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Binaural and spatial hearing
Published in Stanley A. Gelfand, Hearing, 2017
Before proceeding to the question of directional hearing, let us consider the different but related issue of how we differentiate among the many sounds that surround us at any particular time. One very familiar experience of this kind is the aptly named cocktail party effect, which refers to our ability to follow what one person is saying when one or more other people are talking at the same time (Cherry, 1953). Of course, this is certainly not the only situation in which we separate one sound from the other. For example, we regularly separate the words of a song from the accompanying music, and are able to differentiate among the many sound sources in a busy work or home environment. This phenomenon has been described as auditory scene analysis (Bregman, 1990) or sound source determination (Yost, 1993, 1997; Yost and Sheft, 1993).
Effect of selective attention on auditory brainstem response
Published in Hearing, Balance and Communication, 2023
Sathish Kumar, Srikanth Nayak, Arivudai Nambi Pitchai Muthu
Attention is a particular aspect of sensory perception and response [1]. ‘The auditory selective attention is defined as the ability to facilitate the processing of relevant information and inhibit irrelevant information’ [2]. It is well demonstrated in the ‘cocktail party effect,’ where the individual has to focus and listen to one speaker among multiple speakers and background noise [3]. The act of selective attention is achieved by unknown brain mechanisms that enhance the information received from selected sources, suppressing irrelevant competing sensory inputs [4]. Psychological models backed by shreds of evidence report that the mechanism of selective attention occurs at both the peripheral and the central level [5]. The auditory selective attention-related modulations have been found in the activities at the early sensory cortex and at the auditory thalamus [6,7].
The Lombard effect associated with Chinese male alaryngeal speech
Published in International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2019
Manwa L. Ng, Gloria C. K. Tsang
The Lombard effect refers to the tendency of a speaker to unconsciously elevate his/her vocal intensity when speaking with loud background noise (e.g. Bottalico, Passione, Graetzer, & Hunter, 2017; Junqua, 1993; Lane & Tranel, 1971). This phenomenon is often experienced by someone involved in conversation that takes place in a noisy environment such as on a train or at a party, and is also known as the cocktail party effect. In fact, the Lombard effect is not found just in humans, but also in other species such as anurans and birds (Brumm & Zollinger, 2011; Zollinger & Brumm, 2011). According to Lane and Tranel (1971), the Lombard effect could be explained by two loops of internal activity – the private loop and the public loop. The private loop refers to the monitoring of direct feedback from tactile and proprioceptive interoceptors. Under loud noise environment, the speaker hears himself/herself less due to the reduction in signal-to-noise ratio and the private loop works to make the necessary physiological changes to increase vocal intensity (Zeine & Brandt, 1988). The public loop monitors the feedback from the listener by the exteroceptors. Speakers tend to unconsciously raise their vocal loudness in a noisy environment as an attempt to be heard by others and to communicate with each other (Lane & Tranel, 1971).
Spatial hearing processing: electrophysiological documentation at subcortical and cortical levels
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2019
Nematollah Rouhbakhsh, John Mahdi, Jacob Hwo, Baran Nobel, Fati Mousave
Social communication frequently takes place in the environments that usually comprise multiple competing sound sources that interleave together and create a more complex sound while approaching an individual ear [1]. In these circumstances, such as being in a restaurant, speech understanding is often challenging even for young individuals with normal hearing and cognitive competencies [2,3]. This is because one unable to attend on a particular speech sound source while ignoring unattended sound sources which occur simultaneously. This phenomenon has been colloquially known as cocktail party effect. Although, this effect has been noticed in many ways over the years, the way that our auditory system puzzles this problem out and the mechanisms underlying this process are not yet completely understood [4].