. Logothetis ◽

Christoph Kayser

Keyword(s):

Auditory Scene Analysis ◽

Scene Analysis ◽

Sensory Change ◽

Auditory Scene

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Tracking Musical Voices in Bach's The Art of the Fugue: Timbral Heterogeneity Differentially Affects Younger Normal-Hearing Listeners and Older Hearing-Aid Users

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.608684 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Kai Siedenburg ◽

Kirsten Goldmann ◽

Steven van de Par

Keyword(s):

Hearing Aids ◽

Music Perception ◽

Hearing Aid ◽

Auditory Scene Analysis ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Scene Analysis ◽

Superior Performance ◽

Auditory Scene ◽

Two Factors

Auditory scene analysis is an elementary aspect of music perception, yet only little research has scrutinized auditory scene analysis under realistic musical conditions with diverse samples of listeners. This study probed the ability of younger normal-hearing listeners and older hearing-aid users in tracking individual musical voices or lines in JS Bach's The Art of the Fugue. Five-second excerpts with homogeneous or heterogenous instrumentation of 2–4 musical voices were presented from spatially separated loudspeakers and preceded by a short cue for signaling the target voice. Listeners tracked the cued voice and detected whether an amplitude modulation was imposed on the cued voice or a distractor voice. Results indicated superior performance of young normal-hearing listeners compared to older hearing-aid users. Performance was generally better in conditions with fewer voices. For young normal-hearing listeners, there was interaction between the number of voices and the instrumentation: performance degraded less drastically with an increase in the number of voices for timbrally heterogeneous mixtures compared to homogeneous mixtures. Older hearing-aid users generally showed smaller effects of the number of voices and instrumentation, but no interaction between the two factors. Moreover, tracking performance of older hearing aid users did not differ when these participants did or did not wear hearing aids. These results shed light on the role of timbral differentiation in musical scene analysis and suggest reduced musical scene analysis abilities of older hearing-impaired listeners in a realistic musical scenario.

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