Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022 Apr;84(3):1016-1042. doi: 10.3758/s13414-021-02376-0. Epub 2022 Jan 31.
Hearing in noise is a core problem in audition, and a challenge for hearing-impaired listeners, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We explored whether harmonic frequency relations, a signature property of many communication sounds, aid hearing in noise for normal hearing listeners. We measured detection thresholds in noise for tones and speech synthesized to have harmonic or inharmonic spectra. Harmonic signals were consistently easier to detect than otherwise identical inharmonic signals. Harmonicity also improved discrimination of sounds in noise. The largest benefits were observed for two-note up-down "pitch" discrimination and melodic contour discrimination, both of which could be performed equally well with harmonic and inharmonic tones in quiet, but which showed large harmonic advantages in noise. The results show that harmonicity facilitates hearing in noise, plausibly by providing a noise-robust pitch cue that aids detection and discrimination.
在听觉中，噪声环境下的听力是一个核心问题，也是听力受损者面临的挑战，但这方面的潜在机制仍未得到充分理解。我们探索了许多通讯声音的特征属性——谐波频率关系，是否有助于听力正常的听众在噪声环境下的听力。我们测量了用具有谐波或非谐波频谱的音调及语音合成的声音在噪声中的检测阈值。与非谐波信号相比，谐波信号始终更容易被检测到。谐波性还提高了对噪声中声音的辨别能力。在两声上下“音高”辨别和旋律轮廓辨别中观察到最大的益处，这两种辨别在安静环境中都可以用谐波和非谐波音同等地完成，但在噪声中则表现出很大的谐波优势。结果表明，谐波有助于在噪声中进行听力，这可能是因为它提供了一个抗噪的音高线索，有助于检测和辨别。
