Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure Effects of

Age and Hearing Loss

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 AUDITORY PROCESSING OF
TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE
Effects of Age and Hearing Loss

Brian C J Moore
University of Cambridge, UK

World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TA I P E I • CHENNAI

9064_9789814579650_tp.indd 2 16/1/14 5:08 pm

Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014930911

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

AUDITORY PROCESSING OF TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE

Effects of Age and Hearing Loss
Copyright © 2014 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
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is not required from the publisher.

ISBN 978-981-4579-65-0

Typeset by Stallion Press

Email: [email protected]

Printed in Singapore
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To the friends who have collaborated with me

and supported me over the years
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Contents

Preface xi

List of Abbreviations xiii

Chapter 1. Processing of Sound in the Auditory System

and Neural Representation of Temporal
Fine Structure 1
1.1 Introduction and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The Representation of Signals in Terms of ENV and TFS . . . 2
1.3 Analysis of Sound in The Cochlea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Basic structure of the cochlea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 The travelling wave and tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.3 Nonlinearity of input–output functions . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.4 Suppression on the BM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.5 Responses of the BM to complex sounds . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 The Hair Cells and Transduction in the Cochlea . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 Responses of Single Neurons in the Auditory Nerve . . . . . . 13
1.5.1 Spontaneous activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.2 Tuning curves and iso-rate contours . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.3 Rate versus level functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5.4 Phase locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.6 Effects of Hearing Loss on the Processing of Sounds . . . . . . 18
1.6.1 Effects of cochlear hearing loss on the active
mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.6.2 Effects of cochlear hearing loss on phase locking
to narrowband sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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viii Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure

1.6.3
Effects of cochlear hearing loss on phase locking
to broadband sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.7 Possible Ways in Which Hearing Loss and Ageing Might
Affect the Neural Coding of TFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.7.1 Changes in the relative phase of responses at different
points along the basilar membrane . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.7.2 Mismatch between place and temporal information . . 26
1.7.3 Complexity of TFS information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.7.4 Loss of central inhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.5 Relative strength of ENV and TFS coding . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.6 Reduced number of synapses or neurons . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.7 Increased temporal jitter in the transmission
to higher neural levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 2. The Role of TFS in Masking 31

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 Detection Cues in Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 The Detection of Signals in Fluctuating Maskers . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.1 The concept of dip listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.2 Masking release for a narrowband
fluctuating masker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.3 The role of TFS in comodulation masking release . . . 37
2.4 The Role of TFS in the Ability to Hear Out Partials
in Complex Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.5 The Role of TFS in Masking for Hearing-Impaired
Listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Chapter 3. The Role of TFS in Pitch Perception 47

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2 The Perception of Pitch for Sinusoids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2.1 Mechanisms of pitch perception . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2.2 The perception of musical intervals by subjects
with normal hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2.3 The perception of musical intervals by subjects
with impaired hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
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Contents ix

3.2.4
The perception of pitch and musical intervals
by hearing-impaired subjects with dead regions . . . . 50
3.2.5 The frequency discrimination of sinusoids
by normal-hearing people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.2.6 The frequency discrimination of sinusoids
by hearing-impaired people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.2.7 The effect of age on frequency discrimination . . . . . 58
3.2.8 The detection of frequency modulation by subjects
with normal hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2.9 The detection of frequency modulation by subjects
with impaired hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2.10 The effect of age on frequency modulation
detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3 The Role of TFS for Perception of Pitch
for Complex Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.3.1 TFS and pitch perception for normal-hearing
listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.3.2 TFS and pitch perception for hearing-impaired
listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Chapter 4. The Role of TFS in Speech Perception 81

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2 Types of Vocoder Processing and their Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . 83
4.2.1 The importance of the number of channels . . . . . . 83
4.2.2 The effect of the method of envelope extraction . . . . 84
4.2.3 Processing to disrupt TFS cues while preserving
ENV cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2.4 Processing to disrupt ENV cues while preserving
TFS cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.3 The Role of ENV and TFS for Speech Perception . . . . . . . . 89
4.3.1 Studies using ENV speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.3.2 Studies using TFS speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.3.3 Studies examining the correlation between speech
perception and the ability to use TFS . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
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x Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure

Chapter 5. The Influence of Hearing Loss and Age

on the Binaural Processing of TFS 103
5.1 Introduction: Binaural Cues for Localisation
and Signal Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.2 Effects of Hearing Loss and Age on Localisation
and Lateralisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.2.1 Effects of hearing loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.2.2 Effects of age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.3 The Effects of Hearing Loss and Age on the Perception
of Binaural Pitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.4 The Effects of Hearing Loss and Age on MLDs . . . . . . . . . 118
5.4.1 Effects of hearing loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.4.2 Effects of age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.5 Impact of Impaired Binaural TFS Processing on Spatial
Hearing for Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Chapter 6. Overview, Conclusions and Practical Implications 139

6.1 Overview of Chapters 1–5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.2 Relevance of Impaired TFS Processing for Hearing Aids . . . . 142
6.2.1 Compensating for the effects of impaired
TFS processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.2.2 Exploiting reduced TFS sensitivity to increase
battery life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.2.3 Exploiting reduced TFS sensitivity in the design
of systems to reduce acoustic feedback . . . . . . . . . 143
6.2.4 Choosing compression speed based on sensitivity
to TFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.3 Acoustical Requirements of Places Where
Hearing-Impaired and Older People Meet and Dine . . . . . . 147
6.4 The Use of Background Sounds in Broadcasting and Films . . 148
6.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

References 151

Index 179
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Preface
The audiogram is the most widely used diagnostic tool in audiology clinics
around the world. Sometimes it is the only diagnostic tool that is used.
However, hearing problems are not completely characterised by the audio-
gram. Two individuals with similar audiograms may show very different
abilities in the detection and discrimination of sounds at above-threshold
levels. Also, a person may have hearing difficulties despite having an audio-
gram that is within the range conventionally considered as ‘normal’. One
factor that may influence the discrimination of sounds, especially the ability
to understand speech in background sounds, is sensitivity to temporal fine
structure (TFS). This book summarises what is known about the effects of
hearing loss and increasing age on sensitivity to TFS.
The book assumes some knowledge about sound and hearing, although
most basic concepts are explained at least briefly. The book is intended
primarily for researchers, including people studying for a research degree,
in the fields of hearing, hearing loss, audiology, psychoacoustics, hearing-
aid design, otology, psychology and acoustical engineering. To make the
book as useful as possible, I have given extensive references to original
research papers.
Many colleagues provided helpful comments on drafts of portions of
the book, including (in alphabetical order) Michael Akeroyd, Tom Baer,
Gin Best, Hedwig Gockel, Michael Heinz, Kathryn Hopkins, Chris Plack,
Sébastien Santurette and Michael Stone. I am very grateful to them all. The
responsibility for any mistakes, omissions and misconceptions is, of course,
entirely mine. I thank Tom Baer, Brian Glasberg, Michael Heinz, Kathryn
Hopkins and Aleksander Sek for providing some of the figures.

Brian C.J. Moore

Cambridge, UK, 2013

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List of Abbreviations

AM Amplitude modulation or amplitude modulated

AMDLs Thresholds for the detection of amplitude modulation
BF Best frequency
BM Basilar membrane
CF Characteristic frequency
cf limit The highest carrier frequency at which an interaural phase
difference can be detected
CMR Comodulation masking release
DL Difference limen
DLF Difference limen for frequency
E ERBN -number scale
ENV Envelope
ENVp Envelope of the physical stimulus
ENVBM Envelope of waveform on the basilar membrane at a specific
place
ENVn Neural representation of ENVBM
ERBN Equivalent rectangular bandwidth of the auditory filter for
young listeners with normal hearing, as measured at
moderate sound levels
F0 Fundamental frequency
fc Carrier frequency
FFR Frequency following response
FTC Frequency-threshold curve
fm Modulation frequency
fmask Masker frequency
fsig Signal frequency
FM Frequency modulation

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xiv Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure

FMDL Frequency modulation detection limen

IHC Inner hair cell
IID Interaural intensity difference
ILD Interaural level difference
IPD Interaural phase difference
ITD Interaural time difference
LNN Low-noise noise
JND Just-noticeable difference
MLD Masking level difference
N0 S0 Condition where noise and signal are both diotic (the same
at each ear)
N0 S π Condition where the noise is diotic and the signal is inverted
in phase at one ear
OHC Outer hair cell
p Value of probability
PTC Psychophysical tuning curve
Q10dB A measure of the sharpness of tuning of a tuning curve. It is
the characteristic frequency divided by the width of the
tuning curve for a level that is 10 dB above the level at the tip
of the tuning curve.
r Value of correlation
SL Sensation level
SRM Spatial release from masking
SRT Speech reception threshold
TFS Temporal fine structure
TFSp Temporal fine structure of the physical stimulus
TFSBM Temporal fine structure of waveform on the basilar
membrane at a specific place
TFSn Neural representation of TFSBM
TMR Target-to-masker ratio