1 Department of Experimental Audiology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany.
Trends Hear. 2018 Jan-Dec;22:2331216518787067. doi: 10.1177/2331216518787067.
The psychoacoustic measure pitch strength describes the strength of the tonal sensation evoked by a sound on a scale from weak to strong. For normal-hearing listeners, it was shown in the literature that pitch strength of bandpass noise (relative to the pitch strength of a sinusoid at its center frequency) decreases with increasing bandwidth. This decrease also depends on the center frequency. These effects were often attributed to the frequency selectivity of the auditory system. The present study investigated the relative pitch strength of bandpass noise in hearing-impaired listeners and for comparison in a normal-hearing control group. For the normal-hearing listeners, pitch strength was measured at sound pressure levels of 30 and 70 dB SPL for bandwidths between 5 and 1620 Hz and center frequencies of 375, 750, and 1500 Hz. In addition, two ways of generating the stimuli (filtering in frequency or time domain) were used to compare the data with previous results. Apart from the known effect of center frequency on the change of relative pitch strength with increasing bandwidth, stimulus generation also had a significant influence on the results. Relative pitch strength of bandpass noise in hearing-impaired listeners was measured for bandwidths from 5 to 1620 Hz; the center frequency was 1500 Hz. Compared with the corresponding results of the normal hearing, relative pitch strength was altered in the hearing-impaired listeners. These alterations, however, could not be explained by altered spectral processing in the damaged cochlea alone.
心理声学测度量感音强度描述了声音在一个从弱到强的音阶上所引起的音调感觉的强度。对于正常听力的听众，文献表明带通噪声的量感音强度（相对于其中心频率处正弦波的量感音强度）随着带宽的增加而减小。这种减少还取决于中心频率。这些效应通常归因于听觉系统的频率选择性。本研究调查了听力受损听众的带通噪声的相对量感音强度，并与正常听力对照组进行了比较。对于正常听力的听众，在 30 和 70 dB SPL 的声压级下，测量了带宽为 5 至 1620 Hz 且中心频率为 375、750 和 1500 Hz 的带通噪声的量感音强度。此外，使用两种生成刺激的方法（在频域或时域中滤波）将数据与以前的结果进行比较。除了中心频率对相对量感音强度随带宽增加而变化的已知影响外，刺激生成对结果也有显著影响。对于带宽为 5 至 1620 Hz 的带通噪声，测量了听力受损听众的相对量感音强度；中心频率为 1500 Hz。与正常听力的相应结果相比，听力受损听众的相对量感音强度发生了变化。然而，这些变化不能仅归因于受损耳蜗中光谱处理的改变。
