Stefanics_FENS2008
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Standard 175 Hz Deviant 175 Hz What is auditory temporal grouping? Pattern formation based on detection of repeating pitch patterns, i.e., to form groups from a short sequence of sounds. The ability to detect repeating pitch patterns, i.e., to form groups from a short sequence of sounds, underlies skills that are crucial for making sense of the complex acoustic input (i.e., the analysis of the auditory scene; Bregman, 1990), form auditory objects, and to learn speech and music. Higher-level auditory skills in newborn infants a Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; b Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary; c Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; d First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; e Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; f Department of Pediatrics, Lund University, Sweden; g Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge; h Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, University of Plymouth; i Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, University of Pécs, Hungary Corresponding author: Gábor Stefanics, email: [email protected] Gábor Stefanics a,i , Gábor Háden a,b , Minna Huotilainen c , László Balázs a , István Sziller d , Anna Beke d , Vineta Fellman e,f , Martin D. Vestergaard g , Susan L. Denham h , István Winkler a EXPERIMENT 1. Auditory temporal grouping in sleeping newborn infants RESULTS. I n s t i t u t e f o r P s y c h o l o g y o f t h e H u n g a ri a n A c a d e m y o f S c ie n c e s REFERENCES. [1] Bregman AS. (1990) Auditory Scene Analysis: The Perceptual Organization of Sound. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. [2] Stefanics G., Háden G., Huotilainen M., Balázs L., Sziller I., Beke A., Fellman V., Winkler I. (2007) Auditory temporal grouping in newborn infants. Psychophysiology, 44, 697–702. [3] Háden GP., Stefanics G., Vestergaard MD., Denham SL., Sziller I., Winkler I. (2008) Timbre-independent extraction of pitch in newborn infants. Psychophysiology (accepted) [4] Edwards E., Soltani M., Deouell LY, Berger MS., Knight RT. (2005) High gamma activity in response to deviant auditory stimuli recorded directly from human cortex. J. Neurophysiol., 94, 4269-4280. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Supported by the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme (EmCAP-Emergent Cognition through Active Perception, contract no.: 013123). DISCUSSION. EXPERIMENT 2. Timbre-independent extraction of pitch in sleeping newborn infants Paradigm Paradigm ...AAAABAAAABAAAABAAAAB... ...ABABAAAAABAABAAAABAA... Random condition Grouped condition The ability to separate pitch from other spectral sound features, such as timbre, is an important prerequisite of veridical auditory perception underlying speech acquisition and music cognition. Here we investigated whether or not newborn infants generalize pitch across different timbres. Experimental setup Hypothesis In the „Random Condition”, „B” tones are expected to be processed differently from the „A” tones, because they appear less often (20%) and thus break the repetition of the „A” tone. In the Grouped condition, if the repetition of the AAAAB pattern is detected, then no difference (MMN) is expected because the AAAAB pattern then becomes the unit of perception and thus the „B” tone does not break the emerging higher-order regularity. Mismatch Negativity elicited by deviant and identical control sounds RESULTS. Hypothesis If the neonate auditory system extracts pitch information independently of the resonator size, then occasional pitch deviants will be detected, eliciting the mismatch negativity (MMN) response. If, however, pitch and timbre (resonator size) are not processed separately by newborns, then pitch deviants will not be detected and no MMN will be observed. That is, if pitch repetition is not detected and, because no individual sound appears sufficiently often in the sequence to allow the formation of holistic sound-repetition regularity, then the „pitch-deviant” sounds do not violate any detected regularity in the sequence and, therefore, will not trigger differential processing in the neonate auditory system. Event-Related Spectral Perturbations (ERSP) Both event-related brain potentials and gamma-band activity differed between the „S” and „D” tones in the Random Condition but not in the Grouped Condition. These results suggest that in the Grouped Condition, the „S” and „D” tones were processed as part of the same higher-order regularity by the neonate auditory system. Also, for the first time, we observed oscillatory gamma-band activity in neonates, which was sensitive to infrequent pitch changes [2]. „A” Base frequency: 500 Hz „B” Base frequency: 612 Hz 50 ms long tones at 75 dB SPL 100 ms SOA 139 Hz (C#3) 175 Hz (F3) Time Frequency 7 Resonator size variants ~Timbre 545 ms long notes at 75 dB SPL 750 ms SOA We found significant differences between the ERP responses elicited by deviant- and control sounds of identical pitch while resonator size was varied. Our results showed that, despite variation in timbre (resonator size), the neonate auditory system extracted pitch invariance from the sound sequences and detected sounds, which deviated from the common pitch. The ability of the neonate auditory system to form groups from a short sequence of sounds is an important prerequisite of forming auditory objects. it underlies higher-level operations, such as categorization, ultimately enabling infants to learn to speak or understand music. The ERPs and gamma-band responses obtained in this study show that the neonate auditory system is sensitive to the large-scale structure of a sound sequence and that the sequential context can determine the way individual sounds are processed in the newborn brain. The ERSP findings suggest that, similarly to adults [4], newborn infants show gamma-band oscillatory activity, which is sensitive to stimulus probability. DISCUSSION. Event-Related Spectral Perturbations (ERSP) ERPs elicited by deviant and identical control sounds The elicitation of an early negative and a later positive discriminative ERP response by deviant sounds demonstrated that the neonate auditory system represents pitch separately from timbre, thus showing advanced pitch processing capabilities. Pitch processing is a necessary prerequisite of normal speech development, including the perception of prosody and emotional contents, speaker identification, and music perception. The current results demonstrate the existence of advanced pitch-related processing in newborn infants and they suggest that separate representation of a pitch-like feature exists at birth. D-S 175 Hz Like in our previous study [2] we found significantly higher gamma-band activity for deviants than for standards, showing that gamma activity is sensitive to rare changes in pitch even when timbre varies randomly in the stimulus sequence.
description
Stefanics_FENS2008
Transcript of Stefanics_FENS2008
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Standard 175 Hz
Deviant 175 Hz
What is auditory temporal grouping?
Pattern formation based on detection of repeating pitch patterns, i.e., to form groups from a short sequence of sounds. The ability to detect repeating pitch patterns, i.e., to form groups from a short sequence of sounds, underlies skills that are crucial for making sense of the complex acoustic input (i.e., the analysis of the auditory scene; Bregman, 1990), form auditory objects, and to learn speech and music.
Higher-level auditory skills in newborn infants
a Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; b Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary; c Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; d First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; e Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; f Department of Pediatrics, Lund University, Sweden; g Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge; h Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, University of Plymouth; i Department of Experimental Zoology and
Neurobiology, University of Pcs, Hungary
Corresponding author: Gbor Stefanics, email: [email protected]
Gbor Stefanicsa,i, Gbor Hdena,b, Minna Huotilainenc, Lszl Balzsa, Istvn Szillerd, Anna Beked,
Vineta Fellmane,f, Martin D. Vestergaardg, Susan L. Denhamh, Istvn Winklera
EXPERIMENT 1.
Auditory temporal grouping in sleeping newborn infants
RESULTS.
Institut
e fo
r Psy
chol
ogy o
f the Hungarian Academ
y of Sciences
REFERENCES.[1] Bregman AS. (1990) Auditory Scene Analysis: The Perceptual Organization of Sound. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
[2] Stefanics G., Hden G., Huotilainen M., Balzs L., Sziller I., Beke A., Fellman V., Winkler I. (2007) Auditory temporal grouping in newborn infants. Psychophysiology, 44, 697702.
[3] Hden GP., Stefanics G., Vestergaard MD., Denham SL., Sziller I., Winkler I. (2008) Timbre-independent extraction of pitch in newborn infants. Psychophysiology (accepted)
[4] Edwards E., Soltani M., Deouell LY, Berger MS., Knight RT. (2005) High gamma activity in response to deviant auditory stimuli recorded directly from human cortex. J. Neurophysiol., 94, 4269-4280.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Supported by the European Commissions 6th Framework Programme (EmCAP-Emergent Cognition through Active Perception, contract no.: 013123).
DISCUSSION.
EXPERIMENT 2.
Timbre-independent extraction of pitch in sleeping newborn infants
Paradigm
Paradigm
...AAAABAAAABAAAABAAAAB...
...ABABAAAAABAABAAAABAA...Random conditionGrouped condition
The ability to separate pitch from other spectral sound features, such as timbre, is an important prerequisite of veridical auditory perception underlying speech acquisition and music cognition. Here we investigated whether or not newborn infants generalize pitch across different timbres.
Experimental setup
HypothesisIn the Random Condition, B tones are expected to be processed differently from the A tones, because they appear less often (20%) and thus break the repetition of the A tone.In the Grouped condition, if the repetition of the AAAAB pattern is detected, then no difference (MMN) is expected because the AAAAB pattern then becomes the unit of perception and thus the B tone does not break the emerging higher-order regularity.
Mismatch Negativity elicited by deviantand identical control sounds
RESULTS.
HypothesisIf the neonate auditory system extracts pitch information independently of the resonator size, then occasional pitch deviants will be detected, eliciting the mismatch negativity (MMN) response. If, however, pitch and timbre (resonator size) are not processed separately by newborns, then pitch deviants will not be detected and no MMN will be observed. That is, if pitch repetition is not detected and, because no individual sound appears sufficiently often in the sequence to allow the formation of holistic sound-repetition regularity, then the pitch-deviantsounds do not violate any detected regularity in the sequence and, therefore, will not trigger differential processing in the neonate auditory system.
Eve
nt-
Rel
ated
Spec
tral
Per
turb
atio
ns
(ERSP)
Both event-related brain potentials and gamma-band activity differed between the S and D tones in the Random Condition but not in the Grouped Condition. These results suggest that in the Grouped Condition, the S and D tones were processed as part of the same higher-order regularity by the neonate auditory system. Also, for the first time, we observed oscillatory gamma-band activity in neonates, which was sensitive to infrequent pitch changes [2].
A Base frequency: 500 HzB Base frequency: 612 Hz
50 ms long tonesat 75 dB SPL100 ms SOA
139 Hz (C#3)
175 Hz (F3)
Time
Freq
uen
cy
7 Resonator size variants ~Timbre
545 ms long notesat 75 dB SPL750 ms SOA
We found significant differences between the ERP responses elicited by deviant- and control sounds of identical pitch while resonator size was varied. Our results showed that, despite variation in timbre (resonator size), the neonate auditory system extracted pitch invariance from the sound sequences and detected sounds, which deviated from the common pitch.
The ability of the neonate auditory system to form groups from a short sequence of sounds is an important prerequisite of forming auditory objects. it underlies higher-level operations, such as categorization, ultimately enabling infants to learn to speak or understand music.
The ERPs and gamma-band responses obtained in this study show that the neonate auditory system is sensitive to the large-scale structure of a sound sequence and that the sequential context can determine the way individual sounds are processed in the newborn brain. The ERSP findings suggest that, similarly to adults [4], newborn infants show gamma-band oscillatory activity, which is sensitive to stimulus probability.
DISCUSSION.
Eve
nt-
Rel
ated
Spec
tral
Per
turb
atio
ns
(ERSP)
ERPs elicited by deviant and identical control sounds
The elicitation of an early negative and a later positive discriminative ERP response by deviant sounds demonstrated that the neonate auditory system represents pitch separately from timbre, thus showing advanced pitch processing capabilities.
Pitch processing is a necessary prerequisite of normal speech development, including the perception of prosody and emotional contents, speaker identification, and music perception. The current results demonstrate the existence of advanced pitch-related processing in newborn infants and they suggest that separate representation of a pitch-like feature exists at birth.
D-S 175 Hz
Like in our previous study [2] we found significantly higher gamma-band activity for deviants than for standards, showing that gamma activity is sensitive to rare changes in pitch even when timbre varies randomly in the stimulus sequence.
