Demany Laurent, Pressnitzer Daniel, Semal Catherine
Laboratoire Mouvement, Adaptation, Cognition (UMR CNRS 5227), Universite de Bordeaux, 146 Rue Leo Saignat, Bordeaux, France.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2009 Sep;126(3):1342-8. doi: 10.1121/1.3179675.
Demany and Ramos [(2005). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 833-841] found that it is possible to hear an upward or downward pitch change between two successive pure tones differing in frequency even when the first tone is informationally masked by other tones, preventing a conscious perception of its pitch. This provides evidence for the existence of automatic frequency-shift detectors (FSDs) in the auditory system. The present study was intended to estimate the magnitude of the frequency shifts optimally detected by the FSDs. Listeners were presented with sound sequences consisting of (1) a 300-ms or 100-ms random "chord" of synchronous pure tones, separated by constant intervals of either 650 cents or 1000 cents; (2) an interstimulus interval (ISI) varying from 100 to 900 ms; (3) a single pure tone at a variable frequency distance (Delta) from a randomly selected component of the chord. The task was to indicate if the final pure tone was higher or lower than the nearest component of the chord. Irrespective of the chord's properties and of the ISI, performance was best when Delta was equal to about 120 cents (1/10 octave). Therefore, this interval seems to be the frequency shift optimally detected by the FSDs.
德马尼和拉莫斯[（2005年）。《美国声学学会杂志》117卷，833 - 841页]发现，即使第一个纯音在信息上被其他音调掩蔽，导致无法有意识地感知其音高，人们仍有可能听到两个连续的、频率不同的纯音之间的音高上升或下降变化。这为听觉系统中存在自动频率偏移探测器（FSD）提供了证据。本研究旨在估计FSD能最佳检测到的频率偏移幅度。向听众呈现的声音序列包括：（1）一个300毫秒或100毫秒的同步纯音随机“和弦”，间隔固定为650音分或1000音分；（2）一个从100到900毫秒变化的刺激间隔（ISI）；（3）一个与和弦中随机选择的成分有可变频率距离（Δ）的单一纯音。任务是指出最终的纯音比和弦中最近的成分高还是低。无论和弦的特性和ISI如何，当Δ约为120音分（1/10倍频程）时，表现最佳。因此，这个间隔似乎是FSD能最佳检测到的频率偏移。
