Diotic and Dichotic Mechanisms of Discrimination Threshold in Musicians and Non-Musicians

The perception of harmonic complexes provides important information for musical and vocal communication. Numerous studies have shown that musical training and expertise are associated with better processing of harmonic complexes, however, it is unclear whether the perceptual improvement associated with musical training is universal to different pitch models. The current study addresses this issue by measuring discrimination thresholds of musicians (n = 20) and non-musicians (n = 18) to diotic (same sound to both ears) and dichotic (different sounds to each ear) sounds of four stimulus types: (1) pure sinusoidal tones, PT; (2) four-harmonic complex tones, CT; (3) iterated rippled noise, IRN; and (4) interaurally correlated broadband noise, called the “Huggins” or “dichotic” pitch, DP. Frequency difference limens (DLF) for each stimulus type were obtained via a three-alternative-forced-choice adaptive task requiring selection of the interval with the highest pitch, yielding the smallest perceptible fundamental frequency (F0) distance (in Hz) between two sounds. Music skill was measured by an online test of musical pitch, melody and timing maintained by the International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research. Musicianship, length of music experience and self-evaluation of musical skill were assessed by questionnaire. Results showed musicians had smaller DLFs in all four conditions with the largest group difference in the dichotic condition. DLF thresholds were related to both subjective and objective musical ability. In addition, subjective self-report of musical ability was shown to be a significant variable in group classification. Taken together, the results suggest that music-related plasticity benefits multiple mechanisms of pitch encoding and that self-evaluation of musicality can be reliably associated with objective measures of perception.

Download Full-text

Diotic and dichotic frequency discrimination thresholds in musicians and non-musicians: relationships between perception, musical ability and self-evaluated competence

10.1101/810598 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Gabriella Musacchia ◽

Devin Inabinet ◽

Jan De La Cruz ◽

Justin Cha ◽

Kevin Ng

Keyword(s):

Vocal Communication ◽

Musical Training ◽

Frequency Discrimination ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Self Report ◽

Significant Variable ◽

Musical Ability ◽

Harmonic Complex ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

Complex Tones

AbstractPitch perception provides important information for musical and vocal communication. Numerous studies have shown that musical training and expertise are associated with better pitch processing, however, it is unclear what types of pitch percepts are plastic with music training. The current study addresses this issue by measuring discrimination thresholds of Musicians (n=20) and Non-musicians (n=18) to diotic (same sound to both ears) and dichotic (different sounds to each ear) stimuli created from four types of acoustic computations:1) pure sinusoidal tones, PT; 2) four-harmonic complex tones, CT; 3) iterated rippled noise, IRN; and 4) interaurally correlated broadband noise, called “Huggins” or “dichotic” pitch sounds, DP. Frequency Difference Limens (DLF) in each condition were obtained via a 3-alternative-forced-choice adaptive task requiring selection of the interval with the highest pitch, yielding the smallest perceptible fundamental frequency (F0) distance (in Hz) between two sounds. Music skill was measured by an online test of musical Pitch, Melody and Timing (International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research, https://www.brams.org/en/onlinetest/). Musicianship, length of music experience and self-evaluation of musical skill were assessed by questionnaire. Results showed musicians had smaller DLFs in all four conditions and that thresholds were related to subjective and objective musical ability. In addition, self-report of musical ability was shown to be a significant variable in group classification, suggesting that the neurobehavioral profile of musicians includes self-evaluation of musical competence.

Download Full-text

Frequency Analysis and Musical Ability

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.2307/40285598 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 39-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Philip A. Fine ◽

Brian C. J. Moore

Keyword(s):

Frequency Analysis ◽

Complex Tone ◽

Harmonic Series ◽

Musical Ability ◽

Harmonic Complex ◽

Auditory Filter ◽

Detection Process ◽

Noise Masker ◽

Complex Tones ◽

Better Than

Soderquist (Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21,117–119) found that musicians were better than nonmusicians at separating out ("hearing out") partials from complex tones and proposed that this might be explained by the musicians having sharper auditory filters. In Experiment 1, the auditory filters of two groups, musicians and nonmusicians, were measured at three center frequencies by using a notched-noise masker. The filters were found not to differ in bandwidth between the two groups. However, the efficiency of the detection process after auditory filtering was significantly different between the two groups: the musicians were more efficient. In Experiment 2, the ability to hear out partials in a complex inharmonic tone was measured for the same two groups, using a tone produced by "stretching" the spacing between partials in a harmonic complex tone. Unfortunately, most of the nonmusicians were unable to perform this task. The ability of the musicians to hear out partials was not significantly correlated with the auditory filter bandwidths measured in Experiment 1. The musicians were also tested on the original harmonic complex tone (before "stretching"). For some partials, their performance was better for the inharmonic tone, reflecting the fact that the separation of the partials in frequency was greater for that tone. However, it was also found that those partials that were octaves of the fundamental in the harmonic series were identified better than corresponding partials in the inharmonic tone.

Download Full-text

An efficient and adaptive test of auditory mental imagery

10.31234/osf.io/8gvhz ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rebecca Gelding ◽

Peter M. C. Harrison ◽

Seb Silas ◽

Blake W Johnson ◽

William Forde Thompson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Musical Training ◽

Self Report ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Musical Imagery ◽

Online Test ◽

Ideal Tool ◽

Individual Ability ◽

The Mind ◽

Automatic Item Generation

The ability to silently hear music in the mind has been argued to be fundamental to musicality. Objective measurements of this subjective imagery experience are needed if this link between imagery ability and musicality is to be investigated. However, previous tests of musical imagery either rely on self-report, rely on melodic memory, or do not cater in range of abilities. The Pitch Imagery Arrow Task (PIAT) was designed to address these shortcomings; however, it is impractically long. In this paper, we shorten the PIAT using adaptive testing and automatic item generation. We interrogate the cognitive processes underlying the PIAT through item response modelling. The result is an efficient online test of auditory mental imagery ability (adaptive Pitch Imagery Arrow Task: aPIAT) that takes 8 min to complete, is adaptive to participant’s individual ability, and so can be used to test participants with a range of musical backgrounds. Performance on the aPIAT showed positive moderate-to-strong correlations with measures of non-musical and musical working memory, self-reported musical training, and general musical sophistication. Ability on the task was best predicted by the ability to maintain and manipulate tones in mental imagery, as well as to resist perceptual biases that can lead to incorrect responses. As such, the aPIAT is the ideal tool in which to investigate the relationship between pitch imagery ability and musicality.

Download Full-text

Pitch of harmonic complex tones: rate and temporal coding of envelope repetition rate in inferior colliculus of unanesthetized rabbits

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00512.2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 122 (6) ◽

pp. 2468-2485 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yaqing Su ◽

Bertrand Delgutte

Keyword(s):

Inferior Colliculus ◽

Repetition Rate ◽

Temporal Coding ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Temporal Code ◽

Rate Code ◽

Harmonic Complex ◽

Phase Lock ◽

Wide Range ◽

Complex Tones

Harmonic complex tones (HCTs) found in speech, music, and animal vocalizations evoke strong pitch percepts at their fundamental frequencies. The strongest pitches are produced by HCTs that contain harmonics resolved by cochlear frequency analysis, but HCTs containing solely unresolved harmonics also evoke a weaker pitch at their envelope repetition rate (ERR). In the auditory periphery, neurons phase lock to the stimulus envelope, but this temporal representation of ERR degrades and gives way to rate codes along the ascending auditory pathway. To assess the role of the inferior colliculus (IC) in such transformations, we recorded IC neuron responses to HCT and sinusoidally modulated broadband noise (SAMN) with varying ERR from unanesthetized rabbits. Different interharmonic phase relationships of HCT were used to manipulate the temporal envelope without changing the power spectrum. Many IC neurons demonstrated band-pass rate tuning to ERR between 60 and 1,600 Hz for HCT and between 40 and 500 Hz for SAMN. The tuning was not related to the pure-tone best frequency of neurons but was dependent on the shape of the stimulus envelope, indicating a temporal rather than spectral origin. A phenomenological model suggests that the tuning may arise from peripheral temporal response patterns via synaptic inhibition. We also characterized temporal coding to ERR. Some IC neurons could phase lock to the stimulus envelope up to 900 Hz for either HCT or SAMN, but phase locking was weaker with SAMN. Together, the rate code and the temporal code represent a wide range of ERR, providing strong cues for the pitch of unresolved harmonics. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Envelope repetition rate (ERR) provides crucial cues for pitch perception of frequency components that are not individually resolved by the cochlea, but the neural representation of ERR for stimuli containing many harmonics is poorly characterized. Here we show that the pitch of stimuli with unresolved harmonics is represented by both a rate code and a temporal code for ERR in auditory midbrain neurons and propose possible underlying neural mechanisms with a computational model.

Download Full-text

Investigating Personality and Psychopathology in Patients With Psoriasis

Rorschachiana Journal of the International Society for the Rorschach ◽

10.1027/1192-5604/a000092 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 87-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Chiara Vari ◽

Patrizia Velotti ◽

Alessandro Crisi ◽

Silvana Carlesimo ◽

Antonio G. Richetta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Skin Diseases ◽

Clinical Importance ◽

Self Report ◽

Psychological Issues ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

Affective Quality ◽

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory ◽

Study Results ◽

Completion Test ◽

Skin Conditions

Abstract. A broad range of literature reported higher rates of psychopathology and personality disorders among patients affected by skin conditions. Specifically, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideations are more frequently reported by patients affected by skin diseases. This study aimed to examine psychopathology and personality in a group of patients affected by psoriasis by means of a self-report measure (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – MCMI-III) and a performance-based technique (Wartegg Drawing Completion Test [WDCT], CWS). Study results showed a higher rate of passive-aggressiveness and paranoia among psoriatic patients (MCMI-III). When assessing patients through the performance-based technique (WDCT, CWS), a higher rate of global rejection (GR) – linked by previous literature to suicidal ideation – and a lower affective quality of the drawings emerged. We discuss the clinical importance of detecting psychological issues in dermatology patients by means of a multimethod assessment that goes beyond patients’ self-evaluation of their symptoms and emotions.

Download Full-text

Childhood Psychological Maltreatment and Depression among Chinese Adolescents: Multiple Mediating Roles of Perceived Ostracism and Core Self-Evaluation

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182111283 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (21) ◽

pp. 11283

Author(s):

Qiong Wang ◽

Ruilin Tu ◽

Wei Hu ◽

Xiao Luo ◽

Fengqing Zhao

Keyword(s):

Ecological Validity ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Chinese Adolescents ◽

Self Report ◽

Psychological Maltreatment ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Multiple Mediation ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

Core Self ◽

The Relationship

Previous studies have primarily focused on the separate mediating role of interpersonal context or personal characteristics in the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and depression, neglecting the combined effects, which have limited ecological validity. Therefore, this study investigated the multiple mediating roles of perceived ostracism and core self-evaluation in the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and depression. A total of 1592 Chinese adolescents (51.1% boys), ranging in age from 11 to 15 years (M = 13.23, SD = 0.96), completed a self-report questionnaire regarding demographics, psychological maltreatment, perceived ostracism, core self-evaluation and depression. A multiple mediation model was tested using Model 6 of the PROCESS macro. After controlling for the variables of gender and age, the results indicated that perceived ostracism and core self-evaluation parallelly and sequentially mediated the link between psychological maltreatment and depression. The multiple mediation model could account for 55% of the total effect. In conclusion, the current study helps us better understand the mechanisms of depression caused by psychological maltreatment, and contributes to preventing and intervening in depression among Chinese adolescents.

Download Full-text

The Self-Evaluation Scale–Self-Report (SES-S) Version

Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development ◽

10.1177/0748175616664011 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 074817561666401

Author(s):

Bradley T. Erford ◽

Gerta Bardhoshi ◽

Kelly Duncan ◽

Stephanie Voucas ◽

Emily Dewlin

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Self Report ◽

Self Evaluation

Download Full-text

Rabbits use both spectral and temporal cues to discriminate the fundamental frequency of harmonic complexes with missing fundamentals

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00366.2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph D Wagner ◽

Alice Gelman ◽

Kenneth E. Hancock ◽

Yoojin Chung ◽

Bertrand Delgutte

Keyword(s):

Fundamental Frequency ◽

Human Performance ◽

Spectral Composition ◽

Pitch Perception ◽

Wide Frequency Range ◽

Spatial Gradient ◽

Harmonic Complex ◽

Complex Tones ◽

Behavioral Paradigm ◽

Animal Vocalizations

The pitch of harmonic complex tones (HCT) common in speech, music and animal vocalizations plays a key role in the perceptual organization of sound. Unraveling the neural mechanisms of pitch perception requires animal models but little is known about complex pitch perception by animals, and some species appear to use different pitch mechanisms than humans. Here, we tested rabbits' ability to discriminate the fundamental frequency (F0) of HCTs with missing fundamentals using a behavioral paradigm inspired by foraging behavior in which rabbits learned to harness a spatial gradient in F0 to find the location of a virtual target within a room for a food reward. Rabbits were initially trained to discriminate HCTs with F0s in the range 400-800 Hz and with harmonics covering a wide frequency range (800-16,000 Hz), and then tested with stimuli differing either in spectral composition to test the role of harmonic resolvability (Experiment 1), or in F0 range (Experiment 2), or both F0 and spectral content (Experiment 3). Together, these experiments show that rabbits can discriminate HCTs over a wide F0 range (200-1600 Hz) encompassing the range of conspecific vocalizations, and can use either the spectral pattern of harmonics resolved by the cochlea for higher F0s or temporal envelope cues resulting from interaction between unresolved harmonics for lower F0s. The qualitative similarity of these results to human performance supports using rabbits as an animal model for studies of pitch mechanisms providing species differences in cochlear frequency selectivity and F0 range of vocalizations are taken into account.

Download Full-text