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Temporal Effects on Monaural Amplitude-Modulation Sensitivity in Ipsilateral, Contralateral and Bilateral Noise

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Abstract

The amplitude modulations (AMs) in speech signals are useful cues for speech recognition. Several adaptation mechanisms may make the detection of AM in noisy backgrounds easier when the AM carrier is presented later rather than earlier in the noise. The aim of the present study was to characterize temporal adaptation to noise in AM detection. AM detection thresholds were measured for monaural (50 ms, 1.5 kHz) pure-tone carriers presented at the onset (‘early’ condition) and 300 ms after the onset (‘late’ condition) of ipsilateral, contralateral, and bilateral (diotic) broadband noise, as well as in quiet. Thresholds were 2–4 dB better in the late than in the early condition for the three noise lateralities. The temporal effect held for carriers at equal sensation levels, confirming that it was not due to overshoot on carrier audibility. The temporal effect was larger for broadband than for low-band contralateral noises. Many aspects in the results were consistent with the noise activating the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) and enhancing AM depth in the peripheral auditory response. Other aspects, however, indicate that central masking and adaptation unrelated to the MOCR also affect both carrier-tone and AM detection and are involved in the temporal effects.

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Notes

  1. We note that the total duration of presentation for the three intervals was longer in the noise conditions (2200 ms = 400 ms per interval plus 500-ms for each of the two inter-interval time periods) than in quiet (1150 ms = 50 ms per interval plus 500-ms for each of the two inter-interval time periods). We have assumed that this difference did not affect the main results. Our assumption seems reasonable considering that (1) humans are able to store 7 ± 2 elements in short-term memory (Miller 1994), and this experiment required remembering only three elements to choose the odd one out; and (2) the main aim was to compare AM detection thresholds for the early and late conditions, for which the total duration of presentation was the same.

  2. We expected to see this BMLD because the detection threshold for a monaural pure tone embedded in noise improves when a contralateral correlated noise is added (e.g., Hirsh 1948; Blodgett et al. 1962). The mean BMLD in the present data was 2.8 dB, thus comparable with the BMLD at the same signal frequency (1.5 kHz) reported elsewhere for similar, albeit not identical, stimuli (Webster 1951).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the three anonymous reviewers and the editor for their excellent comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Work supported by a doctoral contract of the University of Salamanca and Banco Santander to MMP, and by FEDER and MINECO (BFU2015-65376-P) to EALP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y León, Universidad de Salamanca, Calle Pintor Fernando Gallego 1, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Miriam I. Marrufo-Pérez, Almudena Eustaquio-Martín & Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda

  2. Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Miriam I. Marrufo-Pérez, Almudena Eustaquio-Martín & Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda

  3. Departamento de Psicología Básica I (Procesos Básicos), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Luis E. López-Bascuas

  4. Departamento de Cirugía, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda

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  1. Miriam I. Marrufo-Pérez
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  2. Almudena Eustaquio-Martín
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Correspondence to Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda.

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Marrufo-Pérez, M.I., Eustaquio-Martín, A., López-Bascuas, L.E. et al. Temporal Effects on Monaural Amplitude-Modulation Sensitivity in Ipsilateral, Contralateral and Bilateral Noise. JARO 19, 147–161 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-018-0656-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-018-0656-x

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