Time-specific Components of Pupil Responses Reveal Alternations in Effort Allocation Caused by Memory Task Demands During Speech Identification in Noise.

Daily communication may be effortful due to poor acoustic quality. In addition, memory demands can induce effort, especially for long or complex sentences. In the current study, we tested the impact of memory task demands and speech-to-noise ratio on the time-specific components of effort allocation during speech identification in noise.

Effect of Vibrotactile Stimulation on Auditory Timbre Perception for Normal-Hearing Listeners and Cochlear-Implant Users.

The study tests the hypothesis that vibrotactile stimulation can affect timbre perception. A multidimensional scaling experiment was conducted. Twenty listeners with normal hearing and nine cochlear implant users were asked to judge the dissimilarity of a set of synthetic sounds that varied in attack time and amplitude modulation depth.

Baseline pupil size encodes task-related information and modulates the task-evoked response in a speech-in-noise task.

Pupillometry data are commonly reported relative to a baseline value recorded in a controlled pre-task condition. In this study, the influence of the experimental design and the preparatory processing related to task difficulty on the baseline pupil size was investigated during a speech intelligibility in noise paradigm. Furthermore, the relationship between the baseline pupil size and the temporal dynamics of the pupil response was assessed.

The Effects of Hearing-Aid Amplification and Noise on Conversational Dynamics Between Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Talkers.

There is a long-standing tradition to assess hearing-aid benefits using lab-based speech intelligibility tests. Towards a more everyday-like scenario, the current study investigated the effects of hearing-aid amplification and noise on face-to-face communication between two conversational partners. Eleven pairs, consisting of a younger normal-hearing (NH) and an older hearing-impaired (HI) participant, solved spot-the-difference tasks while their conversations were recorded.

Beyond Beer's Law: Quasi-Ideal Binary Liquid Mixtures.

We have recorded attenuated total reflection infrared spectra of binary mixtures in the (quasi-)ideal systems benzene-toluene, benzene-carbon tetrachloride, and benzene-cyclohexane. We used two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy, principal component analysis, and multivariate curve resolution to analyze the data. The 2D correlation proves nonlinearities, also in spectral ranges with no obvious deviations from Beer's approximation.

Identification and Discrimination of Sound Textures in Hearing-Impaired and Older Listeners.

Sound textures are a broad class of sounds defined by their homogeneous temporal structure. It has been suggested that sound texture perception is mediated by time-averaged summary statistics measured from early stages of the auditory system. The ability of young normal-hearing (NH) listeners to identify synthetic sound textures increases as the statistics of the synthetic texture approach those of its real-world counterpart.

The Perception of Ramped Pulse Shapes in Cochlear Implant Users.

The electric stimulation provided by current cochlear implants (CI) is not power efficient. One underlying problem is the poor efficiency by which information from electric pulses is transformed into auditory nerve responses. A novel stimulation paradigm using ramped pulse shapes has recently been proposed to remedy this inefficiency.

Structural and foaming properties of whey and soy protein isolates in mixed systems before and after heat treatment.

The partial replacement of proteins from animal sources by plant proteins in formulated food products has been proposed as useful to improve sustainability aspects of the products without dramatically changing their techno-functional properties. Although several research groups have published on the gelling properties of mixed systems containing whey and soy protein isolates (WPI and SPI), their foaming properties are much less described. In this context, the main objective of this paper was to evaluate the structural and foaming properties of samples containing different mass ratios of WPI:SPI (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100) before and after heat treatment.

Food Safety Implications of Transitions Toward Sustainable Healthy Diets.

Despite increased political attention, foodborne diseases still cause a substantial public health, economic, and social burden worldwide. Children younger than 5 years, people living in developing regions, and in the poorest areas of the world are disproportionally affected, bearing a large proportion of the global burden of foodborne disease. Yet, food safety is a prerequisite to ensuring food security globally: Foods that are responsible for important food safety problems are also crucial to ensure food security in some regions and are essential sources of nutrition.