Project

Discipline

human voice; limbic system; neural auditory system; vocal production; functional magnetic resonance imaging; hearing limits; neural network; psychoacoustics; auditory perception; vocal emotions

Lead
Das Projekt untersucht das menschliche Hören von wichtigen Umweltgeräuschen unter beeinträchtigten Umweltbedingungen, so etwa das Hören unter extremen Hintergrundgeräuschen.
Lay summary
AuditiveWahrnehmung und Kommunikation sind im täglichen Leben häufig mit erheblichenHerausforderungen konfrontiert. Projektteil A hat zum Ziel, die akustischen Wahrnehmungsfähigkeitenbei niedrigen Lautstärke zu untersuchen. Interessanterweise kann einangemessenes Rauschen die Wahrnehmung bei diesen niedrigen Intensitätspegelnverbessern (Projekt A1). Wir untersuchen deswegen in Projekt A3, ob bestimmteEffekte des Rauschens und zufällige Rauschschwankungen diesen Verbesserungseffektenzugrunde liegen könnten. Ziel ist es daher, die „stimmlichen“ Eigenschafteneiniger Lärmarten zu untersuchen. Projektteil B befasstsich mit der auditorischen Wahrnehmung in erheblichem Hintergrundrauschen. Datenvom Projekt B1 weisen darauf hin, dass der auditorische Kortex an der Erkennungvon Stimmen im HIntergrundrauschen beteiligt ist. Basierend auf diesen Datenstellen wir nun die Hypothese in Projekt B3 auf, dass bei Anwendung einesGehirnstimulationsverfahrens (i.e. Transkranielle Gleichstromstimulation, tDCS)auf den auditorischen Kortex Stimmen selbst unter stärksten Lärmbedingungen erkanntwerden kann. Projektteil C befasstsich mit den Bedingungen des Hörens von Vokalisationen anderer Personen,während der Hörer gleichzeitig selber Vokalisationen produziert. Der rechteauditorische Kortex separiert dabei die eigene Stimme von der Stimme andererPerson (Projekt C1). In Projekt C3 wollen wir nun die Auswirkungen der Hemmungdes rechten auditorischen Cortex unter Verwendung der transkraniellenMagnetstimulation (TMS) auf die Klassifizierung der Sprache einer anderenPerson untersuchen, während der Sprecher eigene Sprache produziert. DieErgebnisse werden starke Auswirkungen auf viele Bereiche der angewandtenWissenschaften haben (z.B. Hörgerätetechniken).

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.07.2019

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

Auditory perception and communication often face considerable challenges in daily life, such as hearing acoustic signals at low intensities (i.e. low loudness) or hearing signals in extremely noisy or in multi-speaker environments. Hearing under these conditions is a tightrope walk between the successful or unsuccessful perception of meaningful auditory information, which often can lead to serious social misunderstandings. In the proposal, I describe three challenges imposed on the auditory system. The proposed projects are based on and are a continuation of the projects in the original proposal. The first project part (Part A) originally aimed at investigating the perceptual abilities at the lowest level of loudness, which renders auditory objects nearly unperceivable. Interestingly, appropriate noise can improve perception at these low-intensity levels. The data acquired in project A1 indeed point to the possibility that certain noise can significantly improve the detection of nearly unperceivable voices. We accordingly now hypothesize if certain properties of noise and random noise fluctuation might underlie these effects. We thus aim at investigating the “voice-like” properties of some types of noise in project A3 that might facilitate the detection of voices under difficult hearing conditions. The second project part (Part B) originally dealt with auditory perception during considerable background noise. It included new experimental perspectives derived from machine-based algorithms of speech decoding, enabling us to understand how meaningful auditory objects and object features are singled out from noise. The data acquired in project B1 revealed that the auditory cortex is involved in detecting voices and vocal emotions in noise. We now hypothesize if using a brain stimulation method (i.e. transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS) applied to the auditory cortex, the auditory cortex might detect voices and vocal emotions at even under more severe noise conditions. The proposed project B3 thus aims at investigating how a stimulation of brain signal in the auditory cortex might facilitate voice-in-noise detection. The third project part (Part C) originally dealt with conditions of hearing vocalizations of other individuals while the listener simultaneously is producing vocalizations. This condition represents an enormous multitask challenge and introduces a competition between the production of self-vocalizations and the perception of the vocalizations of others. The data acquired in project C1 pointed to the fact that especially the right auditory cortex is involved in dealing with the condition that both the speakers own voice and the voice of another person was presented to the left ear of the speaker, while the speaker classified the speech of the other person. In the proposed project C3 we now aim at investigating the effects of temporally inhibiting the proper functioning of the right auditory cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on classifying speech of another person while the speaker produces own speech. Overall, the newly proposed projects would allow, first, a critical test of the ecological validity of hearing mechanisms by introducing well-known environmental challenges. Second, it will allow revealing new principles of auditory perception including some paradoxical effects in the auditory system that are not yet fully captured by common neurocognitive theories of auditory perception. Third, the results will have strong implications for many fields of applied sciences, such as for the development of hearing aid techniques and for digital voice technologies.