Dynamics of the formation of a differentiation track conditioned reflex to sound stimuli of a certain duration in the gray seal Halichoerus grypus Fabricius, 1791 by the methods of operant conditioning.

In the course of the study, a 15-year-old female gray seal was trained to press a button after displaying an audio signal for 5 seconds and ignore similar audio signals of longer or shorter duration. The conducted research has demonstrated the ability of the experimental seal to reliably differentiate sound signals with a difference in sound duration of 3 seconds. Changes in the reaction time and behavior of the seal during the demonstration of sound stimuli with distinguishable and indistinguishable time ranges are described.

The effect of background speech on attentive sound processing: A pupil dilation study

Everyday cognitive tasks are rarely performed in a quiet environment. Quite on the contrary, very diverse surrounding acoustic signals such as speech can involuntarily deviate our attention from the task at hand. Despite its tight relation to attentional processes, pupillometry remained a rather unexploited method to measure attention allocation towards irrelevant speech. In the present study, we registered changes in pupil diameter size to quantify the effect of meaningfulness of background speech upon performance in an attentional task. We recruited 41 native German speakers who had neither received formal instruction in French nor had extensive informal contact with this language. The focal task consisted of an auditory oddball task. Participants performed an animal sound duration discrimination task containing frequently repeated standard sounds and rarely presented deviant sounds while a story was read in German or (non-meaningful) French in the background. Our results revealed that, whereas effects of language meaningfulness on attention were not detectable at the behavioural level, participants’ pupil dilated more in response to the sounds of the auditory task when background speech was played in non-meaningful French compared to German, independent of sound type. This could suggest that semantic processing of the native language required attentional resources, which lead to fewer resources devoted to the processing of the sounds of the focal task. Our results highlight the potential of the pupil dilation response for the investigation of subtle cognitive processes that might not surface when only behaviour is measured.

Anadara granosa shell powder improves the metabolism, testosterone level, and sound frequency of Pelung chickens

Background and Aim: Pelung chickens make unique, pleasant, and rhythmic sounds in addition to having strong muscle mass. Performance is controlled by testosterone. A natural aromatase blocker is an agent capable of blocking the aromatase enzyme, which consequently prevents testosterone from being changed into estradiol. Such a condition results in consistently high testosterone levels. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the administration of the shell powder of Anadara granosa on the testosterone level, frequency and quality of sounds, and metabolism of Pelung chickens within set parameters of thyroid hormone levels, the triiodothyronine (T3)/thyroxine (T4) ratio, and weight gain. Materials and Methods: This study used four Pelung chickens aged 14 months. Control data consisted of data before treatment (day 0). Shell powder of A. granosa was administered for 56 days. Body weight (BW) was measured, and blood samples were drawn. In addition, the sounds from Pelung chickens were recorded once every 2 weeks on days 14, 28, 42, and 56. The blood samples were analyzed using the enzyme immunoassay method to determine testosterone, T3, and T4 levels. The sounds of Pelung chickens were recorded using the Hagemon touch method and analyzed using the Audacity application. Results: The results showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in the levels of testosterone, BW, and sound frequency after the administration of A. granosa shell powder, but the administration did not have a significant effect on the levels of T4 and T3 hormones (thyroid hormone), T3/T4 ratio, or sound duration. The testosterone content and BW of Pelung chickens increased from day 14 to day 56, whereas T3 was indicative of the same profile as the T4 hormone. However, T3 and T4 levels and the T3/T4 ratio decreased and increased, respectively. The sound frequency of Pelung chickens increased from day 0 to day 14, although sound duration decreased. Conclusion: The administration of A. granosa shell powder at 0.9 mg/kg BW orally could improve the metabolism, testosterone level, BW, and sound frequency of Pelung chickens.

Comparison of foot strike sound between rearfoot, midfoot and forefoot strike runners

Context: There are three common foot strike techniques in runners. Whether these techniques generate different sounds at the point of impact with the ground may influence lower limb kinetics. No previous studies have determined whether such relationships exist. Objectives: To determine foot-ground impact sound characteristics and to compare the impact sound characteristics across foot strike techniques and the relationships between impact sound characteristics and vertical loading rates. Design: Cross-sectional study Setting: Gait analysis laboratory Patients or Other Participants: Thirty runners (50% female, age=23.5±4.0 yrs, mass=58.1±8.2kg, height=1.67±0.1m) completed overground running trials with rearfoot strike (RFS), midfoot strike (MFS) and forefoot strike (FFS) techniques in a gait analysis laboratory. Main Outcome Measure(s): Impact sound was measured by a shotgun microphone and the peak sound amplitude, median frequency and sound duration were analysed. Separate linear regression, clustering participants repeated measures were used to compare the sound parameters across foot strike techniques. Kinetic data was collected from a force plate and the vertical loading rates were calculated. Pearson's correlation was used to determine relationship between sound characteristic and kinetics. Results: Landing with a MFS or FFS resulted in greater peak sound amplitude (ps&lt;0.001) and shorter sound duration (ps&lt;0.001) than RFS. MFS exhibited the highest median frequency among the three foot strike patterns, followed by FFS (ps&lt;0.001). We did not find a significant relationship between vertical loading rates and any impact sound parameters (ps&gt;0.115). Conclusions: The results suggest that impact sound characteristics may be used to differentiate foot strike patterns in runners. However, this did not relate to lower limb kinetics. Therefore, clinicians should not solely rely on impact sound to infer impact loading.

Bioacoustic analysis of a compound sound with stridulation and forced air produced by the larva of Phileurus valgus (Olivier, 1789) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Phileurini)

It was observed that Phileurus valgus larvae are capable to emit stridulation and forced air sound when disturbed, being able to emit a “compound sound”. Duration, frequencies, oscillograms, spectrograms of the sounds obtained are presented. The results obtained are compared with previous studies and the possible communicative or warning functions they may have in their natural environment when interacting with other larvae (other species) or their congeners (same species). The audios obtained in the study are shared.

Effects of tDCS on Sound Duration in Patients with Apraxia of Speech in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was found to improve oral and written naming in post-stroke and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), speech fluency in stuttering, a developmental speech-motor disorder, and apraxia of speech (AOS) symptoms in post-stroke aphasia. This paper addressed the question of whether tDCS over the left IFG coupled with speech therapy may improve sound duration in patients with apraxia of speech (AOS) symptoms in non-fluent PPA (nfvPPA/AOS) more than sham. Eight patients with non-fluent PPA/AOS received either active or sham tDCS, along with speech therapy for 15 sessions. Speech therapy involved repeating words of increasing syllable-length. Evaluations took place before, immediately after, and two months post-intervention. Words were segmented into vowels and consonants and the duration of each vowel and consonant was measured. Segmental duration was significantly shorter after tDCS compared to sham and tDCS gains generalized to untrained words. The effects of tDCS sustained over two months post-treatment in trained and untrained sounds. Taken together, these results demonstrate that tDCS over the left IFG may facilitate speech production by reducing segmental duration. The results provide preliminary evidence that tDCS may maximize efficacy of speech therapy in patients with nfvPPA/AOS.

Effects of tDCS on Sound Duration in Patients with Apraxia of Speech in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) was found to improve apraxia of speech (AOS) in post-stroke aphasia, speech fluency in adults who stutter, naming and spelling in primary progressive (PPA). This paper aims to determine whether tDCS over the left IFG coupled with AOS therapy improves speech fluency in patients with PPA more than sham. Eight patients with non-fluent PPA with AOS symptoms received either active or sham tDCS, along with speech therapy for 15 weekday sessions. Speech therapy consisted of repetition of increasing syllable-length words. Evaluations took place before, immediately after, and two months post-intervention. Words were segmented into vowels and consonants and the duration of each vowel and consonant was measured. Segmental duration was significantly shorter after tDCS than sham for both consonants and vowels. tDCS gains generalized to untrained words. The effects of tDCS sustained over two months post-treatment in trained words. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the tDCS over the left IFG facilitates speech production by reducing segmental duration. The results provide preliminary evidence that tDCS can maximize efficacy of speech therapy in non-fluent PPA with AOS.

Interactions between auditory statistics processing and visual experience emerge only in late development

SummaryThe auditory system relies on both detailed and summarized representations to recognize different sounds. As the amount of local features can exceed storage capacity, average statistics are computed over time to generate more compact representations at the expense of temporal details availability. It is unknown whether local features processing and statistical averaging are restricted to the auditory system or interact with other modalities, such as vision. To answer this question, we tested sighted (SC), congenitally blind (CB), and late-onset blind (LB) individuals in two auditory experiments: one relied on the availability of local features at specific time points; the other benefitted from computing average statistics over longer durations. SC performed as expected: when sound duration increased, detailed representation gave way to summary statistics. CB individuals showed similar patterns of behavior, revealing that auditory processing of local features, as well as statistical averaging, are not altered by absence of vision since birth. Surprisingly, interactions between auditory computations and sight emerge later in development: LB individuals performed poorly compared to both SC and, crucially, CB individuals. Only the performance relying on local features analysis was degraded, with no impact on statistical averaging. These results suggest that early development is characterized by the segregation between basic auditory computations and sight, while at later developmental phases a functional interplay between the access to local auditory details and availability of visual input emerges.