Inner-hair-cell induced hearing loss: A biophysical modeling perspective.

In recent years, experimental studies have demonstrated that malfunction of the inner-hair cells and their synapse to the auditory nerve is a significant hearing loss (HL) contributor. This study presents a detailed biophysical model of the inner-hair cells embedded in an end-to-end computational model of the auditory pathway with an acoustic signal as an input and prediction of human audiometric thresholds as an output. The contribution of the outer hair cells is included in the mechanical model of the cochlea.

Auditory detection probability of propeller noise in hover flight in presence of ambient soundscape.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are rapidly advancing and becoming ubiquitous in an unlimited number of applications, from parcel delivery to people transportation. As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) markets expand, the increased acoustic nuisance on population becomes a more acute problem. Previous aircraft noise assessments have highlighted the necessity of a psychoacoustic metric for quantification of human audio perception.

Perception of sonified representations of complex systems by people who are blind.

This research focused on examining the sonification properties that can lead people who are blind to distinguish and to identify different sounds. This research included 10 participants, all of whom were examined individually. They listened to a sonified scenario, which was generated by an agent-based NetLogo computer model of a gas particle in a container.

A New Approach to Model Pitch Perception Using Sparse Coding.

Our acoustical environment abounds with repetitive sounds, some of which are related to pitch perception. It is still unknown how the auditory system, in processing these sounds, relates a physical stimulus and its percept. Since, in mammals, all auditory stimuli are conveyed into the nervous system through the auditory nerve (AN) fibers, a model should explain the perception of pitch as a function of this particular input.

Computerized assessment of body image in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: comparison with standardized body image assessment tool.

Unlabelled: Body image disturbances are a prominent feature of eating disorders (EDs). Our aim was to test and evaluate a computerized assessment of body image (CABI), to compare the body image disturbances in different ED types, and to assess the factors affecting body image. The body image of 22 individuals undergoing inpatient treatment with restricting anorexia nervosa (AN-R), 22 with binge/purge AN (AN-B/P), 20 with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 41 healthy controls was assessed using the Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS), the CABI, which simulated the participants' self-image in different levels of weight changes, and the Eating Disorder Inventory-2-Body Dissatisfaction (EDI-2-BD) scale.

Hearing disorders in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that is both a focal inflammatory and a chronic neurodegenerative disease. The focal inflammatory component is characterized by destruction of central nervous system myelin, including the spinal cord; as such it can impair any central neural system, including the auditory system. While on the one hand auditory complaints in MS patients are rare compared to other senses, such as vision and proprioception, on the other hand auditory tests of precise neural timing are never "silent.

Prediction of human's ability in sound localization based on the statistical properties of spike trains along the brainstem auditory pathway.

The minimum audible angle test which is commonly used for evaluating human localization ability depends on interaural time delay, interaural level differences, and spectral information about the acoustic stimulus. These physical properties are estimated at different stages along the brainstem auditory pathway. The interaural time delay is ambiguous at certain frequencies, thus confusion arises as to the source of these frequencies.

Improving word recognition in noise among hearing-impaired subjects with a single-channel cochlear noise-reduction algorithm.

A common complaint of the hearing impaired is the inability to understand speech in noisy environments even with their hearing assistive devices. Only a few single-channel algorithms have significantly improved speech intelligibility in noise for hearing-impaired listeners. The current study introduces a cochlear noise reduction algorithm.

Stochastic properties of coincidence-detector neural cells.

Neural information is characterized by sets of spiking events that travel within the brain through neuron junctions that receive, transmit, and process streams of spikes. Coincidence detection is one of the ways to describe the functionality of a single neural cell. This letter presents an analytical derivation of the output stochastic behavior of a coincidence detector (CD) cell whose stochastic inputs behave as a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) with both excitatory and inhibitory inputs.

Stochastic properties of auditory brainstem coincidence detectors in binaural perception.

In the mammalian auditory brainstem, two types of coincidence detector cells are involved in binaural localization: excitatory-excitatory (EE) and excitatory-inhibitory (EI). Using statistics derived from EE and EI spike trains, binaural discrimination abilities of single tones were predicted. The minimum audible angle (MAA), as well as the just noticeable difference of interaural time delay (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) were analytically derived for both EE and EI cells on the basis of two possible neural coding patterns, rate coding that ignores a spike's timing information and all-information coding (AIN), which considers a spike's timing occurrences.

Immediate and long-term effect of rifle blast noise on transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions.

Firing noise of small-arms is characterized by a rapid change in pressure and a sharp peak in sound pressure level of 155-170 dB SPL. In the present study, we examined the behavior of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) of a group of soldiers exposed initially to the noise of small-arms fire during their basic training. The study included 15 soldiers and lasted 6 months.

The effect of longitudinal noise exposure on behavioral audiograms and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions.

The ear vulnerability of a group of combat soldiers was tested. The study initially included 84 soldiers and lasted two years. The soldiers were exposed to the noise of small-arms fire.

Integration of outer hair cell activity in a one-dimensional cochlear model.

Recently, significant progress has been made in understanding the contribution of the mammalian cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) to normal auditory signal processing. In the present paper an outer hair cell model is incorporated in a complete, time-domain, one-dimensional cochlear model. The two models control each other through cochlear partition movement and pressure.

Interaural time coincidence detectors are present at birth: evidence from binaural interaction.

Binaural processing of sounds in mammals is presumably initiated within the auditory nuclei of the caudal pons. The binaural difference waveform (BD) can be derived from the sum of the waveforms evoked by right monaural clicks plus left monaural clicks minus the waveform evoked by binaural clicks. In adults, the BD's first positive peak (beta) is large only for stimuli with interaural time differences (ITDs) that produce a fused acoustic percept.

Mapping lateralization of click trains in younger and older populations.

The main purpose of this study was to describe and compare lateralization of earphone-presented stimuli in younger and older individuals. Lateralization functions, relating perceived location to either interaural time differences (ITDs) or interaural level differences (ILDs) were determined for 78 subjects, aged 21-88 years, who responded by pressing one of nine keys to indicate the perceived location of the stimulus. All subjects were healthy, without any history of hearing loss or ear surgery and within the normal pure tone audiometric range for their age group.