Comparative psychoacoustics

doi:10.1016/0378-5955(88)90009-3

Hearing Research

Volume 34, Issue 3, August 1988, Pages 295-305

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(88)90009-3 Get rights and content

Abstract

Psychophysical data on unsperialized mammals commonly used in auditory research were compiled from the literature, and an attempt was made to compare the hearing capacities of these species with man. Binaural hearing and sound localization were not considered. The most complete psychoacoustic data exist for chinchilla, cat, various primates, and the mouse. The existing data include audiograms, frequency and intensity discrimination thresholds, critical masking ratios, critical bandwidths, temporal summation functions at threshold, psychophysical tuning curves, gap detection thresholds, temporal modulation transfer functions, temporal discriminations, and auditory filter shapes. In general, the qualitative forms of most all psychoacoustic functions for these mammals are similar to those for man, and there is little reason to believe that the mechanisms underlying these capacities are different across mammals. Although the discriminative capacities of humans are generally more acute than those of non-humans, the database on the capacities of non-humans is not yet sufficient for systematic comparisons across species to be made with confidence.

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Humans have a very accurate ability to discriminate tones whose frequencies differ by only 0.2% around 1 kHz, where our ear is the most sensitive (Moore, 1973). Frequency selectivity fluctuates from 1 to 5% in other species (Fay, 1988), but such measurements are challenging to acquire and often depend on behavioral paradigms. The perceived intensity of a pure sound is reduced in the presence of a second sound (Fletcher, 1938).
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Anthropogenic noise pollution is an emerging global threat to fish populations. Among a suite of deleterious effects, noise can potentially impede reproductive success in some fishes by masking their mate advertisement vocalizations. Using the plainfin midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus, a marine toadfish that produces a distinctive ‘hum’ during courtship, we investigated how noise affects male vocalizations and spawning success in the wild. We recorded nesting males for 3 days and measured the frequency (i.e. pitch), amplitude and duration of their vocalizations before, during and after exposure to artificial noise (∼118 Hz tone). We also counted eggs in nests exposed to 10 days of artificial noise versus control nests that were not exposed to artificial noise. Males exposed to noise produced fewer vocalizations, reduced the frequency of vocalizations and increased the amplitude of their mating hum (Lombard effect). However, chronic artificial noise exposure did not significantly affect spawning success, suggesting that the Lombard effect allowed males to sustain clear advertisement signals when competing with a relatively weak artificial noise source. Future studies are needed to determine whether such vocal adjustments incur costs for males, and how common anthropogenic noises, such as boat engines, affect spawning and reproductive success.
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A fundamental principle of biology is that each species’ and individual’s sensory systems are tailored to meet the demands placed upon them by their environments and experiences. Accordingly, auditory systems across different species exhibit distinctive upper and lower limits for the frequency range of hearing (Fay, 1988; Heffner and Heffner, 2007; Heffner, 2004; Masterton et al., 1969). The audible frequency range for humans spans approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
Extended high frequencies (EHF), above 8 kHz, represent a region of the human hearing spectrum that is generally ignored by clinicians and researchers alike. This article is a compilation of contributions that, together, make the case for an essential role of EHF in both normal hearing and auditory dysfunction. We start with the fundamentals of biological and acoustic determinism – humans have EHF hearing for a purpose, for example, the detection of prey, predators, and mates. EHF hearing may also provide a boost to speech perception in challenging conditions and its loss, conversely, might help explain difficulty with the same task. However, it could be that EHF are a marker for damage in the conventional frequency region that is more related to speech perception difficulties. Measurement of EHF hearing in concert with otoacoustic emissions could provide an early warning of age-related hearing loss. In early life, when EHF hearing sensitivity is optimal, we can use it for enhanced phonetic identification during language learning, but we are also susceptible to diseases that can prematurely damage it. EHF audiometry techniques and standardization are reviewed, providing evidence that they are reliable to measure and provide important information for early detection, monitoring and possible prevention of hearing loss in populations at-risk. To better understand the full contribution of EHF to human hearing, clinicians and researchers can contribute by including its measurement, along with measures of speech in noise and self-report of hearing difficulties and tinnitus in clinical evaluations and studies.
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Different species have distinctive upper and lower limits to the frequency range of hearing (Fay, 1988; Heffner and Heffner, 2007; Heffner, 2004; Masterton et al., 1969), each presumably tailored to enable reproductive success according to the environmental demands for that species.
A fundamental principle of neuroscience is that each species' and individual's sensory systems are tailored to meet the demands placed upon them by their environments and experiences. What has driven the upper limit of the human frequency range of hearing? The traditional view is that sensitivity to the highest frequencies (i.e., beyond 8 kHz) facilitates localization of sounds in the environment. However, this has yet to be demonstrated for naturally occurring non-speech sounds. An alternative view is that, for social species such as humans, the biological relevance of conspecific vocalizations has driven the development and retention of auditory system features. Here, we provide evidence for the latter theory. We evaluated the contribution of extended high-frequency (EHF) hearing to common ecological speech perception tasks. We found that restricting access to EHFs reduced listeners' discrimination of talker head orientation by approximately 34%. Furthermore, access to EHFs significantly improved speech recognition under listening conditions in which the target talker's head was facing the listener while co-located background talkers faced away from the listener. Our findings raise the possibility that sensitivity to the highest audio frequencies fosters communication and socialization of the human species. These findings suggest that loss of sensitivity to the highest frequencies may lead to deficits in speech perception. Such EHF hearing loss typically goes undiagnosed, but is widespread among the middle-aged population.
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Bats are navigation super-performers, flying at high speed through nocturnal forests. Numerous field observations and formal experiments have impressively shown how well bats tackle navigation in 3D with biosonar, i.e., the auditory analysis of self-generated ultrasonic emissions [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. However, unlike in the visual system, where space is explicitly coded at very high resolution in the retinal fovea, the inner ear encodes frequency and time, not space. Spatial attributes of echoes are represented in the space-dependent filtering of the bats’ pinnae [8, 9] and binaural computations, like interaural time and level differences [10, 11], as first proposed by Lord Rayleigh [12]. Remarkably, Rayleigh also provided a clear definition of spatial resolution: based on the shape of optical diffraction patterns arising from two closely spaced light sources, Rayleigh defined resolution as the capability to detect a trough in their joint light diffraction patterns [13, 14]. Here, we recruit Rayleigh’s classical resolution paradigm to quantify how well bats can resolve multiple simultaneously presented reflectors in space. We show that biosonar spatial resolution in azimuth is no better than about 80° compared to a human visual resolution down to 0.02° [14]. We suggest that bats compensate this effective lack of spatial resolution by sequentially probing their environment in flight. Our data show that low-resolution environment perception is a viable alternative to high-resolution vision to support intelligent behavior in complex environments.
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Therefore, we suggest that similarities in frequency-specific filter effects may emerge if the species’ audible range is taken into account. In evaluating an animal's utility as a model for human hearing, one needs a basic understanding of the animal's psychophysical auditory abilities, such as frequency selectivity (Fay, 1988). One previous review suggests that small laboratory animals, such as mice (Ehret, 1976), rats (Gourevitch, 1965), chinchillas (Niemiec et al., 1992), and cats (Nienhuys and Clark, 1979; Pickles, 1979), have broader auditory filters than humans (see Fig. 8 in Fay, 1988), which may implicate an evolutionary aspect of frequency selectivity.
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Comparative psychoacoustics

Abstract

Hear. Res.

Hear. Res.

Hear. Res.

Am. J. Otolaryngol.

Hear. Res.

Comparison of hearing thresholds and morphological changes in the chinchilla after exposure to 4 kHz tones

Acta Otolaryngol.

Hearing in the owl monkey (Aotus rivirgatus): Auditory sensitivity

J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol.

Pure tone thresholds of the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus)

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

A revised critical band hypothesis

Temporal integration in two species of Old World monkeys: Blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and grey-cheeked mangabeys (Cercocebus albigena)

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Cochlear damage: Audiometric correlates

Noise-induced hearing loss in the chinchilla, as determined by a positive-reinforcement technique

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Broadband masking noise and behavioral pure tone thresholds in cats

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Comparison between AER and behavioral thresholds in normally and abnormally hearing chinchillas

Ear Hear.

Age-dependent hearing loss in normal hearing mice

Naturwissenschaften

Frequency and intensity difference limens and nonlinearities in the ear of the housemouse (Mus musculus)

J. Comp. Physiol.

Temporal summation for pure tones and white noise in the house mouse (Mus musculus)

J. Acoust Soc. Am.

Masked auditory thresholds, critical ratios, and scales of the basilar membrane of the housemouse (Mus musculus)

J. Comp. Physiol.

Effects of cochlear lesions on audiograms and intensity discrimination in cats

Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol.

Determination of Absolute-intensity thresholds and frequency difference thresholds in cats

J. Acoust Soc. Am.

Auditory Frequency discrimination in vertebrates

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Temporal gap detection in noise as a function of frequency, bandwidth, and level

J. Acoust Soc. Am.

Gap detection by the chinchilla

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Auditory masking in the rat

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Detectability of tones in quiet and in noise by rats and monkeys

Directional hearing in terrestrial mammals

Aspects of psychoacoustics in non-human primates

Auditory masking and the critical band

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Auditory intensity discrimination in the rat

J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol.

Auditory filter shapes in the chinchilla

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.