Summary statistics in auditory perception
Sensory signals are transduced at high resolution, but their structure must be stored in a more compact format. Here we provide evidence that the auditory system summarizes the temporal details of sounds using time-averaged statistics. We measured discrimination of 'sound textures' that we...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91567 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 |
| _version_ | 1811091632049618944 |
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| author | Schemitsch, Michael Simoncelli, Eero P McDermott, Josh |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Schemitsch, Michael Simoncelli, Eero P McDermott, Josh |
| author_sort | Schemitsch, Michael |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Sensory signals are transduced at high resolution, but their structure must be stored in a more compact format. Here we provide evidence that the auditory system summarizes the temporal details of sounds using time-averaged statistics. We measured discrimination of 'sound textures' that were characterized by particular statistical properties, as normally result from the superposition of many acoustic features in auditory scenes. When listeners discriminated examples of different textures, performance improved with excerpt duration. In contrast, when listeners discriminated different examples of the same texture, performance declined with duration, a paradoxical result given that the information available for discrimination grows with duration. These results indicate that once these sounds are of moderate length, the brain's representation is limited to time-averaged statistics, which, for different examples of the same texture, converge to the same values with increasing duration. Such statistical representations produce good categorical discrimination, but limit the ability to discern temporal detail. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:05:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/91567 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:05:27Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/915672022-09-29T12:37:55Z Summary statistics in auditory perception Schemitsch, Michael Simoncelli, Eero P McDermott, Josh Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McDermott, Josh Sensory signals are transduced at high resolution, but their structure must be stored in a more compact format. Here we provide evidence that the auditory system summarizes the temporal details of sounds using time-averaged statistics. We measured discrimination of 'sound textures' that were characterized by particular statistical properties, as normally result from the superposition of many acoustic features in auditory scenes. When listeners discriminated examples of different textures, performance improved with excerpt duration. In contrast, when listeners discriminated different examples of the same texture, performance declined with duration, a paradoxical result given that the information available for discrimination grows with duration. These results indicate that once these sounds are of moderate length, the brain's representation is limited to time-averaged statistics, which, for different examples of the same texture, converge to the same values with increasing duration. Such statistical representations produce good categorical discrimination, but limit the ability to discern temporal detail. Howard Hughes Medical Institute 2014-11-14T16:17:31Z 2014-11-14T16:17:31Z 2013-02 2012-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1097-6256 1546-1726 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91567 McDermott, Josh H, Michael Schemitsch, and Eero P Simoncelli. “Summary Statistics in Auditory Perception.” Nat Neurosci 16, no. 4 (February 24, 2013): 493–498. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3347 Nature Neuroscience Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group PMC |
| spellingShingle | Schemitsch, Michael Simoncelli, Eero P McDermott, Josh Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title | Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title_full | Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title_fullStr | Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title_full_unstemmed | Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title_short | Summary statistics in auditory perception |
| title_sort | summary statistics in auditory perception |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91567 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-2503 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT schemitschmichael summarystatisticsinauditoryperception AT simoncellieerop summarystatisticsinauditoryperception AT mcdermottjosh summarystatisticsinauditoryperception |