Document Detail


Measuring the critical band for speech.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  16521770     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The current experiments were designed to measure the frequency resolution employed by listeners during the perception of everyday sentences. Speech bands having nearly vertical filter slopes and narrow bandwidths were sharply partitioned into various numbers of equal log- or ERBN-width subbands. The temporal envelope from each partition was used to amplitude modulate a corresponding band of low-noise noise, and the modulated carriers were combined and presented to normal-hearing listeners. Intelligibility increased and reached asymptote as the number of partitions increased. In the mid- and high-frequency regions of the speech spectrum, the partition bandwidth corresponding to asymptotic performance matched current estimates of psychophysical tuning across a number of conditions. These results indicate that, in these regions, the critical band for speech matches the critical band measured using traditional psychoacoustic methods and nonspeech stimuli. However, in the low-frequency region, partition bandwidths at asymptote were somewhat narrower than would be predicted based upon psychophysical tuning. It is concluded that, overall, current estimates of psychophysical tuning represent reasonably well the ability of listeners to extract spectral detail from running speech.
Authors:
Eric W Healy; Sid P Bacon
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural    
Journal Detail:
Title:  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America     Volume:  119     ISSN:  0001-4966     ISO Abbreviation:  J. Acoust. Soc. Am.     Publication Date:  2006 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2006-03-08     Completed Date:  2006-12-29     Revised Date:  2007-12-03    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7503051     Medline TA:  J Acoust Soc Am     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1083-91     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA. ewh@sc.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adolescent
Adult
Audiometry, Speech
Female
Humans
Male
Noise / adverse effects
Pitch Perception / physiology*
Psychoacoustics
Speech Acoustics*
Speech Intelligibility / physiology*
Speech Perception / physiology*
Speech Production Measurement
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
DC01376/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS; DC05795/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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