Physiological correlates of masking release

Authors

  • Hyojin Kim Hearing Systems Section, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
  • Bastian Epp Hearing Systems Section, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract

Masking release is one example of auditory object segregation where the masked threshold of a target sound decreases in the presence of beneficial cues. Two such cues are comodulation and interaural phase disparity (IPD) underlying the phenomena of comodulation masking release (CMR) and binaural masking level difference (BMLD) respectively. While the effect of these cues have been shown in behavioral studies, little is known about the underlying physiological mechanisms of masking release. In this study, we postulated an ”internal signal-to-noise ratio (iSNR)” that reflects neuronal representation of a masked tone. As the proxy for iSNR, we investigated the applicability of late auditory evoked potentials (LAEPs). We added an onset asynchrony cue with comodulation and IPD cues. Results showed that onset asynchrony had a negative effect on CMR while it did not affect BMLD. The P2 component of the vertex LAEPs was suggested to be an objective measure of iSNR. This will provide us information about whether temporal contexts affect the neuronal representation of CMR and BMLD at the level of the auditory cortex.

References

Dau, T., Ewert, S. D., and Oxenham, A. J. (2005), “Effects of concurrent and sequential streaming in comodulation masking release,” Auditory signal processing (Springer), 334–342.
Epp, B., Yasin, I., and Verhey, J. L. (2013), “Objective measures of binaural masking level differences and comodulation masking release based on late auditory evoked potentials,” Hear. Res., 306, 21–28.
Ewert, S. D. (2013), “AFC—A modular framework for running psychoacoustic experiments and computational perception models,” Proc. AIA-DAGA, 1326– 1329.
Fletcher, H. (1940), “Auditory patterns,” Rev. Mod. Phys., 12(1), 47.
Grose, J. H., Buss, E., and Hall III, J. W. (2009), “Within-and across-channel factors in the multiband comodulation masking release paradigm,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 125(1), 282–293.
Jiang, D., McAlpine, D., and Palmer, A. R. (1997), “Responses of neurons in the inferior colliculus to binaural masking level difference stimuli measured by rate-versus-level functions,” J Neurophysiol., 77(6), 3085–3106.
Levitt, H. (1971), “Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 49(2B), 467–477.
Oostenveld, R., Fries, P., Maris, E., and Schoffelen, J.-M. (2011), “FieldTrip: Open source software for advanced analysis of MEG, EEG, and invasive electrophysiological data,” Comput. Intel. Neuroscience., 2011, 1–9.
Pressnitzer, D., Meddis, R., Delahaye, R., and Winter, I. M. (2001), “Physiological correlates of comodulation masking release in the mammalian ventral cochlear nucleus,” J. Neurosci., 21(16), 6377–6386.
Riedel, H., Granzow, M., and Kollmeier, B. (2001), “Single-sweep-based methods to improve the quality of auditory brain stem responses Part II: Averaging methods,” Zeitschrift fur Audiologie, 40(2), 62–85.
Verhey, J. L., Ernst, S. M., and Yasin, I. (2012), “Effects of sequential streaming on auditory masking using psychoacoustics and auditory evoked potentials,” Hear. Res., 285(1-2), 77–85.

Additional Files

Published

2020-04-30

How to Cite

Kim, H., & Epp, B. (2020). Physiological correlates of masking release. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 7, 453–460. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2019-53

Issue

Section

2019/5. Other topics in auditory and audiological research