Abstract
Auditory scene analysis mechanisms are traditionally divided into “simultaneous” processes, which operate across frequency, and “sequential” processes, which bind sounds across time. In reality, simultaneous and sequential cues often coexist, and compete to determine perceived organization. Here, we study the respective influences of synchrony, a powerful grouping cue, and frequency proximity, a powerful sequential grouping cue, on the perceptual organization of sound sequences (Experiment 1). In addition, we demonstrate that listeners’ sensitivity to synchrony is dramatically impaired by stream segregation (Experiment 2). Overall, the results are consistent with previous results showing that prior perceptual grouping can influence subsequent perceptual inferences, and show that such grouping can strongly influence sensitivity to basic sound features.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bregman AS (1990) Auditory scene analysis: the perceptual organization of sound. MIT Press, Cambridge
Bregman AS, Campbell J (1971) Primary auditory stream segregation and perception of order in rapid sequences of tones. J Exp Psychol 89:244–249
Broadbent DE, Ladefoged P (1959) Auditory perception of temporal order. J Acoust Soc Am 31:151–159
Darwin CJ, Carlyon RP (1995) Auditory grouping. In: Moore BCJ (ed) Hearing. London, Academic Press, pp 387–424
Darwin CJ, Hukin RW, al-Khatib BY (1995) Grouping in pitch perception: evidence for sequential constraints. J Acoust Soc Am 98:880–885
Darwin CJ, Pattison H, Gardner RB (1989) Vowel quality changes produced by surrounding tone sequences. Percept Psychophys 45:333–342
Dau T, Ewert S, Oxenham AJ (2009) Auditory stream formation affects comodulation masking release retroactively. J Acoust Soc Am 125:2182–2188
Elhilali M, Ma L, Micheyl C, Oxenham AJ, Shamma AS (2009) Temporal coherence in the perceptual organization and cortical representation of auditory scenes. Neuron 61:317–329
Micheyl C, Hunter CH, Oxenham AJ (2010) Auditory stream segregation and the perception of across-frequency synchrony. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Peform. In press
Mossbridge JA, Fitzgerald MB, O’Connor ES, Wright BA (2006) Perceptual-learning evidence for separate processing of asynchrony and order tasks. J Neurosci 26:12708–12716
O’Connor KN, Sutter ML (2000) Global spectral and location effects in auditory perceptual grouping. J Cogn Neurosci 12:342–354
Roberts B, Glasberg BR, Moore BC (2002) Primitive stream segregation of tone sequences without differences in fundamental frequency or passband. J Acoust Soc Am 112:2074–2085
Roberts B, Glasberg BR, Moore BC (2008) Effects of the build-up and resetting of auditory stream segregation on temporal discrimination. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 34:992–1006
Oertel D, Bal R, Gardner SM, Smith PH, Joris PX (2000) Detection of synchrony in the activity of auditory nerve fibers by octopus cells of the mammalian cochlear nucleus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97:11773–11779
Shinn-Cunningham BG, Lee AK, Oxenham AJ (2007) A sound element gets lost in perceptual competition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:12223–12227
Vliegen J, Moore BC, Oxenham AJ (1999) The role of spectral and periodicity cues in auditory stream segregation, measured using a temporal discrimination task. J Acoust Soc Am 106:938–945
Zera J, Green DM (1993) Detecting temporal onset and offset asynchrony in multicomponent complexes. J Acoust Soc Am 93:1038–1052
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 DC 07657). Cynthia Hunter is acknowledged for assistance with data collection. More details concerning the methods and results of Experiment 2 may be found in Elhilali et al. (2009). Experiment 1 formed part of a broader study, the results of which are described in Micheyl et al (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this paper
Cite this paper
Micheyl, C., Shamma, S., Elhilali, M., Oxenham, A.J. (2010). Sequential and Simultaneous Auditory Grouping Measured with Synchrony Detection. In: Lopez-Poveda, E., Palmer, A., Meddis, R. (eds) The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5686-6_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5686-6_45
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5685-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5686-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)