Sensory SystemsSensory SystemsСенсорные системы0235-00923034-5936The Russian Academy of Sciences68212910.31857/S0235009225010025UUXMZGСЛУХОВАЯ СИСТЕМАResearch ArticleThe role of the envelope in the discrimination of rippled spectra by listeners with different auditory sensitivityРоль огибающей в различении гребенчатых спектров у слушателей с разным уровнем слуховой чувствительностиNechaevD. I.НечаевД. И.
Russian Federation
dm.nechaev@yandex.ruMilekhinaO. N.МилехинаО. Н.
Russian Federation
dm.nechaev@yandex.ruTomozovaM. S.ТомозоваМ. С.
Russian Federation
dm.nechaev@yandex.ruSupinA. Ya.СупинА. Я.
Russian Federation
dm.nechaev@yandex.ruInstitute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of SciencesИнститут проблем экологии и эволюции Российской академии наук05042025391142603062025Copyright ©; 2025, Russian Academy of SciencesCopyright ©; 2025, Российская академия наук2025Russian Academy of SciencesРоссийская академия наукhttps://journals.eco-vector.com/0235-0092/article/view/682129

A sound signal with a rippled spectrum exhibits envelope periodicity, which is absent in signals with a continuous spectrum. The study investigated the role of the signal envelope in discriminating signals with rippled spectra. The test signal was noise with a rippled spectrum and a spectral bandwidth of 2 octaves. Noise with a continuous spectrum was used as a reference signal. The experiments involved listeners with different levels of auditory sensitivity. To assess the ability to distinguish the density of rippled spectrum, a phase-reversal test was applied. Discrimination thresholds for spectral density were determined depending on the ripple spacing for two types of signals: without envelope modulation and with added envelope modulation. A decrease in auditory sensitivity resulted in a reduced ability to discriminate spectral density at all ripple spacing values. Amplitude modulation led to a deterioration in discrimination ability across all listeners and for all ripple spacing values, though not to thresholds determined by spectral mechanisms. It is suggested that discrimination in this task is driven by a temporal analysis mechanism rather than by envelope periodicity. The addition of modulation reduced the perception of repetition pitch.

Звуковой сигнал с гребенчатым спектром имеет периодичность огибающей, которая отсутствует у сигнала со сплошным спектром. Исследована роль огибающей сигнала в задаче различения сигналов с гребенчатыми спектрами. В качестве тест-сигнала использовали шум с гребенчатым спектром со спектральной полосой шириной 2 окт. В качестве референтного сигнала использовали шум со сплошным спектром. В экспериментах принимали участие слушатели с разной чувствительностью слуха. Для оценки различения плотности спектральных рисунков применяли тест реверсии фазы гребней. Пороги различаемой плотности определяли в зависимости от ширины гребней спектра для двух типов сигнала: без дополнительной модуляции огибающей и с дополнительной модуляцией огибающей. Снижение слуховой чувствительности приводило к снижению различения плотности спектра при всех значениях ширины гребней спектра. Добавление амплитудной модуляции приводило к ухудшению различения у всех слушателей при всех значениях ширины гребней спектра, но не до порогов, определяемых спектральным механизмом. Предполагается, что в данной задаче различение гребенчатой структуры спектра определяется скрытой временной структурой звукового сигнала с гребенчатым спектром, а не периодичностью огибающей. При добавлении модуляции происходит снижение ощущения высоты повторения (repetition pitch).

hearinghearing lossrippled spectratemporal processingamplitude modulationслухтугоухостьгребенчатые спектрывременной анализамплитудная модуляцияРоссийский научный фондRussian Science Foundation23-25-00148Aronoff J.M., Landsberger D.M. The development of a modified spectral ripple test. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2013. V. 134. EL217–EL222. DOI: 10.1121/1.4813802.He N., Mills J.H., Ahlstrom J.B., Dubno J.R. Age-related differences in the temporal modulation transfer function with pure-tone carriers. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2008. V. 124. P. 3841–3849. DOI: 10.1121/1.2998779.Henry B.A., Turner C.W., Behrens A. Spectral peak resolution and speech recognition in quit: Normal hearing, hearing impaired, and cochlear implant listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2005. V. 118. P. 1111 – 1121. DOI: 10.1121/1.1944567.Henry B.A., Turner C.W., Behrens A. Spectral peak resolution and speech recognition in quit: Normal hearing, hearing impaired, and cochlear implant listeners. J.Acoust. Soc. Am. 2005. V. 118. P. 1111 – 1121. DOI: 10.1121/1.1944567.Hopkins K., Moore B.C.J. The effects of age and cochlear hearing loss on temporal fine structure sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and speech reception in noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2011. V. 130. P. 334–349. DOI: 10.1121/1.3585848.Hopkins K., Moore B.C.J. The effects of age and cochlear hearing loss on temporal fine structure sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and speech reception in noise. J.Acoust. Soc. Am. 2011. V. 130. P. 334–349. DOI: 10.1121/1.3585848.Horbach M., Verhey J.L., Hots J. On the pitch strength of bandpass noise in normal-hearing and hearing-im- paired listeners. Trends in Hearing. 2018. V. 22. P. 1–14. DOI: 10.1177/2331216518787067.Litvak L.M., Spahr A.J., Saoji A.A., Fridman G.Y. Relationship between perception of spectral ripple and speech recognition in cochlear implant and vocoder listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2007. V. 122. P. 982 – 991. DOI: 10.1121/1.2749413.Leek M.R., Summer V. Pitch strength and pitch dominance of iterated rippled noises in hearing-impaired listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2001. V. 109. P. 2944–2954. DOI: 10.1121/1.1371761.Levitt H. Transformed up–down methods in psychoacoustics. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1971. V. 49. P. 467–477. DOI: 10.1121/1.1912375.Lorenzi C., Gilbert G., Carn H., Garnier S., Moore B.C.J. Speech perception problems of the hearing impaired reflect inability to use temporal fine structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2006. V. 103. P. 18866–18869. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607364103.Lorenzi C., Gilbert G., Carn H., Garnier S., Moore B.C.J. Speech perception problems of the hearing impaired reflect inability to use temporal fine structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2006. V. 103. P. 18866 – 18869. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607364103.Narne V.K., Sharma M., Van Dun B., Bansal S., Prabhu L., Moore B.C.J. Effects of spectral smearing on performance of the spectral ripple and spectro-temporal ripple tests. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2016. V. 140. P. 4298–4306. DOI: 10.1121/1.4971419.Nechaev D.I., Milekhina O.N., Supin A.Ya. Estimates of ripple-density resolution based on the discrimination from rippled and nonrippled reference signals. Trends in hearing. 2019. V. 23. P. 1-9. DOI: 10.1177/2331216518824435.Olusanya B.O., Davis A.C., Hoffman H.J. Hearing loss grades and the international classification of functioning, disability and health. Bull World Health Organ. 2019. V. 97. P. 725–728. DOI:10.2471/BLT.19.230367.Regev J., Relaño-Iborra H., Zaar J., Dau T. Disentangling the effects of hearing loss and age on amplitude modulation frequency selectivity. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2024. V. 155. P. 2589–2602. DOI:10.1121/10.0025541.Saoji A.A., Litvak L., Spahr A.J., Eddins D.A. Spectral modulation detection and vowel and consonant identifications in cochlear implant listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2009. V. 126. P. 955 – 958. DOI: 10.1121/1.3179670.Schlittenlacher J., Moore B.C.J. Discrimination of amplitude-modulation depth by subjects with normal and impaired hearing. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2016. V. 140. P. 3487–3495. DOI:10.1121/1.4966117.Sek A., Baer T., Crinnion W., Springgay A., Moore B.C.J. Modulation masking within and across carriers for subjects with normal and impaired hearing. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2015. V. 138. P. 1143–1153. DOI:10.1121/1.4928135.Stein A., Ewert S.D., Wiegrebe L. Perceptual interaction between carrier periodicity and amplitude modulation in broadband stimuli: A comparison of the autocorrela- tion and modulation-filterbank model. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2005. V. 118. P. 2470–2481. DOI: 10.1121/1.2011427.Supin A.Y., Popov V.V., Milekhina O.N., Tarakanov M.B. Frequency resolving power measured by rippled noise. Hearing Research. 1997. V. 108. P. 17 – 27. DOI: 10.1016/0378-5955(94)90041-8.Supin A.Y., Popov V.V., Milekhina O.N., Tarakanov M.B. Ripple depth and density resolution of rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1999. V. 105. P. 2800 – 2804. DOI: 10.1121/1.428105.Supin A.Y., Milekhina O.N., Nechaev D.I., Tomozova M.S. Ripple density resolution dependence on ripple width. PLoS ONE. 2022. V. 17. e0270296. DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0270296.Won J.H., Drennan W.R., Rubinstain J.T. Spectral-ripple resolution correlated with speech reception in noise in cochlear implant users. J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 2007. V. 8. P. 384–392. DOI: 10.1007/s10162-007-0085-8.Won J.H., Drennan W.R., Rubinstain J.T. Spectral-ripple resolution correlated with speech reception in noise in cochlear implant users. J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 2007. V. 8. P. 384 – 392. DOI: 10.1007/s10162-007-0085-8.Yost W.A. Pitch of iterated rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1996. V. 100. P. 511–518. DOI: 10.1121/1.415873.Yost W.A. Pitch of iterated rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1996. V. 100. P. 511 – 518. DOI: 10.1121/1.415873.Yost W.A. Pitch strength of iterated rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1996. V. 100. P. 3329–3335. DOI: 10.1121/1.416973.Yost W.A. Pitch strength of iterated rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1996. V. 100. P. 3329 – 3335. DOI: 10.1121/1.416973.Yost W.A., Patterson R., Sheft S. The role of the envelope in processing iteration rippled noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1998. V. 104. P. 2349–2361. DOI: 1121/1.423746.