A review of the generalization of auditory learning

The ability to detect and discriminate attributes of sounds improves with practice. Determining how such auditory learning generalizes to stimuli and tasks that are not encountered during training can guide the development of training regimens used to improve hearing abilities in particular populations as well as provide insight into the neural mechanisms mediating auditory performance. Here we review the newly emerging literature on the generalization of auditory learning, focusing on behavioural investigations of generalization on basic auditory tasks in human listeners. The review reveals a variety of generalization patterns across different trained tasks that can not be summarized with a simple rule, and a diversity of views about the definition, evaluation and interpretation of generalization.     

Multisensory spatial perception in visually impaired infants

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A blueprint for vocal learning: auditory predispositions from brains to genomes

Memorizing and producing complex strings of sound are requirements for spoken human language. We share these behaviours with likely more than 4000 species of songbirds, making birds our primary model for studying the cognitive basis of vocal learning and, more generally, an important model for how memories are encoded in the brain. In songbirds, as in humans, the sounds that a juvenile learns later in life depend on auditory memories formed early in development. Experiments on a wide variety of songbird species suggest that the formation and lability of these auditory memories, in turn, depend on auditory predispositions that stimulate learning when a juvenile hears relevant, species-typical sounds. We review evidence that variation in key features of these auditory predispositions are determined by variation in genes underlying the development of the auditory system. We argue that increased investigation of the neuronal basis of auditory predispositions expressed early in life in combination with modern comparative genomic approaches may provide insights into the evolution of vocal learning.     

Representation of complex vocalizations in the Lusitanian toadfish auditory system: evidence of fine temporal,frequency and amplitude discrimination

Many fishes rely on their auditory skills to interpret crucial information about predators and prey, and to communicate intraspecifically. Few studies, however, have examined how complex natural sounds are perceived in fishes. We investigated the representation of conspecific mating and agonistic calls in the auditory system of the Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus, and analysed auditory responses to heterospecific signals from ecologically relevant species: a sympatric vocal fish (meagre Argyrosomus regius) and a potential predator (dolphin Tursiops truncatus). Using auditory evoked potential (AEP) recordings, we showed that both sexes can resolve fine features of conspecific calls. The toadfish auditory system was most sensitive to frequencies well represented in the conspecific vocalizations (namely the mating boatwhistle), and revealed a fine representation of duration and pulsed structure of agonistic and mating calls. Stimuli and corresponding AEP amplitudes were highly correlated, indicating an accurate encoding of amplitude modulation. Moreover, Lusitanian toadfish were able to detect T. truncatus foraging sounds and A. regius calls, although at higher amplitudes. We provide strong evidence that the auditory system of a vocal fish, lacking accessory hearing structures, is capable of resolving fine features of complex vocalizations that are probably important for intraspecific communication and other relevant stimuli from the auditory scene.     

Use of auditory learning to manage listening problems in children

This paper reviews recent studies that have used adaptive auditory training to address communication problems experienced by some children in their everyday life. It considers the auditory contribution to developmental listening and language problems and the underlying principles of auditory learning that may drive further refinement of auditory learning applications. Following strong claims that language and listening skills in children could be improved by auditory learning, researchers have debated what aspect of training contributed to the improvement and even whether the claimed improvements reflect primarily a retest effect on the skill measures. Key to understanding this research have been more circumscribed studies of the transfer of learning and the use of multiple control groups to examine auditory and non-auditory contributions to the learning. Significant auditory learning can occur during relatively brief periods of training. As children mature, their ability to train improves, but the relation between the duration of training, amount of learning and benefit remains unclear. Individual differences in initial performance and amount of subsequent learning advocate tailoring training to individual learners. The mechanisms of learning remain obscure, especially in children, but it appears that the development of cognitive skills is of at least equal importance to the refinement of sensory processing. Promotion of retention and transfer of learning are major goals for further research.     

On the fundamental nature of perception

The process of recognition or isolation of one or several entities from among many possible entities is termed intellego perception. It is shown that not only are many of our everyday percepts of this type, but perception of microscopic events using the methods of quantum mechanics are also intellego in nature. Information theory seems to be a natural language in which to express perceptual activity of this type. It is argued that the biological organism quantifies its sensations using an information theoretical measure. This, in turn, sets the stage for a mathematical theory of sensory perception.     

Reverse hierarchies and sensory learning

Revealing the relationships between perceptual representations in the brain and mechanisms of adult perceptual learning is of great importance, potentially leading to significantly improved training techniques both for improving skills in the general population and for ameliorating deficits in special populations. In this review, we summarize the essentials of reverse hierarchy theory for perceptual learning in the visual and auditory modalities and describe the theory's implications for designing improved training procedures, for a variety of goals and populations.     

Neural modulation in inferior colliculus and central auditory plasticity

The neural modulation in central auditory system plays an important role in perception and processing of sound signal and auditory cognition. The inferior colliculus (IC) is both a relay station in central auditory pathway and a sub-cortical auditory center doing the sound signal processing. IC is also modulated by the descending projections from the cortex and auditory thalamus, medial geniculate body, and these neural modulations not only can affect ongoing sound signal processing but can also induce plastic changes in IC.     

On the cyclic nature of perception in vision versus audition

Does our perceptual awareness consist of a continuous stream, or a discrete sequence of perceptual cycles, possibly associated with the rhythmic structure of brain activity? This has been a long-standing question in neuroscience. We review recent psychophysical and electrophysiological studies indicating that part of our visual awareness proceeds in approximately 7–13 Hz cycles rather than continuously. On the other hand, experimental attempts at applying similar tools to demonstrate the discreteness of auditory awareness have been largely unsuccessful. We argue and demonstrate experimentally that visual and auditory perception are not equally affected by temporal subsampling of their respective input streams: video sequences remain intelligible at sampling rates of two to three frames per second, whereas audio inputs lose their fine temporal structure, and thus all significance, below 20–30 samples per second. This does not mean, however, that our auditory perception must proceed continuously. Instead, we propose that audition could still involve perceptual cycles, but the periodic sampling should happen only after the stage of auditory feature extraction. In addition, although visual perceptual cycles can follow one another at a spontaneous pace largely independent of the visual input, auditory cycles may need to sample the input stream more flexibly, by adapting to the temporal structure of the auditory inputs.     

Developmental shifts in gene expression in the auditory forebrain during the sensitive period for song learning

A male zebra finch begins to learn to sing by memorizing a tutor's song during a sensitive period in juvenile development. Tutor song memorization requires molecular signaling within the auditory forebrain. Using microarray and in situ hybridizations, we tested whether the auditory forebrain at an age just before tutoring expresses a different set of genes compared with later life after song learning has ceased. Microarray analysis revealed differences in expression of thousands of genes in the male auditory forebrain at posthatch day 20 (P20) compared with adulthood. Furthermore, song playbacks had essentially no impact on gene expression in P20 auditory forebrain, but altered expression of hundreds of genes in adults. Most genes that were song‐responsive in adults were expressed at constitutively high levels at P20. Using in situ hybridization with a representative sample of 44 probes, we confirmed these effects and found that birds at P20 and P45 were similar in their gene expression patterns. Additionally, eight of the probes showed male–female differences in expression. We conclude that the developing auditory forebrain is in a very different molecular state from the adult, despite its relatively mature gross morphology and electrophysiological responsiveness to song stimuli. Developmental gene expression changes may contribute to fine‐tuning of cellular and molecular properties necessary for song learning. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 2009     

Vocal-auditory functions in the chimpanzee: Vowel perception

The perception of vowels was studied in chimpanzees and humans, using a reaction time task in which reaction times for discrimination of vowels were taken as an index of similarity between vowels. Vowels used were five synthetic and natural Japanese vowels and eight natural French vowels. The chimpanzees required long reaction times for discrimination of synthetic [i] from [u] and [e] from [o], that is, they need long latencies for discrimination between vowels based on differences in frequency of the second formant. A similar tendency was observed for discrimination of natural [i] from [u]. The human subject required long reaction times for discrimination between vowels along the first formant axis. These differences can be explained by differences in auditory sensitivity between the two species and the motor theory of speech perception. A vowel, which is pronounced by different speakers, has different acoustic properties. However, humans can perceive these speech sounds as the same vowel. The phenomenon of perceptual constancy in speech perception was studied in chimpanzees using natural vowels and a synthetic [o]- [a] continuum. The chimpanzees ignored the difference in the sex of the speakers and showed a capacity for vocal tract normalization.     

听觉皮层信号处理

听觉系统和视觉系统的不同之处在于：听觉系统在外周感受器和听皮层间具有更长的皮层下通路和更多的突触联系。该特殊结构反应了听觉系统从复杂听觉环境中提取与行为相关信号的机制与其他感觉系统不同。听皮层神经信号处理包括两种重要的转换机制,声音信号的非同构转换以及从声音感受到知觉层面的转换。听觉皮层神经编码机制同时也受到听觉反馈和语言或发声过程中发声信号的调控。听觉神经科学家和生物医学工程师所面临的挑战便是如何去理解大脑中这些转换的编码机制。我将会用我实验室最近的一些发现来阐述听觉信号是如何在原听皮层中进行处理的,并讨论其对于言语和音乐在大脑中的处理机制以及设计神经替代装置诸如电子耳蜗的意义。我们使用了结合神经电生理技术和量化工程学的方法来研究这些问题。     

Vowel and formant representation in the human auditory speech cortex

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A songbird forebrain area potentially involved in auditory discrimination and memory formation

Songbirds rely on auditory processing of natural communication signals for a number of social behaviors,including mate selection,individual recognition and the rare behavior of vocal learning - the ability to learn vocalizations through imitation of an adult model,rather than by instinct.Like mammals,songbirds possess a set of interconnected ascending and descending auditory brain pathways that process acoustic information and that are presumably involved in the perceptual processing of vocal communication signals.Most auditory areas studied to date are located in the caudomedial forebrain of the songbird and include the thalamo-recipient field L (sub fields L1,L2 and L3),the caudomedial and caudolateral mesopallium (CMM and CLM,respectively) and the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM). This review focuses on NCM,an auditory area previously proposed to be analogous to parts of the primary auditory cortex in mammals.Stimulation of songbirds with auditory stimuli drives vigorous electrophysiological responses and the expression of several activity-regulated genes in NCM.Interestingly,NCM neurons are tuned to species-specific songs and undergo some forms of experience-dependent plasticity in-vivo .These activity-dependent changes may underlie long-term modifications in the functional performance of NCM and constitute a potential neural substrate for auditory discrimination.We end this review by discussing evidence that suggests that NCM may be a site of auditory memory formation and/or storage.     

Contributions of infant word learning to language development

Infants learn the forms of words by listening to the speech they hear. Though little is known about the degree to which these forms are meaningful for young infants, the words still play a role in early language development. Words guide the infant to his or her first syntactic intuitions, aid in the development of the lexicon, and, it is proposed, may help infants learn phonetic categories.     

Testing the importance of auditory detections in avian point counts

ABSTRACT.   Recent advances in the methods used to estimate detection probability during point counts suggest that the detection process is shaped by the types of cues available to observers. For example, models of the detection process based on distance-sampling or time-of-detection methods may yield different results for auditory versus visual cues because of differences in the factors that affect the transmission of these cues from a bird to an observer or differences in an observer's ability to localize cues. Previous studies suggest that auditory detections predominate in forested habitats, but it is not clear how often observers hear birds prior to detecting them visually. We hypothesized that auditory cues might be even more important than previously reported, so we conducted an experiment in a forested habitat in North Carolina that allowed us to better separate auditory and visual detections. Three teams of three observers each performed simultaneous 3-min unlimited-radius point counts at 30 points in a mixed-hardwood forest. One team member could see, but not hear birds, one could hear, but not see, and the third was nonhandicapped. Of the total number of birds detected, 2.9% were detected by deafened observers, 75.1% by blinded observers, and 78.2% by nonhandicapped observers. Detections by blinded and nonhandicapped observers were the same only 54% of the time. Our results suggest that the detection of birds in forest habitats is almost entirely by auditory cues. Because many factors affect the probability that observers will detect auditory cues, the accuracy and precision of avian point count estimates are likely lower than assumed by most field ornithologists.