Pitch Perception and Harmonic Resolvability in Normal-hearing and Hearing-impaired Listeners
Author: Joshua G. W. Bernstein
Publisher:
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 165
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK(cont.) However, further results in the third and fourth studies suggested a role for harmonic resolvability in pitch discrimination, inconsistent with the lack of dependence on resolvability of the modified autocorrelation model. In normal-hearing subjects at high stimulus levels and in hearing-impaired subjects, a wider spacing between adjacent frequency components, related to a reduction in frequency selectivity, was required to yield accurate FO discrimination performance. Thus, resolved harmonics may be necessary for accurate FO encoding, and the pitch discrimination deficit associated with sensorineural hearing loss may be related to a reduction in frequency selectivity. These results support spectral or spectrotemporal pitch models that derive FO from resolved harmonics, or a place-dependent temporal model whereby peripheral filter bandwidths limit the range of detectable periodicities. Because spectral processing plays an important role in pitch discrimination, hearing-impaired and cochlear-implant listeners may benefit from hearing-aid fitting procedures and cochlear-implant processing algorithms that emphasize or enhance spectral place cues.