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Peripheral Auditory Processing of Speech Information: Implications from a Physiological Study of Intensity Discrimination

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The Psychophysics of Speech Perception

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASID,volume 39))

Abstract

A fundamental problem in speech processing by the peripheral auditory system is how to represent the short-time spectrum over the broad range of stimulus levels and signal-to-noise ratios of conversational speech. Because most auditory-nerve fibers have a limited dynamic range, profiles of average discharge rates against characteristic frequency (CF) seem to provide a poor representation of the formant frequencies of vowel-like sounds at stimulus levels and signal-to-noise ratios well within the conversational range (Sachs and Young, 1979; Sachs et al., 1983; Miller and Sachs, 1983). However, it cannot be concluded from these results that average discharge rates of all auditory-nerve fibers fail to provide sufficient information for distinguishing speech sounds, because these studies have not examined in detail the possible roles of high-threshold fibers (Liberman, 1978), and efferent feedback to the cochlea (Wiederhold and Kiang, 1970). In this paper, we approach this “dynamic range” problem by using the concepts of signal-detection theory to relate psychophysical performance in intensity discrimination to the activity of auditory-nerve fibers.

This work greatly benefited from discussions of psychophysical topics with H.S. Colburn, S. Buus, and M. Florentine. N.Y.S. Kiang made valuable comments on the manuscript. The assistance of P. Riley in the physiological experiments is gratefully acknowledged. This research was supported by NIH Grant NS 13126. A key portion of the work was done while the author was visiting the Centre National d’Etude des Telecommunications, Lannion, France.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eaton-Peabody Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Bertrand Delgutte

  2. Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Bertrand Delgutte

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  1. Bertrand Delgutte
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Phonetics, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    M. E. H. Schouten

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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

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Delgutte, B. (1987). Peripheral Auditory Processing of Speech Information: Implications from a Physiological Study of Intensity Discrimination. In: Schouten, M.E.H. (eds) The Psychophysics of Speech Perception. NATO ASI Series, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3629-4_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3629-4_27

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