Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low-frequency hearing loss Citation for published version (APA): Florentine, M., & Houtsma, A. J. M. (1983). Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low- frequency hearing loss. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(3), 961-965. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.389021 DOI: 10.1121/1.389021 Document status and date: Published: 01/01/1983 Document Version: Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.tue.nl/taverne Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low-frequency hearing loss Mary Florentine CommunicationsResearch Laboratory (133FR), NortheasternUniversity, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 and ResearchLaboratory of Electronics(36- 761),Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, Massachusetts 0213 9 Adrianus J. M. Houtsma •) ResearchLaboratory of Electronics(36- 755), Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, Massachusetts 0213 9 {Received9 July 1982;accepted for publication6 December1982} Psychoacousticaltuning curvesand interaural pitch matcheswere measuredin a listenerwith a unilateral,moderately severe hearing loss of primarily cochlearorigin below 2 kHz. The psychoacousticaltuning curves, measured in a simultaneous-maskingparadigm, were obtained at 1 kHz for probelevels of 4.5-, 7-, and 13-dBSL in the impairedear, and 7-dB SL in the normal ear. Resultsshow that asthe levelof the probeincreased from 4.5- to 13-dBSL in the impairedear, {1 } the frequencylocation of the tip of the tuning curvedecreased from approximately2.85 to 2.20 kHz and {2}the lowest level of the maskerrequired to just maskthe probeincreased from 49- to 83- dB $PL. The tuningcurve in the normal ear wascomparable to data from other normal listeners. The interauralpitch matcheswere measured from 0.5 to 6 kHz at 10-dBSL in the impairedear and approximately15- to 20-dB SL in the normal ear. Resultsshow reasonable identity matches {e.g.,a 500-Hz tone in the impairedear wasmatched close to a 500-Hz tone in the normal ear}, althoughvariability was significantlygreater for pitch matchesbelow 2 kHz. The resultsare discussedin termsof their implicationsfor modelsof pitch perception. PACS numbers:43.66.Sr, 43.66.Ba, 43.66.Hg [JH] INTRODUCTION hand,if the perceptionof pitch is basedon the temporal Thornton and Abbas(1980) found that the tips of psy- pattern of neural firingsin eachactive unit, then eachunit choacousticaltuning curveswere displacedto higher fre- respondingto a 1-kHz toneis expectedto be phaselocked to quenciesin three of four listenerswith moderate,low-fre- that tonein both the normaland impairedears. Therefore, quency,sensori-neural hearing losses. They interpreted their pitchmatches between the earsshould yield results closer to resultsas evidence that low-frequencysignals near threshold identity matches. werebeing detected by high-frequencyfibers in their listen- The purposeof the presentexperiment was twofold: {1 ) ers with displacedtuning-curve tips. This interpretationis to investigatepsychoacoustical tuning curvesfor various consistent with the animal data of Schuknecht and Neff' levelsof a low-frequencyprobe tone in a moderatelysevere {1952) and Sutton and Schuknecht {1954). The histologieson low-frequencysensori-neural hearing loss and {2)to investi- their animalswith maximum low-frequencyhearing losses gatepitch matchingin the samelistener. of 50 dB revealeda completeloss of apical hair cells and nerve fibers. In the presenceof a completeloss of sensoryunits at the I. METHOD apical end of the cochlea, the spread of the excitation A. Subject towardsthe oval windowcould be responsiblefor low-fre- quency signalsnear thresholdbeing detectedby the first The subjectwas a 31-year-old male with a moderately higher frequencyfibers available. Intact or partially da- severelow-frequency sensori-neural hearing loss in his fight maged low-frequencyhigh-threshold fibers, on the other ear. The subjecthad previouslyserved in psychoacousticex- hand, could providea secondarydetection system at high periments.Before the onset of data collection, the subject signalintensities and complicatethe generalshape of psy- was givena 20-min practicesession on eachtask. choacousticaltuning curves. His hearingloss was first noticedin early childhood. A particularlyinteresting question to ask of listeners The results of an audiometric test battery were consistent with low-frequency,sensori-neural hearing loss is how they with a lesionof primarily cochlearorigin in his fight ear and perceivepitch. If pitchperception is basedon the excitation normal hearing in his left ear. Pure-tonethresholds in dB pattern,we might expect that a pitchwill beperceived which SPL for his left and fight ears are shown in Fig. 1 by the correspondsto the frequencyof thetip of the psychoacousti- crosses.Thresholds in his fight ear were measuredin the cal tuning curve, at least at low intensities.On the other presenceof a contralateralmasker to eliminateauditory cues in the nontestear. The decreasein thresholdwith increasing Presentaddress: Institute for Perception Research (IPO), Den Dolech 2, frequencyin his fight ear is very steepfor a low-frequency Eindhoven, The Netherlands. hearing loss, averaging between 30 and 32 dB/oct. His 961 J. Acoust.Soc. Am. 73 (3), March 1983 0001-4966/83/030961-05500.80 ¸ 1983 AcousticalSociety of America 961 Downloaded 07 Aug 2012 to 131.155.151.138. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/journals/doc/ASALIB-home/info/terms.jsp I I I I I I I I I I # I FIG. 1. Psychoacousticaltuning curvesfor the normal ear (left) and the impairedear (right).The > 80- crosses represent absolute threshold for 250-ms tones. The filled symbolsrepresent the lev- D 60- els of the probe (4.5-, 7-, and 13- dB SL) and the corresponding untilled symbols representthe a. 40- levelof a pure-tonemasker need- Z ed to just mask the probe. The o 20- up-arrow indicatesthat the level of the masker needed to mask the probe exceeded100-dB SPL. 0-/; • i J I I I II I I I M • I • I • Ill I I I I o.• i • • o.• i 2 4 FREQUENCY (kHz) speechdiscrimination in his impairedear yieldeda PB-max reasons:(1)the simultaneous-masking paradigm iseasier to score of 76% at a test level of 90-dB HL. executeand (2) Turner (personalcommunication) found no In an attempt to further characterizethe nature of the significantdifference in the simultaneous-maskingversus heating loss,threshold was measuredat 1 kHz in the pres- forward-maskingparadigms in listenerswith low-frequency enceof a high-frequencymasking noise at severallevels. The hearinglosses. We measuredtuning curves in the following high-frequencymasker was a bandpassnoise with cutofffre- manner:First, the thresholdfor the 250-msprobe tone was quenciesof 2 and 4 kHz and skirtsof 48 dB?oct.The pres- determined in the absenceof the masker. Next, the test tone ence of the masker at 50 dB overall SPL increased threshold was set to a fixed level and the level of a variable-level masker at 1 kHz by approximately11 dB. The 60-dB-SPL masker toneneeded to just maskthe testtone was determined using a increasedthe thresholdby approximately13 dB. The 70-dB- Bekesytracking procedure. On eachstimulus presentation SPL maskerincreased threshold by approximately15 dB. the level of the masker was either increasedor decreasedby This shift in thresholdwith increasingmasker levels in low- 0.25 dB. Each data point wasthe averagepresentation level frequencyheating lossis consistentwith that observedby of the last 15 of a total of 20 reversals.The procedurewas Thornton and Abbas (1980). The resultsfrom our subject repeatedfor a numberof differentmasker frequencies cho- indicatethat for low levelsat 1-kHz detectionappears to be sento encompassthe entirerange of the tuningcurve. attributed to the higher frequencyfibers, but for levelsex- During measurementsof