Tone-corrected metrics for pre-2005 INM helicopters

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-07-01

Of the 21 Helicopters represented in INM 7.0b, only five include the tone-corrected metrics. The calculation of these metrics involves the analysis of 1/3 octave-band data obtained during the source data measurement process, and requires sound-pressu...

Cruise noise of counterrotation propeller at angle of attack in wind tunnel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dittmar, J. H.

1986-01-01

The noise of a counterrotation propeller at angle of attack was measured in the NASA Lewis 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at cruise conditions. Noise increases of as much as 4 dB were measured at positive angles of attack on the tunnel side wall, which represented an airplane fuselage. These noise increases could be minimized or eliminated by operating the counterrotation propeller with the front propeller turning up-inboard. This would require oppositely rotating propellers on opposite sides of the airplane. Noise analyses at different bandwidths enabled the separate front- and rear-propeller tones, as well as the total noise, at each harmonic to be determined. A simplified noise model was explored to show how the observed circumferential noise patterns of the separate propeller tones might have occurred. The total noise pattern, which represented the sum of the front- and rear-propeller tones at a particular harmonic, showed trends that would be hard to interpret without the separate-tone results. Therefore it is important that counterrotation angle-of-attack noise data be taken in such a manner that the front- and rear-propeller tones can be separated.

Dissociation of tone and vowel processing in Mandarin idioms.

PubMed

Hu, Jiehui; Gao, Shan; Ma, Weiyi; Yao, Dezhong

2012-09-01

Using event-related potentials, this study measured the access of suprasegmental (tone) and segmental (vowel) information in spoken word recognition with Mandarin idioms. Participants performed a delayed-response acceptability task, in which they judged the correctness of the last word of each idiom, which might deviate from the correct word in either tone or vowel. Results showed that, compared with the correct idioms, a larger early negativity appeared only for vowel violation. Additionally, a larger N400 effect was observed for vowel mismatch than tone mismatch. A control experiment revealed that these differences were not due to low-level physical differences across conditions; instead, they represented the greater constraining power of vowels than tones in the lexical selection and semantic integration of the spoken words. Furthermore, tone violation elicited a more robust late positive component than vowel violation, suggesting different reanalyses of the two types of information. In summary, the current results support a functional dissociation of tone and vowel processing in spoken word recognition. Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Testing a model of intonation in a tone language.

PubMed

Lindau, M

1986-09-01

Schematic fundamental frequency curves of simple statements and questions are generated for Hausa, a two-tone language of Nigeria, using a modified version of an intonational model developed by Gårding and Bruce [Nordic Prosody II, edited by T. Fretheim (Tapir, Trondheim, 1981), pp. 33-39]. In this model, rules for intonation and tones are separated. Intonation is represented as sloping grids of (near) parallel lines, inside which tones are placed. The tones are associated with turning points of the fundamental frequency contour. Local rules may also modify the exact placement of a tone within the grid. The continuous fundamental frequency contour is modeled by concatenating the tonal points using polynomial equations. Thus the final pitch contour is modeled as an interaction between global and local factors. The slope of the intonational grid lines depends at least on sentence type (statement or question), sentence length, and tone pattern. The model is tested by reference to data from nine speakers of Kano Hausa.

Pairing tone trains with vagus nerve stimulation induces temporal plasticity in auditory cortex.

PubMed

Shetake, Jai A; Engineer, Navzer D; Vrana, Will A; Wolf, Jordan T; Kilgard, Michael P

2012-01-01

The selectivity of neurons in sensory cortex can be modified by pairing neuromodulator release with sensory stimulation. Repeated pairing of electrical stimulation of the cholinergic nucleus basalis, for example, induces input specific plasticity in primary auditory cortex (A1). Pairing nucleus basalis stimulation (NBS) with a tone increases the number of A1 neurons that respond to the paired tone frequency. Pairing NBS with fast or slow tone trains can respectively increase or decrease the ability of A1 neurons to respond to rapidly presented tones. Pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with a single tone alters spectral tuning in the same way as NBS-tone pairing without the need for brain surgery. In this study, we tested whether pairing VNS with tone trains can change the temporal response properties of A1 neurons. In naïve rats, A1 neurons respond strongly to tones repeated at rates up to 10 pulses per second (pps). Repeatedly pairing VNS with 15 pps tone trains increased the temporal following capacity of A1 neurons and repeatedly pairing VNS with 5 pps tone trains decreased the temporal following capacity of A1 neurons. Pairing VNS with tone trains did not alter the frequency selectivity or tonotopic organization of auditory cortex neurons. Since VNS is well tolerated by patients, VNS-tone train pairing represents a viable method to direct temporal plasticity in a variety of human conditions associated with temporal processing deficits. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Positive affective tone and team performance: The moderating role of collective emotional skills.

PubMed

Collins, Amy L; Jordan, Peter J; Lawrence, Sandra A; Troth, Ashlea C

2016-01-01

Research on affect as a group-level phenomenon has shown that over time, individual members within a group become highly similar in their affect (i.e., members experience and display similar emotions and moods), and often become similar enough that the aggregation of individuals' affect can meaningfully represent the "affective tone" of the group. It is generally assumed that a more positive affective tone will lead to better team performance. We challenge the conclusion that positive affective tone is always good for team performance, suggesting that the relationship between positive affective tone and team performance is subject to moderating influences. Across two studies, we demonstrate that the self-reported collective emotional skills of team members play a crucial role in determining whether positive affective tone is beneficial or detrimental to team performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Manifestation of peripherial coding in the effect of increasing loudness and enhanced discrimination of the intensity of tone bursts before and after tone burst noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rimskaya-Korsavkova, L. K.

2017-07-01

To find the possible reasons for the midlevel elevation of the Weber fraction in intensity discrimination of a tone burst, a comparison was performed for the complementary distributions of spike activity of an ensemble of space nerves, such as the distribution of time instants when spikes occur, the distribution of interspike intervals, and the autocorrelation function. The distribution properties were detected in a poststimulus histogram, an interspike interval histogram, and an autocorrelation histogram—all obtained from the reaction of an ensemble of model space nerves in response to an auditory noise burst-useful tone burst complex. Two configurations were used: in the first, the peak amplitude of the tone burst was varied and the noise amplitude was fixed; in the other, the tone burst amplitude was fixed and the noise amplitude was varied. Noise could precede or follow the tone burst. The noise and tone burst durations, as well as the interval between them, was 4 kHz and corresponded to the characteristic frequencies of the model space nerves. The profiles of all the mentioned histograms had two maxima. The values and the positions of the maxima in the poststimulus histogram corresponded to the amplitudes and mutual time position of the noise and the tone burst. The maximum that occurred in response to the tone burst action could be a basis for the formation of the loudness of the latter (explicit loudness). However, the positions of the maxima in the other two histograms did not depend on the positions of tone bursts and noise in the combinations. The first maximum fell in short intervals and united intervals corresponding to the noise and tone burst durations. The second maximum fell in intervals corresponding to a tone burst delay with respect to noise, and its value was proportional to the noise amplitude or tone burst amplitude that was smaller in the complex. An increase in tone burst or noise amplitudes was caused by nonlinear variations in the two maxima and the ratio between them. The size of the first maximum in the of interspike interval distribution could be the basis for the formation of the loudness of the masked tone burst (implicit loudness), and the size of the second maximum, for the formation of intensity in the periodicity pitch of the complex. The auditory effect of the midlevel enhancement of tone burst loudness could be the result of variations in the implicit tone burst loudness caused by variations in tone-burst or noise intensity. The reason for the enhancement of the Weber fraction could be competitive interaction between such subjective qualities as explicit and implicit tone-burst loudness and the intensity of the periodicity pitch of the complex.

Improved cardiac filling facilitates the postprandial elevation of stroke volume in Python regius.

PubMed

Enok, Sanne; Leite, Gabriella S P C; Leite, Cléo A C; Gesser, Hans; Hedrick, Michael S; Wang, Tobias

2016-10-01

To accommodate the pronounced metabolic response to digestion, pythons increase heart rate and elevate stroke volume, where the latter has been ascribed to a massive and fast cardiac hypertrophy. However, numerous recent studies show that heart mass rarely increases, even upon ingestion of large meals, and we therefore explored the possibility that a rise in mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP) serves to elevate venous pressure and cardiac filling during digestion. To this end, we measured blood flows and pressures in anaesthetized Python regius The anaesthetized snakes exhibited the archetypal tachycardia as well as a rise in both venous pressure and MCFP that fully account for the approximate doubling of stroke volume. There was no rise in blood volume and the elevated MCFP must therefore stem from increased vascular tone, possibly by means of increased sympathetic tone on the veins. Furthermore, although both venous pressure and MCFP increased during volume loading, there was no evidence that postprandial hearts were endowed with an additional capacity to elevate stroke volume. In vitro measurements of force development of paced ventricular strips also failed to reveal signs of increased contractility, but the postprandial hearts had higher activities of cytochrome oxidase and pyruvate kinase, which probably serves to sustain the rise in cardiac work during digestion. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Otoacoustic emissions in the general adult population of Nord-Trøndelag, Norway: III. Relationships with pure-tone hearing thresholds.

PubMed

Engdahl, Bo; Tambs, Kristian; Borchgrevink, Hans M; Hoffman, Howard J

2005-01-01

This study aims to describe the association between otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and pure-tone hearing thresholds (PTTs) in an unscreened adult population (N =6415), to determine the efficiency by which TEOAEs and DPOAEs can identify ears with elevated PTTs, and to investigate whether a combination of DPOAE and TEOAE responses improves this performance. Associations were examined by linear regression analysis and ANOVA. Test performance was assessed by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. The relation between OAEs and PTTs appeared curvilinear with a moderate degree of non-linearity. Combining DPOAEs and TEOAEs improved performance. Test performance depended on the cut-off thresholds defining elevated PTTs with optimal values between 25 and 45 dB HL, depending on frequency and type of OAE measure. The unique constitution of the present large sample, which reflects the general adult population, makes these results applicable to population-based studies and screening programs.

Tone classification of syllable-segmented Thai speech based on multilayer perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satravaha, Nuttavudh; Klinkhachorn, Powsiri; Lass, Norman

2002-05-01

Thai is a monosyllabic tonal language that uses tone to convey lexical information about the meaning of a syllable. Thus to completely recognize a spoken Thai syllable, a speech recognition system not only has to recognize a base syllable but also must correctly identify a tone. Hence, tone classification of Thai speech is an essential part of a Thai speech recognition system. Thai has five distinctive tones (``mid,'' ``low,'' ``falling,'' ``high,'' and ``rising'') and each tone is represented by a single fundamental frequency (F0) pattern. However, several factors, including tonal coarticulation, stress, intonation, and speaker variability, affect the F0 pattern of a syllable in continuous Thai speech. In this study, an efficient method for tone classification of syllable-segmented Thai speech, which incorporates the effects of tonal coarticulation, stress, and intonation, as well as a method to perform automatic syllable segmentation, were developed. Acoustic parameters were used as the main discriminating parameters. The F0 contour of a segmented syllable was normalized by using a z-score transformation before being presented to a tone classifier. The proposed system was evaluated on 920 test utterances spoken by 8 speakers. A recognition rate of 91.36% was achieved by the proposed system.

Moderate Baseline Vagal Tone Predicts Greater Prosociality in Children

PubMed Central

Miller, Jonas G.; Kahle, Sarah; Hastings, Paul D.

2016-01-01

Vagal tone is widely believed to be an important physiological aspect of emotion regulation and associated positive behaviors. However, there is inconsistent evidence for relations between children’s baseline vagal tone and their helpful or prosocial responses to others (Hastings & Miller, 2014). Recent work in adults suggests a quadratic association (inverted U-shape curve) between baseline vagal tone and prosociality (Kogan et al., 2014). The present research examined whether this nonlinear association was evident in children. We found consistent evidence for a quadratic relation between vagal tone and prosociality across 3 samples of children using 6 different measures. Compared to low and high vagal tone, moderate vagal tone in early childhood concurrently predicted greater self-reported prosociality (Study 1), observed empathic concern in response to the distress of others and greater generosity toward less fortunate peers (Study 2), and longitudinally predicted greater self-, mother-, and teacher-reported prosociality 5.5 years later in middle childhood (Study 3). Taken together, our findings suggest that moderate vagal tone at rest represents a physiological preparedness or tendency to engage in different forms of prosociality across different contexts. Early moderate vagal tone may reflect an optimal balance of regulation and arousal that helps prepare children to sympathize, comfort, and share with others. PMID:27819463

Voice responses to changes in pitch of voice or tone auditory feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivasankar, Mahalakshmi; Bauer, Jay J.; Babu, Tara; Larson, Charles R.

2005-02-01

The present study was undertaken to examine if a subject's voice F0 responded not only to perturbations in pitch of voice feedback but also to changes in pitch of a side tone presented congruent with voice feedback. Small magnitude brief duration perturbations in pitch of voice or tone auditory feedback were randomly introduced during sustained vowel phonations. Results demonstrated a higher rate and larger magnitude of voice F0 responses to changes in pitch of the voice compared with a triangular-shaped tone (experiment 1) or a pure tone (experiment 2). However, response latencies did not differ across voice or tone conditions. Data suggest that subjects responded to the change in F0 rather than harmonic frequencies of auditory feedback because voice F0 response prevalence, magnitude, or latency did not statistically differ across triangular-shaped tone or pure-tone feedback. Results indicate the audio-vocal system is sensitive to the change in pitch of a variety of sounds, which may represent a flexible system capable of adapting to changes in the subject's voice. However, lower prevalence and smaller responses to tone pitch-shifted signals suggest that the audio-vocal system may resist changes to the pitch of other environmental sounds when voice feedback is present. .

EFFECTS OF CONVERSATIONAL HYPNOSIS ON RELATIVE PARASYMPATHETIC TONE AND PATIENT COMFORT DURING AXILLARY BRACHIAL PLEXUS BLOCKS FOR AMBULATORY UPPER LIMB SURGERY:A Quasiexperimental Pilot Study.

PubMed

Boselli, Emmanuel; Musellec, Hervé; Bernard, Franck; Guillou, Nicolas; Hugot, Pierre; Augris-Mathieu, Caroline; Diot-Junique, Nathalie; Bouvet, Lionel; Allaouchiche, Bernard

2018-01-01

This two-center quasiexperimental pilot study was to determine the effect of conversational hypnosis on patient comfort and parasympathetic tone, which may represent a quantitative measure of hypnotic depth, during regional anesthesia. The patients received conversational hypnosis in one center and oral premedication in the other. The patients' subjective comfort (0-10 rating scale) and objective parasympathetic tone, as assessed by the Analgesia/Nociception Index (ANI), were measured before and after regional anesthesia. The parasympathetic tone and comfort scores evidenced a significantly greater increase in the hypnosis patients than in controls. These findings suggest that using conversational hypnosis during regional anesthesia may be followed by a subjective increase in patient comfort and an objective increase in parasympathetic tone, monitored by ANI.

Object representation in the human auditory system

PubMed Central

Winkler, István; van Zuijen, Titia L.; Sussman, Elyse; Horváth, János; Näätänen, Risto

2010-01-01

One important principle of object processing is exclusive allocation. Any part of the sensory input, including the border between two objects, can only belong to one object at a time. We tested whether tones forming a spectro-temporal border between two sound patterns can belong to both patterns at the same time. Sequences were composed of low-, intermediate- and high-pitched tones. Tones were delivered with short onset-to-onset intervals causing the high and low tones to automatically form separate low and high sound streams. The intermediate-pitch tones could be perceived as part of either one or the other stream, but not both streams at the same time. Thus these tones formed a pitch ’border’ between the two streams. The tones were presented in a fixed, cyclically repeating order. Linking the intermediate-pitch tones with the high or the low tones resulted in the perception of two different repeating tonal patterns. Participants were instructed to maintain perception of one of the two tone patterns throughout the stimulus sequences. Occasional changes violated either the selected or the alternative tone pattern, but not both at the same time. We found that only violations of the selected pattern elicited the mismatch negativity event-related potential, indicating that only this pattern was represented in the auditory system. This result suggests that individual sounds are processed as part of only one auditory pattern at a time. Thus tones forming a spectro-temporal border are exclusively assigned to one sound object at any given time, as are spatio-temporal borders in vision. PMID:16836636

Exercise training increases basal tone in arterioles distal to chronic coronary occlusion

PubMed Central

Heaps, Cristine L.; Mattox, Mildred L.; Kelly, Katherine A.; Meininger, Cynthia J.; Parker, Janet L.

2014-01-01

Endurance exercise training increases basal active tone in coronary arteries and enhances myogenic tone in coronary arterioles of control animals. Paradoxically, exercise training has also been shown to augment nitric oxide production and nitric oxide-mediated relaxation in coronary arterioles. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of exercise training on basal active tone of arterioles (~150 µm ID) isolated from the collateral-dependent region of hearts exposed to chronic coronary occlusion. Ameroid occluders were surgically placed around the proximal left circumflex coronary artery of miniature swine. Arterioles were isolated from both the collateral-dependent and nonoccluded myocardial regions of sedentary (pen confined) and exercise-trained (treadmill run; 14 wk) pigs. Coronary tone was studied in isolated arterioles using microvessel myographs and standard isometric techniques. Exposure to nominally Ca2+-free external solution reduced resting tension in all arterioles; decreases were most profound (P < 0.05) in arterioles from the collateral-dependent region of exercise-trained animals. Furthermore, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition (Nω-nitro-l-arginine methylester; 100 µM) unmasked markedly increased nitric oxide-sensitive tone in arterioles from the collateral-dependent region of exercise-trained swine. Blockade of K+ channels revealed significantly enhanced K+ channel contribution to basal tone in collateral-dependent arterioles of exercise-trained pigs. Protein content of endothelial NOS (eNOS) and phosphorylated eNOS (pS1179), determined by immunoblot, was elevated in arterioles from exercise-trained animals with the greatest effect in collateral-dependent vasculature. Taken together, we demonstrate the interaction of opposing exercise training-enhanced arteriolar basal active tone, nitric oxide production, and K+ channel activity in chronic coronary occlusion, potentially enhancing the capacity to regulate blood flow to collateral-dependent myocardium. PMID:16243909

The role of tone and segmental information in visual-word recognition in Thai.

PubMed

Winskel, Heather; Ratitamkul, Theeraporn; Charoensit, Akira

2017-07-01

Tone languages represent a large proportion of the spoken languages of the world and yet lexical tone is understudied. Thai offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of lexical tone processing during visual-word recognition, as tone is explicitly expressed in its script. We used colour words and their orthographic neighbours as stimuli to investigate facilitation (Experiment 1) and interference (Experiment 2) Stroop effects. Five experimental conditions were created: (a) the colour word (e.g., ขาว /k h ã:w/ [white]), (b) tone different word (e.g., ข่าว /k h à:w/[news]), (c) initial consonant phonologically same word (e.g., คาว /k h a:w/ [fishy]), where the initial consonant of the word was phonologically the same but orthographically different, (d) initial consonant different, tone same word (e.g., หาว /hã:w/ yawn), where the initial consonant was orthographically different but the tone of the word was the same, and (e) initial consonant different, tone different word (e.g., กาว /ka:w/ glue), where the initial consonant was orthographically different, and the tone was different. In order to examine whether tone information per se had a facilitative effect, we also included a colour congruent word condition where the segmental (S) information was different but the tone (T) matched the colour word (S-T+) in Experiment 2. Facilitation/interference effects were found for all five conditions when compared with a neutral control word. Results of the critical comparisons revealed that tone information comes into play at a later stage in lexical processing, and orthographic information contributes more than phonological information.

Retrospective analysis of melasma treatment using a dual mode of low-fluence Q-switched and long-pulse Nd:YAG laser vs. low-fluence Q-switched Nd:YAG laser monotherapy.

PubMed

Choi, Chun Pil; Yim, Seon Mi; Seo, Soo Hong; Ahn, Hyo Hyun; Kye, Young Chul; Choi, Jae Eun

2015-02-01

Despite the effectiveness of low-fluence Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (QSNY) treatment in melasma, adverse events, including mottled hypopigmentation (MH) and rebound hyperpigmentation (RH) have been reported. To compare the effectiveness and safety of combination therapy using low-fluence QSNY and long-pulse Nd:YAG laser (LPNY) (Dual toning), with low-fluence QSNY monotherapy (QS toning), in Asian melasma patients. Patients were treated for 10 sessions at 1-week intervals with QSNY (6 mm spot); 2.5-3.0 J/cm(2) for QS toning (n = 177) or 2.1-2.5 J/cm(2) for dual toning (n = 183). The dual toning group was immediately treated with LPNY (7 mm spot, 15-17 J/cm(2)). The results were evaluated using the modified Melasma Area and Severity Index (mMASI) score and the physician's global assessment. MH or RH were significantly lower (1.1% vs. 14.1%) and the treatment efficacy was improved (median decrease of mMASI, 3.6 vs. 3.0) in the dual toning group compared with the QS toning group. Periorbital melasma showed distinctively high rates of adverse events in the QS toning group (23.9% vs. 5.7%), which were significantly reduced in the dual toning group (2.9%). Dual toning could represent a safe and effective treatment for Asian melasma patients, as it is associated with minimal adverse events and improved treatment efficacy compared with QS toning monotherapy.

Temporary inhibition of dorsal or ventral hippocampus by muscimol: distinct effects on measures of innate anxiety on the elevated plus maze, but similar disruption of contextual fear conditioning.

PubMed

Zhang, Wei-Ning; Bast, Tobias; Xu, Yan; Feldon, Joram

2014-04-01

Studies in rats, involving hippocampal lesions and hippocampal drug infusions, have implicated the hippocampus in the modulation of anxiety-related behaviors and conditioned fear. The ventral hippocampus is considered to be more important for anxiety- and fear-related behaviors than the dorsal hippocampus. In the present study, we compared the role of dorsal and ventral hippocampus in innate anxiety and classical fear conditioning in Wistar rats, examining the effects of temporary pharmacological inhibition by the GABA-A agonist muscimol (0.5 ug/0.5 ul/side) in the elevated plus maze and on fear conditioning to a tone and the conditioning context. In the elevated plus maze, dorsal and ventral hippocampal muscimol caused distinct behavioral changes. The effects of ventral hippocampal muscimol were consistent with suppression of locomotion, possibly accompanied by anxiolytic effects, whereas the pattern of changes caused by dorsal hippocampal muscimol was consistent with anxiogenic effects. In contrast, dorsal and ventral hippocampal muscimol caused similar effects in the fear conditioning experiments, disrupting contextual, but not tone, fear conditioning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Air and Bone Conduction Frequency-specific Auditory Brainstem Response in Children with Agenesis of the External Auditory Canal

PubMed Central

Sleifer, Pricila; Didoné, Dayane Domeneghini; Keppeler, Ísis Bicca; Bueno, Claudine Devicari; Riesgo, Rudimar dos Santos

2017-01-01

Introduction  The tone-evoked auditory brainstem responses (tone-ABR) enable the differential diagnosis in the evaluation of children until 12 months of age, including those with external and/or middle ear malformations. The use of auditory stimuli with frequency specificity by air and bone conduction allows characterization of hearing profile. Objective  The objective of our study was to compare the results obtained in tone-ABR by air and bone conduction in children until 12 months, with agenesis of the external auditory canal. Method  The study was cross-sectional, observational, individual, and contemporary. We conducted the research with tone-ABR by air and bone conduction in the frequencies of 500 Hz and 2000 Hz in 32 children, 23 boys, from one to 12 months old, with agenesis of the external auditory canal. Results  The tone-ABR thresholds were significantly elevated for air conduction in the frequencies of 500 Hz and 2000 Hz, while the thresholds of bone conduction had normal values in both ears. We found no statistically significant difference between genders and ears for most of the comparisons. Conclusion  The thresholds obtained by bone conduction did not alter the thresholds in children with conductive hearing loss. However, the conductive hearing loss alter all thresholds by air conduction. The tone-ABR by bone conduction is an important tool for assessing cochlear integrity in children with agenesis of the external auditory canal under 12 months. PMID:29018492

Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI): Intonational Structure of the Oirat Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indjieva, Elena

2009-01-01

This doctoral dissertation describes intonation patterns in Spoken Oirat (SO) and proposes a model of the intonational structure of Oirat. The proposed prosodic model is represented in the framework of Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI), which is based on the design principles of the original English ToBI (Beckman & Ayers 1994; Beckman…

Cross talk between cyclic AMP and the polyphosphoinositide signaling cascade in iris sphincter and other nonvascular smooth muscle.

PubMed

Abdel-Latif, A A

1996-02-01

Nonvascular smooth muscle, such as the iris sphincter, receives double reciprocal innervation: stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system (cholinergic muscarinic), which functions through the polyphosphoinositide (PPI) signaling pathway, contracts it, while activation of the sympathetic nervous system (beta-adrenergic), which functions through the cAMP system, relaxes it. Interactions between the two second messenger systems are important in regulation of smooth muscle tone and represent an important focal point for pharmacological manipulation. Here, I have summarized the experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis that the cross talk between cAMP and the PPI cascade could constitute a biochemical correlate for this functional antagonism. Recent studies suggest that cAMP inhibition is on Ca2+ mobilization rather than myosin light chain phosphorylation. Thus, cAMP-elevating agents, which inhibit agonist-induced PPI hydrolysis, are effective relaxants. Furthermore, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) appears to be involved in both Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum and in Ca2+ influx through the plasma membrane, and since a reduction in intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) is the underlying mechanism for cAMP-mediated relaxation, an important target for cAMP inhibition would be either to inhibit IP3 production or to stimulate IP3 inactivation. In the iris sphincter and other nonvascular smooth muscle there is reasonable experimental evidence that shows that cAMP inhibits phospholipase C activation and stimulates IP3 3-kinase activity, both of which can result in: [i) reduction in IP3 concentrations and (ii) reduction in IP3-dependent Ca2+ mobilization, which may lead to muscle relaxation. In addition to IP3-induced Ca2+ mobilization, changes in [Ca2+]i are the result of the interplay of many processes which may also serve as potential sites for cAMP inhibition. A great deal of progress has been made on the cross talk between cAMP and the PPI signaling cascade in the past decade, and there will be more on the regulation of the second messenger systems and their involvement in smooth muscle tone in the coming years. Clearly, an understanding of the physiological and pathophysiological regulation of smooth muscle tone is central to the development of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of diseases such as asthma and glaucoma, where cAMP-elevating drugs are currently employed.

Links Between Remembered Childhood Emotion Socialization and Adult Adjustment: Similarities and Differences Between European American and African American Women

PubMed Central

Leerkes, Esther M.; Supple, Andrew J.; Su, Jinni; Cavanaugh, Alyson M.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to examine whether recollections of mothers’ emotion socialization practices during childhood are linked to adult emotional well-being as indexed by depression, trait anger, and cardiac vagal tone, and whether these effects vary for African American and European American women. Participants included 251 women (128 European American; 123 African American) who ranged in age from 18 to 44 years (M = 25 years). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated strong measurement and factor invariance across African American and European American participants. Remembered non-supportive emotion socialization was linked with elevated depressive symptoms for European American women, but not African American women and with elevated trait anger for both groups. Remembered supportive emotion socialization was linked with higher resting vagal tone for both groups. The results provide some support for the view that non-supportive emotion socialization may be more detrimental for European Americans than African Americans. PMID:29527083

Deviance sensitivity in the auditory cortex of freely moving rats

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Deviance sensitivity is the specific response to a surprising stimulus, one that violates expectations set by the past stimulation stream. In audition, deviance sensitivity is often conflated with stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), the decrease in responses to a common stimulus that only partially generalizes to other, rare stimuli. SSA is usually measured using oddball sequences, where a common (standard) tone and a rare (deviant) tone are randomly intermixed. However, the larger responses to a tone when deviant does not necessarily represent deviance sensitivity. Deviance sensitivity is commonly tested using a control sequence in which many different tones serve as the standard, eliminating the expectations set by the standard ('deviant among many standards'). When the response to a tone when deviant (against a single standard) is larger than the responses to the same tone in the control sequence, it is concluded that true deviance sensitivity occurs. In primary auditory cortex of anesthetized rats, responses to deviants and to the same tones in the control condition are comparable in size. We recorded local field potentials and multiunit activity from the auditory cortex of awake, freely moving rats, implanted with 32-channel drivable microelectrode arrays and using telemetry. We observed highly significant SSA in the awake state. Moreover, the responses to a tone when deviant were significantly larger than the responses to the same tone in the control condition. These results establish the presence of true deviance sensitivity in primary auditory cortex in awake rats. PMID:29874246

Representations of race and skin tone in medical textbook imagery.

PubMed

Louie, Patricia; Wilkes, Rima

2018-04-01

Although a large literature has documented racial inequities in health care delivery, there continues to be debate about the potential sources of these inequities. Preliminary research suggests that racial inequities are embedded in the curricular edification of physicians and patients. We investigate this hypothesis by considering whether the race and skin tone depicted in images in textbooks assigned at top medical schools reflects the diversity of the U.S. We analyzed 4146 images from Atlas of Human Anatomy, Bates' Guide to Physical Examination & History Taking, Clinically Oriented Anatomy, and Gray's Anatomy for Students by coding race (White, Black, and Person of Color) and skin tone (light, medium, and dark) at the textbook, chapter, and topic level. While the textbooks approximate the racial distribution of the U.S. population - 62.5% White, 20.4% Black, and 17.0% Person of Color - the skin tones represented - 74.5% light, 21% medium, and 4.5% dark - overrepresent light skin tone and underrepresent dark skin tone. There is also an absence of skin tone diversity at the chapter and topic level. Even though medical texts often have overall proportional racial representation this is not the case for skin tone. Furthermore, racial minorities are still often absent at the topic level. These omissions may provide one route through which bias enters medical treatment. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Expertise-dependent motor somatotopy of music perception.

PubMed

Furukawa, Yuta; Uehara, Kazumasa; Furuya, Shinichi

2017-05-22

Precise mapping between sound and motion underlies successful communication and information transmission in speech and musical performance. Formation of the map typically undergoes plastic changes in the neuronal network between auditory and motor regions through training. However, to what extent the map is somatotopically-tuned so that auditory information can specifically modulate the corticospinal system responsible for the relevant motor action has not been elucidated. Here we addressed this issue by assessing the excitability of corticospinal system including the primary motor cortex (M1) innervating the hand intrinsic muscles by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation while trained pianists and musically-untrained individuals (non-musicians) were listening to either piano tones or noise. M1 excitability was evaluated at two anatomically-independent muscles of the hand. The results demonstrated elevation of M1 excitability at not all but one specific muscle while listening to piano tones in the pianists, but no excitability change in both of the muscles in the non-musicians. However, listening to noise did not elicit any changes of M1 excitability at both muscles in both the pianists and the non-musicians. These findings indicate that auditory information representing the trained motor action tunes M1 excitability in a non-uniform, somatotopically-specific manner, which is likely associated with multimodal experiences in musical training. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vocal fold vibration and voice source aperiodicity in 'dist' tones: a study of a timbral ornament in rock singing.

PubMed

Borch, D Zangger; Sundberg, J; Lindestad, P A; Thalén, M

2004-01-01

The acoustic characteristics of so-called 'dist' tones, commonly used in singing rock music, are analyzed in a case study. In an initial experiment a professional rock singer produced examples of 'dist' tones. The tones were found to contain aperiodicity, SPL at 0.3 m varied between 90 and 96 dB, and subglottal pressure varied in the range of 20-43 cm H2O, a doubling yielding, on average, an SPL increase of 2.3 dB. In a second experiment, the associated vocal fold vibration patterns were recorded by digital high-speed imaging of the same singer. Inverse filtering of the simultaneously recorded audio signal showed that the aperiodicity was caused by a low frequency modulation of the flow glottogram pulse amplitude. This modulation was produced by an aperiodic or periodic vibration of the supraglottic mucosa. This vibration reduced the pulse amplitude by obstructing the airway for some of the pulses produced by the apparently periodically vibrating vocal folds. The supraglottic mucosa vibration can be assumed to be driven by the high airflow produced by the elevated subglottal pressure.

Neurobiology of hedonic tone: the relationship between treatment-resistant depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and substance abuse

PubMed Central

Sternat, Tia; Katzman, Martin A

2016-01-01

Anhedonia, defined as the state of reduced ability to experience feelings of pleasure, is one of the hallmarks of depression. Hedonic tone is the trait underlying one’s characteristic ability to feel pleasure. Low hedonic tone represents a reduced capacity to experience pleasure, thus increasing the likelihood of experiencing anhedonia. Low hedonic tone has been associated with several psychopathologies, including major depressive disorder (MDD), substance use, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The main neural pathway that modulates emotional affect comprises the limbic–cortical–striatal–pallidal–thalamic circuits. The activity of various components of the limbic–cortical–striatal–pallidal–thalamic pathway is correlated with hedonic tone in healthy individuals and is altered in MDD. Dysfunction of these circuits has also been implicated in the relative ineffectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used to treat anxiety and depression in patients with low hedonic tone. Mood disorders such as MDD, ADHD, and substance abuse share low hedonic tone as well as altered activation of brain regions involved in reward processing and monoamine signaling as their features. Given the common features of these disorders, it is not surprising that they have high levels of comorbidities. The purpose of this article is to review the neurobiology of hedonic tone as it pertains to depression, ADHD, and the potential for substance abuse. We propose that, since low hedonic tone is a shared feature of MDD, ADHD, and substance abuse, evaluation of hedonic tone may become a diagnostic feature used to predict subtypes of MDD, such as treatment-resistant depression, as well as comorbidities of these disorders. PMID:27601909

Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone

PubMed Central

Caruso, Eugene M.; Mead, Nicole L.; Balcetis, Emily

2009-01-01

People tend to view members of their own political group more positively than members of a competing political group. In this article, we demonstrate that political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context. PMID:19934033

Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone.

PubMed

Caruso, Eugene M; Mead, Nicole L; Balcetis, Emily

2009-12-01

People tend to view members of their own political group more positively than members of a competing political group. In this article, we demonstrate that political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context.

Tone mapping infrared images using conditional filtering-based multi-scale retinex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Haibo; Xu, Lingyun; Hui, Bin; Chang, Zheng

2015-10-01

Tone mapping can be used to compress the dynamic range of the image data such that it can be fitted within the range of the reproduction media and human vision. The original infrared images that captured with infrared focal plane arrays (IFPA) are high dynamic images, so tone mapping infrared images is an important component in the infrared imaging systems, and it has become an active topic in recent years. In this paper, we present a tone mapping framework using multi-scale retinex. Firstly, a Conditional Gaussian Filter (CGF) was designed to suppress "halo" effect. Secondly, original infrared image is decomposed into a set of images that represent the mean of the image at different spatial resolutions by applying CGF of different scale. And then, a set of images that represent the multi-scale details of original image is produced by dividing the original image pointwise by the decomposed image. Thirdly, the final detail image is reconstructed by weighted sum of the multi-scale detail images together. Finally, histogram scaling and clipping is adopted to remove outliers and scale the detail image, 0.1% of the pixels are clipped at both extremities of the histogram. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm efficiently increases the local contrast while preventing "halo" effect and provides a good rendition of visual effect.

RAWINPROC: Computer program for decommutating, interpreting, and interpolating Rawinsonde meteorological balloon sounding data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Staffanson, F. L.

1981-01-01

The FORTRAN computer program RAWINPROC accepts output from NASA Wallops computer program METPASS1; and produces input for NASA computer program 3.0.0700 (ECC-PRD). The three parts together form a software system for the completely automatic reduction of standard RAWINSONDE sounding data. RAWINPROC pre-edits the 0.1-second data, including time-of-day, azimuth, elevation, and sonde-modulated tone frequency, condenses the data according to successive dwells of the tone frequency, decommutates the condensed data into the proper channels (temperature, relative humidity, high and low references), determines the running baroswitch contact number and computes the associated pressure altitudes, and interpolates the data appropriate for input to ACC-PRD.

Recent advances concerning an understanding of sound transmission through engine nozzles and jets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bechert, D.; Michel, U.; Dfizenmaier, E.

1978-01-01

Experiments on the interaction between a turbulent jet and pure tone sound coming from inside the jet nozzle are reported. This is a model representing the sound transmission from sound sources in jet engines through the nozzle and the jet flow into the far field. It is shown that pure tone sound at low frequencies is considerably attenuated by the jet flow, whereas it is conserved at higher frequencies. On the other hand, broadband jet noise can be amplified considerably by a pure tone excitation. Both effects seem not to be interdependent. Knowledge on how they are created and on relevant parameter dependences allow new considerations for the development of sound attenuators.

Intrahippocampal Muscimol Shifts Learning Strategy in Gonadally Intact Young Adult Female Rats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McElroy, Molly W.; Korol, Donna L.

2005-01-01

Learning strategy preferences depend upon circulating estrogen levels, with enhanced hippocampus-sensitive place learning coinciding with elevated estrogen levels. The effects of estrogen on strategy may be mediated by fluctuations in GABAergic function, given that inhibitory tone in the hippocampus is low when estrogen is high. We investigated…

Metabolic dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea: A critical examination of underlying mechanisms

PubMed Central

MESARWI, Omar A.; SHARMA, Ellora V.; JUN, Jonathan C.; POLOTSKY, Vsevolod Y.

2015-01-01

It has recently become clear that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for the development of metabolic syndrome, a disorder of defective energy storage and use. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this finding, drawing upon the characteristics that define OSA. In particular, intermittent hypoxia, sleep fragmentation, elevated sympathetic tone, and oxidative stress – all consequences of OSA – have been implicated in the progression of poor metabolic outcomes in OSA. In this review we examine the evidence to support each of these disease manifestations of OSA as a unique risk for metabolic dysfunction. Tissue hypoxia and sleep fragmentation are each directly connected to insulin resistance and hypertension, and each of these also may increase sympathetic tone, resulting in defective glucose homeostasis, excessive lipolysis, and elevated blood pressure. Oxidative stress further worsens insulin resistance and in turn, metabolic dysfunction also increases oxidative stress. However, despite many studies linking each of these individual components of OSA to the development of metabolic syndrome, there are very few reports that actually provide a coherent narrative about the mechanism underlying metabolic dysfunction in OSA. PMID:26412981

The effect of topical thiocolchicoside in preventing and reducing the increase of muscle tone, stiffness, and soreness: A real-life study on top-level road cyclists during stage competition.

PubMed

Gervasi, Marco; Sisti, Davide; Benelli, Piero; Fernández-Peña, Eneko; Calcabrini, Cinzia; Rocchi, Marco B L; Lanata, Luigi; Bagnasco, Michela; Tonti, Andrea; Vilberto, Stocchi; Sestili, Piero

2017-07-01

In professional road cyclists, the majority of overuse injuries affect the lower limbs and are mostly represented by contractures or muscle shortening, characterized by an increase of tone and stiffness and a variation of elasticity. Treatment and prevention of these specific conditions may include physical, supplementary, and pharmacologic support. The aim of this real-life study was to determine: first, the alterations of tone, stiffness, elasticity, and soreness of rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) in top class cyclists engaged in 3 multistage races, and second, whether any variable in the management of the athletes may affect the prevention and/or reduction of such alterations.Twenty-three professional cyclists competing in 3 international, cycling stage races were assessed. Athletes could receive, upon the approval of the medical staff, physical, dietary, and/or pharmacological management which could include treatments with topical over-the-counter myorelaxants to prevent and/or reduce muscle contractures. MyotonPro was used to daily measure tone, stiffness, and elasticity in RF and BF in relaxed and contracted state after every stage. In parallel, BF and RF soreness was also assessed with a Likert scale.All athletes received the same general massage management; none of them received dietary supplements; some of the athletes were treated with a topical myorelaxant thiocolchicoside (TCC 0.25%) foam 3 times daily. TCC was identified as the only variable able to affect these muscle parameters in the cyclists. Tone, stiffness (regardless of the state), and soreness significantly increased over time either in BF or RF in all athletes. In the group of athletes that used TCC (n = 11; TCC+) the increase in tone, stiffness, and soreness was significantly lower than in the group not receiving TCC (n = 12; No-TCC). Elasticity varied coherently with tone and stiffness.A very intense and protracted sport activity increases muscular tone, stiffness, and soreness over time. Topical TCC foam significantly attenuates these alterations and might represent an efficient strategy both to prevent and manage contractures and their consequences in professional cyclists as well in athletes from other disciplines involving similar workloads.

Speech Alarms Pilot Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandor, A.; Moses, H. R.

2016-01-01

Currently on the International Space Station (ISS) and other space vehicles Caution & Warning (C&W) alerts are represented with various auditory tones that correspond to the type of event. This system relies on the crew's ability to remember what each tone represents in a high stress, high workload environment when responding to the alert. Furthermore, crew receive a year or more in advance of the mission that makes remembering the semantic meaning of the alerts more difficult. The current system works for missions conducted close to Earth where ground operators can assist as needed. On long duration missions, however, they will need to work off-nominal events autonomously. There is evidence that speech alarms may be easier and faster to recognize, especially during an off-nominal event. The Information Presentation Directed Research Project (FY07-FY09) funded by the Human Research Program included several studies investigating C&W alerts. The studies evaluated tone alerts currently in use with NASA flight deck displays along with candidate speech alerts. A follow-on study used four types of speech alerts to investigate how quickly various types of auditory alerts with and without a speech component - either at the beginning or at the end of the tone - can be identified. Even though crew were familiar with the tone alert from training or direct mission experience, alerts starting with a speech component were identified faster than alerts starting with a tone. The current study replicated the results from the previous study in a more rigorous experimental design to determine if the candidate speech alarms are ready for transition to operations or if more research is needed. Four types of alarms (caution, warning, fire, and depressurization) were presented to participants in both tone and speech formats in laboratory settings and later in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA). In the laboratory study, the alerts were presented by software and participants were asked to identify the alert as quickly and as accurately as possible. Reaction time and accuracy were measured. Participants identified speech alerts significantly faster than tone alerts. The HERA study investigated the performance of participants in a flight-like environment. Participants were instructed to complete items on a task list and respond to C&W alerts as they occurred. Reaction time and accuracy were measured to determine if the benefits of speech alarms are still present in an applied setting.

Impact of muscle tension dysphonia on tonal pitch target implementation in vietnamese female teachers.

PubMed

Nguyen, Duong Duy; Kenny, Dianna T

2009-11-01

Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a voice disorder with deteriorated vocal quality, particularly pitch problems. Because pitch is mainly controlled by the laryngeal muscles, and because MTD is characterized by increased laryngeal muscle tension, we hypothesized that it may result in problems in pitch target implementation in tonal languages. We examined tonal samples of 42 Vietnamese female primary school teachers diagnosed with MTD and compared them with 30 vocally healthy female teachers who spoke the same dialect. Tonal data were analyzed using Computerized Speech Lab (CSL-4300B) for Windows. From tonal sampling bases, fundamental frequency (F0) was measured at target points specified by contour examination. Parameters representing pitch movement including time, size, and speed of movement were measured for the falling tone and rising tone. We found that F0 at target points in MTD group was lowered in most tones, especially tones with extensive F0 variation. In MTD group, target F0 of the broken tone in isolation was 37.5 Hz lower (P<0.01) and target F0 of rising tone in isolation was 46 Hz lower (P<0.01) than in control group. In MTD group, speed of pitch fall of the falling tone in isolation was faster than control group by 2.2 semitones/second (st/s) (P<0.05) and speed of pitch rise in the rising tone in isolation was slower than control group by 7.2 st/s (P<0.01). These results demonstrate that MTD is associated with problems in tonal pitch variation.

Comparison of tone burst versus logon stimulation for vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.

PubMed

Ozdek, Ali; Bayır, Omer; Tatar, Emel Cadallı; Korkmaz, Mehmet Hakan

2012-05-01

The following study has been carried out to compare the effectiveness of logon and tone burst acoustic stimulation to elicit vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) responses. The methods and the subjects include 31 healthy adult volunteers (62 ears) who were enrolled in this study. Two different acoustic stimuli, logon (L-VEMP) and tone burst (T-VEMP), were used to elicit VEMP responses in each subject. Bilateral recordings with simultaneous binaural acoustic stimulations were used during VEMP recordings. During the recording period, the subjects were in supine position with their head elevated. The results observed were that the response rate of p1n1 wave was 91.9% for L-VEMP and 88.7% for T-VEMP. The response rate of n2p2 wave was 80.6% for L-VEMP, and 75.8% for T-VEMP. There were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to the latencies of p1, n1, n2 and p2, p1n1 and n2p2 interval, and p1n1 and n2p2 amplitude. The conclusion was that there was no difference between logon and tone burst stimulation with respect to VEMP response rates and VEMP parameters. Therefore, they are not superior to each other.

Simultaneous masking between electric and acoustic stimulation in cochlear implant users with residual low-frequency hearing.

PubMed

Krüger, Benjamin; Büchner, Andreas; Nogueira, Waldo

2017-09-01

Ipsilateral electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS) is becoming increasingly important in cochlear implant (CI) treatment. Improvements in electrode designs and surgical techniques have contributed to improved hearing preservation during implantation. Consequently, CI implantation criteria have been expanded toward people with significant residual low-frequency hearing, who may benefit from the combined use of both the electric and acoustic stimulation in the same ear. However, only few studies have investigated the mutual interaction between electric and acoustic stimulation modalities. This work characterizes the interaction between both stimulation modalities using psychophysical masking experiments and cone beam computer tomography (CBCT). Two psychophysical experiments for electric and acoustic masking were performed to measure the hearing threshold elevation of a probe stimulus in the presence of a masker stimulus. For electric masking, the probe stimulus was an acoustic tone while the masker stimulus was an electric pulse train. For acoustic masking, the probe stimulus was an electric pulse train and the masker stimulus was an acoustic tone. Five EAS users, implanted with a CI and ipsilateral residual low-frequency hearing, participated in the study. Masking was determined at different electrodes and different acoustic frequencies. CBCT scans were used to determine the individual place-pitch frequencies of the intracochlear electrode contacts by using the Stakhovskaya place-to-frequency transformation. This allows the characterization of masking as a function of the difference between electric and acoustic stimulation sites, which we term the electric-acoustic frequency difference (EAFD). The results demonstrate a significant elevation of detection thresholds for both experiments. In electric masking, acoustic-tone thresholds increased exponentially with decreasing EAFD. In contrast, for the acoustic masking experiment, threshold elevations were present regardless of the tested EAFDs. Based on the present findings, we conclude that there is an asymmetry between the electric and the acoustic masker modalities. These observations have implications for the design and fitting of EAS sound-coding strategies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Violin Pedagogy and the Physics of the Bowed String

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McLeod, Alexander Rhodes

The paper describes the mechanics of violin tone production using non-specialist language, in order to present a scientific understanding of tone production accessible to a broad readership. As well as offering an objective understanding of tone production, this model provides a powerful tool for analyzing the technique of string playing. The interaction between the bow and the string is quite complex. Literature reviewed for this study reveals that scientific investigations have provided important insights into the mechanics of string playing, offering explanations for factors which both contribute to and limit the range of tone colours and dynamics that stringed instruments can produce. Also examined in the literature review are significant works of twentieth century violin pedagogy exploring tone production on the violin, based on the practical experience of generations of teachers and performers. Hermann von Helmholtz described the stick-slip cycle which drives the string in 1863, which replaced earlier ideas about the vibration of violin strings. Later, scientists such as John Schelleng and Lothar Cremer were able to demonstrate how the mechanics of the bow-string interaction can create different tone colours. Recent research by Anders Askenfelt, Knut Guettler, and Erwin Schoonderwaldt have continued to refine earlier research in this area. The writings of Lucien Capet, Leopold Auer, Carl Flesch, Paul Rolland, Kato Havas, Ivan Galamian, and Simon Fischer are examined and analyzed. Each author describes a different approach to tone production on the violin, representing a different understanding of the underlying mechanism. Analyzing these writings within the context of a scientific understanding of tone production makes it possible to compare these approaches more consistently, and to synthesize different concepts drawn from the diverse sources evaluated.

A comparison of skin tone discrimination among African American men: 1995 and 2003

PubMed Central

Uzogara, Ekeoma E.; Lee, Hedwig; Abdou, Cleopatra M.; Jackson, James S.

2015-01-01

This study investigated perceptions of skin tone discrimination among adult African American men. Research suggests that through negative African American stereotypes, out-group members (Whites) perceive light-skinned African Americans favorably and dark-skinned African Americans unfavorably. However, it is unclear how treatment by in-group members (other African Americans) uniquely affects men. Using data from the 1995 Detroit Area Study and the 2003 National Survey of American Life, we investigated these relationships among African American men representing a wide range of socioeconomic groups. We found that African American men’s perceptions of out-group and in-group treatment, respectively, were similar across time. Light-skinned men perceived the least out-group discrimination while dark-skinned men perceived the most out-group discrimination. In appraisals of skin tone discrimination from in-group members, medium-skinned men perceived the least discrimination while both light- and dark-skinned men perceived more in-group discrimination. Additionally, men of lower social economic groups were more affected by skin tone bias than others. Future research should explore the influence of these out- and in-group experiences of skin tone discrimination on social and psychological functioning of African American men. PMID:25798076

Effects of response-independent stimuli on fixed-interval and fixed-ratio performance of rats: a model for stressful disruption of cyclical eating patterns.

PubMed

Reed, Phil

2011-03-01

Binge eating is often associated with stress-induced disruption of typical eating patterns. Three experiments were performed with the aim of developing a potential model for this effect by investigating the effect of presenting response-independent stimuli on rats' lever-pressing for food reinforcement during both fixed-interval (FI) and fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, a response-independent brief tone (500-ms, 105-dB, broadband, noisy signal, ranging up to 16 kHz, with spectral peaks at 3 and 500 Hz) disrupted the performance on an FI 60-s schedule. Responding with the response-independent tone was more vigorous than in the absence of the tone. This effect was replicated in Experiment 2 using a within-subject design, but no such effect was noted when a light was employed as a disrupter. In Experiment 3, a 500-ms tone, but not a light, had a similar effect on rats' performance on FR schedules. This tone-induced effect may represent a release from response-inhibition produced by an aversive event. The implications of these results for modeling binge eating are discussed.

Alteration of frequency range for binaural beats in acute low-tone hearing loss.

PubMed

Karino, Shotaro; Yamasoba, Tatsuya; Ito, Ken; Kaga, Kimitaka

2005-01-01

The effect of acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss (ALHL) on the interaural frequency difference (IFD) required for perception of binaural beats (BBs) was investigated in 12 patients with unilateral ALHL and 7 patients in whom ALHL had lessened. A continuous pure tone of 30 dB sensation level at 250 Hz was presented to the contralateral, normal-hearing ear. The presence of BBs was determined by a subjective yes-no procedure as the frequency of a loudness-balanced test tone was gradually adjusted around 250 Hz in the affected ear. The frequency range in which no BBs were perceived (FRNB) was significantly wider in the patients with ALHL than in the controls, and FRNBs became narrower in the recovered ALHL group. Specifically, detection of slow BBs with a small IFD was impaired in this limited (10 s) observation period. The significant correlation between the hearing level at 250 Hz and FRNBs suggests that FRNBs represent the degree of cochlear damage caused by ALHL.

Garden City Vein Complex, Gale Crater, Mars: Implications for Late Diagenetic Fluid Flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kronyak, R. E.; Kah, L. C.; Blaney, D. L.; Sumner, D. Y.; Fisk, M. R.; Rapin, W.; Nachon, M.; Mangold, N.; Grotzinger, J. P.; Wiens, R. C.

2015-12-01

Calcium sulfate filled fractures are observed in nearly all stratigraphic units encountered by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. The mm-scale of veins, however, provides little evidence for emplacement style. From sols 924-949, Curiosity observed a vein rich outcrop called Garden City, which shows variation in both thickness and complexity of veins. Extensive Mastcam and MAHLI imaging was conducted across the outcrop to provide textural detail that can be related to emplacement mechanisms. Additionally, Curiosity collected geochemical data on 17 ChemCam targets and 7 APXS targets, shedding light on the composition and variety of potential vein fluids. The Garden City vein system records (1) the presence of distinct dark-toned and light-toned (calcium sulfate) mineralization, and (2) the presence of laminated, epitaxial, and brecciated fabrics that suggest multiple emplacement modes. Dark-toned mineralization is observed as erosionally resistant ridges predominantly along fracture walls. Although erosional resistance may reflect the permeability of host rock to fracture-borne fluids, at Garden City, laminated textures suggest that at least some mineralization may have occurred as fracture-fill. Light-toned mineralization often bisects dark-toned material, indicating re-use of fluid pathways. Light-toned veinlets permeate fracture walls, and the largest veins entrain host rock and dark-toned material within calcium sulfate matrix. Such brecciation indicates high forces associated with fluid expulsion. Elsewhere, linear patterns occur broadly perpendicular to fracture walls, and are interpreted to represent epitaxial crystal growth, suggesting lower flow rates and fluid flow pressures within the fracture system. Together these observations indicate multiple episodes of fluid flow in the Gale Crater system.

Azimuthal Directivity of Fan Tones Containing Multiple Modes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heidelberg, Laurence J.; Sutliff, Daniel L.; Nallasamy, M.

1997-01-01

The directivity of fan tone noise is generally measured and plotted in the sideline or flyover plane and it is assumed that this curve is the same for all azimuthal angles. When two or more circumferential (m-order) modes of the same tone are present in the fan duct, an interference pattern develops in the azimuthal direction both in the duct and in the farfield. In this investigation two m-order modes of similar power were generated in a large low speed fan. Farfield measurements and a finite element propagation code both show substantial variations in the azimuthal direction. Induct mode measurement were made and used as input to the code. Although these tests may represent a worst case scenario, the validity of the current practice of assuming axisymmetry should be questioned.

Fuselage boundary-layer refraction of fan tones radiated from an installed turbofan aero-engine.

PubMed

Gaffney, James; McAlpine, Alan; Kingan, Michael J

2017-03-01

A distributed source model to predict fan tone noise levels of an installed turbofan aero-engine is extended to include the refraction effects caused by the fuselage boundary layer. The model is a simple representation of an installed turbofan, where fan tones are represented in terms of spinning modes radiated from a semi-infinite circular duct, and the aircraft's fuselage is represented by an infinitely long, rigid cylinder. The distributed source is a disk, formed by integrating infinitesimal volume sources located on the intake duct termination. The cylinder is located adjacent to the disk. There is uniform axial flow, aligned with the axis of the cylinder, everywhere except close to the cylinder where there is a constant thickness boundary layer. The aim is to predict the near-field acoustic pressure, and in particular, to predict the pressure on the cylindrical fuselage which is relevant to assess cabin noise. Thus no far-field approximations are included in the modelling. The effect of the boundary layer is quantified by calculating the area-averaged mean square pressure over the cylinder's surface with and without the boundary layer included in the prediction model. The sound propagation through the boundary layer is calculated by solving the Pridmore-Brown equation. Results from the theoretical method show that the boundary layer has a significant effect on the predicted sound pressure levels on the cylindrical fuselage, owing to sound radiation of fan tones from an installed turbofan aero-engine.

Sounds of the Ancient Universe

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-03-21

Tones represents sound waves that traveled through the early universe, and were later heard by ESA Planck space telescope. The primordial sound waves have been translated into frequencies we can hear.

Reading the Writing in Radiology: 1923-2013.

PubMed

Scott, James A; Palmer, Edwin L; Connolly, Leonard P

2015-07-01

The style and tone of the writing in Radiology has changed over the years since its first publication in 1923. Many of the tonal changes have occurred transiently and likely in relation to political and professional issues in play at a particular time. Others represent more consistent trends in the evolution of the professional writing style. In this report, we analyze the tone of the editorial content from 1923 to 2013 in a historical context as well as progressive changes in readability parameters involving both editorial and technical content.

Music-evoked incidental happiness modulates probability weighting during risky lottery choices.

PubMed

Schulreich, Stefan; Heussen, Yana G; Gerhardt, Holger; Mohr, Peter N C; Binkofski, Ferdinand C; Koelsch, Stefan; Heekeren, Hauke R

2014-01-07

We often make decisions with uncertain consequences. The outcomes of the choices we make are usually not perfectly predictable but probabilistic, and the probabilities can be known or unknown. Probability judgments, i.e., the assessment of unknown probabilities, can be influenced by evoked emotional states. This suggests that also the weighting of known probabilities in decision making under risk might be influenced by incidental emotions, i.e., emotions unrelated to the judgments and decisions at issue. Probability weighting describes the transformation of probabilities into subjective decision weights for outcomes and is one of the central components of cumulative prospect theory (CPT) that determine risk attitudes. We hypothesized that music-evoked emotions would modulate risk attitudes in the gain domain and in particular probability weighting. Our experiment featured a within-subject design consisting of four conditions in separate sessions. In each condition, the 41 participants listened to a different kind of music-happy, sad, or no music, or sequences of random tones-and performed a repeated pairwise lottery choice task. We found that participants chose the riskier lotteries significantly more often in the "happy" than in the "sad" and "random tones" conditions. Via structural regressions based on CPT, we found that the observed changes in participants' choices can be attributed to changes in the elevation parameter of the probability weighting function: in the "happy" condition, participants showed significantly higher decision weights associated with the larger payoffs than in the "sad" and "random tones" conditions. Moreover, elevation correlated positively with self-reported music-evoked happiness. Thus, our experimental results provide evidence in favor of a causal effect of incidental happiness on risk attitudes that can be explained by changes in probability weighting.

Analyzing the acoustic beat with mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuhn, Jochen; Vogt, Patrik; Hirth, Michael

2014-04-01

In this column, we have previously presented various examples of how physical relationships can be examined by analyzing acoustic signals using smartphones or tablet PCs. In this example, we will be exploring the acoustic phenomenon of small beats, which is produced by the overlapping of two tones with a low difference in frequency Δf. The resulting auditory sensation is a tone with a volume that varies periodically. Acoustic beats can be perceived repeatedly in day-to-day life and have some interesting applications. For example, string instruments are still tuned with the help of an acoustic beat, even with modern technology. If a reference tone (e.g., 440 Hz) and, for example, a slightly out-of-tune violin string produce a tone simultaneously, a beat can be perceived. The more similar the frequencies, the longer the duration of the beat. In the extreme case, when the frequencies are identical, a beat no longer arises. The string is therefore correctly tuned. Using the Oscilloscope app,4 it is possible to capture and save acoustic signals of this kind and determine the beat frequency fS of the signal, which represents the difference in frequency Δf of the two overlapping tones (for Android smartphones, the app OsciPrime Oscilloscope can be used).

Electromagnetic correlates of musical expertise in processing of tone patterns.

PubMed

Kuchenbuch, Anja; Paraskevopoulos, Evangelos; Herholz, Sibylle C; Pantev, Christo

2012-01-01

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the influence of long term musical training on the processing of partly imagined tone patterns (imagery condition) compared to the same perceived patterns (perceptual condition). The magnetic counterpart of the mismatch negativity (MMNm) was recorded and compared between musicians and non-musicians in order to assess the effect of musical training on the detection of deviants to tone patterns. The results indicated a clear MMNm in the perceptual condition as well as in a simple pitch oddball (control) condition in both groups. However, there was no significant mismatch response in either group in the imagery condition despite above chance behavioral performance in the task of detecting deviant tones. The latency and the laterality of the MMNm in the perceptual condition differed significantly between groups, with an earlier MMNm in musicians, especially in the left hemisphere. In contrast the MMNm amplitudes did not differ significantly between groups. The behavioral results revealed a clear effect of long-term musical training in both experimental conditions. The obtained results represent new evidence that the processing of tone patterns is faster and more strongly lateralized in musically trained subjects, which is consistent with other findings in different paradigms of enhanced auditory neural system functioning due to long-term musical training.

Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Stanutz, Sandy; Wapnick, Joel; Burack, Jacob A

2014-02-01

Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7-13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week. The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability. Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.

Reduced contribution of endothelin to the regulation of systemic and pulmonary vascular tone in severe familial hypercholesterolaemia

PubMed Central

Bender, Shawn B; de Beer, Vincent J; Tharp, Darla L; van Deel, Elza D; Bowles, Douglas K; Duncker, Dirk J; Laughlin, M Harold; Merkus, Daphne

2014-01-01

Vascular dysfunction has been associated with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a severe form of hyperlipidaemia. We recently demonstrated that swine with FH exhibit reduced exercise-induced systemic, but not pulmonary, vasodilatation involving reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. Since NO normally limits endothelin (ET) action, we examined the hypothesis that reduced systemic vasodilatation during exercise in FH swine results from increased ET-mediated vasoconstriction. Systemic and pulmonary vascular responses to exercise were examined in chronically instrumented normal and FH swine in the absence and presence of the ETA/B receptor antagonist tezosentan. Intrinsic reactivity to ET was further assessed in skeletal muscle arterioles. FH swine exhibited ∼9-fold elevation in total plasma cholesterol versus normal swine. Similar to our recent findings, systemic, not pulmonary, vasodilatation during exercise was reduced in FH swine. Blockade of ET receptors caused marked systemic vasodilatation at rest and during exercise in normal swine that was significantly reduced in FH swine. The reduced role of ET in FH swine in vivo was not the result of decreased arteriolar ET responsiveness, as responsiveness was increased in isolated arterioles. Smooth muscle ET receptor protein content was unaltered by FH. However, circulating plasma ET levels were reduced in FH swine. ET receptor antagonism caused pulmonary vasodilatation at rest and during exercise in normal, but not FH, swine. Therefore, contrary to our hypothesis, FH swine exhibit a generalised reduction in the role of ET in regulating vascular tone in vivo probably resulting from reduced ET production. This may represent a unique vascular consequence of severe familial hypercholesterolaemia. PMID:24421352

Beta EEG reflects sensory processing in active wakefulness and homeostatic sleep drive in quiet wakefulness.

PubMed

Grønli, Janne; Rempe, Michael J; Clegern, William C; Schmidt, Michelle; Wisor, Jonathan P

2016-06-01

Markers of sleep drive (<10 Hz; slow-wave activity and theta) have been identified in the course of slow-wave sleep and wakefulness. So far, higher frequencies in the waking electroencephalogram have not been examined thoroughly as a function of sleep drive. Here, electroencephalogram dynamics were measured in epochs of active wake (wake characterized by high muscle tone) or quiet wake (wake characterized by low muscle tone). It was hypothesized that the higher beta oscillations (15-35 Hz, measured by local field potential and electroencephalography) represent fundamentally different processes in active wake and quiet wake. In active wake, sensory stimulation elevated beta activity in parallel with gamma (80-90 Hz) activity, indicative of cognitive processing. In quiet wake, beta activity paralleled slow-wave activity (1-4 Hz) and theta (5-8 Hz) in tracking sleep need. Cerebral lactate concentration, a measure of cerebral glucose utilization, increased during active wake whereas it declined during quiet wake. Mathematical modelling of state-dependent dynamics of cortical lactate concentration was more precisely predictive when quiet wake and active wake were included as two distinct substates rather than a uniform state of wakefulness. The extent to which lactate concentration declined in quiet wake and increased in active wake was proportionate to the amount of beta activity. These data distinguish quiet wake from active wake. Quiet wake, particularly when characterized by beta activity, is permissive to metabolic and electrophysiological changes that occur in slow-wave sleep. These data urge further studies on state-dependent beta oscillations across species. © 2016 European Sleep Research Society.

Dyslipidemia and Auditory Function

PubMed Central

Evans, M. Bradley; Tonini, Ross; Shope, Cynthia Do; Oghalai, John S.; Jerger, James F.; Insull, William; Brownell, William E.

2013-01-01

The relationship between dyslipidemia and hearing is unclear. This study was conducted to investigate whether elevated serum lipid levels impact auditory function in humans and in guinea pigs. In the human study, a cross-sectional study of 40 volunteers with dyslipidemia was conducted. Pure tone thresholds, distortion product otoacoustic emissions, and lipid profiles were analyzed. When controlled for patient age and sex, we found that elevated triglycerides were associated with reduced hearing. In the guinea pig study, a prospective study of animals fed a high-fat diet for 14 weeks was conducted. Although the high-fat diet led to a dramatic elevation in the average weight and total cholesterol in all animals (from 61 to 589 mg/dl), there were no meaningful changes in distortion product otoacoustic emission magnitudes. These results suggest that whereas chronic dyslipidemia associated with elevated triglycerides may reduce auditory function, short-term dietary changes may not. PMID:16868509

Noise reduction for model counterrotation propeller at cruise by reducing aft-propeller diameter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dittmar, James H.; Stang, David B.

1987-01-01

The forward propeller of a model counterrotation propeller was tested with its original aft propeller and with a reduced diameter aft propeller. Noise reductions with the reduced diameter aft propeller were measured at simulated cruise conditions. Reductions were as large as 7.5 dB for the aft-propeller passing tone and 15 dB in the harmonics at specific angles. The interaction tones, mostly the first, were reduced probably because the reduced-diameter aft-propeller blades no longer interacted with the forward propeller tip vortex. The total noise (sum of primary and interaction noise) at each harmonic was significantly reduced. The chief noise reduction at each harmonic came from reduced aft-propeller-alone noise, with the interaction tones contributing little to the totals at cruise. Total cruise noise reductions were as much as 3 dB at given angles for the blade passing tone and 10 dB for some of the harmonics. These reductions would measurably improve the fuselage interior noise levels and represent a definite cruise noise benefit from using a reduced diameter aft propeller.

Near-field sound radiation of fan tones from an installed turbofan aero-engine.

PubMed

McAlpine, Alan; Gaffney, James; Kingan, Michael J

2015-09-01

The development of a distributed source model to predict fan tone noise levels of an installed turbofan aero-engine is reported. The key objective is to examine a canonical problem: how to predict the pressure field due to a distributed source located near an infinite, rigid cylinder. This canonical problem is a simple representation of an installed turbofan, where the distributed source is based on the pressure pattern generated by a spinning duct mode, and the rigid cylinder represents an aircraft fuselage. The radiation of fan tones can be modelled in terms of spinning modes. In this analysis, based on duct modes, theoretical expressions for the near-field acoustic pressures on the cylinder, or at the same locations without the cylinder, have been formulated. Simulations of the near-field acoustic pressures are compared against measurements obtained from a fan rig test. Also, the installation effect is quantified by calculating the difference in the sound pressure levels with and without the adjacent cylindrical fuselage. Results are shown for the blade passing frequency fan tone radiated at a supersonic fan operating condition.

Non-musicians also have a piano in the head: evidence for spatial-musical associations from line bisection tracking.

PubMed

Hartmann, Matthias

2017-02-01

The spatial representation of ordinal sequences (numbers, time, tones) seems to be a fundamental cognitive property. While an automatic association between horizontal space and pitch height (left-low pitch, right-high pitch) is constantly reported in musicians, the evidence for such an association in non-musicians is mixed. In this study, 20 non-musicians performed a line bisection task while listening to irrelevant high- and low-pitched tones and white noise (control condition). While pitch height had no influence on the final bisection point, participants' movement trajectories showed systematic biases: When approaching the line and touching the line for the first time (initial bisection point), the mouse cursor was directed more rightward for high-pitched tones compared to low-pitched tones and noise. These results show that non-musicians also have a subtle but nevertheless automatic association between pitch height and the horizontal space. This suggests that spatial-musical associations do not necessarily depend on constant sensorimotor experiences (as it is the case for musicians) but rather reflect the seemingly inescapable tendency to represent ordinal information on a horizontal line.

Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area fire faster in adolescent rats than in adults.

PubMed

McCutcheon, James E; Conrad, Kelly L; Carr, Steven B; Ford, Kerstin A; McGehee, Daniel S; Marinelli, Michela

2012-09-01

Adolescence may be a period of vulnerability to drug addiction. In rats, elevated firing activity of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons predicts enhanced addiction liability. Our aim was to determine if dopamine neurons are more active in adolescents than in adults and to examine mechanisms underlying any age-related difference. VTA dopamine neurons fired faster in adolescents than in adults as measured with in vivo extracellular recordings. Dopamine neuron firing can be divided into nonbursting (single spikes) and bursting activity (clusters of high-frequency spikes). Nonbursting activity was higher in adolescents compared with adults. Frequency of burst events did not differ between ages, but bursts were longer in adolescents than in adults. Elevated dopamine neuron firing in adolescent rats was also observed in cell-attached recordings in ex vivo brain slices. Using whole cell recordings, we found that passive and active membrane properties were similar across ages. Hyperpolarization-activated cation currents and small-conductance calcium-activated potassium channel currents were also comparable across ages. We found no difference in dopamine D2-class autoreceptor function across ages, although the high baseline firing in adolescents resulted in autoreceptor activation being less effective at silencing neurons. Finally, AMPA receptor-mediated spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents occurred at lower frequency in adolescents; GABA(A) receptor-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents occurred at both lower frequency and smaller amplitude in adolescents. In conclusion, VTA dopamine neurons fire faster in adolescence, potentially because GABA tone increases as rats reach adulthood. This elevation of firing rate during adolescence is consistent with it representing a vulnerable period for developing drug addiction.

The Mechanism of Speech Processing in Congenital Amusia: Evidence from Mandarin Speakers

PubMed Central

Liu, Fang; Jiang, Cunmei; Thompson, William Forde; Xu, Yi; Yang, Yufang; Stewart, Lauren

2012-01-01

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimination in natural speech and their gliding tone analogs. They also performed worse than controls on discriminating gliding tone sequences derived from statements and questions, and showed elevated thresholds for pitch change detection and pitch direction discrimination. However, they performed as well as controls on word identification, and on statement-question identification and discrimination in natural speech. Overall, tasks that involved multiple acoustic cues to communicative meaning were not impacted by amusia. Only when the tasks relied mainly on pitch sensitivity did amusics show impaired performance compared to controls. These findings help explain why amusia only affects speech processing in subtle ways. Further studies on a larger sample of Mandarin amusics and on amusics of other language backgrounds are needed to consolidate these results. PMID:22347374

The mechanism of speech processing in congenital amusia: evidence from Mandarin speakers.

PubMed

Liu, Fang; Jiang, Cunmei; Thompson, William Forde; Xu, Yi; Yang, Yufang; Stewart, Lauren

2012-01-01

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimination in natural speech and their gliding tone analogs. They also performed worse than controls on discriminating gliding tone sequences derived from statements and questions, and showed elevated thresholds for pitch change detection and pitch direction discrimination. However, they performed as well as controls on word identification, and on statement-question identification and discrimination in natural speech. Overall, tasks that involved multiple acoustic cues to communicative meaning were not impacted by amusia. Only when the tasks relied mainly on pitch sensitivity did amusics show impaired performance compared to controls. These findings help explain why amusia only affects speech processing in subtle ways. Further studies on a larger sample of Mandarin amusics and on amusics of other language backgrounds are needed to consolidate these results.

Reprint of: Initial uncertainty impacts statistical learning in sound sequence processing.

PubMed

Todd, Juanita; Provost, Alexander; Whitson, Lisa; Mullens, Daniel

2018-05-18

This paper features two studies confirming a lasting impact of first learning on how subsequent experience is weighted in early relevance-filtering processes. In both studies participants were exposed to sequences of sound that contained a regular pattern on two different timescales. Regular patterning in sound is readily detected by the auditory system and used to form "prediction models" that define the most likely properties of sound to be encountered in a given context. The presence and strength of these prediction models is inferred from changes in automatically elicited components of auditory evoked potentials. Both studies employed sound sequences that contained both a local and longer-term pattern. The local pattern was defined by a regular repeating pure tone occasionally interrupted by a rare deviating tone (p=0.125) that was physically different (a 30msvs. 60ms duration difference in one condition and a 1000Hz vs. 1500Hz frequency difference in the other). The longer-term pattern was defined by the rate at which the two tones alternated probabilities (i.e., the tone that was first rare became common and the tone that was first common became rare). There was no task related to the tones and participants were asked to ignore them while focussing attention on a movie with subtitles. Auditory-evoked potentials revealed long lasting modulatory influences based on whether the tone was initially encountered as rare and unpredictable or common and predictable. The results are interpreted as evidence that probability (or indeed predictability) assigns a differential information-value to the two tones that in turn affects the extent to which prediction models are updated and imposed. These effects are exposed for both common and rare occurrences of the tones. The studies contribute to a body of work that reveals that probabilistic information is not faithfully represented in these early evoked potentials and instead exposes that predictability (or conversely uncertainty) may trigger value-based learning modulations even in task-irrelevant incidental learning. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increase in parasympathetic tone by pyridostigmine prevents ventricular dysfunction during the onset of heart failure.

PubMed

Lataro, Renata M; Silva, Carlos A A; Fazan, Rubens; Rossi, Marcos A; Prado, Cibele M; Godinho, Rosely O; Salgado, Helio C

2013-10-15

Heart failure (HF) is characterized by elevated sympathetic activity and reduced parasympathetic control of the heart. Experimental evidence suggests that the increase in parasympathetic function can be a therapeutic alternative to slow HF evolution. The parasympathetic neurotransmission can be improved by acetylcholinesterase inhibition. We investigated the long-term (4 wk) effects of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor pyridostigmine on sympathovagal balance, cardiac remodeling, and cardiac function in the onset of HF following myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction was elicited in adult male Wistar rats. After 4 wk of pyridostigmine administration, per os, methylatropine and propranolol were used to evaluate the cardiac sympathovagal balance. The tachycardic response caused by methylatropine was considered to be the vagal tone, whereas the bradycardic response caused by propranolol was considered to be the sympathetic tone. In conscious HF rats, pyridostigmine reduced the basal heart rate, increased vagal, and reduced sympathetic control of heart rate. Pyridostigmine reduced the myocyte diameter and collagen density of the surviving left ventricle. Pyridostigmine also increased vascular endothelial growth factor protein in the left ventricle, suggesting myocardial angiogenesis. Cardiac function was assessed by means of the pressure-volume conductance catheter system. HF rats treated with pyridostigmine exhibited a higher stroke volume, ejection fraction, cardiac output, and contractility of the left ventricle. It was demonstrated that the long-term administration of pyridostigmine started right after coronary artery ligation augmented cardiac vagal and reduced sympathetic tone, attenuating cardiac remodeling and left ventricular dysfunction during the progression of HF in rats.

The 3-Second Rule in Hereditary Pure Cerebellar Ataxia: A Synchronized Tapping Study

PubMed Central

Matsuda, Shunichi; Matsumoto, Hideyuki; Furubayashi, Toshiaki; Hanajima, Ritsuko; Tsuji, Shoji; Ugawa, Yoshikazu; Terao, Yasuo

2015-01-01

The ‘3-second rule’ has been proposed based on miscellaneous observations that a time period of around 3 seconds constitutes the fundamental unit of time related to the neuro-cognitive machinery in normal humans. The aim of paper was to investigate the temporal processing in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) and SCA31, pure cerebellar types of spinocerebellar degeneration, using a synchronized tapping task. Seventeen SCA patients (11 SCA6, 6 SCA31) and 17 normal age-matched volunteers participated. The task required subjects to tap a keyboard in synchrony with sequences of auditory stimuli presented at fixed interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between 200 and 4800 ms. In this task, the subjects required non-motor components to estimate the time of forthcoming tone in addition to motor components to tap. Normal subjects synchronized their taps to the presented tones at shorter ISIs, whereas as the ISI became longer, the normal subjects displayed greater latency between the tone and the tapping (transition zone). After the transition zone, normal subjects pressed the button delayed relative to the tone. On the other hand, SCA patients could not synchronize their tapping with the tone even at shorter ISIs, although they pressed the button delayed relative to the tone earlier than normal subjects did. The earliest time of delayed tapping appearance after the transition zone was 4800 ms in normal subjects but 1800 ms in SCA patients. The span of temporal integration in SCA patients is shortened compared to that in normal subjects. This could represent non-motor cerebellar dysfunction in SCA patients. PMID:25706752

Evaluation of aero Commander propeller acoustic data: Static operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Piersol, A. G.; Wilby, E. G.; Wilby, J. F.

1978-01-01

Acoustic data are analyzed from a series of ground tests performed on an Aero Commander propeller-driven aircraft with an array of microphones flush-mounted on one side of the fuselage. The analyses were concerned with the propeller blade passage noise during static operation at several different engine speeds and included calculations of the magnitude and phase of the blade passage tones, the amplitude stability of the tones, and the spatial phase and coherence of the tones. The results indicate that the pressure field impinging on the fuselage represents primarily aerodynamic (near field) effects in the plane of the propeller at all frequencies. Forward and aft of the propeller plane aerodynamic effects still dominate the pressure field at frequencies below 200 Hz; but at higher frequencies, the pressure field is due to acoustic propagation from an equivalent center located about 0.15 to 0.30 blade diameters inboard from the propeller hub.

Adaptation of Mesenteric Collecting Lymphatic Pump Function Following Acute Alcohol Intoxication

PubMed Central

Souza-Smith, Flavia M.; Kurtz, Kristine M.; Molina, Patricia E.; Breslin, Jerome W.

2010-01-01

Objective Acute alcohol intoxication increases intestinal lymph flow by unknown mechanisms, potentially impacting mucosal immunity. We tested the hypothesis that enhanced intrinsic pump function of mesenteric lymphatics contributes to increased intestinal lymph flow during alcohol intoxication. Methods Acute alcohol intoxication was produced by intragastric administration of 30% alcohol to concious, unrestrained rats through surgically-implanted catheters. Time-matched controls received either no bolus, vehicle, or isocaloric dextrose. Thirty minutes after alcohol administration, rats were anesthetized and mesenteric collecting lymphatics were isolated and cannulated to study intrinsic pumping parameters. In separate experiments, mesenteric lymphatics were isolated to examine direct effects of alcohol on intrinsic pump activity. Results Lymphatics isolated from alcohol-intoxicated animals displayed slgnificantly decreased contraction frequency (CF) than the dextrose group, elevated stroke volume index (SVI) versus all other groups, and decreased myogenic responsiveness compared to sham. Elevating pressure from 2 to 4 cm H2O increased the volume flow index 2.4-fold in the alcohol group versus 1.4-fold for shams. Isolated lymphatics exposed to 20 mM alcohol had reduced myogenic tone, without changes in CF or SVI. Conclusions Alcohol intoxication enhances intrinsic pumping by mesenteric collecting lymphatics. Alcohol directly decreases lymphatic myogenic tone, but effects on phasic contractions occur by an unidentified mechanism. PMID:21040117

Neural Correlates of Indicators of Sound Change in Cantonese: Evidence from Cortical and Subcortical Processes.

PubMed

Maggu, Akshay R; Liu, Fang; Antoniou, Mark; Wong, Patrick C M

2016-01-01

Across time, languages undergo changes in phonetic, syntactic, and semantic dimensions. Social, cognitive, and cultural factors contribute to sound change, a phenomenon in which the phonetics of a language undergo changes over time. Individuals who misperceive and produce speech in a slightly divergent manner (called innovators ) contribute to variability in the society, eventually leading to sound change. However, the cause of variability in these individuals is still unknown. In this study, we examined whether such misperceptions are represented in neural processes of the auditory system. We investigated behavioral, subcortical (via FFR), and cortical (via P300) manifestations of sound change processing in Cantonese, a Chinese language in which several lexical tones are merging. Across the merging categories, we observed a similar gradation of speech perception abilities in both behavior and the brain (subcortical and cortical processes). Further, we also found that behavioral evidence of tone merging correlated with subjects' encoding at the subcortical and cortical levels. These findings indicate that tone-merger categories, that are indicators of sound change in Cantonese, are represented neurophysiologically with high fidelity. Using our results, we speculate that innovators encode speech in a slightly deviant neurophysiological manner, and thus produce speech divergently that eventually spreads across the community and contributes to sound change.

Neural Correlates of Indicators of Sound Change in Cantonese: Evidence from Cortical and Subcortical Processes

PubMed Central

Maggu, Akshay R.; Liu, Fang; Antoniou, Mark; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2016-01-01

Across time, languages undergo changes in phonetic, syntactic, and semantic dimensions. Social, cognitive, and cultural factors contribute to sound change, a phenomenon in which the phonetics of a language undergo changes over time. Individuals who misperceive and produce speech in a slightly divergent manner (called innovators) contribute to variability in the society, eventually leading to sound change. However, the cause of variability in these individuals is still unknown. In this study, we examined whether such misperceptions are represented in neural processes of the auditory system. We investigated behavioral, subcortical (via FFR), and cortical (via P300) manifestations of sound change processing in Cantonese, a Chinese language in which several lexical tones are merging. Across the merging categories, we observed a similar gradation of speech perception abilities in both behavior and the brain (subcortical and cortical processes). Further, we also found that behavioral evidence of tone merging correlated with subjects' encoding at the subcortical and cortical levels. These findings indicate that tone-merger categories, that are indicators of sound change in Cantonese, are represented neurophysiologically with high fidelity. Using our results, we speculate that innovators encode speech in a slightly deviant neurophysiological manner, and thus produce speech divergently that eventually spreads across the community and contributes to sound change. PMID:28066218

Multi-tone suppression of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions in humans.

PubMed

Sieck, Nicole E; Rasetshwane, Daniel M; Kopun, Judy G; Jesteadt, Walt; Gorga, Michael P; Neely, Stephen T

2016-05-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effect of multiple suppressors. Distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) measurements were made in normal-hearing participants. Primary tones had fixed frequencies (f2 = 4000 Hz; f1 / f2 = 1.22) and a range of levels. Suppressor tones were at three frequencies (fs = 2828, 4100, 4300 Hz) and range of levels. Decrement was defined as the attenuation in DPOAE level due to the presence of a suppressor. A measure of suppression called suppressive intensity was calculated by an equation previously shown to fit DPOAE suppression data. Suppressor pairs, which were the combination of two different frequencies, were presented at levels selected to have equal single-suppressor decrements. A hybrid model that represents a continuum between additive intensity and additive attenuation best described the results. The suppressor pair with the smallest frequency ratio produced decrements that were more consistent with additive intensity. The suppressor pair with the largest frequency ratio produced decrements at the highest level that were consistent with additive attenuation. Other suppressor-pair conditions produced decrements that were intermediate between these two alternative models. The hybrid model provides a useful framework for representing the observed range of interaction when two suppressors are combined.

Multi-tone suppression of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions in humans

PubMed Central

Sieck, Nicole E.; Rasetshwane, Daniel M.; Kopun, Judy G.; Jesteadt, Walt; Gorga, Michael P.; Neely, Stephen T.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effect of multiple suppressors. Distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) measurements were made in normal-hearing participants. Primary tones had fixed frequencies (f2 = 4000 Hz; f1 / f2 = 1.22) and a range of levels. Suppressor tones were at three frequencies (fs = 2828, 4100, 4300 Hz) and range of levels. Decrement was defined as the attenuation in DPOAE level due to the presence of a suppressor. A measure of suppression called suppressive intensity was calculated by an equation previously shown to fit DPOAE suppression data. Suppressor pairs, which were the combination of two different frequencies, were presented at levels selected to have equal single-suppressor decrements. A hybrid model that represents a continuum between additive intensity and additive attenuation best described the results. The suppressor pair with the smallest frequency ratio produced decrements that were more consistent with additive intensity. The suppressor pair with the largest frequency ratio produced decrements at the highest level that were consistent with additive attenuation. Other suppressor-pair conditions produced decrements that were intermediate between these two alternative models. The hybrid model provides a useful framework for representing the observed range of interaction when two suppressors are combined. PMID:27250125

Stratigraphic architecture of bedrock reference section, Victoria Crater, Meridiani Planum, Mars

USGS Publications Warehouse

Edgar, Lauren A.; Grotzinger, John P.; Hayes, Alex G.; Rubin, David M.; Squyres, Steve W.; Bell, James F.; Herkenhoff, Ken E.

2012-01-01

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has investigated bedrock outcrops exposed in several craters at Meridiani Planum, Mars, in an effort to better understand the role of surface processes in its geologic history. Opportunity has recently completed its observations of Victoria crater, which is 750 m in diameter and exposes cliffs up to ~15 m high. The plains surrounding Victoria crater are ~10 m higher in elevation than those surrounding the previously explored Endurance crater, indicating that the Victoria crater exposes a stratigraphically higher section than does the Endurance crater; however, Victoria strata overlap in elevation with the rocks exposed at the Erebus crater. Victoria crater has a well-developed geomorphic pattern of promontories and embayments that define the crater wall and that reveal thick bedsets (3–7m) of large-scale cross-bedding, interpreted as fossil eolian dunes. Opportunity was able to drive into the crater at Duck Bay, located on the western margin of Victoria crater. Data from the Microscopic Imager and Panoramic Camera reveal details about the structures, textures, and depositional and diagenetic events that influenced the Victoria bedrock. A lithostratigraphic subdivision of bedrock units was enabled by the presence of a light-toned band that lines much of the upper rim of the crater. In ascending order, three stratigraphic units are named Lyell, Smith, and Steno; Smith is the light-toned band. In the Reference Section exposed along the ingress path at Duck Bay, Smith is interpreted to represent a zone of diagenetic recrystallization; however, its upper contact also coincides with a primary erosional surface. Elsewhere in the crater the diagenetic band crosscuts the physical stratigraphy. Correlation with strata present at nearby promontory Cape Verde indicates that there is an erosional surface at the base of the cliff face that corresponds to the erosional contact below Steno. The erosional contact at the base of Cape Verde lies at a lower elevation, but within the same plane as the contact below Steno, which indicates that the material above the erosional contact was built on significant depositional paleotopography. The eolian dune forms exposed in Duck Bay and Cape Verde, combined with the geometry of the erosional surface, indicate that these outcrops may be part of a larger-scale draa architecture. This insight is possible only as a result of the larger-scale exposures at Victoria crater, which significantly exceed the more limited exposures at the Erebus, Endurance, and Eagle craters.

Bouncing Ball with a Uniformly Varying Velocity in a Metronome Synchronization Task.

PubMed

Huang, Yingyu; Gu, Li; Yang, Junkai; Wu, Xiang

2017-09-21

Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), a fundamental human ability to coordinate movements with external rhythms, has long been thought to be modality specific. In the canonical metronome synchronization task that requires tapping a finger along with an isochronous sequence, a well-established finding is that synchronization is much more stable to an auditory sequence consisting of auditory tones than to a visual sequence consisting of visual flashes. However, recent studies have shown that periodically moving visual stimuli can substantially improve synchronization compared with visual flashes. In particular, synchronization of a visual bouncing ball that has a uniformly varying velocity was found to be not less stable than synchronization of auditory tones. Here, the current protocol describes the application of the bouncing ball with a uniformly varying velocity in a metronome synchronization task. The usage of the bouncing ball in sequences with different inter-onset intervals (IOI) is included. The representative results illustrate synchronization performance of the bouncing ball, as compared with the performances of auditory tones and visual flashes. Given its comparable synchronization performance to that of auditory tones, the bouncing ball is of particular importance for addressing the current research topic of whether modality-specific mechanisms underlay SMS.

An Experimental Study of Fan Inflow Distortion Tone Noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koch, L. Danielle

2010-01-01

The tone noise generated when a fan ingests circumferentially distorted flow was studied by an experiment conducted with the Advanced Noise Control Fan at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The inflow was distorted by inserting cylindrical rods radially into the duct. The rods were arranged in circumferentially irregular patterns in three of the five configurations tested. Rods were held in place using a mounting ring with 30 equally spaced holes placed at an axial location one rotor chordlength upstream of the fan. Acoustic pressure was measured in the inlet and exhaust duct of the fan using the Rotating Rake fan tone measurement system. Sound power levels, calculated from the measured data, were plotted as a function of circumferential mode. An analytic description of the unsteady pressure distribution at the interaction plane between the stationary rods and the fan rotor is presented in a form suitable for representing the circumferentially irregularly placed rods. Terms in the analytical description for sound power were proven to be useful in determining the dominant circumferential modes measured in the experiment and the differences in mode power level between the configurations tested. Insight gained through this work will be useful in the development of tools to compute fan inflow distortion tone noise.

The multiple synaesthete E.S.: neuroanatomical basis of interval-taste and tone-colour synaesthesia.

PubMed

Hänggi, Jürgen; Beeli, Gian; Oechslin, Mathias S; Jäncke, Lutz

2008-11-01

Synaesthesia is the involuntary physical experience of a crossmodal linkage such as when hearing a tone evokes the additional sensation of seeing a colour. We previously described a professional musician with absolute pitch perception who experiences both different tastes in response to hearing different tone intervals (e.g., major third and sweet) and the more common tone-colour synaesthesia in which each particular tone is linked to a specific colour (e.g., C and red). One of the current theories of synaesthesia proposes that local crossactivation or disinhibition of feedback occurs because of increased connectivity between relevant brain areas. Based on diffusion tensor and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging we performed fractional anisotropy (FA) analysis, probabilistic fibre tractography, and voxel-based morphometry in the synaesthete E.S. compared with 17 professional musicians and 20 normal control subjects using voxel-wise z-score transformations. We report increased FA and volumetric white (WM) and grey matter (GM) peculiarities in E.S.'s auditory and gustatory areas, hence explaining the interval-taste synaesthesia. Probabilistic fibre tractography revealed hyperconnectivity in bilateral perisylvian-insular regions in the synaesthete E.S. Differences in FA and volumetric WM and GM alterations in visual areas might represent the neuroarchitectural foundation of the tone-colour synaesthesia. Still unknown are the causes of the structural alterations, although an X-chromosomal linked dominant trait has been suggested. Whether hyperconnectivity occurs due to a failure in neural pruning or even synaptic sprouting remains to be shown. Our findings might have implications for the understanding of multimodal integration and may encourage similar research into dysfunctional perceptual phenomenon such as hallucinations in schizophrenics or in Charles Bonnet syndrome.

An Economic Evaluation of Resistance Training and Aerobic Training versus Balance and Toning Exercises in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Davis, Jennifer C.; Bryan, Stirling; Marra, Carlo A.; Sharma, Devika; Chan, Alison; Beattie, B. Lynn; Graf, Peter; Liu-Ambrose, Teresa

2013-01-01

Background Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a critical window to intervene against dementia. Exercise training is a promising intervention strategy, but the efficiency (i.e., relationship of costs and consequences) of such types of training remains unknown. Thus, we estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness of resistance training or aerobic training compared with balance and tone exercises in terms of changes in executive cognitive function among senior women with probable MCI. Methods Economic evaluation conducted concurrently with a six-month three arm randomized controlled trial including eighty-six community dwelling women aged 70 to 80 years living in Vancouver, Canada. Participants received twice-weekly resistance training (n = 28), twice weekly aerobic training (n = 30) or twice-weekly balance and tone (control group) classes (n = 28) for 6 months. The primary outcome measure of the Exercise for Cognition and Everyday Living (EXCEL) study assessed executive cognitive function, a test of selective attention and conflict resolution (i.e., Stroop Test). We collected healthcare resource utilization costs over six months. Results Based on the bootstrapped estimates from our base case analysis, we found that both the aerobic training and resistance training interventions were less costly than twice weekly balance and tone classes. Compared with the balance and tone group, the resistance-training group had significantly improved performance on the Stroop Test (p = 0.04). Conclusions Resistance training and aerobic training result in health care cost saving and are more effective than balance and tone classes after only 6 months of intervention. Resistance training is a promising strategy to alter the trajectory of cognitive decline in seniors with MCI. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00958867. PMID:23690976

Absence of both auditory evoked potentials and auditory percepts dependent on timing cues.

PubMed

Starr, A; McPherson, D; Patterson, J; Don, M; Luxford, W; Shannon, R; Sininger, Y; Tonakawa, L; Waring, M

1991-06-01

An 11-yr-old girl had an absence of sensory components of auditory evoked potentials (brainstem, middle and long-latency) to click and tone burst stimuli that she could clearly hear. Psychoacoustic tests revealed a marked impairment of those auditory perceptions dependent on temporal cues, that is, lateralization of binaural clicks, change of binaural masked threshold with changes in signal phase, binaural beats, detection of paired monaural clicks, monaural detection of a silent gap in a sound, and monaural threshold elevation for short duration tones. In contrast, auditory functions reflecting intensity or frequency discriminations (difference limens) were only minimally impaired. Pure tone audiometry showed a moderate (50 dB) bilateral hearing loss with a disproportionate severe loss of word intelligibility. Those auditory evoked potentials that were preserved included (1) cochlear microphonics reflecting hair cell activity; (2) cortical sustained potentials reflecting processing of slowly changing signals; and (3) long-latency cognitive components (P300, processing negativity) reflecting endogenous auditory cognitive processes. Both the evoked potential and perceptual deficits are attributed to changes in temporal encoding of acoustic signals perhaps occurring at the synapse between hair cell and eighth nerve dendrites. The results from this patient are discussed in relation to previously published cases with absent auditory evoked potentials and preserved hearing.

Hearing loss in children with otitis media with effusion: a systematic review.

PubMed

Cai, Ting; McPherson, Bradley

2017-02-01

Otitis media with effusion (OME) is the presence of non-purulent inflammation in the middle ear. Hearing impairment is frequently associated with OME. Pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry are two of the most primarily utilised auditory assessments and provide valuable behavioural and functional estimation on hearing loss. This paper was designed to review and analyse the effects of the presence of OME on children's listening abilities. A systematic and descriptive review. Twelve articles reporting frequency-specific pure tone thresholds and/or speech perception measures in children with OME were identified using PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, ProQuest and Google Scholar search platforms. The hearing loss related to OME averages 18-35 dB HL. The air conduction configuration is roughly flat with a slight elevation at 2000 Hz and a nadir at 8000 Hz. Both speech-in-quiet and speech-in-noise perception have been found to be impaired. OME imposes a series of disadvantages on hearing sensitivity and speech perception in children. Further studies investigating the full range of frequency-specific pure tone thresholds, and that adopt standardised speech test materials are advocated to evaluate hearing related disabilities with greater comprehensiveness, comparability and enhanced consideration of their real life implications.

Ion channel remodeling in vascular smooth muscle during hypertension: Implications for novel therapeutic approaches

PubMed Central

Joseph, Biny K.; Thakali, Keshari M.; Moore, Christopher L.; Rhee, Sung W.

2013-01-01

Ion channels are multimeric, transmembrane proteins that selectively mediate ion flux across the plasma membrane in a variety of cells including vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). The dynamic interplay of Ca2+ and K+ channels on the plasma membrane of VSMCs plays a pivotal role in modulating the vascular tone of small arteries and arterioles. The abnormally-elevated arterial tone observed in hypertension thus points to an aberrant expression and function of Ca2+ and K+ channels in the VSMCs. In this short review, we focus on the three well-studied ion channels in VSMCs, namely the L-type Ca2+ (CaV1.2) channels, the voltage-gated K+ (KV) channels, and the large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (BK) channels. First, we provide a brief overview on the physiological role of vascular CaV1.2, KV and BK channels in regulating arterial tone. Second, we discuss the current understanding of the expression changes and regulation of CaV1.2, KV and BK channels in the vasculature during hypertension. Third, based on available proof-of-concept studies, we describe the potential therapeutic approaches targeting these vascular ion channels in order to restore blood pressure to normotensive levels. PMID:23376354

Pregnancy causes diminished myogenic tone and outward hypotrophic remodeling of the cerebral vein of Galen.

PubMed

van der Wijk, Anne-Eva; Schreurs, Malou P H; Cipolla, Marilyn J

2013-04-01

Pregnancy increases the risk of several complications associated with the cerebral veins, including thrombosis and hemorrhage. In contrast to the cerebral arteries and arterioles, few studies have focused on the effect of pregnancy on the cerebral venous side. Here, we investigated for the first time the effect of pregnancy on the function and structure of the cerebral vein of Galen in rats. Our major finding was that cerebral veins from late-pregnant (LP, n=11) rats had larger lumen diameters and thinner walls than veins from nonpregnant (NP, n=13) rats, indicating that pregnancy caused outward hypotrophic remodeling of the vein of Galen. Moreover, veins from NP animals had a small amount of myogenic tone at 10 mm Hg (3.9±1.0%) that was diminished in veins during pregnancy (0.8±0.3%; P<0.01). However, endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation of the veins was unchanged during pregnancy. Using immunohistochemistry, we show that the vein of Galen receives perivascular innervation, and that serotonergic innervation of cerebral veins is significantly higher in veins from LP animals. Outward hypotrophic remodeling and diminished tone of cerebral veins during pregnancy may contribute to the development of venous pathology through elevated wall tension and wall stress, and possibly by promoting venous blood stasis.

Noise Trauma Induced Plastic Changes in Brain Regions outside the Classical Auditory Pathway

PubMed Central

Chen, Guang-Di; Sheppard, Adam; Salvi, Richard

2017-01-01

The effects of intense noise exposure on the classical auditory pathway have been extensively investigated; however, little is known about the effects of noise-induced hearing loss on non-classical auditory areas in the brain such as the lateral amygdala (LA) and striatum (Str). To address this issue, we compared the noise-induced changes in spontaneous and tone-evoked responses from multiunit clusters (MUC) in the LA and Str with those seen in auditory cortex (AC). High-frequency octave band noise (10–20 kHz) and narrow band noise (16–20 kHz) induced permanent thresho ld shifts (PTS) at high-frequencies within and above the noise band but not at low frequencies. While the noise trauma significantly elevated spontaneous discharge rate (SR) in the AC, SRs in the LA and Str were only slightly increased across all frequencies. The high-frequency noise trauma affected tone-evoked firing rates in frequency and time dependent manner and the changes appeared to be related to severity of noise trauma. In the LA, tone-evoked firing rates were reduced at the high-frequencies (trauma area) whereas firing rates were enhanced at the low-frequencies or at the edge-frequency dependent on severity of hearing loss at the high frequencies. The firing rate temporal profile changed from a broad plateau to one sharp, delayed peak. In the AC, tone-evoked firing rates were depressed at high frequencies and enhanced at the low frequencies while the firing rate temporal profiles became substantially broader. In contrast, firing rates in the Str were generally decreased and firing rate temporal profiles become more phasic and less prolonged. The altered firing rate and pattern at low frequencies induced by high frequency hearing loss could have perceptual consequences. The tone-evoked hyperactivity in low-frequency MUC could manifest as hyperacusis whereas the discharge pattern changes could affect temporal resolution and integration. PMID:26701290

Neural Representation of Scale Illusion: Magnetoencephalographic Study on the Auditory Illusion Induced by Distinctive Tone Sequences in the Two Ears

PubMed Central

Kuriki, Shinya; Yokosawa, Koichi; Takahashi, Makoto

2013-01-01

The auditory illusory perception “scale illusion” occurs when a tone of ascending scale is presented in one ear, a tone of descending scale is presented simultaneously in the other ear, and vice versa. Most listeners hear illusory percepts of smooth pitch contours of the higher half of the scale in the right ear and the lower half in the left ear. Little is known about neural processes underlying the scale illusion. In this magnetoencephalographic study, we recorded steady-state responses to amplitude-modulated short tones having illusion-inducing pitch sequences, where the sound level of the modulated tones was manipulated to decrease monotonically with increase in pitch. The steady-state responses were decomposed into right- and left-sound components by means of separate modulation frequencies. It was found that the time course of the magnitude of response components of illusion-perceiving listeners was significantly correlated with smooth pitch contour of illusory percepts and that the time course of response components of stimulus-perceiving listeners was significantly correlated with discontinuous pitch contour of stimulus percepts in addition to the contour of illusory percepts. The results suggest that the percept of illusory pitch sequence was represented in the neural activity in or near the primary auditory cortex, i.e., the site of generation of auditory steady-state response, and that perception of scale illusion is maintained by automatic low-level processing. PMID:24086676

Risk for Mania and Positive Emotional Responding: Too Much of a Good Thing?

PubMed Central

Gruber, June; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Johnson, Sheri L.

2010-01-01

Although positive emotion research has begun to flourish, the extremes of positive emotion remain understudied. The present research used a multimethod approach to examine positive emotional disturbance by comparing participants at high and low risk for episodes of mania, which involves elevations in positive emotionality. Ninety participants were recruited into a high or low mania risk group according to responses on the Hypomanic Personality Scale. Participants’ subjective, expressive, and physiological emotional responses were gathered while they watched two positive, two negative, and one neutral film clip. Results suggested that participants at high risk for mania reported elevated positive emotion and irritability and also exhibited elevated cardiac vagal tone across positive, negative, and neutral films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for the diagnosis and prevention of bipolar disorder, as well as for the general study of positive emotion. PMID:18266513

Risk for mania and positive emotional responding: too much of a good thing?

PubMed

Gruber, June; Johnson, Sheri L; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher

2008-02-01

Although positive emotion research has begun to flourish, the extremes of positive emotion remain understudied. The present research used a multimethod approach to examine positive emotional disturbance by comparing participants at high and low risk for episodes of mania, which involves elevations in positive emotionality. Ninety participants were recruited into a high or low mania risk group according to responses on the Hypomanic Personality Scale. Participants' subjective, expressive, and physiological emotional responses were gathered while they watched two positive, two negative, and one neutral film clip. Results suggested that participants at high risk for mania reported elevated positive emotion and irritability and also exhibited elevated cardiac vagal tone across positive, negative, and neutral films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for the diagnosis and prevention of bipolar disorder, as well as for the general study of positive emotion.

Cytoglobin regulates blood pressure and vascular tone through nitric oxide metabolism in the vascular wall

PubMed Central

Liu, Xiaoping; El-Mahdy, Mohamed A.; Boslett, James; Varadharaj, Saradhadevi; Hemann, Craig; Abdelghany, Tamer M.; Ismail, Raed S.; Little, Sean C.; Zhou, Danlei; Thuy, Le Thi Thanh; Kawada, Norifumi; Zweier, Jay L.

2017-01-01

The identity of the specific nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) that serves as the main in vivo regulator of O2-dependent NO degradation in smooth muscle remains elusive. Cytoglobin (Cygb) is a recently discovered globin expressed in fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells with unknown function. Cygb, coupled with a cellular reducing system, efficiently regulates the rate of NO consumption by metabolizing NO in an O2-dependent manner with decreased NO consumption in physiological hypoxia. Here we show that Cygb is a major regulator of NO degradation and cardiovascular tone. Knockout of Cygb greatly prolongs NO decay, increases vascular relaxation, and lowers blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance. We further demonstrate that downregulation of Cygb prevents angiotensin-mediated hypertension. Thus, Cygb has a critical role in the regulation of vascular tone and disease. We suggest that modulation of the expression and NOD activity of Cygb represents a strategy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. PMID:28393874

Cytoglobin regulates blood pressure and vascular tone through nitric oxide metabolism in the vascular wall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xiaoping; El-Mahdy, Mohamed A.; Boslett, James; Varadharaj, Saradhadevi; Hemann, Craig; Abdelghany, Tamer M.; Ismail, Raed S.; Little, Sean C.; Zhou, Danlei; Thuy, Le Thi Thanh; Kawada, Norifumi; Zweier, Jay L.

2017-04-01

The identity of the specific nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) that serves as the main in vivo regulator of O2-dependent NO degradation in smooth muscle remains elusive. Cytoglobin (Cygb) is a recently discovered globin expressed in fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells with unknown function. Cygb, coupled with a cellular reducing system, efficiently regulates the rate of NO consumption by metabolizing NO in an O2-dependent manner with decreased NO consumption in physiological hypoxia. Here we show that Cygb is a major regulator of NO degradation and cardiovascular tone. Knockout of Cygb greatly prolongs NO decay, increases vascular relaxation, and lowers blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance. We further demonstrate that downregulation of Cygb prevents angiotensin-mediated hypertension. Thus, Cygb has a critical role in the regulation of vascular tone and disease. We suggest that modulation of the expression and NOD activity of Cygb represents a strategy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Transactivation of ErbB receptors by leptin in the cardiovascular system: mechanisms, consequences and target for therapy.

PubMed

Bełtowski, Jerzy; Jazmroz-Wiśniewska, Anna

2014-01-01

Many experimental and clinical studies have demonstrated that elevated leptin concentration in patients with obesity/metabolic syndrome contributes to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disorders including arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, restenosis after coronary angioplasty and myocardial hypertrophy. Receptor tyrosine kinases belonging to the ErbB family, especially ErbB1 (epidermal growth factor receptor) and ErbB2 are abundantly expressed in the blood vessels and the heart. EGFR is activated not only by its multiple peptide ligands but also by many other factors including angiotensin II, endothelin-1, norepinephrine, thrombin and prorenin; the phenomenon referred to as "transactivation". Augmented EGFR signaling contributes to abnormalities of vascular tone and renal sodium handling as well as vascular remodeling and myocardial hypertrophy through various intracellular mechanisms, in particular extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Recent experimental studies indicate that chronically elevated leptin transactivates the EGFR through the mechanisms requiring reactive oxygen species and cytosolic tyrosine kinase, c-Src. In addition, hyperleptinemia increases ErbB2 activity in the arterial wall. Stimulation of EGFR and ErbB2 downstream signaling pathways such as ERK and PI3K in the vascular wall and the kidney may contribute to the increase in vascular tone, enhanced tubular sodium reabsorption as well as vascular and renal lesions in hyperleptinemic obese subjects.

Intramuscular variation in fresh ham muscle color

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This experiment was conducted to characterize a defect involving pale muscle tissue in the superficial, ventral portion of ham muscles, resulting in two-toned appearance of cured ham products. Biceps femoris muscles (n = 200), representing 3 production systems, were obtained from the ham-boning lin...

The Theory of Adaptive Dispersion and Acoustic-phonetic Properties of Cross-language Lexical-tone Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexander, Jennifer Alexandra

Lexical-tone languages use fundamental frequency (F0/pitch) to convey word meaning. About 41.8% of the world's languages use lexical tone (Maddieson, 2008), yet those systems are under-studied. I aim to increase our understanding of speech-sound inventory organization by extending to tone-systems a model of vowel-system organization, the Theory of Adaptive Dispersion (TAD) (Liljencrants and Lindblom, 1972). This is a cross-language investigation of whether and how the size of a tonal inventory affects (A) acoustic tone-space size and (B) dispersion of tone categories within the tone-space. I compared five languages with very different tone inventories: Cantonese (3 contour, 3 level tones); Mandarin (3 contour, 1 level tone); Thai (2 contour, 3 level tones); Yoruba (3 level tones only); and Igbo (2 level tones only). Six native speakers (3 female) of each language produced 18 CV syllables in isolation, with each of his/her language's tones, six times. I measured tonal F0 across the vowel at onset, midpoint, and offglide. Tone-space size was the F0 difference in semitones (ST) between each language's highest and lowest tones. Tone dispersion was the F0 distance (ST) between two tones shared by multiple languages. Following the TAD, I predicted that languages with larger tone inventories would have larger tone-spaces. Against expectations, tone-space size was fixed across level-tone languages at midpoint and offglide, and across contour-tone languages (except Thai) at offglide. However, within each language type (level-tone vs. contour-tone), languages with smaller tone inventories had larger tone spaces at onset. Tone-dispersion results were also unexpected. The Cantonese mid-level tone was further dispersed from a tonal baseline than the Yoruba mid-level tone; Cantonese mid-level tone dispersion was therefore greater than theoretically necessary. The Cantonese high-level tone was also further dispersed from baseline than the Mandarin high-level tone -- at midpoint and offglide only. The TAD cannot account for these results. A follow-up analysis indicates that tone-space size differs as a function of tone-language type: level-tone and contour-tone systems may not be comparable. Another analysis plots tones in an onset F0 x offglide F0 space (following Barry and Blamey, 2004). Preliminary results indicate that the languages' tones are well-separated in this space.

Effects of inflow distortion profiles on fan tone noise calculated using a 3-D theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kobayashi, H.; Groeneweg, J. F.

1979-01-01

Calculations of the fan tone acoustic power and modal structure generated by complex distortions in axial inflow velocity are presented. The model used treats the motor as a rotating three-dimensional cascade and calculates the acoustic field from the distortion-produced dipole distribution on the blades including noncompact source effects. Radial and circumferential distortion shapes are synthesized from Fourier-Bessel components representing individual distortion modes. The relation between individual distortion modes and the generated acoustic modes is examined for particular distortion cases. Comparisons between theoretical and experimental results for distortions produced by wakes from upstream radial rods show that the analysis is a good predictor of acoustic power dependence on disturbance strength.

Correlations between self-assessed hearing handicap and standard audiometric tests in elderly persons.

PubMed

Pedersen, K; Rosenhall, U

1991-01-01

The relationship between self-assessed hearing handicap and audiometric measures using pure-tone and speech audiometry was studied in a group of elderly persons representative of an urban Swedish population. The study population consisted of two cohorts, one of which was followed longitudinally. Significant correlations between measured and self-assessed hearing were found. Speech discrimination scores showed lower correlations with the self-estimated hearing than pure-tone averages and speech reception threshold. Questions concerning conversation with one person and concerning difficulty in hearing the doorbell showed lower correlations with measured hearing than the other questions. The discrimination score test is an inadequate tool for measuring hearing handicap.

Intersections between cardiac physiology, emotion regulation and interpersonal warmth in preschoolers: Implications for drug abuse prevention from translational neuroscience

PubMed Central

Clark, Caron A. C.; Skowron, Elizabeth A.; Giuliano, Ryan J.; Fisher, Philip A.

2016-01-01

Background Early childhood is characterized by dramatic gains in emotion regulation skills that support social adjustment and mental health. Understanding the physiological substrates of healthy emotion regulation may offer new directions for altering trajectories towards initiation and escalation of substance abuse. Here, we describe the intersections between parasympathetic and sympathetic tone, emotion regulation and prosocial behavior in a high-risk sample of preschoolers. Method Fifty-two 3 – 6 year old children completed an assessment of attention regulation in response to affective stimuli. Cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic tone, and pre-ejection period, a marker of sympathetic activation, were recorded at rest and while children engaged in social interactions with their mothers and an unfamiliar research assistant. Mothers reported on children’s emotional reactivity and prosocial behavior. Results Controlling for age and psychosocial risk, higher parasympathetic tone predicted better attention regulation in response to angry emotion and higher levels of prosocial behavior, whereas a reciprocal pattern of higher parasympathetic tone and lower sympathetic arousal predicted better attention in response to positive emotion and lower emotional reactivity. Children exposed to fewer risk factors and higher levels of maternal warmth were more able to sustain a high level of parasympathetic tone during interaction episodes. Conclusions Findings suggest that autonomic measures represent biomarkers for socio-emotional competence in young children. They also point to the importance of early experiences in the establishment of physiological regulation and the promise of family-based intervention to promote healthy emotion regulation and prevent substance dependence in high-risk populations. PMID:27306733

Absolute Pitch: Effects of Timbre on Note-Naming Ability

PubMed Central

Vanzella, Patrícia; Schellenberg, E. Glenn

2010-01-01

Background Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify or produce isolated musical tones. It is evident primarily among individuals who started music lessons in early childhood. Because AP requires memory for specific pitches as well as learned associations with verbal labels (i.e., note names), it represents a unique opportunity to study interactions in memory between linguistic and nonlinguistic information. One untested hypothesis is that the pitch of voices may be difficult for AP possessors to identify. A musician's first instrument may also affect performance and extend the sensitive period for acquiring accurate AP. Methods/Principal Findings A large sample of AP possessors was recruited on-line. Participants were required to identity test tones presented in four different timbres: piano, pure tone, natural (sung) voice, and synthesized voice. Note-naming accuracy was better for non-vocal (piano and pure tones) than for vocal (natural and synthesized voices) test tones. This difference could not be attributed solely to vibrato (pitch variation), which was more pronounced in the natural voice than in the synthesized voice. Although starting music lessons by age 7 was associated with enhanced note-naming accuracy, equivalent abilities were evident among listeners who started music lessons on piano at a later age. Conclusions/Significance Because the human voice is inextricably linked to language and meaning, it may be processed automatically by voice-specific mechanisms that interfere with note naming among AP possessors. Lessons on piano or other fixed-pitch instruments appear to enhance AP abilities and to extend the sensitive period for exposure to music in order to develop accurate AP. PMID:21085598

Light-Toned, Layered Outcrops of Northern Terra Meridiani Mars: Viking, Phobos 2, and Mars Global Surveyor Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edgett, Kenneth S.

2002-01-01

Locating outcrops of sedimentary rock on Mars is an important step toward deciphering the planet's geologic and climatologic record. Sedimentary rock representing the earliest martian environments, are of particular interest in this context. This is a report about a vast exposure of material proposed to be martian sedimentary rock. The outcrops cover an area (approximately sq 300,000 km) roughly the size of the Colorado Plateau in North America (approximately 260,000 sq km). The materials occur in northern Terra Meridiani, near of one of the four sites being considered for a 2004 NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) landing. The landing ellipse, centered at deg S, deg W, lies in a region exhibiting smooth and rough (at meter scale) dark-toned surfaces, with scattered light-toned patches. Stratigraphically, the dark-toned materials at the MER site lie unconformably on top of a previously-eroded, light-toned surface; the light-toned patches in the landing ellipse are geologic windows down to this lower stratigraphic unit. North of the landing ellipse, the light-toned materials are well-exposed because the darker materials have been removed, stranding outlier remnants in a few locations. The light-toned materials are layered, vertically heterogeneous, and exhibit lateral continuity over hundreds of kilometers. Eroded layers produce cliffs; some outcrops are expressed as mesas, buttes, and spires; and impact craters ranging in diameter from a few meters to tens of kilometers are interbedded with the layers. The purpose of this report is to summarize the results of greater than 6 years of photogeologic investigation into the nature of the light-toned outcrops of northern Terra Meridiani. The work is a 'snapshot' of progress made toward eventual geologic mapping and establishment of the stratigraphic sequence for the materials through 30 September 2002, a day prior to the first release of Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) data to the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS). The main body of data examined were Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images acquired through 30 September 2002. The data also 2 include Viking orbiter images, a Phobos 2 Termoscan image, MGS Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topographic observations, and the products of published Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper (IRTM) and Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) analyses. Through September 2002, over 126,000 MOC images had been acquired, and greater than 600 of the MOC narrow angle (1.5-12 m/pixel) images occur within the portions of Terra Meridiani and southwestern Arabia Terra.

First Test of Fan Active Noise Control (ANC) Completed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

With the advent of ultrahigh-bypass engines, the space available for passive acoustic treatment is becoming more limited, whereas noise regulations are becoming more stringent. Active noise control (ANC) holds promise as a solution to this problem. It uses secondary (added) noise sources to reduce or eliminate the offending noise radiation. The first active noise control test on the low-speed fan test bed was a General Electric Company system designed to control either the exhaust or inlet fan tone. This system consists of a "ring source," an induct array of error microphones, and a control computer. Fan tone noise propagates in a duct in the form of spinning waves. These waves are detected by the microphone array, and the computer identifies their spinning structure. The computer then controls the "ring source" to generate waves that have the same spinning structure and amplitude, but 180 out of phase with the fan noise. This computer generated tone cancels the fan tone before it radiates from the duct and is heard in the far field. The "ring source" used in these tests is a cylindrical array of 16 flat-plate acoustic radiators that are driven by thin piezoceramic sheets bonded to their back surfaces. The resulting source can produce spinning waves up to mode 7 at levels high enough to cancel the fan tone. The control software is flexible enough to work on spinning mode orders from -6 to 6. In this test, the fan was configured to produce a tone of order 6. The complete modal (spinning and radial) structure of the tones was measured with two builtin sets of rotating microphone rakes. These rakes provide a measurement of the system performance independent from the control system error microphones. In addition, the far-field noise was measured with a semicircular array of 28 microphones. This test represents the first in a series of tests that demonstrate different active noise control concepts, each on a progressively more complicated modal structure. The tests are in preparation for a demonstration on a flight-type engine.

Ascorbate elevates perfusion pressure in the bovine extraocular long posterior ciliary artery: role of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF).

PubMed

Stirrat, Alison; Nelli, Silvia; McGuckin, Alicia; Ho, Vivian Wing Man; Wilson, William S; Martin, William

2006-03-18

Ascorbate blocks agonist-induced, endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF)-mediated vasodilatation in the bovine perfused ciliary artery and this is associated with a rise in perfusion pressure. We now report the origins of this ascorbate-induced rise in perfusion pressure. In segments of ciliary artery perfused at 2.5 ml/min, the addition of ascorbate (10-150 microM) enhanced U46619-induced perfusion pressure. Ascorbate produced no enhancement in the absence of U46619, suggesting that its effects resulted not from a constrictor action but through removal of a tonic vasodilator influence. Experiments revealed the endothelial source of this vasodilator influence, and EDHF, but not nitric oxide or prostanoids, appeared to be involved. The ascorbate-induced enhancement of vasoconstrictor tone was not seen in a static myograph or in segments perfused at low rates of flow, but was seen at flow rates of 2.5 ml(-1) and above. We conclude that ascorbate augments vasoconstrictor tone through inhibition of flow-induced EDHF activity.

Meridiani Bedrock

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

23 December 2004 The Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity, spent much of this year exploring outcrops of light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock that occur just beneath the dark plains of Sinus Meridiani. To access these rocks, the rover had to look at the walls and rims of impact craters. Further to the north and east of where the rover landed, similar rocks outcrop at the surface -- in other words, they are not covered by dark sand and granules as they are at the rover site. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an example from eastern Sinus Meridiani. All of the light-toned surfaces in this image are outcrops of ancient sedimentary rock. Similar rocks probably occur beneath the low albedo (dark) materials that mantle the lower-elevation surfaces in this area. This picture is located near 0.5oS, 356.7oW. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left.

Direct Midbrain Dopamine Input to the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Accelerates Circadian Entrainment.

PubMed

Grippo, Ryan M; Purohit, Aarti M; Zhang, Qi; Zweifel, Larry S; Güler, Ali D

2017-08-21

Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission controls behaviors important for survival, including voluntary movement, reward processing, and detection of salient events, such as food or mate availability. Dopaminergic tone also influences circadian physiology and behavior. Although the evolutionary significance of this input is appreciated, its precise neurophysiological architecture remains unknown. Here, we identify a novel, direct connection between the DA neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). We demonstrate that D1 dopamine receptor (Drd1) signaling within the SCN is necessary for properly timed resynchronization of activity rhythms to phase-shifted light:dark cycles and that elevation of DA tone through selective activation of VTA DA neurons accelerates photoentrainment. Our findings demonstrate a previously unappreciated role for direct DA input to the master circadian clock and highlight the importance of an evolutionarily significant relationship between the circadian system and the neuromodulatory circuits that govern motivational behaviors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A highly tunable dopaminergic oscillator generates ultradian rhythms of behavioral arousal

PubMed Central

Blum, Ian D; Zhu, Lei; Moquin, Luc; Kokoeva, Maia V; Gratton, Alain; Giros, Bruno; Storch, Kai-Florian

2014-01-01

Ultradian (∼4 hr) rhythms in locomotor activity that do not depend on the master circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus have been observed across mammalian species, however, the underlying mechanisms driving these rhythms are unknown. We show that disruption of the dopamine transporter gene lengthens the period of ultradian locomotor rhythms in mice. Period lengthening also results from chemogenetic activation of midbrain dopamine neurons and psychostimulant treatment, while the antipsychotic haloperidol has the opposite effect. We further reveal that striatal dopamine levels fluctuate in synchrony with ultradian activity cycles and that dopaminergic tone strongly predicts ultradian period. Our data indicate that an arousal regulating, dopaminergic ultradian oscillator (DUO) operates in the mammalian brain, which normally cycles in harmony with the circadian clock, but can desynchronize when dopamine tone is elevated, thereby producing aberrant patterns of arousal which are strikingly similar to perturbed sleep-wake cycles comorbid with psychopathology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05105.001 PMID:25546305

Visceral and Somatic Disorders: Tissue Softening with Frequency-Specific Microcurrent

PubMed Central

Oschman, James L.

2013-01-01

Abstract Frequency-specific microcurrent (FSM) is an emerging technique for treating many health conditions. Pairs of frequencies of microampere-level electrical stimulation are applied to particular places on the skin of a patient via combinations of conductive graphite gloves, moistened towels, or gel electrode patches. A consistent finding is a profound and palpable tissue softening and warming within seconds of applying frequencies appropriate for treating particular conditions. Similar phenomena are often observed with successful acupuncture, cranial-sacral, and other energy-based techniques. This article explores possible mechanisms involved in tissue softening. In the 1970s, neuroscientist and osteopathic researcher Irvin Korr developed a “γ-loop hypothesis” to explain the persistence of increased systemic muscle tone associated with various somatic dysfunctions. This article summarizes how physiologists, neuroscientists, osteopaths, chiropractors, and fascial researchers have expanded on Korr's ideas by exploring various mechanisms by which injury or disease increase local muscle tension or systemic muscle tone. Following on Korr's hypothesis, it is suggested that most patients actually present with elevated muscle tone or tense areas due to prior traumas or other disorders, and that tissue softening indicates that FSM or other methods are affecting the cause of their pathophysiology. The authors believe this concept and the research it has led to will be of interest to a wide range of energetic, bodywork, and movement therapists. PMID:22775307

Autonomic regulation of the heart during digestion and aerobic swimming in the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).

PubMed

Iversen, Nina K; Dupont-Prinet, Aurélie; Findorf, Inge; McKenzie, David J; Wang, Tobias

2010-08-01

The autonomic regulation of the heart was studied in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) during digestion and aerobic exercise by measuring cardiac output (Q), heart rate (f(H)), stroke volume (V(s)) and oxygen consumption (MO(2)) before and after pharmacological blockade by intraperitoneal injections of atropine and propranolol. The significant rise in MO(2) (134+/-14 to 174+/-14 mg kg(-)(1)h(-)(1)) 6h after feeding (3% body mass) caused a significant tachycardia (47.7+/-10.9 to 72.6+/-7.2 beats min(-)(1)), but only a small elevation of Q. MO(2) of fasting fish increased progressively with swimming speed (0.7-2.1BLs(-)(1)) causing a significant tachycardia (43+/-6 to 61+/-4 mL min(-)(1)kg(-)(1)) and increased Q but V(s) did not change. Inactive fish were characterized by a high vagal tone (98.3+/-21.7%), and the tachycardia during digestion and exercise was exclusively due to a reduction of vagal tone, while the adrenergic tone remained low during all conditions. Intrinsic f(H), revealed after double autonomic blockade, was not affected by digestion (71+/-4 and 70+/-6 min(-)(1), respectively), indicating that non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) factors do not contribute to the tachycardia during digestion in sea bass. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of production training and perception training on lexical tone perception--A behavioral and ERP study.

PubMed

Lu, Shuang; Wayland, Ratree; Kaan, Edith

2015-10-22

The present study recorded both behavioral data and event-related brain potentials to examine the effectiveness of a perception-only training and a perception-plus-production training procedure on the intentional and unintentional perception of lexical tone by native English listeners. In the behavioral task, both the perception-only and the perception-plus-production groups improved on the tone discrimination abilities after the training session. Moreover, the participants in both groups generalized the improvements gained through the trained stimuli to the untrained stimuli. In the ERP task, the Mismatch Negativity was smaller in the post-training task than in the pre-training task. However, the two training groups did not differ in tone processing at the intentional or unintentional level after training. These results suggest that the employment of the motor system does not specifically benefit the tone perceptual skills. Furthermore, the present study investigated whether some tone pairs are more easily confused than others by native English listeners, and whether the order of tone presentation influences non-native tone discrimination. In the behavioral task, Tone2-Tone1 (rising-level) and Tone2-Tone4 (rising-falling) were the most difficult tone pairs, while Tone1-Tone2 and Tone4-Tone2 were the easiest tone pairs, even though they involved the same tone contrasts respectively. In the ERP task, the native English listeners had good discrimination when Tone2 and Tone4 were embedded in strings of Tone1, while poor discrimination when Tone1 was inserted in the context of Tone2 or Tone4. These asymmetries in tone perception might be attributed to the interference of native intonation system and can be altered by training. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Government instability shifts skin tone representations of and intentions to vote for political candidates.

PubMed

Stern, Chadly; Balcetis, Emily; Cole, Shana; West, Tessa V; Caruso, Eugene M

2016-01-01

Does government stability shift the way White and Black Americans represent and make voting decisions about political candidates? Participants judged how representative lightened, darkened, and unaltered photographs were of a racially ambiguous candidate ostensibly running for political office (Studies 1-3). When the governmental system was presented as stable, White participants who shared (vs. did not share) the candidate's political beliefs rated a lightened photo as more representative of the candidate, and Black participants who shared (vs. did not share) the candidate's political beliefs rated a darkened photo as more representative (Studies 1-3). However, under conditions of instability, both Whites and Blacks who shared (vs. did not share) the candidate's political beliefs rated a lightened photo as more representative (Study 3). Representations of (Studies 2 and 3) and actual differences in (Studies 4a and 4b) skin tone predicted intentions to vote for candidates, as a function of government stability and participants' race. Further evidence suggested that system stability shifted the motivations that guided voting decisions (Study 4a and 4b). When the system was stable, the motivation to enhance one's group predicted greater intentions to vote for lighter skinned candidates among Whites, and greater intentions to vote for darker skinned candidates among Blacks. When the system was unstable, however, lacking confidence in the sociopolitical system predicted intentions to vote for lighter skinned candidates among both Whites and Blacks. Implications for political leadership and social perception are discussed. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Continuous-tone applications in digital hard-copy output devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saunders, Jeffrey C.

1990-11-01

Dye diffusion technology has made a recent entry into the hardcopy printer arena making it now possible to achieve near-photographic quality images from digital raster image data. Whereas the majority of low cost printers utilizing ink-jet, thermal wax, or dotmatrix technologies advertise high resolution printheads, the restrictions which dithering algorithms apply to these inherently binary printing systems force them to sacrifice spatial resolution capability for tone scale reproduction. Dye diffusion technology allows a fully continuous range of density at each pixel location thus preserving the full spatial resolution capability of the printhead; spatial resolution is not sacrificed for tone scale. This results in images whose quality is far superior to the ink-jet or wax-transfer products; image quality so high in fact, to the unaided eye, dye diffusion images are indistinguishable from their silver-halide counterparts. Eastman Kodak Co. offers a highly refined application of dye diffusion technology in the Kodak XL 7700 Digital Continuous Tone Printer and Kodak EKTATHERM media products. The XL . 7700 Printer represents a serious alternative to expensive laser-based film recorders for applications which require high quality image output from digital data files. This paper presents an explanation of dye diffusion printing, what distinguishes it from other technologies, sensitometric control and image quality parameters, and applications within the industry, particularly that of Airborne Reconnaissance and Remote Sensing.

Image barcodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damera-Venkata, Niranjan; Yen, Jonathan

2003-01-01

A Visually significant two-dimensional barcode (VSB) developed by Shaked et. al. is a method used to design an information carrying two-dimensional barcode, which has the appearance of a given graphical entity such as a company logo. The encoding and decoding of information using the VSB, uses a base image with very few graylevels (typically only two). This typically requires the image histogram to be bi-modal. For continuous-tone images such as digital photographs of individuals, the representation of tone or "shades of gray" is not only important to obtain a pleasing rendition of the face, but in most cases, the VSB renders these images unrecognizable due to its inability to represent true gray-tone variations. This paper extends the concept of a VSB to an image bar code (IBC). We enable the encoding and subsequent decoding of information embedded in the hardcopy version of continuous-tone base-images such as those acquired with a digital camera. The encoding-decoding process is modeled by robust data transmission through a noisy print-scan channel that is explicitly modeled. The IBC supports a high information capacity that differentiates it from common hardcopy watermarks. The reason for the improved image quality over the VSB is a joint encoding/halftoning strategy based on a modified version of block error diffusion. Encoder stability, image quality vs. information capacity tradeoffs and decoding issues with and without explicit knowledge of the base-image are discussed.

Crowdsourcing-based evaluation of privacy in HDR images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korshunov, Pavel; Nemoto, Hiromi; Skodras, Athanassios; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2014-05-01

The ability of High Dynamic Range imaging (HDRi) to capture details in high-contrast environments, making both dark and bright regions clearly visible, has a strong implication on privacy. However, the extent to which HDRi affects privacy when it is used instead of typical Standard Dynamic Range imaging (SDRi) is not yet clear. In this paper, we investigate the effect of HDRi on privacy via crowdsourcing evaluation using the Microworkers platform. Due to the lack of HDRi standard privacy evaluation dataset, we have created such dataset containing people of varying gender, race, and age, shot indoor and outdoor and under large range of lighting conditions. We evaluate the tone-mapped versions of these images, obtained by several representative tone-mapping algorithms, using subjective privacy evaluation methodology. Evaluation was performed using crowdsourcing-based framework, because it is a popular and effective alternative to traditional lab-based assessment. The results of the experiments demonstrate a significant loss of privacy when even tone-mapped versions of HDR images are used compared to typical SDR images shot with a standard exposure.

Downdrift in a Tone Language with Four Tone Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clements, G. N.

1991-01-01

Many tone languages exhibit some form of downdrift or automatic downstep, the lowering of high tones separated by low tones. In extreme cases, the realization of high tones at the end of a domain (such as the sentence) may be lower than the realization of low tones at the beginning. Tone languages with this property are cross-level tone languages.…

Autonomic nervous system profile in fibromyalgia patients and its modulation by exercise: a mini review.

PubMed

Kulshreshtha, Poorvi; Deepak, Kishore K

2013-03-01

This review imparts an impressionistic tone to our current understanding of autonomic nervous system abnormalities in fibromyalgia. In the wake of symptoms present in patients with fibromyalgia (FM), autonomic dysfunction seems plausible in fibromyalgia. A popular notion is that of a relentless sympathetic hyperactivity and hyporeactivity based on heart rate variability (HRV) analyses and responses to various physiological stimuli. However, some exactly opposite findings suggesting normal/hypersympathetic reactivity in patients with fibromyalgia do exist. This heterogeneous picture along with multiple comorbidities accounts for the quantitative and qualitative differences in the degree of dysautonomia present in patients with FM. We contend that HRV changes in fibromyalgia may not actually represent increased cardiac sympathetic tone. Normal muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and normal autonomic reactivity tests in patients with fibromyalgia suggest defective vascular end organ in fibromyalgia. Previously, we proposed a model linking deconditioning with physical inactivity resulting from widespread pain in patients with fibromyalgia. Deconditioning also modulates the autonomic nervous system (high sympathetic tone and a low parasympathetic tone). A high peripheral sympathetic tone causes regional ischaemia, which in turn results in widespread pain. Thus, vascular dysregulation and hypoperfusion in patients with FM give rise to ischaemic pain leading to physical inactivity. Microvascular abnormalities are also found in patients with FM. Therapeutic interventions (e.g. exercise) that result in vasodilatation and favourable autonomic alterations have proven to be effective. In this review, we focus on the vascular end organ in patients with fibromyalgia in particular and its modulation by exercise in general. © 2012 The Authors Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging © 2012 Scandinavian Society of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine.

Intersections between cardiac physiology, emotion regulation and interpersonal warmth in preschoolers: Implications for drug abuse prevention from translational neuroscience.

PubMed

Clark, Caron A C; Skowron, Elizabeth A; Giuliano, Ryan J; Fisher, Philip A

2016-06-01

Early childhood is characterized by dramatic gains in emotion regulation skills that support social adjustment and mental health. Understanding the physiological substrates of healthy emotion regulation may offer new directions for altering trajectories toward initiation and escalation of substance abuse. Here, we describe the intersections between parasympathetic and sympathetic tone, emotion regulation and prosocial behavior in a high-risk sample of preschoolers. Fifty-two 3-6 year old children completed an assessment of attention regulation in response to affective stimuli. Cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic tone, and pre-ejection period, a marker of sympathetic activation, were recorded at rest and while children engaged in social interactions with their mothers and an unfamiliar research assistant. Mothers reported on children's emotional reactivity and prosocial behavior. Controlling for age and psychosocial risk, higher parasympathetic tone predicted better attention regulation in response to angry emotion and higher levels of prosocial behavior, whereas a reciprocal pattern of higher parasympathetic tone and lower sympathetic arousal predicted better attention in response to positive emotion and lower emotional reactivity. Children exposed to fewer risk factors and higher levels of maternal warmth were more able to sustain a high level of parasympathetic tone during interaction episodes. Findings suggest that autonomic measures represent biomarkers for socio-emotional competence in young children. They also point to the importance of early experiences in the establishment of physiological regulation and the promise of family-based intervention to promote healthy emotion regulation and prevent substance dependence in high-risk populations. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Light-toned salty soils and co-existing Si-rich species discovered by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in Columbia Hills

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, Alian; Bell, J.F.; Li, Ron; Johnson, J. R.; Farrand, W. H.; Cloutis, E.A.; Arvidson, R. E.; Crumpler, L.; Squyres, S. W.; McLennan, S.M.; Herkenhoff, K. E.; Ruff, S.W.; Knudson, A.T.; Chen, Wei; Greenberger, R.

2008-01-01

Light-toned soils were exposed, through serendipitous excavations by Spirit Rover wheels, at eight locations in the Columbia Hills. Their occurrences were grouped into four types on the basis of geomorphic settings. At three major exposures, the light-toned soils are hydrous and sulfate-rich. The spatial distributions of distinct types of salty soils vary substantially: with centimeter-scaled heterogeneities at Paso Robles, Dead Sea, Shredded, and Champagne-Penny, a well-mixed nature for light-toned soils occurring near and at the summit of Husband Hill, and relatively homogeneous distributions in the two layers at the Tyrone site. Aeolian, fumarolic, and hydrothermal fluid processes are suggested to be responsible for the deposition, transportation, and accumulation of these light-toned soils. In addition, a change in Pancam spectra of Tyrone yellowish soils was observed after being exposed to current Martian surface conditions for 175 sols. This change is interpreted to be caused by the dehydration of ferric sulfates on the basis of laboratory simulations and suggests a relative humidity gradient beneath the surface. Si-rich nodules and soils were observed near the major exposures of S-rich soils. They possess a characteristic feature in Pancam visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectra that may be diagnostic of hydrated species, and this spectral feature can be used to search for additional Si-rich species. The exposures of hydrated salty soils within various geomorphic settings imply the potential existence of hydrous minerals in similar settings over a much wider area. Hydrous sulfates represent one of the candidates that may contribute the high level of water equivalent hydrogen in equatorial regions detected by the Neutron Spectrometer on Mars Odyssey.

Focus on increased serum angiotensin-converting enzyme level: From granulomatous diseases to genetic mutations.

PubMed

Lopez-Sublet, Marilucy; di Lanzacco, Lorenzo Caratti; Jan Danser, A H; Lambert, Michel; Elourimi, Ghassan; Persu, Alexandre

2018-06-18

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) is a well-known zinc-metallopeptidase that converts angiotensin I to the potent vasoconstrictor angiotensin II and degrades bradykinin, a powerful vasodilator, and as such plays a key role in the regulation of vascular tone and cardiac function. Increased circulating ACE (cACE) activity has been reported in multiple diseases, including but not limited to granulomatous disorders. Since 2001, genetic mutations leading to cACE elevation have also been described. This review takes advantage of the identification of a novel ACE mutation (25-IVS25 + 1G > A) in two Belgian pedigrees to summarize current knowledge about the differential diagnosis of cACE elevation, based on literature review and the experience of our centre. Furthermore, we propose a practical approach for the evaluation and management of patients with elevated cACE and discuss in which cases search for genetic mutations should be considered. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Five-Year-olds' Acoustic Realization of Mandarin Tone Sandhi and Lexical Tones in Context Are Not Yet Fully Adult-Like.

PubMed

Xu Rattanasone, Nan; Tang, Ping; Yuen, Ivan; Gao, Liqun; Demuth, Katherine

2018-01-01

Large numbers of children around the world are learning tone languages, but few studies have examined the acoustic properties of children's early tone productions. Even more scarce are acquisition studies on tone sandhi, a tone change phenomenon which alters the surface realization of lexical tones. Two studies using perceptual coding report the emergence of lexical tone and tone sandhi at around 2 years (Li and Thompson, 1977; Hua and Dodd, 2000). However, the only acoustic study available shows that 3-year-olds are not yet adult-like in their lexical tone productions (Wong, 2012). This raises questions about when children's productions become acoustically adult-like and how their tone productions differ from those of adults. These questions were addressed in the current study which compared Mandarin-speaking pre-schoolers' (3-5-year-olds) tone productions to that of adults. A picture naming task was used with disyllabic real words familiar to pre-schoolers. Overall children produced appropriate tone contours for all tones, i.e., level for tone 1, rising for tones 2, 3 and full sandhi, falling for tone 4 and half sandhi. However, children's productions were not adult-like for tones 3, 4, and the sandhi forms, in terms of coordinating pitch range, slope and curvature , with little evidence of development across ages. These results suggest a protracted process in achieving adult-like acoustic realization of both lexical and sandhi tones.

Illusory conjunctions of pitch and duration in unfamiliar tone sequences.

PubMed

Thompson, W F; Hall, M D; Pressing, J

2001-02-01

In 3 experiments, the authors examined short-term memory for pitch and duration in unfamiliar tone sequences. Participants were presented a target sequence consisting of 2 tones (Experiment 1) or 7 tones (Experiments 2 and 3) and then a probe tone. Participants indicated whether the probe tone matched 1 of the target tones in both pitch and duration. Error rates were relatively low if the probe tone matched 1 of the target tones or if it differed from target tones in pitch, duration, or both. Error rates were remarkably high, however, if the probe tone combined the pitch of 1 target tone with the duration of a different target tone. The results suggest that illusory conjunctions of these dimensions frequently occur. A mathematical model is presented that accounts for the relative contribution of pitch errors, duration errors, and illusory conjunctions of pitch and duration.

Spatial Associations for Musical Stimuli: A Piano in the Head?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lidji, Pascale; Kolinsky, Regine; Lochy, Aliette; Morais, Jose

2007-01-01

This study was aimed at examining whether pitch height and pitch change are mentally represented along spatial axes. A series of experiments explored, for isolated tones and 2-note intervals, the occurrence of effects analogous to the spatial numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect. Response device orientation (horizontal vs.…

CCSDS - SFCG Efficient Modulation Methods Study at NASA/JPL - Phase 4: Interference Susceptibility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, W.; Yan, T. Y.; Gray, A.; Lee, D.

1999-01-01

Susceptibility to two types of interfering signals was requested by the SFCG: a pure carrier (single frequency tone)and wide-band RFI (characteristics unspecified). Selecting a broad-band interfering signal is diffuclt because it should represent the types of interference to be found in the space science service bands.

[Hypertensive crisis: pathogenesis, clinic, treatment].

PubMed

Vertkin, A L; Topolianskiĭ, A V; Abdullaeva, A U; Alekseev, M A; Shakhmanaev, Kh A

2013-01-01

Contemporary data on mechanisms of development, types, and clinical picture of hypertensive crisis (HC) are presented. Algorithms of rational therapy of uncomplicated and complicated HC are considered. Appropriateness of the use in HC of antihypertensive drugs with multifactorial action is stressed. These drugs include urapidil - an antihypertensive agent with complex mechanism of action. Blocking mainly the postsynaptic 1-adrenoreceptors urapidil attenuates vasoconstrictor effect of catecholamines and decreases total peripheral resistance. Stimulation of 5HT1-receptors of medullary vasculomotor center promotes lowering of elevated vascular tone and prevents development of reflex tachycardia.

Implementation and preliminary evaluation of 'C-tone': A novel algorithm to improve lexical tone recognition in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

PubMed

Ping, Lichuan; Wang, Ningyuan; Tang, Guofang; Lu, Thomas; Yin, Li; Tu, Wenhe; Fu, Qian-Jie

2017-09-01

Because of limited spectral resolution, Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users have difficulty perceiving fundamental frequency (F0) cues that are important to lexical tone recognition. To improve Mandarin tone recognition in CI users, we implemented and evaluated a novel real-time algorithm (C-tone) to enhance the amplitude contour, which is strongly correlated with the F0 contour. The C-tone algorithm was implemented in clinical processors and evaluated in eight users of the Nurotron NSP-60 CI system. Subjects were given 2 weeks of experience with C-tone. Recognition of Chinese tones, monosyllables, and disyllables in quiet was measured with and without the C-tone algorithm. Subjective quality ratings were also obtained for C-tone. After 2 weeks of experience with C-tone, there were small but significant improvements in recognition of lexical tones, monosyllables, and disyllables (P < 0.05 in all cases). Among lexical tones, the largest improvements were observed for Tone 3 (falling-rising) and the smallest for Tone 4 (falling). Improvements with C-tone were greater for disyllables than for monosyllables. Subjective quality ratings showed no strong preference for or against C-tone, except for perception of own voice, where C-tone was preferred. The real-time C-tone algorithm provided small but significant improvements for speech performance in quiet with no change in sound quality. Pre-processing algorithms to reduce noise and better real-time F0 extraction would improve the benefits of C-tone in complex listening environments. Chinese CI users' speech recognition in quiet can be significantly improved by modifying the amplitude contour to better resemble the F0 contour.

Tone perception in Mandarin-speaking school age children with otitis media with effusion

PubMed Central

McPherson, Bradley; Li, Caiwei; Yang, Feng

2017-01-01

Objectives The present study explored tone perception ability in school age Mandarin-speaking children with otitis media with effusion (OME) in noisy listening environments. The study investigated the interaction effects of noise, tone type, age, and hearing status on monaural tone perception, and assessed the application of a hierarchical clustering algorithm for profiling hearing impairment in children with OME. Methods Forty-one children with normal hearing and normal middle ear status and 84 children with OME with or without hearing loss participated in this study. The children with OME were further divided into two subgroups based on their severity and pattern of hearing loss using a hierarchical clustering algorithm. Monaural tone recognition was measured using a picture-identification test format incorporating six sets of monosyllabic words conveying four lexical tones under speech spectrum noise, with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions ranging from -9 to -21 dB. Results Linear correlation indicated tone recognition thresholds of children with OME were significantly correlated with age and pure tone hearing thresholds at every frequency tested. Children with hearing thresholds less affected by OME performed similarly to their peers with normal hearing. Tone recognition thresholds of children with auditory status more affected by OME were significantly inferior to those of children with normal hearing or with minor hearing loss. Younger children demonstrated poorer tone recognition performance than older children with OME. A mixed design repeated-measure ANCOVA showed significant main effects of listening condition, hearing status, and tone type on tone recognition. Contrast comparisons revealed that tone recognition scores were significantly better under -12 dB SNR than under -15 dB SNR conditions and tone recognition scores were significantly worse under -18 dB SNR than those obtained under -15 dB SNR conditions. Tone 1 was the easiest tone to identify and Tone 3 was the most difficult tone to identify for all participants, when considering -12, -15, and -18 dB SNR as within-subject variables. The interaction effect between hearing status and tone type indicated that children with greater levels of OME-related hearing loss had more impaired tone perception of Tone 1 and Tone 2 compared to their peers with lesser levels of OME-related hearing loss. However, tone perception of Tone 3 and Tone 4 remained similar among all three groups. Tone 2 and Tone 3 were the most perceptually difficult tones for children with or without OME-related hearing loss in all listening conditions. Conclusions The hierarchical clustering algorithm demonstrated usefulness in risk stratification for tone perception deficiency in children with OME-related hearing loss. There was marked impairment in tone perception in noise for children with greater levels of OME-related hearing loss. Monaural lexical tone perception in younger children was more vulnerable to noise and OME-related hearing loss than that in older children. PMID:28829840

Tone perception in Mandarin-speaking school age children with otitis media with effusion.

PubMed

Cai, Ting; McPherson, Bradley; Li, Caiwei; Yang, Feng

2017-01-01

The present study explored tone perception ability in school age Mandarin-speaking children with otitis media with effusion (OME) in noisy listening environments. The study investigated the interaction effects of noise, tone type, age, and hearing status on monaural tone perception, and assessed the application of a hierarchical clustering algorithm for profiling hearing impairment in children with OME. Forty-one children with normal hearing and normal middle ear status and 84 children with OME with or without hearing loss participated in this study. The children with OME were further divided into two subgroups based on their severity and pattern of hearing loss using a hierarchical clustering algorithm. Monaural tone recognition was measured using a picture-identification test format incorporating six sets of monosyllabic words conveying four lexical tones under speech spectrum noise, with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions ranging from -9 to -21 dB. Linear correlation indicated tone recognition thresholds of children with OME were significantly correlated with age and pure tone hearing thresholds at every frequency tested. Children with hearing thresholds less affected by OME performed similarly to their peers with normal hearing. Tone recognition thresholds of children with auditory status more affected by OME were significantly inferior to those of children with normal hearing or with minor hearing loss. Younger children demonstrated poorer tone recognition performance than older children with OME. A mixed design repeated-measure ANCOVA showed significant main effects of listening condition, hearing status, and tone type on tone recognition. Contrast comparisons revealed that tone recognition scores were significantly better under -12 dB SNR than under -15 dB SNR conditions and tone recognition scores were significantly worse under -18 dB SNR than those obtained under -15 dB SNR conditions. Tone 1 was the easiest tone to identify and Tone 3 was the most difficult tone to identify for all participants, when considering -12, -15, and -18 dB SNR as within-subject variables. The interaction effect between hearing status and tone type indicated that children with greater levels of OME-related hearing loss had more impaired tone perception of Tone 1 and Tone 2 compared to their peers with lesser levels of OME-related hearing loss. However, tone perception of Tone 3 and Tone 4 remained similar among all three groups. Tone 2 and Tone 3 were the most perceptually difficult tones for children with or without OME-related hearing loss in all listening conditions. The hierarchical clustering algorithm demonstrated usefulness in risk stratification for tone perception deficiency in children with OME-related hearing loss. There was marked impairment in tone perception in noise for children with greater levels of OME-related hearing loss. Monaural lexical tone perception in younger children was more vulnerable to noise and OME-related hearing loss than that in older children.

Audiometric Testing With Pulsed, Steady, and Warble Tones in Listeners With Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

PubMed Central

Walker, Matthew A.; Short, Ciara E.; Skinner, Kimberly G.

2017-01-01

Purpose This study evaluated the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's recommendation that audiometric testing for patients with tinnitus should use pulsed or warble tones. Using listeners with varied audiometric configurations and tinnitus statuses, we asked whether steady, pulsed, and warble tones yielded similar audiometric thresholds, and which tone type was preferred. Method Audiometric thresholds (octave frequencies from 0.25–16 kHz) were measured using steady, pulsed, and warble tones in 61 listeners, who were divided into 4 groups on the basis of hearing and tinnitus status. Participants rated the appeal and difficulty of each tone type on a 1–5 scale and selected a preferred type. Results For all groups, thresholds were lower for warble than for pulsed and steady tones, with the largest effects above 4 kHz. Appeal ratings did not differ across tone type, but the steady tone was rated as more difficult than the warble and pulsed tones. Participants generally preferred pulsed and warble tones. Conclusions Pulsed tones provide advantages over steady and warble tones for patients regardless of hearing or tinnitus status. Although listeners preferred pulsed and warble tones to steady tones, pulsed tones are not susceptible to the effects of off-frequency listening, a consideration when testing listeners with sloping audiograms. PMID:28892822

Audiometric Testing With Pulsed, Steady, and Warble Tones in Listeners With Tinnitus and Hearing Loss.

PubMed

Lentz, Jennifer J; Walker, Matthew A; Short, Ciara E; Skinner, Kimberly G

2017-09-18

This study evaluated the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's recommendation that audiometric testing for patients with tinnitus should use pulsed or warble tones. Using listeners with varied audiometric configurations and tinnitus statuses, we asked whether steady, pulsed, and warble tones yielded similar audiometric thresholds, and which tone type was preferred. Audiometric thresholds (octave frequencies from 0.25-16 kHz) were measured using steady, pulsed, and warble tones in 61 listeners, who were divided into 4 groups on the basis of hearing and tinnitus status. Participants rated the appeal and difficulty of each tone type on a 1-5 scale and selected a preferred type. For all groups, thresholds were lower for warble than for pulsed and steady tones, with the largest effects above 4 kHz. Appeal ratings did not differ across tone type, but the steady tone was rated as more difficult than the warble and pulsed tones. Participants generally preferred pulsed and warble tones. Pulsed tones provide advantages over steady and warble tones for patients regardless of hearing or tinnitus status. Although listeners preferred pulsed and warble tones to steady tones, pulsed tones are not susceptible to the effects of off-frequency listening, a consideration when testing listeners with sloping audiograms.

A role for endocannabinoids in viral-induced dyskinetic and convulsive phenomena.

PubMed

Solbrig, Marylou V; Adrian, Russell; Baratta, Janie; Piomelli, Daniele; Giuffrida, Andrea

2005-08-01

Dyskinesias and seizures are both medically refractory disorders for which cannabinoid-based treatments have shown early promise as primary or adjunctive therapy. Using the Borna disease (BD) virus rat, an animal model of viral encephalopathy with spontaneous hyperkinetic movements and seizure susceptibility, we identified a key role for endocannabinoids in the maintenance of a balanced tone of activity in extrapyramidal and limbic circuits. BD rats showed significant elevations of the endocannabinoid anandamide in subthalamic nucleus, a relay nucleus compromised in hyperkinetic disorders. While direct and indirect cannabinoid agonists had limited motor effects in BD rats, abrupt reductions of endocannabinoid tone by the CB1 antagonist SR141716A (0.3 mg/kg, i.p.) caused seizures characterized by myoclonic jerks time-locked to periodic spike/sharp wave discharges on hippocampal electroencephalography. The general opiate antagonist naloxone (NLX) (1 mg/kg, s.c.), another pharmacologic treatment with potential efficacy in dyskinesias or L-DOPA motor complications, produced similar seizures. No changes in anandamide levels in hippocampus and amygdala were found in convulsing NLX-treated BD rats. In contrast, NLX significantly increased anandamide levels in the same areas of normal uninfected animals, possibly protecting against seizures. Pretreatment with the anandamide transport blocker AM404 (20 mg/kg, i.p.) prevented NLX-induced seizures. These findings are consistent with an anticonvulsant role for endocannabinoids, counteracting aberrant firing produced by convulsive agents, and with a functional or reciprocal relation between opioid and cannabinoid tone with respect to limbic convulsive phenomena.

Brain-Targeted (Pro)Renin Receptor Knockdown attenuates Angiotensin II-Dependent Hypertension

PubMed Central

Li, Wencheng; Peng, Hua; Cao, Theresa; Sato, Ryosuke; McDaniels, Sarah. J.; Kobori, Hiroyuki; Navar, L. Gabriel; Feng, Yumei

2012-01-01

The (pro)renin receptor is a newly discovered member of the brain renin-angiotensin system. To investigate the role of brain (pro)renin receptor in hypertension, adeno-associated virus-mediated (pro)renin receptor shRNA was used to knockdown (pro)renin receptor expression in the brain of non-transgenic normotensive and human renin-angiotensinogen double transgenic hypertensive mice. Blood pressure was monitored using implanted telemetric probes in conscious animals. Real-time PCR and immunostaining were performed to determine (pro)renin receptor, angiotensin II type 1 receptor and vasopressin mRNA levels. Plasma vasopressin levels were determined by Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay. Double transgenic mice exhibited higher blood pressure, elevated cardiac and vascular sympathetic tone, and impaired spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity. Intracerebroventricular delivery of (pro)renin receptor shRNA significantly reduced blood pressure, cardiac and vasomotor sympathetic tone, and improved baroreflex sensitivity compared to the control virus treatment in double transgenic mice. (Pro)renin receptor knockdown significantly reduced angiotensin II type 1 receptor and vasopressin levels in double transgenic mice. These data indicate that (pro)renin receptor knockdown in the brain attenuates angiotensin II-dependent hypertension and is associated with a decrease insympathetic tone and an improvement of the baroreflex sensitivity. In addition, brain-targeted (pro)renin receptor knockdown is associated with down-regulation of angiotensin II type 1 receptor and vasopressin levels. We conclude that central (pro)renin receptor contributes to the pathogenesis of hypertension in human renin-angiotensinogen transgenic mice. PMID:22526255

Lexical tone and stuttering loci in Mandarin: evidence from preschool children who stutter.

PubMed

Chou, Fang-Chi; Zebrowski, Patricia; Yang, Shu-Lan

2015-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stuttering loci and lexical tone in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers. Conversational samples from 20 Taiwanese children who stutter (CWS; M = 4:9; range = 3:2-6:4) were analysed for frequency and type of speech disfluency and lexical tone associated with stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs). Results indicated that SLDs were significantly more likely to be produced on Mandarin syllables carrying Tone 3 and Tone 4 syllables compared to syllables carrying either Tone 1 or Tone 2. Post-hoc analyses revealed: (1) no significant differences in the stuttering frequencies between Tone 1 and Tone 2, or between Tone 3 and Tone 4, and (2) a higher incidence of stuttering on syllables carrying Tone 3 and Tone 4 embedded in conflicting (as opposed to compatible) tonal contexts. Results suggest that the higher incidence of stuttering on Mandarin syllables carrying either Tone 3 or 4 may be attributed to the increased level of speech motor demand underlying rapid F0 change both within and across syllables.

Automatic processing of tones and speech stimuli in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Uwer, Ruth; Albrecht, Ronald; von Suchodoletz, W

2002-08-01

It is well known from behavioural experiments that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties discriminating consonant-vowel (CV) syllables such as /ba/, /da/, and /ga/. Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential component that represents the outcome of an automatic comparison process. It could, therefore, be a promising tool for assessing central auditory processing deficits for speech and non-speech stimuli in children with SLI. MMN is typically evoked by occasionally occurring 'deviant' stimuli in a sequence of identical 'standard' sounds. In this study MMN was elicited using simple tone stimuli, which differed in frequency (1000 versus 1200 Hz) and duration (175 versus 100 ms) and to digitized CV syllables which differed in place of articulation (/ba/, /da/, and /ga/) in children with expressive and receptive SLI and healthy control children (n=21 in each group, 46 males and 17 females; age range 5 to 10 years). Mean MMN amplitudes between groups were compared. Additionally, the behavioural discrimination performance was assessed. Children with SLI had attenuated MMN amplitudes to speech stimuli, but there was no significant difference between the two diagnostic subgroups. MMN to tone stimuli did not differ between the groups. Children with SLI made more errors in the discrimination task, but discrimination scores did not correlate with MMN amplitudes. The present data suggest that children with SLI show a specific deficit in automatic discrimination of CV syllables differing in place of articulation, whereas the processing of simple tone differences seems to be unimpaired.

Sub-micron lines patterning into silica using water developable chitosan bioresist films for eco-friendly positive tone e-beam and UV lithography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caillau, Mathieu; Chevalier, Céline; Crémillieu, Pierre; Delair, Thierry; Soppera, Olivier; Leuschel, Benjamin; Ray, Cédric; Moulin, Christophe; Jonin, Christian; Benichou, Emmanuel; Brevet, Pierre-François; Yeromonahos, Christelle; Laurenceau, Emmanuelle; Chevolot, Yann; Leclercq, Jean-Louis

2018-03-01

Biopolymers represent natural, renewable and abundant materials. Their use is steadily growing in various areas (food, health, building …) but, in lithography, despite some works, resists, solvents and developers are still oil-based and hazardous chemicals. In this work, we replaced synthetic resist by chitosan, a natural, abundant and hydrophilic polysaccharide. High resolution sub-micron patterns were obtained through chitosan films as water developable, chemically unmodified, positive tone mask resist for an eco-friendly electron beam and deep-UV (193 nm) lithography process. Sub-micron patterns were also successfully obtained using a 248 nm photomasker thanks to the addition of biosourced photoactivator, riboflavin. Patterns were then transferred by plasma etching into silica even for high resolution patterns.

Joint attention helps infants learn new words: event-related potential evidence.

PubMed

Hirotani, Masako; Stets, Manuela; Striano, Tricia; Friederici, Angela D

2009-04-22

This study investigated the role of joint attention in infants' word learning. Infants aged 18-21 months were taught new words in two social contexts, joint attention (eye contact, positive tone of voice) or non-joint attention (no eye contact, neutral tone of voice). Event-related potentials were measured as the infants saw objects either congruent or incongruent with the taught words. For both social contexts, an early negativity was observed for the congruent condition, reflecting a phonological-lexical priming effect between objects and the taught words. In addition, for the joint attention, the incongruent condition elicited a late, widely distributed negativity, attributed to semantic integration difficulties. Thus, social cues have an impact on how words are learned and represented in a child's mental lexicon.

Cardiovascular consequences of bed rest: effect on maximal oxygen uptake

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Convertino, V. A.

1997-01-01

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is reduced in healthy individuals confined to bed rest, suggesting it is independent of any disease state. The magnitude of reduction in VO2max is dependent on duration of bed rest and the initial level of aerobic fitness (VO2max), but it appears to be independent of age or gender. Bed rest induces an elevated maximal heart rate which, in turn, is associated with decreased cardiac vagal tone, increased sympathetic catecholamine secretion, and greater cardiac beta-receptor sensitivity. Despite the elevation in heart rate, VO2max is reduced primarily from decreased maximal stroke volume and cardiac output. An elevated ejection fraction during exercise following bed rest suggests that the lower stroke volume is not caused by ventricular dysfunction but is primarily the result of decreased venous return associated with lower circulating blood volume, reduced central venous pressure, and higher venous compliance in the lower extremities. VO2max, stroke volume, and cardiac output are further compromised by exercise in the upright posture. The contribution of hypovolemia to reduced cardiac output during exercise following bed rest is supported by the close relationship between the relative magnitude (% delta) and time course of change in blood volume and VO2max during bed rest, and also by the fact that retention of plasma volume is associated with maintenance of VO2max after bed rest. Arteriovenous oxygen difference during maximal exercise is not altered by bed rest, suggesting that peripheral mechanisms may not contribute significantly to the decreased VO2max. However reduction in baseline and maximal muscle blood flow, red blood cell volume, and capillarization in working muscles represent peripheral mechanisms that may contribute to limited oxygen delivery and, subsequently, lowered VO2max. Thus, alterations in cardiac and vascular functions induced by prolonged confinement to bed rest contribute to diminution of maximal oxygen uptake and reserve capacity to perform physical work.

TSH and prolactin responses to thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) and domperidone in patients with empty sella syndrome.

PubMed

Valensi, P; Combes, M E; Perret, G; Attali, J R

1996-05-01

The aim of this study was to investigate TSH and PRL response to TRH and domperidone, an antidopaminergic drug which does not cross the blood-brain barrier, in 16 patients with primary empty sella (PES) and either normal or elevated plasma PRL level and to compare it with the response observed in 8 patients with prolactinoma. In the patients with PES and hyperprolactinemia, the PRL response to TRH was significantly lower than in the controls and the patients with PES and normal PRL, which suggests there is impaired PRL synthesis and release in cases of PES with hyperprolactinemia. The TSH response to domperidone was significantly elevated in patients with PES and either normal or elevated PRL, as in patients with prolactinoma. The PRL response to domperidone was significantly reduced in patients with PES and hyperprolactinemia as in patients with prolactionoma. These results suggestthat in PES with prolactinoma the inhibiting dopaminergic tone is increased on the thyrotropic cells and reduced on the lactotropic cells in PES with elevated PRL and that some patients with PES might bear a microprolactinoma in the bottom of the sella which remained undetected by the CT scan.

Perceptual Improvement of Lexical Tones in Infants: Effects of Tone Language Experience

PubMed Central

Tsao, Feng-Ming

2017-01-01

To learn words in a tonal language, tone-language learners should not only develop better abilities for perceiving consonants and vowels, but also for lexical tones. The divergent trend of enhancing sensitivity to native phonetic contrasts and reduced sensitivity to non-native phonetic contrast is theoretically essential to evaluate effects of listening to an ambient language on speech perception development. The loss of sensitivity in discriminating lexical tones among non-tonal language-learning infants was apparent between 6 and 12 months of age, but only few studies examined trends of differentiating native lexical tones in infancy. The sensitivity in discriminating lexical tones among 6–8 and 10–12 month-old Mandarin-learning infants (n = 120) was tested in Experiment 1 using three lexical tone contrasts of Mandarin. Facilitation of linguistic experience was shown in the tonal contrast (Tone 1 vs. 3), but both age groups performed similar in the other two tonal contrasts (Tone 2 vs. 4; Tone 2 vs. 3). In Experiment 2, 6–8 and 10–12 month-old Mandarin-learning infants (n = 90) were tested with tonal contrasts that have pitch contours either similar to or inverse from lexical tones in Mandarin, and perceptual improvement was shown only in a tonal contrast with familiar pitch contours (i.e., Tone 1 vs. 3). In Experiment 3, 6–8 and 10–12 month-old English-learning infants (n = 40) were tested with Tone 1 vs. 3 contrast of Mandarin and showed an improvement in the perception of non-native lexical tones. This study reveals that tone-language learning infants develop more accurate representations of lexical tones around their first birthday, and the results of both tone and non-tone language-learning infants imply that the rate of development depends on listening experience and the acoustical salience of specific tone contrasts. PMID:28443053

Auditory stream segregation in monkey auditory cortex: effects of frequency separation, presentation rate, and tone duration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fishman, Yonatan I.; Arezzo, Joseph C.; Steinschneider, Mitchell

2004-09-01

Auditory stream segregation refers to the organization of sequential sounds into ``perceptual streams'' reflecting individual environmental sound sources. In the present study, sequences of alternating high and low tones, ``...ABAB...,'' similar to those used in psychoacoustic experiments on stream segregation, were presented to awake monkeys while neural activity was recorded in primary auditory cortex (A1). Tone frequency separation (ΔF), tone presentation rate (PR), and tone duration (TD) were systematically varied to examine whether neural responses correlate with effects of these variables on perceptual stream segregation. ``A'' tones were fixed at the best frequency of the recording site, while ``B'' tones were displaced in frequency from ``A'' tones by an amount=ΔF. As PR increased, ``B'' tone responses decreased in amplitude to a greater extent than ``A'' tone responses, yielding neural response patterns dominated by ``A'' tone responses occurring at half the alternation rate. Increasing TD facilitated the differential attenuation of ``B'' tone responses. These findings parallel psychoacoustic data and suggest a physiological model of stream segregation whereby increasing ΔF, PR, or TD enhances spatial differentiation of ``A'' tone and ``B'' tone responses along the tonotopic map in A1.

Effects of sensorineural hearing loss on temporal coding of harmonic and inharmonic tone complexes in the auditory nerve

PubMed Central

Kale, Sushrut; Micheyl, Christophe; Heinz, Michael G.

2013-01-01

Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) often show poorer thresholds for fundamental-frequency (F0) discrimination, and poorer discrimination between harmonic and frequency-shifted (inharmonic) complex tones, than normal-hearing (NH) listeners—especially when these tones contain resolved or partially resolved components. It has been suggested that these perceptual deficits reflect reduced access to temporal-fine-structure (TFS) information, and could be due to degraded phase-locking in the auditory nerve (AN) with SNHL. In the present study, TFS and temporal-envelope (ENV) cues in single AN-fiber responses to bandpass-filtered harmonic and inharmonic complex tones were measured in chinchillas with either normal hearing or noise-induced SNHL. The stimuli were comparable to those used in recent psychophysical studies of F0 and harmonic/inharmonic discrimination. As in those studies, the rank of the center component was manipulated to produce different resolvability conditions, different phase relationships (cosine and random phase) were tested, and background noise was present. Neural TFS and ENV cues were quantified using cross-correlation coefficients computed using shuffled cross-correlograms between neural responses to REF (harmonic) and TEST (F0- or frequency-shifted) stimuli. In animals with SNHL, AN-fiber tuning curves showed elevated thresholds, broadened tuning, best-frequency shifts, and downward shifts in the dominant TFS response component; however, no significant degradation in the ability of AN fibers to encode TFS or ENV cues was found. Consistent with optimal-observer analyses, the results indicate that TFS and ENV cues depended only on the relevant frequency shift in Hz and thus were not degraded because phase-locking remained intact. These results suggest that perceptual “TFS-processing” deficits do not simply reflect degraded phase-locking at the level of the AN. To the extent that performance in F0 and harmonic/inharmonic discrimination tasks depend on TFS cues, it is likely through a more complicated (sub-optimal) decoding mechanism, which may involve “spatiotemporal” (place-time) neural representations. PMID:23716215

Effectiveness of a Load-Imposing Device for Cyclic Stretching of Isolated Human Bronchi: A Validation Study

PubMed Central

Le Guen, Morgan; Naline, Emmanuel; Grassin-Delyle, Stanislas; Devillier, Philippe; Faisy, Christophe

2015-01-01

Background Mechanical ventilation may induce harmful effects in the airways of critically ill patients. Nevertheless, the effects of cyclic stretching caused by repetitive inflation-deflation of the bronchial compartment have not been well characterized in humans. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a load-imposing device for the cyclic stretching of human bronchi. Methods Intact bronchial segments were removed from 128 thoracic surgery patients. After preparation and equilibration in an organ bath, bronchi were stretched repetitively and cyclically with a motorized transducer. The peak force imposed on the bronchi was set to 80% of each individual maximum contraction in response to acetylcholine and the minimal force corresponded to the initial basal tone before stretching. A 1-min cycle (stretching for 15 sec, relaxing for 15 sec and resting for 30 sec) was applied over a time period ranging from 5 to 60 min. The device's performance level was assessed and the properties of the stretched bronchi were compared with those of paired, non-stretched bronchi. Results Despite the intrinsic capacities of the device, the targets of the tension adjustments remained variable for minimal tension (156–178%) while the peak force set point was unchanged (87–115%). In the stretched bronchi, a time-dependent rise in basal tone (P <.05 vs. non-stretched) was apparent after as little as 5 min of cyclic stretching. The stretch-induced rise in basal tone continued to increase (P <.01) after the stretching had ended. Only 60 min of cyclic stretching was associated with a significant (P <.05) increase in responsiveness to acetylcholine, relative to non-stretched bronchi. Conclusions Low-frequency, low-force, cyclic loading of human bronchi is associated with elevated basal tone and acetylcholine responsiveness. The present experimental model is likely to be a useful tool for future investigations of the bronchial response to repetitive stress during mechanical ventilation. PMID:26011598

What Can Lexical Tone Training Studies in Adults Tell Us about Tone Processing in Children?

PubMed Central

Antoniou, Mark; Chin, Jessica L. L.

2018-01-01

A growing number of studies on the acquisition of lexical tone by adult learners have revealed that factors such as language background, musical experience, cognitive abilities, and neuroanatomy all play a role in determining tone learning success. On the basis of these findings, it has been argued that the effectiveness of tone learning in adulthood depends on individual differences in these factors. However, it is not clear whether similar individual differences play an analogous role in tone learning in childhood. Indeed, relatively few studies have made comparisons between how adults and children learn lexical tones. Here, we review recent developments for tone learning in both adults and children. The review covers tone training in a range of contexts, including in naive listeners, in native speakers of other tone languages, in listeners with varying levels of musical experience, and in individuals with speech and hearing disorders. Finally, we discuss the parallels between adult and child tone learning, and provide recommendations concerning how findings in adult tone training can provide insights into tone learning for children by accommodating the needs of individual learners. PMID:29410639

Pitch processing of dynamic lexical tones in the auditory cortex is influenced by sensory and extrasensory processes

PubMed Central

Krishnan, Ananthanarayan; Gandour, Jackson T.; Suresh, Chandan H.

2015-01-01

The aim is to evaluate how language experience (Chinese, English) shapes processing of pitch contours as reflected in the amplitude of cortical pitch response components. Responses were elicited from three dynamic, curvilinear, nonspeech stimuli varying in pitch direction and location of peak acceleration: Mandarin lexical Tone2 (rising) and Tone4 (falling); and a flipped variant of Tone2, Tone2′ (nonnative). At temporal sites (T7/T8), Chinese Na-Pb response amplitude to Tones 2 & 4 was greater than English in the right hemisphere only; a rightward asymmetry for Tones 2 & 4 was restricted to the Chinese group. In common to both Fz-to-linked T7/T8 and T7/T8 electrode sites, the stimulus pattern (Tones 2 & 4 > Tone2′) was found in the Chinese group only. As reflected by Pb-Nb at Fz, Chinese amplitude was larger than English in response to Tones 2 & 4; and Tones 2 & 4 were larger than Tone2′; whereas for English, Tone2 was larger than Tone2′ and Tone4. At frontal electrode sites (F3/F4), regardless of component or hemisphere, Chinese responses were larger in amplitude than English across stimuli. For either group, responses to Tones 2 & 4 were larger than Tone2′. No hemispheric asymmetry was observed at the frontal electrode sites. These findings highlight that cortical pitch response components are differentially modulated by experience-dependent, temporally distinct but functionally overlapping weighting of sensory and extrasensory effects on pitch processing of lexical tones in the right temporal lobe and, more broadly, are consistent with a distributed hierarchical predictive coding process. PMID:25943576

Developmental change in tone perception in Mandarin monolingual, English monolingual, and Mandarin-English bilingual infants: Divergences between monolingual and bilingual learners.

PubMed

Singh, Leher; Fu, Charlene S L; Seet, Xian Hui; Tong, Ashley P Y; Wang, Joelle L; Best, Catherine T

2018-09-01

Most languages use lexical tone to discriminate the meanings of words. There has been recent interest in tracking the development of tone categories during infancy. These studies have focused largely on monolingual infants learning either a tone language or a non-tone language. It remains to be seen how bilingual infants learning one tone language (e.g., Mandarin) and one non-tone language (e.g., English) discriminate tones. Here, we examined infants' discrimination of two Mandarin tones pairs: one salient and one subtle. Discrimination was investigated in three groups: Mandarin-English bilinguals, English monolinguals, and Mandarin monolinguals at 6 months and 9 months of age in a cross-sectional design. Results demonstrated relatively strong Mandarin tone discrimination in Mandarin monolinguals, with salient tone discrimination at 6 months and both salient and subtle tone discrimination at 9 months. English monolinguals discriminated neither contrast at 6 months but discriminated the salient contrast at 9 months. Surprisingly, there was no evidence for tone discrimination in Mandarin-English bilingual infants. In a second experiment, 12- and 13-month-old Mandarin-English bilingual and English monolingual infants were tested to determine whether bilinguals would demonstrate tone sensitivity at a later age. Results revealed a lack of tone sensitivity at 12 or 13 months in bilingual infants, yet English monolingual infants were sensitive to both salient and subtle Mandarin tone contrasts at 12 or 13 months. Our findings provide evidence for age-related convergence in Mandarin tone discrimination in English and Mandarin monolingual infants and for a distinct pattern of tone discrimination in bilingual infants. Theoretical implications for phonetic category acquisition are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do You See the Signs? Evaluating Language, Branding, and Design in a Library Signage Audit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stempler, Amy F.; Polger, Mark Aaron

2013-01-01

Signage represents more than directions or policies; it is informational, promotional, and sets the tone of the environment. To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language. An efficient assessment of signage should include a complete inventory of existing signage, including an analysis of the types…

Colorism and Educational Outcomes of Asian Americans: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryabov, Igor

2016-01-01

Using a nationally representative longitudinal data set, the current study examines the link between colorism and educational attainment of Asian American young adults. Three levels of educational attainment are used as outcomes: high school diploma, some college and a Bachelor's degree or higher. Independent variables include skin tone, ethnic…

Representing the Hyphen in Action-Effect Associations: Automatic Acquisition and Bidirectional Retrieval of Action-Effect Intervals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dignath, David; Pfister, Roland; Eder, Andreas B.; Kiesel, Andrea; Kunde, Wilfried

2014-01-01

We examined whether a temporal interval between an action and its sensory effect is integrated in the cognitive action structure in a bidirectional fashion. In 3 experiments, participants first experienced that actions produced specific acoustic effects (high and low tones) that occurred temporally delayed after their actions. In a following test…

Memory for musical tones: the impact of tonality and the creation of false memories.

PubMed

Vuvan, Dominique T; Podolak, Olivia M; Schmuckler, Mark A

2014-01-01

Although the relation between tonality and musical memory has been fairly well-studied, less is known regarding the contribution of tonal-schematic expectancies to this relation. Three experiments investigated the influence of tonal expectancies on memory for single tones in a tonal melodic context. In the first experiment, listener responses indicated superior recognition of both expected and unexpected targets in a major tonal context than for moderately expected targets. Importantly, and in support of previous work on false memories, listener responses also revealed a higher false alarm rate for expected than unexpected targets. These results indicate roles for tonal schematic congruency as well as distinctiveness in memory for melodic tones. The second experiment utilized minor melodies, which weakened tonal expectancies since the minor tonality can be represented in three forms simultaneously. Finally, tonal expectancies were abolished entirely in the third experiment through the use of atonal melodies. Accordingly, the expectancy-based results observed in the first experiment were disrupted in the second experiment, and disappeared in the third experiment. These results are discussed in light of schema theory, musical expectancy, and classic memory work on the availability and distinctiveness heuristics.

An iconic approach to communicating musical concepts in interstellar messages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vakoch, Douglas A.

2010-12-01

Some characteristics of terrestrial music may be meaningful to extraterrestrial civilizations by virtue of the connection between acoustics and mathematics—both of which might be known by technologically advanced extraterrestrial intelligence. For example, a fundamental characteristic of terrestrial polyphonic music is found the number of tones used various scales, insofar as the number of tones represents a compromise between competing musical demands; the number of tones in a scale, however, also reflects some of the perceptual characteristics of the species developing that music. Thus, in the process of communicating something about the structure of terrestrial music through interstellar messages, additional information about human perceptual and cognitive processes can also be conveyed. This paper also discusses methods for sending signals that bear information through the form of the very frequencies in which the signals are transmitted. If the challenges of creating intelligible messages are greater than often thought, the advantage of reduced conventionality of encoding the message by using an iconic format of this sort may be of significant value. Such an approach would allow the incremental introduction of musical concepts, somewhat akin to the step-by-step tutorials in mathematics and logic that form the basis of Freudenthal's Lincos.

Annoyance caused by advanced turboprop aircraft flyover noise: Counter-rotating-propeller configuration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, David A.

1990-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to quantify the annoyance of people to flyover noise of advanced turboprop aircraft with counter rotating propellers. The first experiment examined configurations having an equal number of blades on each rotor and the second experiment examined configurations having an unequal number of blades on each rotor. The objectives were to determine the effects on annoyance of various tonal characteristics, and to compare annoyance to advanced turboprops with annoyance to conventional turboprops and turbofans. A computer was used to synthesize realistic, time-varying simulations of advanced turboprop aircraft takeoff noise. The simulations represented different combinations fundamental frequency and tone-to-broadband noise ratio. Also included in each experiment were recordings of 10 conventional turboprop and turbofan takeoffs. Each noise was presented at three sound pressure levels in an anechoic chamber. In each experiment, 64 subjects judged the annoyance of each noise stimulus. Analyses indicated that annoyance was significantly affected by the interaction of fundamental frequency with tone-to-broadband noise ratio. No significant differences in annoyance between the advanced turboprop aircraft and the conventional turbofans were found. The use of a duration correction and a modified tone correction improved the annoyance prediction for the stimuli.

Memory for musical tones: the impact of tonality and the creation of false memories

PubMed Central

Vuvan, Dominique T.; Podolak, Olivia M.; Schmuckler, Mark A.

2014-01-01

Although the relation between tonality and musical memory has been fairly well-studied, less is known regarding the contribution of tonal-schematic expectancies to this relation. Three experiments investigated the influence of tonal expectancies on memory for single tones in a tonal melodic context. In the first experiment, listener responses indicated superior recognition of both expected and unexpected targets in a major tonal context than for moderately expected targets. Importantly, and in support of previous work on false memories, listener responses also revealed a higher false alarm rate for expected than unexpected targets. These results indicate roles for tonal schematic congruency as well as distinctiveness in memory for melodic tones. The second experiment utilized minor melodies, which weakened tonal expectancies since the minor tonality can be represented in three forms simultaneously. Finally, tonal expectancies were abolished entirely in the third experiment through the use of atonal melodies. Accordingly, the expectancy-based results observed in the first experiment were disrupted in the second experiment, and disappeared in the third experiment. These results are discussed in light of schema theory, musical expectancy, and classic memory work on the availability and distinctiveness heuristics. PMID:24971071

a Comparative Study of Alto Saxophone Reeds Through Spectral and Subjective Analyses.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henderson, Caroline Blythe

The purpose of this study was to analyze six brands of cane reeds and five brands of synthetic reeds to determine the differences in tone quality produced by each. Spectral analysis was used to determine the individual reed which conformed most closely to the average profile of each brand. A panel of seven saxophone performers then presented their opinions of the each reed's tone quality upon hearing a live performance of an excerpt from Eugene Bozza's Aria for alto saxophone and piano performed on the reeds most representative of each brand. The evaluation form used by the judges included ten sets of bipolar adjectives: good-bad, harmonious-dissonant, clean-dirty, light-dark, pleasurable-painful, beautiful-ugly, strong-weak, complex -simple, masculine-feminine, and interesting-boring. The results indicated that the primary factors influencing the tone quality of a given reed were the strength of the overtones present regardless of their order and the dominance of either the fundamental or the first overtone. Although professional musicians normally hand-select their reeds for performance, this research based on both spectral and subjective analyses provides clear evidence for both musicians and music educators to refine and improve their reed selection process.

Parturition in horses is dominated by parasympathetic activity of the autonomous nervous system.

PubMed

Nagel, Christina; Erber, Regina; Ille, Natascha; von Lewinski, Mareike; Aurich, Jörg; Möstl, Erich; Aurich, Christine

2014-07-01

External and internal stressors prolong parturition in different species. At parturition, sympathoadrenal activation should be avoided because an increased sympathetic tone may cause uterine atonia via β2-receptors. We hypothesized that at physiological parturition, horses are under parasympathetic dominance, and stress-response mechanisms are not activated during delivery of the foal. To evaluate stress responses, heart rate, heart rate variability, catecholamines, and cortisol were analyzed in mares (n = 17) throughout foaling. Heart rate decreased from 2 hours before (51 ± 1 beats/minute) to 2 hours after delivery (41 ± 2 beats/minute; P < 0.05). Heart rate variability variables, standard deviation of the beat-to-beat interval, and root mean square of successive beat-to-beat differences, changed over time (P < 0.05) with the highest values within 15 minutes after delivery. The number of mares with atrioventricular blocks and the number of atrioventricular blocks per mare increased over time (P < 0.01) and were significantly elevated from 15 minutes before to 45 minutes after birth of the foal. Salivary cortisol concentrations increased to a maximum at 30 minutes after delivery (25.0 ± 3.4 ng/mL; P < 0.01). Plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations showed significant fluctuations from rupture of the allantochorion to expulsion of the fetal membranes (P < 0.01) but were not markedly elevated at any time. In conclusion, mares give birth under high parasympathetic tone. Cortisol release during and after foaling is most likely part of the endocrine pathways regulating parturition and not a labor-associated stress response. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autonomic contribution to the blood pressure and heart rate variability changes in early experimental hyperthyroidism.

PubMed

Safa-Tisseront, V; Ponchon, P; Laude, D; Elghozi, J L

1998-12-01

To study the interaction between autonomic nervous activity and thyroid hormones in the control of heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP). Thyrotoxicosis was produced by injections of L-thyroxine (0.5 mg/kg/day for five days). Blockers were atropine (0.5 mg/kg), atenolol (1 mg/kg) or prazosin (1 mg/kg). Eight animals were studied in each group. Spectral analyses was performed using continuous BP time series obtained in conscious rats. Thyroxine treatment was sufficient to induce a significant degree of tachycardia (423+/-6 vs 353+/-4 bpm, P < 0.001, unpaired Student's t test), systolic BP elevation (142+/-3 vs 127+/-2 mmHg, P < 0.001) and cardiac hypertrophy (1.165+/-0.017 vs 1.006+/-0.012 g, P < 0.001). The intrinsic HR was markedly increased after treatment with thyroxine (497+/-16 vs 373+/-10 bpm, P < 0.05). Vagal tone was positively linearly related to intrinsic HR (r = 0.84, P< 0.01). Atenolol neither modified HR nor BP variability in rats with hyperthyroidism. The thyrotoxicosis was associated with a reduction of the 0.4 Hz component of BP variability (modulus 1.10+/-0.07 vs 1.41+/-0.06 mmHg, P < 0.01). Prazosin was without effect on this 0.4 Hz component in hyperthyroid animals. These data show a functional diminution of the vascular and cardiac sympathetic tone in early experimental hyperthyroidism. The marked rise in the intrinsic HR could be the main determinant of tachycardia. The BP elevation may reflexly induce vagal activation and sympathetic (vascular and cardiac) inhibition.

The Role of Tone Height, Melodic Contour, and Tone Chroma in Melody Recognition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massaro, Dominic W.; And Others

1980-01-01

Relationships among tone height, melodic contour, tone chroma, and recognition of recently learned melodies were investigated. Results replicated previous studies using familiar folk songs, providing evidence that melodic contour, tone chroma, and tone height contribute to recognition of both highly familiar and recently learned melodies.…

The effect of reinforcement differences on choice and response distribution during stimulus compounding.

PubMed

Bushnell, M C; Weiss, S J

1977-03-01

In Experiments I and II, rats were trained to respond on one lever during light and another during tone. The absence of tone and light controlled response cessation. In the multiple schedule of Experiment I, all reinforcements were received for responding in tone or light; in the chain schedule of Experiment II, all reinforcements were received in no tone + no light for not responding. Experiment I subjects, for which tone and light were associated with response and reinforcement increase, responded significantly more to tone-plus-light than to tone or light alone (additive summation). Experiment II subjects, for which tone and light were associated with response increase and reinforcement decrease, responded comparably to tone, light, and tone + light. Thus, additive summation was observed when stimulus-response and stimulus-reinforcer associations in tone and light were both positive, but not when they were conflicting. All subjects in both experiments responded predominantly on the light-correlated lever during tone + light, even when light intensity was reduced in testing. Furthermore, when a light was presented to a subject engaged in tone-associated responding, all subjects immediately switched the locus of responding to the light-correlated lever. No change in locus occurred when a tone was presented to a subject engaged in light-associated responding, irrespective of the stimulus-reinforcer association conditioned to tone. The light-lever preference in tone + light indicates that the heightened responding observed in Experiment I was not the summation of tone-associated behavior with light-associated behavior. Rather, it appears to be the result of a facilitation of one operant (light-associated responding) by the reinforcement-associated cue for the other.

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning.

PubMed

Cooper, Angela; Wang, Yue

2012-06-01

Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

Selective attention and the auditory vertex potential. 2: Effects of signal intensity and masking noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwent, V. L.; Hillyard, S. A.; Galambos, R.

1975-01-01

A randomized sequence of tone bursts was delivered to subjects at short inter-stimulus intervals with the tones originating from one of three spatially and frequency specific channels. The subject's task was to count the tones in one of the three channels at a time, ignoring the other two, and press a button after each tenth tone. In different conditions, tones were given at high and low intensities and with or without a background white noise to mask the tones. The N sub 1 component of the auditory vertex potential was found to be larger in response to attended channel tones in relation to unattended tones. This selective enhancement of N sub 1 was minimal for loud tones presented without noise and increased markedly for the lower tone intensity and in noise added conditions.

Effects of Lexical Tone Contour on Mandarin Sentence Intelligibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Fei; Wong, Lena L. N.; Hu, Yi

2014-01-01

Purpose: This study examined the effects of lexical tone contour on the intelligibility of Mandarin sentences in quiet and in noise. Method: A text-to-speech synthesis engine was used to synthesize Mandarin sentences with each word carrying the original lexical tone, flat tone, or a tone randomly selected from the 4 Mandarin lexical tones. The…

Factors Influencing Sensitivity to Lexical Tone in an Artificial Language: Implications for Second Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L.; Lancaster, Alia; Ladd, D. Robert; Dediu, Dan; Christiansen, Morten H.

2015-01-01

This study examined whether musical training, ethnicity, and experience with a natural tone language influenced sensitivity to tone while listening to an artificial tone language. The language was designed with three tones, modeled after level-tone African languages. Participants listened to a 15-min random concatenation of six 3-syllable words.…

[Dichotic perception of Mandarin third tone by Mexican Chinese learners].

PubMed

Wang, Hongbin

2014-05-01

To investigate the relationship between the advantage ear (cerebral hemisphere) of Spanish-speaking Mexican learners and the third Chinese tone. Third tone Chinese vowel syllables were used as experimental materials with dichotic listening technology to test the Spanish-speaking Mexican Chinese learners (20-32 years old) who studied Chinese about 20 h. In terms of error rates to identify the third Chinese tone, the Spanish-speaking Mexican Chinese learners's reaction to the third tone suggested that their left ears were the advantageous ear (the right cerebral hemisphere) (Z=-2.091, P=0.036). The verbal information of tones influenced the perception of Mexican Chinese learners' mandarin tones. In the process of learning mandarin tones, Mexican Chinese learners gradually formed the category of tones.

Cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin (orexin) levels are elevated by play but are not raised by exercise and its associated heart rate, blood pressure, respiration or body temperature changes.

PubMed

Wu, M-F; Nienhuis, R; Maidment, N; Lam, H A; Siegel, J M

2011-11-07

Hypocretin (Hcrt) has been implicated in the control of motor activity and in respiration and cardiovascular changes. Loss of Hcrt in narcolepsy is linked to sleepiness and to cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle tone which is triggered by sudden strong emotions. In the current study we have compared the effects of treadmill running, to yard play on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Hcrt level in normal dogs. We find that treadmill locomotion, at a wide range of speeds, does not increase Hcrt level beyond baseline, whereas yard play produces a substantial increase in Hcrt, even though both activities produce comparable increases in heart rate, respiration and body temperature. We conclude that motor and cardiovascular changes are not sufficient to elevate CSF levels of Hcrt and we hypothesize that the emotional aspects of yard play account for the observed increase in Hcrt.

Heart-Rate Variability—More than Heart Beats?

PubMed Central

Ernst, Gernot

2017-01-01

Heart-rate variability (HRV) is frequently introduced as mirroring imbalances within the autonomous nerve system. Many investigations are based on the paradigm that increased sympathetic tone is associated with decreased parasympathetic tone and vice versa. But HRV is probably more than an indicator for probable disturbances in the autonomous system. Some perturbations trigger not reciprocal, but parallel changes of vagal and sympathetic nerve activity. HRV has also been considered as a surrogate parameter of the complex interaction between brain and cardiovascular system. Systems biology is an inter-disciplinary field of study focusing on complex interactions within biological systems like the cardiovascular system, with the help of computational models and time series analysis, beyond others. Time series are considered surrogates of the particular system, reflecting robustness or fragility. Increased variability is usually seen as associated with a good health condition, whereas lowered variability might signify pathological changes. This might explain why lower HRV parameters were related to decreased life expectancy in several studies. Newer integrating theories have been proposed. According to them, HRV reflects as much the state of the heart as the state of the brain. The polyvagal theory suggests that the physiological state dictates the range of behavior and psychological experience. Stressful events perpetuate the rhythms of autonomic states, and subsequently, behaviors. Reduced variability will according to this theory not only be a surrogate but represent a fundamental homeostasis mechanism in a pathological state. The neurovisceral integration model proposes that cardiac vagal tone, described in HRV beyond others as HF-index, can mirror the functional balance of the neural networks implicated in emotion–cognition interactions. Both recent models represent a more holistic approach to understanding the significance of HRV. PMID:28955705

Heart-Rate Variability-More than Heart Beats?

PubMed

Ernst, Gernot

2017-01-01

Heart-rate variability (HRV) is frequently introduced as mirroring imbalances within the autonomous nerve system. Many investigations are based on the paradigm that increased sympathetic tone is associated with decreased parasympathetic tone and vice versa . But HRV is probably more than an indicator for probable disturbances in the autonomous system. Some perturbations trigger not reciprocal, but parallel changes of vagal and sympathetic nerve activity. HRV has also been considered as a surrogate parameter of the complex interaction between brain and cardiovascular system. Systems biology is an inter-disciplinary field of study focusing on complex interactions within biological systems like the cardiovascular system, with the help of computational models and time series analysis, beyond others. Time series are considered surrogates of the particular system, reflecting robustness or fragility. Increased variability is usually seen as associated with a good health condition, whereas lowered variability might signify pathological changes. This might explain why lower HRV parameters were related to decreased life expectancy in several studies. Newer integrating theories have been proposed. According to them, HRV reflects as much the state of the heart as the state of the brain. The polyvagal theory suggests that the physiological state dictates the range of behavior and psychological experience. Stressful events perpetuate the rhythms of autonomic states, and subsequently, behaviors. Reduced variability will according to this theory not only be a surrogate but represent a fundamental homeostasis mechanism in a pathological state. The neurovisceral integration model proposes that cardiac vagal tone, described in HRV beyond others as HF-index, can mirror the functional balance of the neural networks implicated in emotion-cognition interactions. Both recent models represent a more holistic approach to understanding the significance of HRV.

Medical students' creative projects on a third year pediatrics clerkship: a qualitative analysis of patient-centeredness and emotional connection.

PubMed

Shapiro, Johanna; Ortiz, Diane; Ree, You Ye; Sarwar, Minha

2016-03-16

Increasingly, medical educators are incorporating reflective writing and original creative work into educational practices with the goals of stimulating student self-awareness, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and comfort with ambiguity and uncertainty. This study investigated students' creative projects to assess the extent to which they adopted a patient/relationship-centered, emotionally connected position toward patients and families. Over a 10 year period, students on a required third year pediatrics clerkship individually or in groups completed either a reflection or an education project using a creative medium. 520 projects (representing 595 students, 74.7 % of total eligible students) were qualitatively analyzed according to various thematic and emotion-based dimensions. The majority of projects were personal narrative essays and poetry. The largest number of project themes related to the importance of patient/relationship-centered medicine with patients. The next largest number of projects focused on health education of parents, patients, or classmates. In telling their stories, students were more likely to use a personal voice representing either their or the patient's perspective than an objective, impersonal one. In terms of emotional tone, projects were more likely to be serious than humorous. The largest number of students' emotions expressed an empathic tone. Students identified a large number and wide range of both negative and positive feelings in themselves and their patients. The majority of student emotions were positive, while the majority of patient and family emotions were negative. Students' preference for patient-centered, relational themes, as well as their tendency to favor the first voice, empathic tone, and willingness to express a range of positive and negative emotions in presenting their projects, suggests that they valued emotional connection with patients and families during the pediatrics clerkship experience.

Albuquerque, NM, USA

NASA Image and Video Library

1991-06-14

STS040-614-061 (5-14 June 1991) --- Albuquerque, New Mexico is perched on the edge of the Rio Grande floodplain, which crosses the photograph from upper left to center lower right. The reddish-brown surface of the Albuquerque Basin, a fault-bounded structural basin filled by alluvial fan and lake-bed sediments, is broken by an irregular light-toned rim River along both the Rio Grande and Rio Puerco (lower left). The rim marks the erosional edge of an ancient caliche soil that formed more than a half-million years ago, before the Rio Grande integrated its drainage from basin to basin. The upper right portion of the photograph is dominated by dark tones, representing pinyon/juniper and other timber growing on very old rocks of the Sandia Mountains. Interstate 40 can be seen passing through Sandia Pass which cuts the mountain mass.

A Investigation of the Verbal Description of Trombone Tone Quality with Respect to Selected Attributes of Sound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stroeher, Michael Steven

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical elements which experienced trombonists associate with selected descriptors in characterizing the tone quality of that instrument. Stimuli sampled from live trombone tones and synthesized into musical phrases represented 17 variations in (1) presence/absence of attack transient, (2) rise time, (3) duration, (4) number of harmonics, (5) upper limit of harmonicity, (6) spectral envelope shape, and (7) frequency. A vocabulary of 20 adjectives appropriate for describing trombone tone quality was established by a postal survey of 49 college trombone instructors. A pretest was presented to 28 University of North Texas trombone students, who rated the 17 stimuli in terms of the 20 adjectives on a Likert-type scale with reliability estimates of.8997 to.9439 (coefficient alpha). The pretest established the lack of significance of the attack transient in subjects' descriptions. Factor analysis of responses determined similarities in word usages and allowed the number of descriptors to be reduced to eight and the number of sound stimuli to nine for the final investigation. Subjects of the final study consisted of 161 trombonists at universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan and North Carolina, who rated the nine stimuli in terms of the eight chosen adjectives on Likert-type scales, with an overall reliability estimate of.7121 (coefficient alpha). Although the low reliability indicated some lack of agreement in descriptor usage, multiple regression analysis established relationships among subjects' use of descriptors and physical attributes of the stimuli. Subjects' judgements of bright were associated with tones of higher frequency; centered, good, dark and warm with faster rise time, longer duration and relatively fewer harmonics; pinched with a high number of harmonics and slower rise time; fuzzy with slow rise time and the presence of high-frequency inharmonic noise. Subjects did not use the word full with any degree of consistency.

Myogenic tone is impaired at low arterial pressure in mice deficient in the low-voltage-activated CaV 3.1 T-type Ca(2+) channel.

PubMed

Björling, K; Morita, H; Olsen, M F; Prodan, A; Hansen, P B; Lory, P; Holstein-Rathlou, N-H; Jensen, L J

2013-04-01

Using mice deficient in the CaV 3.1 T-type Ca(2+) channel, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the molecular identity of non-L-type channels involved in vascular tone regulation in mesenteric arteries and arterioles. We used immunofluorescence microscopy to localize CaV 3.1 channels, patch clamp electrophysiology to test the effects of a putative T-type channel blocker NNC 55-0396 on whole-cell Ca(2+) currents, pressure myography and Ca(2+) imaging to test diameter and Ca(2+) responses of the applied vasoconstrictors, and Q-PCR to check mRNA expression levels of several Ca(2+) handling proteins in wild-type and CaV 3.1(-/-) mice. Our data indicated that CaV 3.1 channels are important for the maintenance of myogenic tone at low pressures (40-80 mm Hg), whereas they are not involved in high-voltage-activated Ca(2+) currents, Ca(2+) entry or vasoconstriction to high KCl in mesenteric arteries and arterioles. Furthermore, we show that NNC 55-0396 is not a specific T-type channel inhibitor, as it potently blocks L-type and non-L-type high-voltage-activated Ca(2+) currents in mouse mesenteric vascular smooth muscle cell. Our data using mice deficient in the CaV 3.1 T-type channel represent new evidence for the involvement of non-L-type channels in arteriolar tone regulation. We showed that CaV 3.1 channels are important for the myogenic tone at low arterial pressure, which is potentially relevant under resting conditions in vivo. Moreover, CaV 3.1 channels are not involved in Ca(2+) entry and vasoconstriction to large depolarization with, for example, high KCl. Finally, we caution against using NNC 55-0396 as a specific T-type channel blocker in native cells expressing high-voltage-activated Ca(2+) channels. Acta Physiologica © 2013 Scandinavian Physiological Society.

Perception of Mandarin Chinese Tone 2/Tone 3 and the Role of Creaky Voice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cao, Rui

2012-01-01

Research has shown that lexical tones, a suprasegmental feature, are processed by native speakers as linguistic elements just like other segmental information. Among the four tones of Mandarin Chinese, in particular, Tone 2 and Tone 3 are very similar in their pitch contour shapes and thus can be difficult to distinguish in native and nonnative…

The Role of Amplitude Envelope in Lexical Tone Perception: Evidence from Cantonese Lexical Tone Discrimination in Adults with Normal Hearing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Yining Victor

2012-01-01

Previously published studies on the role of amplitude envelope in lexical tone perception focused on Mandarin only. Amplitude envelope was found to co-vary with fundamental frequency in Mandarin lexical tones, and amplitude envelope alone could cue tone perception in Mandarin which uses primarily tone contour for phonemic tonal contrasts. The…

Effect of intonation on cantonese lexical tones.

PubMed

Ma, Joan K-Y; Ciocca, Valter; Whitehill, Tara L

2006-12-01

In tonal languages, there are potential conflicts between the FO-based changes due to the coexistence of intonation and lexical tones. In the present study, the interaction of tone and intonation in Cantonese was examined using acoustic and perceptual analyses. The acoustic patterns of tones at the initial, medial, and final positions of questions and statements were measured. Results showed that intonation affects both the FO level and contour, while the duration of the six tones varied as a function of positions within intonation contexts. All six tones at the final position of questions showed rising FO contour, regardless of their canonical form. Listeners were overall more accurate in the identification of tones presented within the original carrier than of the same tones in isolation. However, a large proportion of tones 33, 21, 23, and 22 at the final position of questions were misperceived as tone 25 both within the original carrier and as isolated words. These results suggest that although the intonation context provided cues for correct tone identification, the intonation-induced changes in FO contour cannot always be perceptually compensated for, resulting in some erroneous perception of the identity of Cantonese tone.

Modification of persistent responses in medial prefrontal cortex during learning in trace eyeblink conditioning

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Persistent spiking in response to a discrete stimulus is considered to reflect the active maintenance of a memory for that stimulus until a behavioral response is made. This response pattern has been reported in learning paradigms that impose a temporal gap between stimulus presentation and behavioral response, including trace eyeblink conditioning. However, it is unknown whether persistent responses are acquired as a function of learning or simply represent an already existing category of response type. This fundamental question was addressed by recording single-unit activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of rabbits during the initial learning phase of trace eyeblink conditioning. Persistent responses to the tone conditioned stimulus were observed in the mPFC during the very first training sessions. Further analysis revealed that most cells with persistent responses showed this pattern during the very first training trial, before animals had experienced paired training. However, persistent cells showed reliable decreases in response magnitude over the first training session, which were not observed on the second day of training or for sessions in which learning criterion was met. This modification of response magnitude was specific to persistent responses and was not observed for cells showing phasic tone-evoked responses. The data suggest that persistent responses to discrete stimuli do not require learning but that the ongoing robustness of such responses over the course of training is modified as a result of experience. Putative mechanisms for this modification are discussed, including changes in cellular or network properties, neuromodulatory tone, and/or the synaptic efficacy of tone-associated inputs. PMID:25080570

Enhanced endocannabinoid tone as a potential target of pharmacotherapy.

PubMed

Toczek, Marek; Malinowska, Barbara

2018-07-01

The endocannabinoid system is up-regulated in numerous pathophysiological states such as inflammatory, neurodegenerative, gastrointestinal, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, pain, and cancer. It has been suggested that this phenomenon primarily serves an autoprotective role in inhibiting disease progression and/or diminishing signs and symptoms. Accordingly, enhancement of endogenous endocannabinoid tone by inhibition of endocannabinoid degradation represents a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of many diseases. Importantly, this allows for the avoidance of unwanted psychotropic side effects that accompany exogenously administered cannabinoids. The effects of endocannabinoid metabolic pathway modulation are complex, as endocannabinoids can exert their actions directly or via numerous metabolites. The two main strategies for blocking endocannabinoid degradation are inhibition of endocannabinoid-degrading enzymes and inhibition of endocannabinoid cellular uptake. To date, the most investigated compounds are inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), an enzyme that degrades the endocannabinoid anandamide. However, application of FAAH inhibitors (and consequently other endocannabinoid degradation inhibitors) in medicine became questionable due to a lack of therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials and serious adverse effects evoked by one specific compound. In this paper, we discuss multiple pathways of endocannabinoid metabolism, changes in endocannabinoid levels across numerous human diseases and corresponding experimental models, pharmacological strategies for enhancing endocannabinoid tone and potential therapeutic applications including multi-target drugs with additional targets outside of the endocannabinoid system (cyclooxygenase-2, cholinesterase, TRPV1, and PGF 2α -EA receptors), and currently used medicines or medicinal herbs that additionally enhance endocannabinoid levels. Ultimately, further clinical and preclinical studies are warranted to develop medicines for enhancing endocannabinoid tone. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recognition Alters the Spatial Pattern of fMRI Activation in Early Retinotopic Cortex

PubMed Central

Vul, E.; Kanwisher, N.

2010-01-01

Early retinotopic cortex has traditionally been viewed as containing a veridical representation of the low-level properties of the image, not imbued by high-level interpretation and meaning. Yet several recent results indicate that neural representations in early retinotopic cortex reflect not just the sensory properties of the image, but also the perceived size and brightness of image regions. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging pattern analyses to ask whether the representation of an object in early retinotopic cortex changes when the object is recognized compared with when the same stimulus is presented but not recognized. Our data confirmed this hypothesis: the pattern of response in early retinotopic visual cortex to a two-tone “Mooney” image of an object was more similar to the response to the full grayscale photo version of the same image when observers knew what the two-tone image represented than when they did not. Further, in a second experiment, high-level interpretations actually overrode bottom-up stimulus information, such that the pattern of response in early retinotopic cortex to an identified two-tone image was more similar to the response to the photographic version of that stimulus than it was to the response to the identical two-tone image when it was not identified. Our findings are consistent with prior results indicating that perceived size and brightness affect representations in early retinotopic visual cortex and, further, show that even higher-level information—knowledge of object identity—also affects the representation of an object in early retinotopic cortex. PMID:20071627

Long-latency auditory evoked potentials with verbal and nonverbal stimuli.

PubMed

Oppitz, Sheila Jacques; Didoné, Dayane Domeneghini; Silva, Débora Durigon da; Gois, Marjana; Folgearini, Jordana; Ferreira, Geise Corrêa; Garcia, Michele Vargas

2015-01-01

Long-latency auditory evoked potentials represent the cortical activity related to attention, memory, and auditory discrimination skills. Acoustic signal processing occurs differently between verbal and nonverbal stimuli, influencing the latency and amplitude patterns. To describe the latencies of the cortical potentials P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3, as well as P3 amplitude, with different speech stimuli and tone bursts, and to classify them in the presence and absence of these data. A total of 30 subjects with normal hearing were assessed, aged 18-32 years old, matched by gender. Nonverbal stimuli were used (tone burst; 1000Hz - frequent and 4000Hz - rare); and verbal (/ba/ - frequent; /ga/, /da/, and /di/ - rare). Considering the component N2 for tone burst, the lowest latency found was 217.45ms for the BA/DI stimulus; the highest latency found was 256.5ms. For the P3 component, the shortest latency with tone burst stimuli was 298.7 with BA/GA stimuli, the highest, was 340ms. For the P3 amplitude, there was no statistically significant difference among the different stimuli. For latencies of components P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, there were no statistical differences among them, regardless of the stimuli used. There was a difference in the latency of potentials N2 and P3 among the stimuli employed but no difference was observed for the P3 amplitude. Copyright © 2015 Associação Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia e Cirurgia Cérvico-Facial. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Teaching tone and intonation with the Prosody Workstation using schematic versus veridical contours

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, George D.; Eulenberg, John B.

2004-05-01

Prosodic features of speech (e.g., intonation and rhythm) are often challenging for adults to learn. Most computerized teaching tools, developed to help learners mimic model prosodic patterns, display lines representing the veridical (actual) acoustic fundamental frequency and intensity of the model speech. However, a veridical display may not be optimal for this task. Instead, stereotypical representations (e.g., simplified level or slanting lines) may help by reducing the amount of potentially distracting information. The Prosody Workstation (PW) permits the prosodic contours of both models and users' responses to be displayed using either veridical or stereotypical contours. Users are informed by both visual displays and scores representing the degree of match of their utterance to the model. American English-speaking undergraduates are being studied learning the tone contours and rhythm of Chinese and Hausa utterances ranging in length from two to six syllables. Data include (a) accuracy of mimicking of the models' prosodic contours, measured by the PW; (b) quality of tonal and rhythmic production, judged by native speaker listeners; and (c) learners' perceptions of the ease of the task, measured by a questionnaire at the end of each session.

Tone of voice guides word learning in informative referential contexts.

PubMed

Reinisch, Eva; Jesse, Alexandra; Nygaard, Lynne C

2013-06-01

Listeners infer which object in a visual scene a speaker refers to from the systematic variation of the speaker's tone of voice (ToV). We examined whether ToV also guides word learning. During exposure, participants heard novel adjectives (e.g., "daxen") spoken with a ToV representing hot, cold, strong, weak, big, or small while viewing picture pairs representing the meaning of the adjective and its antonym (e.g., elephant-ant for big-small). Eye fixations were recorded to monitor referent detection and learning. During test, participants heard the adjectives spoken with a neutral ToV, while selecting referents from familiar and unfamiliar picture pairs. Participants were able to learn the adjectives' meanings, and, even in the absence of informative ToV, generalize them to new referents. A second experiment addressed whether ToV provides sufficient information to infer the adjectival meaning or needs to operate within a referential context providing information about the relevant semantic dimension. Participants who saw printed versions of the novel words during exposure performed at chance during test. ToV, in conjunction with the referential context, thus serves as a cue to word meaning. ToV establishes relations between labels and referents for listeners to exploit in word learning.

Prenatal exposure to valproic acid disturbs the enkephalinergic system functioning, basal hedonic tone, and emotional responses in an animal model of autism.

PubMed

Schneider, Tomasz; Ziòłkowska, Barbara; Gieryk, Agnieszka; Tyminska, Anna; Przewłocki, Ryszard

2007-09-01

It has been suggested that behavioral aberrations observed in autism could be the result of dysfunction of the neuroregulatory role performed by the endogenous opioid peptides. Many of those aberrations have been recently modeled in rats exposed to valproic acid (VPA) on the 12th day of gestation (VPA rats). The aim of the present study was to elucidate functioning of the enkephalinergic system, one of the endogenous opioid peptide systems strongly involved in emotional responses, in VPA rats using both biochemical and behavioral methods. In situ hybridization was used to measure proenkephalin mRNA expression in adult VPA rats' central nucleus of the amygdala, the dorsal striatum, and the nucleus accumbens. Additional groups of animals were examined in a conditioned place aversion to naloxone, the elevated plus maze, and object recognition tests to assess their basal hedonic tone, anxiety, learning and memory, respectively. Prenatal exposure to VPA decreased proenkephalin mRNA expression in the dorsal striatum and the nucleus accumbens but not in the central nucleus of the amygdala. It also increased anxiety and attenuated conditioned place aversion to naloxone but had no impact on learning and memory. The present results suggest that prenatal exposure to VPA may lead to the decreased activity of the striatal enkephalinergic system and in consequence to increased anxiety and disregulated basal hedonic tone observed in VPA rats. Presented results are discussed in light of interactions between enkephalinergic, GABAergic, and dopaminergic systems in the striatum and mesolimbic areas of the brain.

GPER modulates tone and coronary vascular reactivity in male and female rats.

PubMed

Debortoli, Angelina Rafaela; Rouver, Wender do Nascimento; Delgado, Nathalie Tristão Banhos; Mengal, Vinicius; Claudio, Erick Roberto Gonçalves; Pernomian, Laena; Bendhack, Lusiane Maria; Moysés, Margareth Ribeiro; Santos, Roger Lyrio Dos

2017-08-01

Compared with age-matched men, premenopausal women are largely protected from coronary artery disease, a difference that is lost after menopause. The effects of oestrogens are mediated by the activation of nuclear receptors (ERα and ERβ) and by the G protein-coupled oestrogen receptor (GPER). This study aims to evaluate the potential role of GPER in coronary circulation in female and male rats. The baseline coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) and the concentration-response curve with a GPER agonist (G-1) were evaluated in isolated hearts before and after the blockade of GPER. GPER, superoxide dismutase (SOD-2), catalase and gp91phox protein expression were assessed by Western blotting. Superoxide production was evaluated ' in situ ' via dihydroethidium fluorescence (DHE). GPER blockade significantly increased the CPP in both groups, demonstrating the modulation of coronary tone by GPER. G-1 causes relaxation of the coronary bed in a concentration-dependent manner and was significantly higher in female rats. No differences were detected in GPER, SOD-2 and catalase protein expression. However, gp91phox expression and DHE fluorescence were higher in male rats, indicating elevated superoxide production. Therefore, GPER plays an important role in modulating coronary tone and reactivity in female and male rats. The observed differences in vascular reactivity may be related to the higher superoxide production in male rats. These findings help to elucidate the role of GPER-modulating coronary circulation, providing new information to develop a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of coronary heart disease. © 2017 Society for Endocrinology.

Fluoxetine disrupts motivation and GABAergic signaling in adolescent female hamsters.

PubMed

Shannonhouse, John L; DuBois, Dustin W; Fincher, Annette S; Vela, Alejandra M; Henry, Morgan M; Wellman, Paul J; Frye, Gerald D; Morgan, Caurnel

2016-08-01

Initial antidepressant treatment can paradoxically worsen symptoms in depressed adolescents by undetermined mechanisms. Interestingly, antidepressants modulate GABAA receptors, which mediate paradoxical effects of other therapeutic drugs, particularly in females. Although the neuroanatomic site of action for this paradox is unknown, elevated GABAA receptor signaling in the nucleus accumbens can disrupt motivation. We assessed fluoxetine's effects on motivated behaviors in pubescent female hamsters - anhedonia in the reward investigational preference (RIP) test as well as anxiety in the anxiety-related feeding/exploration conflict (AFEC) test. We also assessed accumbal signaling by RT-PCR and electrophysiology. Fluoxetine initially worsened motivated behaviors at puberty, relative to adulthood. It also failed to improve these behaviors as pubescent hamsters transitioned into adulthood. Low accumbal mRNA levels of multiple GABAA receptor subunits and GABA-synthesizing enzyme, GAD67, assessed by RT-PCR, suggested low GABAergic tone at puberty. Nonetheless, rapid fluoxetine-induced reductions of α5GABAA receptor and BDNF mRNA levels at puberty were consistent with age-related differences in GABAergic responses to fluoxetine and disruption of the motivational state. Whole-cell patch clamping of accumbal slices also suggested low GABAergic tone by the low amplitude of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) at puberty. It also confirmed age-related differences in GABAergic responses to fluoxetine. Specifically, fluoxetine potentiated mIPSC amplitude and frequency at puberty, but attenuated the amplitude during adulthood. These results implicate GABAergic tone and GABAA receptor plasticity in adverse motivational responses and resistance to fluoxetine during adolescence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural Substrates of Auditory Emotion Recognition Deficits in Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Kantrowitz, Joshua T; Hoptman, Matthew J; Leitman, David I; Moreno-Ortega, Marta; Lehrfeld, Jonathan M; Dias, Elisa; Sehatpour, Pejman; Laukka, Petri; Silipo, Gail; Javitt, Daniel C

2015-11-04

Deficits in auditory emotion recognition (AER) are a core feature of schizophrenia and a key component of social cognitive impairment. AER deficits are tied behaviorally to impaired ability to interpret tonal ("prosodic") features of speech that normally convey emotion, such as modulations in base pitch (F0M) and pitch variability (F0SD). These modulations can be recreated using synthetic frequency modulated (FM) tones that mimic the prosodic contours of specific emotional stimuli. The present study investigates neural mechanisms underlying impaired AER using a combined event-related potential/resting-state functional connectivity (rsfMRI) approach in 84 schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder patients and 66 healthy comparison subjects. Mismatch negativity (MMN) to FM tones was assessed in 43 patients/36 controls. rsfMRI between auditory cortex and medial temporal (insula) regions was assessed in 55 patients/51 controls. The relationship between AER, MMN to FM tones, and rsfMRI was assessed in the subset who performed all assessments (14 patients, 21 controls). As predicted, patients showed robust reductions in MMN across FM stimulus type (p = 0.005), particularly to modulations in F0M, along with impairments in AER and FM tone discrimination. MMN source analysis indicated dipoles in both auditory cortex and anterior insula, whereas rsfMRI analyses showed reduced auditory-insula connectivity. MMN to FM tones and functional connectivity together accounted for ∼50% of the variance in AER performance across individuals. These findings demonstrate that impaired preattentive processing of tonal information and reduced auditory-insula connectivity are critical determinants of social cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, and thus represent key targets for future research and clinical intervention. Schizophrenia patients show deficits in the ability to infer emotion based upon tone of voice [auditory emotion recognition (AER)] that drive impairments in social cognition and global functional outcome. This study evaluated neural substrates of impaired AER in schizophrenia using a combined event-related potential/resting-state fMRI approach. Patients showed impaired mismatch negativity response to emotionally relevant frequency modulated tones along with impaired functional connectivity between auditory and medial temporal (anterior insula) cortex. These deficits contributed in parallel to impaired AER and accounted for ∼50% of variance in AER performance. Overall, these findings demonstrate the importance of both auditory-level dysfunction and impaired auditory/insula connectivity in the pathophysiology of social cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3514910-13$15.00/0.

The perceptual reality of tone chroma in early infancy.

PubMed

Demany, L; Armand, F

1984-07-01

It has often been advanced that pitch is a two-dimensional perceptual attribute, its two dimensions being: (1) tone height, a perceptual quality monotonically related to frequency; and (2) tone chroma, a quality shared by tones forming an octave interval. However, given that many musically uneducated adults do not seem to perceive tone chroma, this model is controversial. We investigated the sensitivity of three-month-old infants to tone chroma by means of a behavioral habituation-dishabituation procedure. Infants were presented with two successive melodic sequences of pure tones, the second sequence being a distorted version of the first one. The distortion consisted in shifting the frequency of some of the original tones, through a seventh or a ninth for some infants, through an octave for others. In the former case, infants displayed significant novelty reactions. In the latter case, significant novelty reactions were observed when the two sequences differed in melodic contour, but not when they had the same contour. These results suggest that young infants are sensitive to both tone height and tone chroma, and thus that tone chroma perception does not necessitate some form of musical experience.

Effect of tones on vocal attack time in Cantonese speakers.

PubMed

Ma, Estella P-M; Baken, R J; Roark, Rick M; Li, P-M

2012-09-01

Vocal attack time (VAT) is the time lag between the growth of the sound pressure signal and the development of physical contact of vocal folds at vocal initiation. It can be derived by a cross-correlation of short-time amplitude changes occurring in the sound pressure and electroglottographic (EGG) signals. Cantonese is a tone language in which tone determines the lexical meaning of the syllable. Such linguistic function of tone has implications for the physiology of tone production. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects of Cantonese tones on VAT. Sound pressure and EGG signals were simultaneously recorded from 59 native Cantonese speakers (31 females and 28 males). The subjects were asked to read aloud 12 disyllabic words comprising homophone pairs of the six Cantonese lexical tones. Results revealed a gender difference in VAT values, with the mean VAT significantly smaller in females than in males. There was also a significant difference in VAT values between the two tone categories, with the mean VAT values of the three level tones (tone 1, 3, and 6) significantly smaller than those of the three contour tones (tone 2, 4, and 5). The findings support the notion that norms and interpretations based on nontone European languages may not be directly applied to tone languages. Copyright © 2012 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Deviance detection by a P3-like response in rat posterior parietal cortex

PubMed Central

Imada, Allicia; Morris, Allyn; Wiest, Michael C.

2013-01-01

To better understand sensory processing in frontal and parietal cortex of the rat, and to further assess the rat as a model of human frontal-parietal processing, we recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from microelectrode arrays implanted in medio-dorsal frontal, and posterior parietal cortex of awake rats as they were presented with a succession of frequent “standard” tones and infrequent “oddball” tones. Extending previous results from surface recordings we found, after controlling for the frequencies of the standard and oddball tones, that rat frontal and parietal-evoked LFPs (eLFPs) exhibit significantly larger N1 (~40 ms latency), P2 (~100 ms), N2 (~160 ms), P3E (~200–240 ms), and P3L (~300–500 ms) amplitudes after an oddball tone. These neural oddball effects could contribute to the automatic allocation of attention to rare stimuli. To determine whether these enhanced responses to rare stimuli could be accounted for in terms of stimulus-specific neural adaptation (SSA), we also recorded during single-tone control sessions involving frequent standard, or infrequent oddball beeps alone. We compared the difference between rare-tone and frequent-tone response amplitudes in the two-tone context (oddball effect) or single-tone context which isolates the contribution of SSA (SSA effect). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant main effect of tone context on rare-tone response enhancements, showing that the rare-tone enhancements were stronger in the two-tone context than the single-tone context. This difference between tone contexts was greatest at the early P3E peak (200–240 ms post-beep) in parietal cortex, suggesting true deviance detection by this evoked response component, which cannot be accounted for in terms of simple models of SSA. PMID:23316147

Regular aerobic exercise reduces endothelin-1-mediated vasoconstrictor tone in overweight and obese adults.

PubMed

Dow, Caitlin A; Stauffer, Brian L; Brunjes, Danielle L; Greiner, Jared J; DeSouza, Christopher A

2017-09-01

What is the central question of this study? Does aerobic exercise training reduce endothelin-1 (ET-1)-mediated vasoconstrictor tone in overweight/obese adults? And, if so, does lower ET-1 vasoconstriction underlie the exercise-related enhancement in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in overweight/obese adults? What is the main finding and its importance? Regular aerobic exercise reduces ET-1-mediated vasoconstrictor tone in previously sedentary overweight/obese adults, independent of weight loss. Decreased ET-1 vasoconstriction is an important mechanism underlying the aerobic exercise-induced improvement in endothelium-dependent vasodilator function in overweight/obese adults. Endothelin-1 (ET-1)-mediated vasoconstrictor tone is elevated in overweight and obese adults, contributing to vasomotor dysfunction and increased cardiovascular disease risk. Although the effects of habitual aerobic exercise on endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in overweight/obese adults have been studied, little is known regarding ET-1-mediated vasoconstriction. Accordingly, the aims of the present study were to determine the following: (i) whether regular aerobic exercise training reduces ET-1-mediated vasoconstrictor tone in overweight and obese adults; and, if so, (ii) whether the reduction in ET-1-mediated vasoconstriction contributes to exercise-induced improvement in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in this population. Forearm blood flow (FBF) in response to intra-arterial infusion of selective ET A receptor blockade (BQ-123, 100 nmol min -1 for 60 min), acetylcholine [4.0, 8.0 and 16.0 μg (100 ml tissue) -1  min -1 ] in the absence and presence of ET A receptor blockade and sodium nitroprusside [1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 μg (100 ml tissue) -1  min -1 ] were determined before and after a 3 month aerobic exercise training intervention in 25 (16 men and nine women) overweight/obese (body mass index 30.1 ± 0.5 kg m -2 ) adults. The vasodilator response to BQ-123 was significantly lower (∼25%) and the FBF responses to acetylcholine were ∼35% higher after exercise training. Before the exercise intervention, the co-infusion of acetylcholine plus BQ-123 resulted in a greater vasodilator response than acetylcholine alone; however, after the exercise intervention the FBF response to acetylcholine was not significantly increased by ET A receptor blockade. These results demonstrate that regular aerobic exercise reduces ET-1-mediated vasoconstrictor tone in previously sedentary overweight and obese adults. Moreover, decreased ET-1-mediated vasoconstriction is an important mechanism underlying the aerobic exercise-induced improvement in endothelium-dependent vasodilator function in overweight/obese adults. © 2017 The Authors. Experimental Physiology © 2017 The Physiological Society.

Are lexical tones musical? Native language's influence on neural response to pitch in different domains.

PubMed

Chen, Ao; Peter, Varghese; Wijnen, Frank; Schnack, Hugo; Burnham, Denis

2018-04-21

Language experience shapes musical and speech pitch processing. We investigated whether speaking a lexical tone language natively modulates neural processing of pitch in language and music as well as their correlation. We tested tone language (Mandarin Chinese), and non-tone language (Dutch) listeners in a passive oddball paradigm measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) for (i) Chinese lexical tones and (ii) three-note musical melodies with similar pitch contours. For lexical tones, Chinese listeners showed a later MMN peak than the non-tone language listeners, whereas for MMN amplitude there were no significant differences between groups. Dutch participants also showed a late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the music condition two MMNs, corresponding to the two notes that differed between the standard and the deviant were found for both groups, and an LDN were found for both the Dutch and the Chinese listeners. The music MMNs were significantly right lateralized. Importantly, significant correlations were found between the lexical tone and the music MMNs for the Dutch but not the Chinese participants. The results suggest that speaking a tone language natively does not necessarily enhance neural responses to pitch either in language or in music, but that it does change the nature of neural pitch processing: non-tone language speakers appear to perceive lexical tones as musical, whereas for tone language speakers, lexical tones and music may activate different neural networks. Neural resources seem to be assigned differently for the lexical tones and for musical melodies, presumably depending on the presence or absence of long-term phonological memory traces. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Computational Support for Early Elicitation and Classification of Tone

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bird, Steven; Lee, Haejoong

2014-01-01

Investigating a tone language involves careful transcription of tone on words and phrases. This is challenging when the phonological categories--the tones or melodies--have not been identified. Effects such as coarticulation, sandhi, and phrase-level prosody appear as obstacles to early elicitation and classification of tone. This article presents…

Online processing of tone and intonation in Mandarin: Evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Liu, Min; Chen, Yiya; Schiller, Niels O

2016-10-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the online processing of tone and intonation in Mandarin at the attentive stage. We examined the behavioral and electrophysiological responses of native Mandarin listeners to Mandarin sentences, which contrast in final tones (rising Tone2 or falling Tone4) and intonations (Question or Statement). A clear P300 effect was observed for question-statement contrast in sentences ending with Tone4, but no ERP effect was found for question-statement contrast in sentences ending with Tone2. Our results provide ERP evidence for the interaction of tone and intonation in Mandarin, confirming the findings with behavioral metalinguistic data that native Mandarin listeners can distinguish between question intonation and statement intonation when the intonation is associated with a final Tone4, but fail to do so when the intonation is associated with a final Tone2. Our study extended the understanding of online processing of tone and intonation (1) from the pre-attentive stage to the attentive stage and (2) within a larger domain (i.e. multi-word utterances) than a single word utterance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cantonese tone production performance of mainstream school children with hearing impairment.

PubMed

Cheung, Karen K L; Lau, Ada H Y; Lam, Joffee H S; Lee, Kathy Y S

2014-12-01

This study investigated the Cantonese tone production ability of children with hearing impairment studying in mainstream schools. The participants were 87 Cantonese-speaking children with mild-to-profound degrees of hearing loss aged 5.92-13.58 in Hong Kong. Most of the children were fitted with hearing aids (n = 65); 17 of them had profound hearing impairment, one who had severe hearing loss had cochlear implantation, and four who had mild hearing loss were without any hearing device. The Hong Kong Cantonese Articulation Test was administered, and the tones produced were rated by two of the authors and a speech-language pathologist. Group effects of tones, hearing loss level, and also an interaction of the two were found to be significant. The children with profound hearing impairment performed significantly worse than most of the other children. Tone 1 was produced most accurately, whereas tone 6 productions were the poorest. No relationship was found between the number of years of mainstreaming and tone production ability. Tone production error pattern revealed that confusion patterns in tone perception coincided with those in production. Tones having a similar fundamental frequency (F0) at the onset also posed difficulty in tone production for children with hearing impairment.

High-dynamic range imaging techniques based on both color-separation algorithms used in conventional graphic arts and the human visual perception modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo, Mei-Chun; Hsieh, Tsung-Hsien; Perng, Ruey-Kuen; Chen, Jiong-Qiao

2010-01-01

The aim of this research is to derive illuminant-independent type of HDR imaging modules which can optimally multispectrally reconstruct of every color concerned in high-dynamic-range of original images for preferable cross-media color reproduction applications. Each module, based on either of broadband and multispectral approach, would be incorporated models of perceptual HDR tone-mapping, device characterization. In this study, an xvYCC format of HDR digital camera was used to capture HDR scene images for test. A tone-mapping module was derived based on a multiscale representation of the human visual system and used equations similar to a photoreceptor adaptation equation, proposed by Michaelis-Menten. Additionally, an adaptive bilateral type of gamut mapping algorithm, using approach of a multiple conversing-points (previously derived), was incorporated with or without adaptive Un-sharp Masking (USM) to carry out the optimization of HDR image rendering. An LCD with standard color space of Adobe RGB (D65) was used as a soft-proofing platform to display/represent HDR original RGB images, and also evaluate both renditionquality and prediction-performance of modules derived. Also, another LCD with standard color space of sRGB was used to test gamut-mapping algorithms, used to be integrated with tone-mapping module derived.

Binaural hearing in children using Gaussian enveloped and transposed tones.

PubMed

Ehlers, Erica; Kan, Alan; Winn, Matthew B; Stoelb, Corey; Litovsky, Ruth Y

2016-04-01

Children who use bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) show significantly poorer sound localization skills than their normal hearing (NH) peers. This difference has been attributed, in part, to the fact that cochlear implants (CIs) do not faithfully transmit interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs), which are known to be important cues for sound localization. Interestingly, little is known about binaural sensitivity in NH children, in particular, with stimuli that constrain acoustic cues in a manner representative of CI processing. In order to better understand and evaluate binaural hearing in children with BiCIs, the authors first undertook a study on binaural sensitivity in NH children ages 8-10, and in adults. Experiments evaluated sound discrimination and lateralization using ITD and ILD cues, for stimuli with robust envelope cues, but poor representation of temporal fine structure. Stimuli were spondaic words, Gaussian-enveloped tone pulse trains (100 pulse-per-second), and transposed tones. Results showed that discrimination thresholds in children were adult-like (15-389 μs for ITDs and 0.5-6.0 dB for ILDs). However, lateralization based on the same binaural cues showed higher variability than seen in adults. Results are discussed in the context of factors that may be responsible for poor representation of binaural cues in bilaterally implanted children.

STIMULUS AND TRANSDUCER EFFECTS ON THRESHOLD

PubMed Central

Flamme, Gregory A.; Geda, Kyle; McGregor, Kara; Wyllys, Krista; Deiters, Kristy K.; Murphy, William J.; Stephenson, Mark R.

2015-01-01

Objective This study examined differences in thresholds obtained under Sennheiser HDA200 circumaural earphones using pure tone, equivalent rectangular noise bands, and 1/3 octave noise bands relative to thresholds obtained using Telephonics TDH-39P supra-aural earphones. Design Thresholds were obtained via each transducer and stimulus condition six times within a 10-day period. Study Sample Forty-nine adults were selected from a prior study to represent low, moderate, and high threshold reliability. Results The results suggested that (1) only small adjustments were needed to reach equivalent TDH-39P thresholds, (2) pure-tone thresholds obtained with HDA200 circumaural earphones had reliability equal to or better than those obtained using TDH-39P earphones, (3) the reliability of noise-band thresholds improved with broader stimulus bandwidth and was either equal to or better than pure-tone thresholds, and (4) frequency-specificity declined with stimulus bandwidths greater than one Equivalent Rectangular Band, which could complicate early detection of hearing changes that occur within a narrow frequency range. Conclusions These data suggest that circumaural earphones such as the HDA200 headphones provide better reliability for audiometric testing as compared to the TDH-39P earphones. These data support the use of noise bands, preferably ERB noises, as stimuli for audiometric monitoring. PMID:25549164

Activation of KV7 channels stimulates vasodilatation of human placental chorionic plate arteries.

PubMed

Mills, T A; Greenwood, S L; Devlin, G; Shweikh, Y; Robinson, M; Cowley, E; Hayward, C E; Cottrell, E C; Tropea, T; Brereton, M F; Dalby-Brown, W; Wareing, M

2015-06-01

Potassium (K(+)) channels are key regulators of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) excitability. In systemic small arteries, Kv7 channel expression/activity has been noted and a role in vascular tone regulation demonstrated. We aimed to demonstrate functional Kv7 channels in human fetoplacental small arteries. Human placental chorionic plate arteries (CPAs) were obtained at term. CPA responses to Kv7 channel modulators was determined by wire myography. Presence of Kv7 channel mRNA (encoded by KCNQ1-5) and protein expression were assessed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry/immunofluorescence, respectively. Kv7 channel blockade with linopirdine increased CPA basal tone and AVP-induced contraction. Pre-contracted CPAs (AVP; 80 mM K(+) depolarization solution) exhibited significant relaxation to flupirtine, retigabine, the acrylamide (S)-1, and (S) BMS-204352, differential activators of Kv7.1 - Kv7.5 channels. All CPAs assessed expressed KCNQ1 and KCNQ3-5 mRNA; KCNQ2 was expressed only in a subset of CPAs. Kv7 protein expression was confirmed in intact CPAs and isolated VSMCs. Kv7 channels are present and active in fetoplacental vessels, contributing to vascular tone regulation in normal pregnancy. Targeting these channels may represent a therapeutic intervention in pregnancies complicated by increased vascular resistance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Experience and Effects of Vocal Toning.

PubMed

Snow, Shelley; Bernardi, Nicolò Francesco; Sabet-Kassouf, Nilufar; Moran, Daniel; Lehmann, Alexandre

2018-06-07

Toning is a form of vocalizing that utilizes the natural voice to express sounds ranging from cries, grunts, and groans to open vowel sounds and humming on the full exhalation of the breath. Music therapists are increasingly utilizing toning in their clinical practice for a variety of therapeutic aims. Yet the effects of toning are not widely understood, with limited research to date. To gather and analyze descriptive data to better understand the experience and effects of self-administered toning. Primary aims were to: 1) understand participants' experiences with toning, and any effects resulting from their experiences; 2) measure participants' emotional response to toning and singing; and 3) examine similarities and differences across the two datasets. Participants were 20 adults, ages 20-40 years, who were non-musicians. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used qualitative content analysis to identify major themes and subcategories related to participants' toning experiences. Participants also completed a 48-item questionnaire on music and emotions. Results from the interview and questionnaire data were then compared and contrasted. Results indicate that shifts in attention, awareness, and consciousness frequently occurred when individuals engaged in toning. "Meditative," "calm," and "relaxed" were the three most common descriptors of toning. In contrast, singing evoked stronger emotions and associations than toning, with the three most common descriptors including "nostalgia," "tenderness," and "joyful activation." Findings also suggest that the physical experience with vibrations and the sound of one's own voice may be attributes of toning that likely contribute to its success in inducing altered states of awareness, attention, and consciousness. This study significantly expands our understanding of the experience and effects of toning, and has direct implications for clinical practice, including the identification of effective strategies to successfully engage adults in toning.

The Perception of Lexical Tone in Mambila.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connell, Bruce

2000-01-01

Examines tone perception in Mambila, a Benue-Congo language with four level lexical tones. A categorization experiment was run to determine some of the salient aspects of the perceptual nature of these tones. Results are discussed in light of what is known about universal tendencies of tone systems and the historical development of the Mambila…

The perception of complex tones by a false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens).

PubMed

Yuen, Michelle M L; Nachtigall, Paul E; Breese, Marlee; Vlachos, Stephanie A

2007-03-01

Complex tonal whistles are frequently produced by some odontocete species. However, no experimental evidence exists regarding the detection of complex tones or the discrimination of harmonic frequencies by a marine mammal. The objectives of this investigation were to examine the ability of a false killer whale to discriminate pure tones from complex tones and to determine the minimum intensity level of a harmonic tone required for the whale to make the discrimination. The study was conducted with a go/no-go modified staircase procedure. The different stimuli were complex tones with a fundamental frequency of 5 kHz with one to five harmonic frequencies. The results from this complex tone discrimination task demonstrated: (1) that the false killer whale was able to discriminate a 5 kHz pure tone from a complex tone with up to five harmonics, and (2) that discrimination thresholds or minimum intensity levels exist for each harmonic combination measured. These results indicate that both frequency level and harmonic content may have contributed to the false killer whale's discrimination of complex tones.

Gradient approach to quantify the gradation smoothness for output media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Youn Jin; Bang, Yousun; Choh, Heui-Keun

2010-01-01

We aim to quantify the perception of color gradation smoothness using objectively measurable properties. We propose a model to compute the smoothness of hardcopy color-to-color gradations. It is a gradient-based method that can be determined as a function of the 95th percentile of second derivative for the tone-jump estimator and the fifth percentile of first derivative for the tone-clipping estimator. Performance of the model and a previously suggested method were psychophysically appreciated, and their prediction accuracies were compared to each other. Our model showed a stronger Pearson correlation to the corresponding visual data, and the magnitude of the Pearson correlation reached up to 0.87. Its statistical significance was verified through analysis of variance. Color variations of the representative memory colors-blue sky, green grass and Caucasian skin-were rendered as gradational scales and utilized as the test stimuli.

Annoyance caused by advanced turboprop aircraft flyover noise: Comparison of different propeller configurations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, David A.

1991-01-01

A laboratory experiment was conducted to compare the annoyance of flyover noise from advanced turboprop aircraft having different propeller configurations with the annoyance of conventional turboprop and turbofan aircraft flyover noise. A computer synthesis system was used to generate 40 realistic, time varying simulations of advanced turboprop takeoff noise. Of the 40 noises, single-rotating propeller configurations (8) and counter-rotating propeller configurations with an equal (12) and unequal (20) number of blades on each rotor were represented. Analyses found that advanced turboprops with single-rotating propellers were, on average, slightly less annoying than the other aircraft. Fundamental frequency and tone-to-broadband noise ratio affected annoyance response to advanced turboprops, but the effects varied with propeller configuration and noise metric. The addition of duration corrections and corrections for tones above 500 Hz to the noise measurement procedures improved annoyance prediction ability.

Annoyance caused by advanced turboprop aircraft flyover noise: Comparison of different propeller configurations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCurdy, David A.

1991-10-01

A laboratory experiment was conducted to compare the annoyance of flyover noise from advanced turboprop aircraft having different propeller configurations with the annoyance of conventional turboprop and turbofan aircraft flyover noise. A computer synthesis system was used to generate 40 realistic, time varying simulations of advanced turboprop takeoff noise. Of the 40 noises, single-rotating propeller configurations (8) and counter-rotating propeller configurations with an equal (12) and unequal (20) number of blades on each rotor were represented. Analyses found that advanced turboprops with single-rotating propellers were, on average, slightly less annoying than the other aircraft. Fundamental frequency and tone-to-broadband noise ratio affected annoyance response to advanced turboprops, but the effects varied with propeller configuration and noise metric. The addition of duration corrections and corrections for tones above 500 Hz to the noise measurement procedures improved annoyance prediction ability.

Gamut mapping in a high-dynamic-range color space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Preiss, Jens; Fairchild, Mark D.; Ferwerda, James A.; Urban, Philipp

2014-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel approach of tone mapping as gamut mapping in a high-dynamic-range (HDR) color space. High- and low-dynamic-range (LDR) images as well as device gamut boundaries can simultaneously be represented within such a color space. This enables a unified transformation of the HDR image into the gamut of an output device (in this paper called HDR gamut mapping). An additional aim of this paper is to investigate the suitability of a specific HDR color space to serve as a working color space for the proposed HDR gamut mapping. For the HDR gamut mapping, we use a recent approach that iteratively minimizes an image-difference metric subject to in-gamut images. A psychophysical experiment on an HDR display shows that the standard reproduction workflow of two subsequent transformations - tone mapping and then gamut mapping - may be improved by HDR gamut mapping.

Effects of brief discrimination-training on the auditory N1 wave.

PubMed

Brattico, Elvira; Tervaniemi, Mari; Picton, Terence W

2003-12-19

We determined whether the human N1 evoked by tones with different frequencies might be affected by a brief discrimination-training at one specific frequency. During 1 h training, subjects learned to discriminate a 1062 Hz tone from another tone. Before and after training, subjects heard for 26 min tones with a frequency of 1000 Hz, replaced every sixth one by test tones with frequencies randomly and equiprobably chosen as 835, 886, 941, 1000, 1062, 1128 or 1198 Hz. The N1 to the test tone was larger when its frequency was further from the repeating frequency. After training N1 s were attenuated to all tones except the trained and repeated ones, indicating a refractory frequency effect, long-term habituation, and sensitization to the repeated and trained tones.

Across-channel interference in intensity discrimination: The role of practice and listening strategy

PubMed Central

Buss, Emily

2008-01-01

Pure tone intensity discrimination thresholds can be elevated by the introduction of remote maskers with roved level. This effect is on the order of 10 dB [10log(ΔI/I)] in some conditions and can be demonstrated under conditions of little or no energetic masking. The current study examined the effect of practice and observer strategy on this phenomenon. Experiment 1 included observers who had no formal experience with intensity discrimination and provided training over six hours on a single masked intensity discrimination task to assess learning effects. Thresholds fell with practice for most observers, with significant improvements in 6 out of 8 cases. Despite these improvements significant masking remained in all cases. The second experiment assessed trial-by-trial effects of roved masker level. Conditional probability of a ‘signal-present’ response as a function of the rove value assigned to each of the two masker tones indicates fundamental differences among observers’ processing strategies, even after six hours of practice. The variability in error patterns across practiced listeners suggests that observers approach the task differently, though this variability does not appear to be related to sensitivity. PMID:18177156

Evidence of hearing loss in a “normally-hearing” college-student population

PubMed Central

Le Prell, C. G.; Hensley, B.N.; Campbell, K. C. M.; Hall, J. W.; Guire, K.

2011-01-01

We report pure-tone hearing threshold findings in 56 college students. All subjects reported normal hearing during telephone interviews, yet not all subjects had normal sensitivity as defined by well-accepted criteria. At one or more test frequencies (0.25–8 kHz), 7% of ears had thresholds ≥25 dB HL and 12% had thresholds ≥20 dB HL. The proportion of ears with abnormal findings decreased when three-frequency pure-tone-averages were used. Low-frequency PTA hearing loss was detected in 2.7% of ears and high-frequency PTA hearing loss was detected in 7.1% of ears; however, there was little evidence for “notched” audiograms. There was a statistically reliable relationship in which personal music player use was correlated with decreased hearing status in male subjects. Routine screening and education regarding hearing loss risk factors are critical as college students do not always self-identify early changes in hearing. Large-scale systematic investigations of college students’ hearing status appear to be warranted; the current sample size was not adequate to precisely measure potential contributions of different sound sources to the elevated thresholds measured in some subjects. PMID:21288064

Lexical tone recognition in noise in normal-hearing children and prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants

PubMed Central

Mao, Yitao; Xu, Li

2016-01-01

Objective The purpose of the present study was to investigate Mandarin tone recognition in background noise in children with cochlear implants (CIs), and to examine the potential factors contributing to their performance. Design Tone recognition was tested using a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm in various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions (i.e., quiet, +12, +6, 0, and −6 dB). Linear correlation analysis was performed to examine possible relationships between the tone-recognition performance of the CI children and the demographic factors. Study sample Sixty-six prelingually deafened children with CIs and 52 normal-hearing (NH) children as controls participated in the study. Results Children with CIs showed overall poorer tone-recognition performance and were more susceptible to noise than their NH peers. Tone confusions between Mandarin tone 2 and tone 3 were most prominent in both CI and NH children except for in the poorest SNR conditions. Age at implantation was significantly correlated with tone-recognition performance of the CI children in noise. Conclusions There is a marked deficit in tone recognition in prelingually deafened children with CIs, particularly in noise listening conditions. While factors that contribute to the large individual differences are still elusive, early implantation could be beneficial to tone development in pediatric CI users. PMID:27564095

Lexical tone recognition in noise in normal-hearing children and prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Mao, Yitao; Xu, Li

2017-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate Mandarin tone recognition in background noise in children with cochlear implants (CIs), and to examine the potential factors contributing to their performance. Tone recognition was tested using a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm in various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions (i.e. quiet, +12, +6, 0, and -6 dB). Linear correlation analysis was performed to examine possible relationships between the tone-recognition performance of the CI children and the demographic factors. Sixty-six prelingually deafened children with CIs and 52 normal-hearing (NH) children as controls participated in the study. Children with CIs showed an overall poorer tone-recognition performance and were more susceptible to noise than their NH peers. Tone confusions between Mandarin tone 2 and tone 3 were most prominent in both CI and NH children except for in the poorest SNR conditions. Age at implantation was significantly correlated with tone-recognition performance of the CI children in noise. There is a marked deficit in tone recognition in prelingually deafened children with CIs, particularly in noise listening conditions. While factors that contribute to the large individual differences are still elusive, early implantation could be beneficial to tone development in pediatric CI users.

Steady-state MEG responses elicited by a sequence of amplitude-modulated short tones of different carrier frequencies.

PubMed

Kuriki, Shinya; Kobayashi, Yusuke; Kobayashi, Takanari; Tanaka, Keita; Uchikawa, Yoshinori

2013-02-01

The auditory steady-state response (ASSR) is a weak potential or magnetic response elicited by periodic acoustic stimuli with a maximum response at about a 40-Hz periodicity. In most previous studies using amplitude-modulated (AM) tones of stimulus sound, long lasting tones of more than 10 s in length were used. However, characteristics of the ASSR elicited by short AM tones have remained unclear. In this study, we examined magnetoencephalographic (MEG) ASSR using a sequence of sinusoidal AM tones of 0.78 s in length with various tone frequencies of 440-990 Hz in about one octave variation. It was found that the amplitude of the ASSR was invariant with tone frequencies when the level of sound pressure was adjusted along an equal-loudness curve. The amplitude also did not depend on the existence of preceding tone or difference in frequency of the preceding tone. When the sound level of AM tones was changed with tone frequencies in the same range of 440-990 Hz, the amplitude of ASSR varied in a proportional manner to the sound level. These characteristics are favorable for the use of ASSR in studying temporal processing of auditory information in the auditory cortex. The lack of adaptation in the ASSR elicited by a sequence of short tones may be ascribed to the neural activity of widely accepted generator of magnetic ASSR in the primary auditory cortex. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lessons Learned During Implementation and Early Operations of the DS1 Beacon Monitor Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Rob; Wyatt, Jay; Hotz, Henry; Schlutsmeyer, Alan; Sue, Miles

1998-01-01

A new approach to mission operations will be flight validated on NASA's New Millennium Program Deep Space One (DS1) mission which launched in October 1998. The Beacon Monitor Operations Technology is aimed at decreasing the total volume of downlinked engineering telemetry by reducing the frequency of downlink and the volume of data received per pass. Cost savings are achieved by reducing the amount of routine telemetry processing and analysis performed by ground staff. The technology is required for upcoming NASA missions to Pluto, Europa, and possibly some other missions. With beacon monitoring, the spacecraft will assess its own health and will transmit one of four beacon messages each representing a unique frequency tone to inform the ground how urgent it is to track the spacecraft for telemetry. If all conditions are nominal, the tone provides periodic assurance to ground personnel that the mission is proceeding as planned without having to receive and analyze downlinked telemetry. If there is a problem, the tone will indicate that tracking is required and the resulting telemetry will contain a concise summary of what has occurred since the last telemetry pass. The primary components of the technology are a tone monitoring technology, AI-based software for onboard engineering data summarization, and a ground response system. In addition, there is a ground visualization system for telemetry summaries. This paper includes a description of the Beacon monitor concept, the trade-offs with adapting that concept as a technology experiment, the current state of the resulting implementation on DS1, and our lessons learned during the initial checkout phase of the mission. Applicability to future missions is also included.

Efficacy and safety of topical depigmenting agent in healthy human fair skin female volunteers: A single-arm study.

PubMed

Shah, Saurabh; Chew, Soon-Keong

2017-11-28

Skin hyperpigmentation is the darkening of skin due to the increased production of melanin in the body. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a botanical-based Rosa E pigmentation serum in healthy fair skin female volunteers with wrinkles, skin tone, and pigmentation. This was a single-arm, open label study conducted in healthy Indian females; 18 subjects aged 30-55, having fair Caucasian-like skin with at least 2 dark skin pigments with facial wrinkles diagnosed by dermatologist were selected. Rosa E pigmentation serum was applied twice a day for 84 days. Effect was evaluated by (i) instrumental technique (spectrophotometer ® 2600D), (ii) clinically by dermatologist regarding product efficacy (skin tone, antiwrinkle, pigmentation), and (iii) volunteers self-evaluation. The L* value of spectrophotometer reading represents lightness in the skin pigment. Reduction in the pigment was reported from day 14, with significant reductions observed till day 84 compared with baseline. Significant (P < .0001) skin pigmentation lightening was seen on day 14 (1.11) vastly improving on day 84 (1.94) based on photographic assessments. The significant reduction in skin pigment was 76.85%, Felix von Luschan skin color score was 30.24% (P < .0001) with a 7.38-fold reduction in skin tone and 57% reduction in facial wrinkles at day 84 from baseline. Rosa E pigmentation serum was found safe and effective in significant reduction in skin pigments, improvement of skin tone, and antiwrinkle properties instrumentally, clinically, and self-evaluation by volunteers. In these evaluations, best results were seen the longer the Rosa E was used. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Modulation of cardiac autonomic tone in non-hypotensive hypovolemia during blood donation.

PubMed

Yadav, Kavita; Singh, Akanksha; Jaryal, Ashok Kumar; Coshic, Poonam; Chatterjee, Kabita; Deepak, K K

2017-08-01

Non-hypotensive hypovolemia, observed during mild haemorrhage or blood donation leads to reflex readjustment of the cardiac autonomic tone. In the present study, the cardiac autonomic tone was quantified using heart rate and blood pressure variability during and after non-hypotensive hypovolemia of blood donation. 86 voluntary healthy male blood donors were recruited for the study (age 35 ± 9 years; weight 78 ± 12 kg; height 174 ± 6 cms). Continuous lead II ECG and beat-to-beat blood pressure was recorded before, during and after blood donation followed by offline time and frequency domain analysis of HRV and BPV. The overall heart rate variability (SDNN and total power) did not change during or after blood donation. However, there was a decrease in indices that represent the parasympathetic component (pNN50 %, SDSD and HF) while an increase was observed in sympathetic component (LF) along with an increase in sympathovagal balance (LF:HF ratio) during blood donation. These changes were sustained for the period immediately following blood donation. No fall of blood pressure was observed during the period of study. The blood pressure variability showed an increase in the SDNN, CoV and RMSSD time domain measures in the post donation period. These results suggest that mild hypovolemia produced by blood donation is non-hypotensive but is associated with significant changes in the autonomic tone. The increased blood pressure variability and heart rate changes that are seen only in the later part of donation period could be because of the progressive hypovolemia associated parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic activation that manifest during the course of blood donation.

Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Vagal Tone in Psychophysiological Research – Recommendations for Experiment Planning, Data Analysis, and Data Reporting

PubMed Central

Laborde, Sylvain; Mosley, Emma; Thayer, Julian F.

2017-01-01

Psychophysiological research integrating heart rate variability (HRV) has increased during the last two decades, particularly given the fact that HRV is able to index cardiac vagal tone. Cardiac vagal tone, which represents the contribution of the parasympathetic nervous system to cardiac regulation, is acknowledged to be linked with many phenomena relevant for psychophysiological research, including self-regulation at the cognitive, emotional, social, and health levels. The ease of HRV collection and measurement coupled with the fact it is relatively affordable, non-invasive and pain free makes it widely accessible to many researchers. This ease of access should not obscure the difficulty of interpretation of HRV findings that can be easily misconstrued, however, this can be controlled to some extent through correct methodological processes. Standards of measurement were developed two decades ago by a Task Force within HRV research, and recent reviews updated several aspects of the Task Force paper. However, many methodological aspects related to HRV in psychophysiological research have to be considered if one aims to be able to draw sound conclusions, which makes it difficult to interpret findings and to compare results across laboratories. Those methodological issues have mainly been discussed in separate outlets, making difficult to get a grasp on them, and thus this paper aims to address this issue. It will help to provide psychophysiological researchers with recommendations and practical advice concerning experimental designs, data analysis, and data reporting. This will ensure that researchers starting a project with HRV and cardiac vagal tone are well informed regarding methodological considerations in order for their findings to contribute to knowledge advancement in their field. PMID:28265249

Adapted wavelet transform improves time-frequency representations: a study of auditory elicited P300-like event-related potentials in rats.

PubMed

Richard, Nelly; Laursen, Bettina; Grupe, Morten; Drewes, Asbjørn M; Graversen, Carina; Sørensen, Helge B D; Bastlund, Jesper F

2017-04-01

Active auditory oddball paradigms are simple tone discrimination tasks used to study the P300 deflection of event-related potentials (ERPs). These ERPs may be quantified by time-frequency analysis. As auditory stimuli cause early high frequency and late low frequency ERP oscillations, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is often chosen for decomposition due to its multi-resolution properties. However, as the conventional CWT traditionally applies only one mother wavelet to represent the entire spectrum, the time-frequency resolution is not optimal across all scales. To account for this, we developed and validated a novel method specifically refined to analyse P300-like ERPs in rats. An adapted CWT (aCWT) was implemented to preserve high time-frequency resolution across all scales by commissioning of multiple wavelets operating at different scales. First, decomposition of simulated ERPs was illustrated using the classical CWT and the aCWT. Next, the two methods were applied to EEG recordings obtained from prefrontal cortex in rats performing a two-tone auditory discrimination task. While only early ERP frequency changes between responses to target and non-target tones were detected by the CWT, both early and late changes were successfully described with strong accuracy by the aCWT in rat ERPs. Increased frontal gamma power and phase synchrony was observed particularly within theta and gamma frequency bands during deviant tones. The study suggests superior performance of the aCWT over the CWT in terms of detailed quantification of time-frequency properties of ERPs. Our methodological investigation indicates that accurate and complete assessment of time-frequency components of short-time neural signals is feasible with the novel analysis approach which may be advantageous for characterisation of several types of evoked potentials in particularly rodents.

Effects of low harmonics on tone identification in natural and vocoded speech.

PubMed

Liu, Chang; Azimi, Behnam; Tahmina, Qudsia; Hu, Yi

2012-11-01

This study investigated the contribution of low-frequency harmonics to identifying Mandarin tones in natural and vocoded speech in quiet and noisy conditions. Results showed that low-frequency harmonics of natural speech led to highly accurate tone identification; however, for vocoded speech, low-frequency harmonics yielded lower tone identification than stimuli with full harmonics, except for tone 4. Analysis of the correlation between tone accuracy and the amplitude-F0 correlation index suggested that "more" speech contents (i.e., more harmonics) did not necessarily yield better tone recognition for vocoded speech, especially when the amplitude contour of the signals did not co-vary with the F0 contour.

No Perceptual Reorganization for Limburgian Tones? A Cross-Linguistic Investigation with 6- to 12-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramachers, Stefanie; Brouwer, Susanne; Fikkert, Paula

2018-01-01

Despite the fact that many of the world's languages use lexical tone, the majority of language acquisition studies has focused on non-tone languages. Research on tone languages has typically investigated wellknown tone languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese. The current study looked at a Limburgian dialect of Dutch that uses lexical…

Categorical Perception of Mandarin Chinese Tones 1-2 and Tones 1-4: Effects of Aging and Signal Duration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yuxia; Yang, Xiaohu; Liu, Chang

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones with varied fundamental frequency (F0) contours and signal duration. Method: Both younger and older native Chinese listeners with normal hearing were recruited in 2 experiments--tone identification and tone discrimination…

Low-Centred Polygons and Alas-Like Basins as Geological Markers of Warming Trends Late in Mars' History

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soare, R. J.; Conway, S. J.; Godin, E.; Osinski, G.; Hawkswell, J.; Bina, A.

2017-12-01

Expansive assemblages of low/high centred (ice-wedge) polygons and (polygonised) flat-floored thermokarst-basins (alases) are ubiquitous on Earth where the permafrost is continuous, metres to decametres-thick and ice rich, i.e. the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands of northern Canada and the Yamal Peninsula of eastern Russia. These assemblages are geological bellwethers of transient and on occasion, long-term rises of sub-aerial and thaw-generating mean temperatures, for two principal reasons. First, high-centred (ice-wedge) polygons evolve from low-centred (ice-wedge) polygons when ice wedges that have aggraded and uplift overlying sediments above the elevation datum at the polygon centres, degrade, by thaw, and induce the loss of elevation below that datum. Second, thermokarst terrain comprises sediments whose pore volume is exceeded by the presence of water ice. A thermokarst basin (an alas) forms if and only when this ice undergoes thermal destabilisation and where thaw-generated meltwater is lost by evaporation or drainage. Spatially-associated and morphologically-similar assemblages of polygons and basins are commonplace throughout the mid-latitudes of eastern Utopia Planitia (UP), Mars. Under current conditions of extreme aridity, low atmospheric-pressure and frigid mean-temperatures, the widespread formation of ice-rich terrain by freeze-thaw cycling, let alone of near-surface ice-wedges and/or thermokarst basins, seems implausible. Against this environmental backdrop, sublimation seemingly stands alone in being able to revise ice-rich landscapes. However, multiple strands of data point to the possible periglacial-assemblages (PPAs) being youthful but not current in their formation. First, the sub-regional and dark-toned terrain incised by the PPAs is cratered more densely than would be expected. Second, the PPAs reside at a lower relative and absolute elevation than a light-toned and region-wide latitude-dependent mantle that is generally thought to be very recent in origin. These strands and others point to a earlier period in the geological history of UP, perhaps in conjunction with shifts in obliquity and eccentricity, when liquid-water would have been stable enough to sustain freeze-thaw cycling, wet periglacial processes and, derivatively, the development of the PPAs.

[The application of artificial neural network on the assessment of lexical tone production of pediatric cochlear implant users].

PubMed

Mao, Y T; Chen, Z M; Xu, L

2017-08-07

Objective: The present study was carried out to explore the tone production ability of the Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CI) by using an artificial neural network model and to examine the potential contributing factors underlining their tone production performance. The results of this study might provide useful guidelines for post-operative rehabilitation processes of pediatric CI users. Methods: Two hundred and seventy-eight prelingually deafened children who received unilateral CI participated in this study. As controls, 170 similarly-aged children with normal hearing (NH) were recruited. A total of 36 Chinese monosyllabic words were selected as the tone production targets. Vocal production samples were recorded and the fundamental frequency (F0) contour of each syllable was extracted using an auto-correlation algorithm followed by manual correction. An artificial neural network was created in MATLAB to classify the tone production. The relationships between tone production and several demographic factors were evaluated. Results: Pediatric CI users produced Mandarin tones much less accurately than did the NH children (58.8% vs. 91.5% correct). Tremendous variability in tone production performance existed among the CI children. Tones 2 and 3 were produced less accurately than tones 1 and 4 for both groups. For the CI group, all tones when in error tended to be judged as tone 1. The tone production accuracy was negatively correlated with age at implantation and positively correlated with CI use duration with correlation coefficients ( r ) of -0.215 ( P =0.003) and 0.203 ( P =0.005), respectively. Age was one of the determinants of tonal ability for NH children. Conclusions: For children with severe to profound hearing loss, early implantation and persistent use of CI are beneficial to their tone production development. Artificial neural network is a convenient and reliable assessment tool for the development of tonal ability of hearing-impaired children who are in the rehabilitation processes that focus on speech and language expression.

A fundamental residue pitch perception bias for tone language speakers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petitti, Elizabeth

A complex tone composed of only higher-order harmonics typically elicits a pitch percept equivalent to the tone's missing fundamental frequency (f0). When judging the direction of residue pitch change between two such tones, however, listeners may have completely opposite perceptual experiences depending on whether they are biased to perceive changes based on the overall spectrum or the missing f0 (harmonic spacing). Individual differences in residue pitch change judgments are reliable and have been associated with musical experience and functional neuroanatomy. Tone languages put greater pitch processing demands on their speakers than non-tone languages, and we investigated whether these lifelong differences in linguistic pitch processing affect listeners' bias for residue pitch. We asked native tone language speakers and native English speakers to perform a pitch judgment task for two tones with missing fundamental frequencies. Given tone pairs with ambiguous pitch changes, listeners were asked to judge the direction of pitch change, where the direction of their response indicated whether they attended to the overall spectrum (exhibiting a spectral bias) or the missing f0 (exhibiting a fundamental bias). We found that tone language speakers are significantly more likely to perceive pitch changes based on the missing f0 than English speakers. These results suggest that tone-language speakers' privileged experience with linguistic pitch fundamentally tunes their basic auditory processing.

Mechanosensing in hypothalamic osmosensory neurons.

PubMed

Prager-Khoutorsky, Masha

2017-11-01

Osmosensory neurons are specialized cells activated by increases in blood osmolality to trigger thirst, secretion of the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin, and elevated sympathetic tone during dehydration. In addition to multiple extrinsic factors modulating their activity, osmosensory neurons are intrinsically osmosensitive, as they are activated by increased osmolality in the absence of neighboring cells or synaptic contacts. This intrinsic osmosensitivity is a mechanical process associated with osmolality-induced changes in cell volume. This review summarises recent findings revealing molecular mechanisms underlying the mechanical activation of osmosensory neurons and highlighting important roles of microtubules, actin, and mechanosensitive ion channels in this process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion.

PubMed

Keltner, Dacher; Haidt, Jonathan

2003-03-01

In this paper we present a prototype approach to awe. We suggest that two appraisals are central and are present in all clear cases of awe: perceived vastness, and a need for accommodation, defined as an inability to assimilate an experience into current mental structures. Five additional appraisals account for variation in the hedonic tone of awe experiences: threat, beauty, exceptional ability, virtue, and the supernatural. We derive this perspective from a review of what has been written about awe in religion, philosophy, sociology, and psychology, and then we apply this perspective to an analysis of awe and related states such as admiration, elevation, and the epiphanic experience.

Activation of PI3K/Akt signaling in rostral ventrolateral medulla impairs brain stem cardiovascular regulation that underpins circulatory depression during mevinphos intoxication.

PubMed

Tsai, Ching-Yi; Chang, Alice Y W; Chan, Julie Y H; Chan, Samuel H H

2014-03-01

As the most widely used pesticides in the globe, the organophosphate compounds are understandably linked with the highest incidence of suicidal poisoning. Whereas the elicited toxicity is often associated with circulatory depression, the underlying mechanisms require further delineation. Employing the pesticide mevinphos as our experimental tool, we evaluated the hypothesis that transcriptional upregulation of nitric oxide synthase II (NOS II) by NF-κB on activation of the PI3K/Akt cascade in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM), the brain stem site that maintains blood pressure and sympathetic vasomotor tone, underpins the circulatory depressive effects of organophosphate poisons. Microinjection of mevinphos (10 nmol) bilaterally into the RVLM of anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats induced a progressive hypotension that was accompanied sequentially by an increase (Phase I) and a decrease (Phase II) of an experimental index for the baroreflex-mediated sympathetic vasomotor tone. There were also progressive augmentations in PI3K or Akt enzyme activity and phosphorylation of p85 or Akt(Thr308) subunit in the RVLM that were causally related to an increase in NF-κB transcription activity and elevation in NOS II or peroxynitrite expression. Loss-of-function manipulations of PI3K or Akt in the RVLM significantly antagonized the reduced baroreflex-mediated sympathetic vasomotor tone and hypotension during Phase II mevinphos intoxication, and blunted the increase in NF-κB/NOS II/peroxynitrite signaling. We conclude that activation of the PI3K/Akt cascade, leading to upregulation of NF-κB/NOS II/peroxynitrite signaling in the RVLM, elicits impairment of brain stem cardiovascular regulation that underpins circulatory depression during mevinphos intoxication. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Labor and Delivery Patient Classification System Based on Direct Nursing Care Time

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-08-01

physician 2409 Internal or external monitoring--uterine contraction/ fetal heart tones 2410 Manual contraction assessment 2411 Pitocin induction...assisting physician 2412 Fetal heart tones, manual 2413 Fetal heart tones, doppler 2414 Fetal scalp sampling, assisting physician 241E Routine delivery room... heart tones, ultrasonic transducer 2437 Monitoring fetal heart tones, ultrasonic transducer and uterine contraction, tocotransducer 69 Appendix B: List

A Possible New Cause of Tone-Splitting--Evidence from Cama, Yoruba, and Other Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maddieson, Ian

This paper reviews the evidence that Proto-Niger-Congo was a tone language with only two level tones and seeks to find the evidence that will explain how some of the descendant languages have more than two tones. In particular it shows how synchronic tone rules in Cama and consonant correspondences between Cama and Yoruba suggest a new factor in…

Compensation for z-directional non-uniformity of a monopole antenna at 7T MRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Nambeom; Woo, Myung-Kyun; Kang, Chang-Ki

2016-06-01

The research was conducted to find ways to compensate for z-directional non-uniformity at a monopole antenna array (MA) coil by using a tilted optimized non-saturating excitation (TONE) pulse and to evaluate the feasibility of using the MA coil with the TONE pulse for anatomical and angiographic imaging. The sensitivity of a MA coil along the z-direction was measured by using an actual flip angle imaging pulse sequence with an oil phantom to evaluate the flip angle distributions of the MA coil for 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The effects on the z-directional uniformity were examined by using slow and fast TONE pulses, i.e., TONE SLOW and TONE FAST. T1- and T2* -weighted images of the human brain were also examined. The z-directional profiles of the TONE pulses were analyzed by using the average signal intensity throughout the brain. The effect of the TONE pulses on cerebral vessels was further examined by analyzing maximal intensity projections of T1-weighted images. With increasing the applied flip angles, the sensitivity slope slightly increased (0.044 per degree). For the MA coil, the TONE SLOWpulse yielded a compensated profile along the z-direction while the TONE HIGH pulse, which has a flat excitation profile along the z-direction, exhibited a tilted signal intensity toward the coil end, clearly indicating an intrinsic property of the MA coil. Similar to the phantom study, human brain images revealed z-directional symmetry around the peak value for the averaged signal intensity of the TONE SLOW pulse while the TONE HIGH pulse exhibited a tilted signal intensity toward the coil end. In vascular system imaging, the MA coil also clearly demonstrated a beneficial effect on the cerebral vessels, either with or without the TONE pulses. This study demonstrates that TONE pulses could compensate for the intrinsic z-directional non-uniformity of MA coils that exhibit strong uniformity in the x-y plane. Furthermore, tilted pulses, such as TONE pulses, were utilized for visualizing small vessels. Appropriately combining MA coils and TONE pulses could help advance micro-vessel visualization.

Ixpantepec Nieves Mixtec Word Prosody

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carroll, Lucien Serapio

This dissertation presents a phonological description and acoustic analysis of the word prosody of Ixpantepec Nieves Mixtec, which involves both a complex tone system and a default stress system. The analysis of Nieves Mixtec word prosody is complicated by a close association between morphological structure and prosodic structure, and by the interactions between word prosody and phonation type, which has both contrastive and non-contrastive roles in the phonology. I contextualize these systems within the phonology of Nieves Mixtec as a whole, within the literature on other Mixtec varieties, and within the literature on cross-linguistic prosodic typology. The literature on prosodic typology indicates that stress is necessarily defined abstractly, as structured prominence realized differently in each language. Descriptions of stress in other Mixtec varieties widely report default stress on the initial syllable of the canonical bimoraic root, though some descriptions suggest final stress or mobile stress. I first present phonological evidence---from distributional restrictions, phonological processes, and loanword adaptation---that Nieves Mixtec word prosody does involve a stress system, based on trochaic feet aligned to the root. I then present an acoustic study comparing stressed syllables to unstressed syllables, for ten potential acoustic correlates of stress. The results indicate that the acoustic correlates of stress in Nieves Mixtec include segmental duration, intensity and periodicity. Building on analyses of other Mixtec tone systems, I show that the distribution of tone and the tone processes in Nieves Mixtec support an analysis in which morae may bear H, M or L tone, where M tone is underlyingly unspecified, and each morpheme may sponsor a final +H or +L floating tone. Bimoraic roots thus host up to two linked tones and one floating tone, while monomoraic clitics host just one linked tone and one floating tone, and tonal morphemes are limited to a single floating tone. I then present three studies describing the acoustic realization of tone and comparing the realization of tone in different prosodic types. The findings of these studies include a strong directional asymmetry in tonal coarticulation, increased duration at the word or phrase boundary, phonation differences among the tone categories, and F0 differences between the glottalization categories.

The acoustic analysis of tone differentiation as a means for assessing tone production in speakers of Cantonese

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barry, Johanna G.; Blamey, Peter J.

2004-09-01

This paper reports on a methodology for acoustically analyzing tone production in Cantonese. F0 offset versus F0 onset are plotted for a series of tokens for each of the six tones in the language. These are grouped according to tone type into a set of six ellipses. Qualitative visual observations regarding the degree of differentiation of the ellipses within the tonal space are summarized numerically using two indices, referred to here as Index 1 and Index 2. Index 1 is a ratio of the area of the speaker's tonal space and the average of the areas of the ellipses of the three target tones making up the tonal space. Index 2 is a ratio of the average distance between all six tonal ellipses and the average of the sum of the two axes for all six tone ellipses. Using this methodology, tonal differentiation is compared for three groups of speakers; normally hearing adults; normally hearing children aged from 4-6 years; and, prelinguistically deafened cochlear implant users aged from 4-11 years. A potential conundrum regarding how tone production abilities can outstrip tone perception abilities is explained using the data from the acoustic analyses. It is suggested that young children of the age range tested are still learning to normalize for pitch level differences in tone production. Acoustic analysis of the data thus supports results from tone perception studies and suggests that the methodology is suitable for use in studies investigating tone production in both clinical and research contexts.

Sound tuning of amygdala plasticity in auditory fear conditioning

PubMed Central

Park, Sungmo; Lee, Junuk; Park, Kyungjoon; Kim, Jeongyeon; Song, Beomjong; Hong, Ingie; Kim, Jieun; Lee, Sukwon; Choi, Sukwoo

2016-01-01

Various auditory tones have been used as conditioned stimuli (CS) for fear conditioning, but researchers have largely neglected the effect that different types of auditory tones may have on fear memory processing. Here, we report that at lateral amygdala (LA) synapses (a storage site for fear memory), conditioning with different types of auditory CSs (2.8 kHz tone, white noise, FM tone) recruits distinct forms of long-term potentiation (LTP) and inserts calcium permeable AMPA receptor (CP-AMPAR) for variable periods. White noise or FM tone conditioning produced brief insertion (<6 hr after conditioning) of CP-AMPARs, whereas 2.8 kHz tone conditioning induced more persistent insertion (≥6 hr). Consistently, conditioned fear to 2.8 kHz tone but not to white noise or FM tones was erased by reconsolidation-update (which depends on the insertion of CP-AMPARs at LA synapses) when it was performed 6 hr after conditioning. Our data suggest that conditioning with different auditory CSs recruits distinct forms of LA synaptic plasticity, resulting in more malleable fear memory to some tones than to others. PMID:27488731

Perception of pitch height in lexical and musical tones by English-speaking musicians and nonmusicians.

PubMed

Lee, Chao-Yang; Lekich, Allison; Zhang, Yu

2014-03-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the music-speech relationship by examining pitch height perception in lexical and musical tones. English-speaking musicians and nonmusicians identified multispeaker Taiwanese level tones without typical cues for speaker normalization. The musicians also identified note names of piano, viola, and pure tones without a reference pitch. In the Taiwanese task, both the musicians and nonmusicians were able to identify tone height above chance, but only for tones at the extremes of the speakers' overall vocal range. The musicians only had a slight advantage over the nonmusicians. In the music task, none of the musicians met the criterion for absolute pitch. Timbre did not affect how accurately the musical tones were identified. No correlations were found between performance in the Taiwanese task and that in the music task. It was concluded that musicians' advantage in lexical tone perception arose from the ability to track F0 contours. The ability to identify pitch height in lexical tones appears to involve calibrating acoustic input according to gender-specific, internally stored pitch templates.

Tone of voice guides word learning in informative referential contexts

PubMed Central

Reinisch, Eva; Jesse, Alexandra; Nygaard, Lynne C.

2012-01-01

Listeners infer which object in a visual scene a speaker refers to from the systematic variation of the speaker’s tone of voice (ToV). We examined whether ToV also guides word learning. During exposure, participants heard novel adjectives (e.g., “daxen”) spoken with a ToV representing hot, cold, strong, weak, big, or small while viewing picture pairs representing the meaning of the adjective and its antonym (e.g., elephant-ant for big-small). Eye fixations were recorded to monitor referent detection and learning. During test, participants heard the adjectives spoken with a neutral ToV, while selecting referents from familiar and unfamiliar picture pairs. Participants were able to learn the adjectives’ meanings, and, even in the absence of informative ToV, generalise them to new referents. A second experiment addressed whether ToV provides sufficient information to infer the adjectival meaning or needs to operate within a referential context providing information about the relevant semantic dimension. Participants who saw printed versions of the novel words during exposure performed at chance during test. ToV, in conjunction with the referential context, thus serves as a cue to word meaning. ToV establishes relations between labels and referents for listeners to exploit in word learning. PMID:23134484

Acoustic Salience and Input Frequency in L2 Lexical Tone Learning: Evidence from a Zapotec Revitalization Program in San Pablo Macuiltianguis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riestenberg, Katherine J.

2017-01-01

Second language (L2) learners of tone languages do not perceive and produce the different tones of the target language with equal ease. The most common explanation for these asymmetries is that acoustically salient tones are the easiest to learn. An alternative explanation is that tones are easiest to learn when they are highly frequent in the…

Contra-Rotating Open Rotor Tone Noise Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Envia, Edmane

2014-01-01

Reliable prediction of contra-rotating open rotor (CROR) noise is an essential element of any strategy for the development of low-noise open rotor propulsion systems that can meet both the community noise regulations and cabin noise limits. Since CROR noise spectra exhibit a preponderance of tones, significant efforts have been directed towards predicting their tone content. To that end, there has been an ongoing effort at NASA to assess various in-house open rotor tone noise prediction tools using a benchmark CROR blade set for which significant aerodynamic and acoustic data have been acquired in wind tunnel tests. In the work presented here, the focus is on the nearfield noise of the benchmark open rotor blade set at the cruise condition. Using an analytical CROR tone noise model with input from high-fidelity aerodynamic simulations, tone noise spectra have been predicted and compared with the experimental data. Comparisons indicate that the theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the data, especially for the dominant tones and for the overall sound pressure level of tones. The results also indicate that, whereas the individual rotor tones are well predicted by the combination of the thickness and loading sources, for the interaction tones it is essential that the quadrupole source is also included in the analysis.

Cellular therapy injections in today's orthopedic market: A social media analysis.

PubMed

Ramkumar, Prem N; Navarro, Sergio M; Haeberle, Heather S; Chughtai, Morad; Demetriades, Christopher; Piuzzi, Nicolas S; Mont, Michael A; Bauer, Thomas W; Muschler, George F

2017-12-01

The current state of cellular therapy for musculoskeletal conditions is at a crossroads. Marketing efforts are often outpacing clinical evidence and regulatory control. This study was an effort to describe the marketing of cellular therapy in musculoskeletal medicine by evaluating the content in popular social media channels. Specifically, media posts were evaluated for the following: (1) perspective, (2) tone, (3) content and (4) visibility. Social media content related to cell therapy for musculoskeletal conditions was assessed in a search using 28 hashtags on the public domains of Instagram and Twitter over a 2-year period (2014-2016) that resulted in analysis of 698 posts. Supplemental analyses of LinkedIn and Facebook domains were also conducted. A categorical scoring system was used to analyze perspective (patient, family or friend, business or organization), tone (positive, negative), content (education, advertisement, research, media coverage or patient experience) and visibility (number of hashtags per post). Sub-analyses of the advertisement content from various perspectives (patients, physicians and businesses) were performed. The media perspective was most frequently from a business or organization (83%; n = 575). A total of 94% of the posts had a positive tone and only 6% had a negative tone, and the only negative posts came from patients (60% positive and 40% negative). The most common content of social media posts were advertisements, representing 68% (n = 477) of all posts; this was confirmed in the Facebook analysis. The mean number of hashtags was five per post. Sub-analyses revealed approximately half of the advertising posts originated from a single business that recruited physicians to market their cell-based therapies on social media, which was confirmed in the LinkedIn analysis. The market messages related to cell-based therapies for musculoskeletal conditions available on social media are dominated by businesses that seem to use a network of physicians, apply several hashtags to enhance visibility and advertise these largely unproven modalities. The posts portray an almost exclusively positive tone, without providing a "fair balance" on the risks, benefits and limitations. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Amplitude by Peak Interaction but No Evidence of Auditory Mismatch Response Deficits to Frequency Change in Preschool-Aged Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

PubMed

Kabella, Danielle M; Flynn, Lucinda; Peters, Amanda; Kodituwakku, Piyadasa; Stephen, Julia M

2018-05-24

Prior studies indicate that the auditory mismatch response is sensitive to early alterations in brain development in multiple developmental disorders. Prenatal alcohol exposure is known to impact early auditory processing. The current study hypothesized alterations in the mismatch response in young children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Participants in this study were 9 children with a FASD and 17 control children (Control) aged 3 to 6 years. Participants underwent magnetoencephalography and structural magnetic resonance imaging scans separately. We compared groups on neurophysiological mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to auditory stimuli measured using the auditory oddball paradigm. Frequent (1,000 Hz) and rare (1,200 Hz) tones were presented at 72 dB. There was no significant group difference in MMN response latency or amplitude represented by the peak located ~200 ms after stimulus presentation in the difference time course between frequent and infrequent tones. Examining the time courses to the frequent and infrequent tones separately, repeated measures analysis of variance with condition (frequent vs. rare), peak (N100m and N200m), and hemisphere as within-subject factors and diagnosis and sex as the between-subject factors showed a significant interaction of peak by diagnosis (p = 0.001), with a pattern of decreased amplitude from N100m to N200m in Control children and the opposite pattern in children with FASD. However, no significant difference was found with the simple effects comparisons. No group differences were found in the response latencies of the rare auditory evoked fields. The results indicate that there was no detectable effect of alcohol exposure on the amplitude or latency of the MMNm response to simple tones modulated by frequency change in preschool-aged children with FASD. However, while discrimination abilities to simple tones may be intact, early auditory sensory processing revealed by the interaction between N100m and N200m amplitude indicates that auditory sensory processing may be altered in children with FASD. Copyright © 2018 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic neural activation in guinea-pig bronchi: powerful and frequency-dependent stabilizing effect on tone.

PubMed Central

Lindén, A.; Ullman, A.; Löfdahl, C. G.; Skoogh, B. E.

1993-01-01

1. We examined non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) stimulation for its stabilizing effect on bronchial smooth-muscle tone with respect to its regulatory power and the effect of variations in neural impulse frequency. 2. The guinea-pig isolated main bronchus (n = 4-12) was pretreated with indomethacin (10 microM) and incubated with atropine (1 microM) and guanethidine (10 microM). Electrical field stimulation (EFS: 1200 mA, 0.5 ms, 240 s) was applied at various levels of tone prior to EFS: first without tone, then at a moderate tone induced by histamine (0.3 microM) and, finally, at a high tone induced by histamine (6 microM). Three different stimulation frequencies (1, 3 or 10 Hz) were used in order to produce moderate to near-maximum contractile and relaxant NANC neural responses. Both the contractile and the relaxant NANC responses were tetrodotoxin-sensitive in the guinea-pig isolated main bronchus (3 Hz). 3. Without tone prior to EFS, NANC activation (1, 3 or 10 Hz) induced a pronounced contractile response. At a moderate level of tone prior to EFS, NANC activation induced a less pronounced contractile response. At the highest level of tone prior to EFS, NANC activation induced a relaxant response. All these NANC responses adjusted the tone towards a similar level and this 'stabilization level' was 56(6)% at 1 Hz, 65(3)% at 3 Hz and 56(5)% at 10 Hz, expressed as a percentage of the maximum histamine-induced (0.1 mM) tone in each airway preparation. 4. There was a difference of approximately 90% of maximum between the highest and the lowest tone level prior to NANC activation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) PMID:8358575

Light and heavy touch reduces postural sway and modifies axial tone in Parkinson’s disease

PubMed Central

Franzén, Erika; Paquette, Caroline; Gurfinkel, Victor; Horak, Fay

2014-01-01

Background Light touch with a stable object reduces postural sway by increasing axial postural tone in healthy subjects. However, it is unknown whether subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD), who have more postural sway and higher axial postural tone than healthy subjects, can benefit from haptic touch. Objective To investigate the effect of light and heavy touch on postural stability and hip tone in subjects with PD. Methods Fourteen subjects with mid-stage PD, and 14 healthy control subjects were evaluated during quiet standing with eyes closed with their arms: 1) crossed, 2) lightly touching a fixed rigid bar in front of them and 3) firmly gripping the bar. Postural sway was measured with a forceplate and axial hip tone was quantified using a unique device that measures the resistance of the hips to yaw rotation while maintaining active stance. Results Subjects with PD significantly decreased their postural sway with light or heavy touch (p<0.001 vs. arms crossed), similarly as control subjects. Without touch, hip tone was larger in PD subjects. With touch, however, tone values were similar in both groups. This change in hip tone with touch was highly correlated with the initial amount of tone (PD: r=− 0.72 to −0.95 and controls: r=−0.74 to−0.85). Conclusions We showed, for the first time, that subjects with PD benefit from touch similarly to control subjects and that despite higher axial postural tone, PD subjects are able to modulate their tone with touch. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between touch and postural tone. PMID:22415944

L- and K-band LMSS propagation measurements using MARECS-B, OLYMPUS, and ACTS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vogel, W. J.; Torrence, G. W.; Goldhirsh, J.; Rowland, J. R.

1992-01-01

L-band measurements of land mobile satellite systems (LMSS) propagation effects were last made at the end of 1988, but some voids were left in the database, making modeling of low elevation roadside tree shadowing and multipath reflections difficult for some path geometries. Transmission of a pilot tone from MARECS-B at 55 deg West during Sep. and Dec. 1991 gave an opportunity to fill the gaps in the experimental results. Two campaigns during which fade data were obtained at elevation angles from 7 deg to 40 deg are described. Below 15 deg, specular terrain reflections in a non-shadowing, hilly environment were observed to introduce significant fading. Although the reflecting surface was at a distance of up to several km, it is shown that the reflected signals are delayed by less than 1 microsec. Mobile measurements were also attempted receiving the 20 GHz Olympus beacon, but antenna pointing problems restricted first results to straight-line driving.

Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and Lake Mead

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

A snowfall in the American West provides contrast to the landscape's muted earth tones and indicates changes in topography and elevation across (clockwise from top left) Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In Utah, the southern ranges of the Wasatch Mountains are covered in snow, and the Colorado River etches a dark ribbon across the red rock of the Colorado Plateau. In the center of the image is the reservoir created by the Glen Canyon Dam. To the east are the gray-colored slopes of Navaho Mountain, and to the southeast, dusted with snow is the region called Black Mesa. Southwest of Glen Canyon, the Colorado enters the Grand Canyon, which cuts westward through Arizona. At a deep bend in the river, the higher elevations of the Keibab Plateau have held onto snow. At the end of the Grand Canyon lies another large reservoir, Lake Mead, which is formed by the Hoover Dam. Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Timing matters: the processing of pitch relations

PubMed Central

Weise, Annekathrin; Grimm, Sabine; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J.; Schröger, Erich

2014-01-01

The human central auditory system can automatically extract abstract regularities from a variant auditory input. To this end, temporarily separated events need to be related. This study tested whether the timing between events, falling either within or outside the temporal window of integration (~350 ms), impacts the extraction of abstract feature relations. We utilized tone pairs for which tones within but not across pairs revealed a constant pitch relation (e.g., pitch of second tone of a pair higher than pitch of first tone, while absolute pitch values varied across pairs). We measured the mismatch negativity (MMN; the brain’s error signal to auditory regularity violations) to second tones that rarely violated the pitch relation (e.g., pitch of second tone lower). A Short condition in which tone duration (90 ms) and stimulus onset asynchrony between the tones of a pair were short (110 ms) was compared to two conditions, where this onset asynchrony was long (510 ms). In the Long Gap condition, the tone durations were identical to Short (90 ms), but the silent interval was prolonged by 400 ms. In Long Tone, the duration of the first tone was prolonged by 400 ms, while the silent interval was comparable to Short (20 ms). Results show a frontocentral MMN of comparable amplitude in all conditions. Thus, abstract pitch relations can be extracted even when the within-pair timing exceeds the integration period. Source analyses indicate MMN generators in the supratemporal cortex. Interestingly, they were located more anterior in Long Gap than in Short and Long Tone. Moreover, frontal generator activity was found for Long Gap and Long Tone. Thus, the way in which the system automatically registers irregular abstract pitch relations depends on the timing of the events to be linked. Pending that the current MMN data mirror established abstract rule representations coding the regular pitch relation, neural processes building these templates vary with timing. PMID:24966823

Which DEM is the best for glaciology? -Evaluation of global-scale DEM products-

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagai, Hiroto; Tadono, Takeo

2017-04-01

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are fundamental geospatial data to study glacier distribution, changes, dynamics, mass balance and various geomorphological conditions. This study evaluates latest global-scale free DEMs in order to clarify their superiority and inferiority in glaciological uses. Three DEMs are now available; the 1-arcsec. product obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM1), the second version of Global Digital Elevation Model of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER GDEM2), and the first resampled dataset acquired by the Advanced Land observing Satellite, namely ALOS World 3D-30m (AW3D30). These DEMs have common specifications of global coverage (<60°S/N for SRTM1), freely downloadable via internet, and 1-arcsec. ( 30 m) pixel spacing. We carried out quantitative accuracy evaluation and spatial analysis of missing data (i.e. "void") distribution for these DEMs. Elevation values of the three DEMs are validated at check points (CPs), where elevation was measured by Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, in (A) the Japan Alps (as steep mountains with glaciation), in (B) Mt. Fuji (as monotonous hillslope), and in (C) the Tone river basin (as an flat plain). In all study sites, AW3D30 has the smallest errors against the CP elevation values (A: -6.1±8.6 m, B: +0.1±3.9 m, C: +0.1±2.5 m as the mean value and standard deviation of elevation differences). SRTM1 is secondly accurate (A: -17.8±16.3 m, B: +1.3±6.4 m, C: +0.1±3.1 m,), followed by ASTER GDEM2 (A: -13.9±20.8 m, B: -3.9±10.0 m, C: +4.3±3.8 m,). This accuracy differences among the DEMs are greater in steeper terrains (A>B>C). In the Tone river basin, SRTM1 has equivalent accuracy to AW3D30. High resolution (2.5 m) of the original stereo-pair images for AW3D30 (i.e. ALOS PRISM imagery) contributes for the best absolute accuracy. Glaciers on rather flat terrains are usually distributed in higher latitude (e.g. Antarctica and Greenland), where SRTM1 is unable. Glaciers at mid-to-low latitudes glaciers are usually distributed in high and steep mountains, where SRTM1 has lower accuracy than AW3D30. AW3D30 would contributes as a preferable option for glaciology in a global scale. At the tops of high mountains in the Nepal Himalaya, however, AW3D30 has a large area of data missing due to snow cover. This inferiority should be improved by filling with other datasets in the next version. ASTER GDEM2 has less area of data missing in the Nepal Himalaya, which would contribute for coarse uses such as generation of river basin, brief drawing of a topographic map, etc.

Communication Disorders in Speakers of Tone Languages: Etiological Bases and Clinical Considerations

PubMed Central

Wong, Patrick C. M.; Perrachione, Tyler K.; Gunasekera, Geshri; Chandrasekaran, Bharath

2009-01-01

Lexical tones are a phonetic contrast necessary for conveying meaning in a majority of the world’s languages. Various hearing, speech, and language disorders affect the ability to perceive or produce lexical tones, thereby seriously impairing individuals’ communicative abilities. The number of tone language speakers is increasing, even in otherwise English-speaking nations, yet insufficient emphasis has been placed on clinical assessment and rehabilitation of lexical tone disorders. The similarities and dissimilarities between lexical tones and other speech sounds make a richer scientific understanding of their physiological bases paramount to more effective remediation of speech and language disorders in general. Here we discuss the cognitive and biological bases of lexical tones, emphasizing the neural structures and networks that support their acquisition, perception, and cognitive representation. We present emerging research on lexical tone learning in the context of the clinical disorders of hearing, speech, and language that this body of research will help to address. PMID:19711234

Impaired learning of event frequencies in tone deafness

PubMed Central

Loui, Psyche; Schlaug, Gottfried

2013-01-01

Musical knowledge is ubiquitous, effortless, and implicitly acquired all over the world via exposure to musical materials in one’s culture. In contrast, one group of individuals who show insensitivity to music, specifically the inability to discriminate pitches and melodies, is the tone-deaf. In this study, we asked whether difficulties in pitch and melody discrimination among the tone-deaf could be related to learning difficulties, and, if so, what processes of learning might be affected in the tone-deaf. We investigated the learning of frequency information in a new musical system in tone-deaf individuals and matched controls. Results showed significantly impaired learning abilities in frequency matching in the tone-deaf. This impairment was positively correlated with the severity of tone deafness as assessed by the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia. Taken together, the results suggest that tone deafness is characterized by an impaired ability to acquire frequency information from pitched materials in the sound environment. PMID:22524379

Impaired learning of event frequencies in tone deafness.

PubMed

Loui, Psyche; Schlaug, Gottfried

2012-04-01

Musical knowledge is ubiquitous, effortless, and implicitly acquired all over the world via exposure to musical materials in one's culture. In contrast, one group of individuals who show insensitivity to music, specifically the inability to discriminate pitches and melodies, is the tone-deaf. In this study, we asked whether difficulties in pitch and melody discrimination among the tone-deaf could be related to learning difficulties, and, if so, what processes of learning might be affected in the tone-deaf. We investigated the learning of frequency information in a new musical system in tone-deaf individuals and matched controls. Results showed significantly impaired learning abilities in frequency matching in the tone-deaf. This impairment was positively correlated with the severity of tone deafness as assessed by the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia. Taken together, the results suggest that tone deafness is characterized by an impaired ability to acquire frequency information from pitched materials in the sound environment. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Perception of musical and lexical tones by Taiwanese-speaking musicians.

PubMed

Lee, Chao-Yang; Lee, Yuh-Fang; Shr, Chia-Lin

2011-07-01

This study explored the relationship between music and speech by examining absolute pitch and lexical tone perception. Taiwanese-speaking musicians were asked to identify musical tones without a reference pitch and multispeaker Taiwanese level tones without acoustic cues typically present for speaker normalization. The results showed that a high percentage of the participants (65% with an exact match required and 81% with one-semitone errors allowed) possessed absolute pitch, as measured by the musical tone identification task. A negative correlation was found between occurrence of absolute pitch and age of onset of musical training, suggesting that the acquisition of absolute pitch resembles the acquisition of speech. The participants were able to identify multispeaker Taiwanese level tones with above-chance accuracy, even though the acoustic cues typically present for speaker normalization were not available in the stimuli. No correlations were found between the performance in musical tone identification and the performance in Taiwanese tone identification. Potential reasons for the lack of association between the two tasks are discussed. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America

The Binaural Masking-Level Difference of Mandarin Tone Detection and the Binaural Intelligibility-Level Difference of Mandarin Tone Recognition in the Presence of Speech-Spectrum Noise

PubMed Central

Ho, Cheng-Yu; Li, Pei-Chun; Chiang, Yuan-Chuan; Young, Shuenn-Tsong; Chu, Woei-Chyn

2015-01-01

Binaural hearing involves using information relating to the differences between the signals that arrive at the two ears, and it can make it easier to detect and recognize signals in a noisy environment. This phenomenon of binaural hearing is quantified in laboratory studies as the binaural masking-level difference (BMLD). Mandarin is one of the most commonly used languages, but there are no publication values of BMLD or BILD based on Mandarin tones. Therefore, this study investigated the BMLD and BILD of Mandarin tones. The BMLDs of Mandarin tone detection were measured based on the detection threshold differences for the four tones of the voiced vowels /i/ (i.e., /i1/, /i2/, /i3/, and /i4/) and /u/ (i.e., /u1/, /u2/, /u3/, and /u4/) in the presence of speech-spectrum noise when presented interaurally in phase (S0N0) and interaurally in antiphase (SπN0). The BILDs of Mandarin tone recognition in speech-spectrum noise were determined as the differences in the target-to-masker ratio (TMR) required for 50% correct tone recognitions between the S0N0 and SπN0 conditions. The detection thresholds for the four tones of /i/ and /u/ differed significantly (p<0.001) between the S0N0 and SπN0 conditions. The average detection thresholds of Mandarin tones were all lower in the SπN0 condition than in the S0N0 condition, and the BMLDs ranged from 7.3 to 11.5 dB. The TMR for 50% correct Mandarin tone recognitions differed significantly (p<0.001) between the S0N0 and SπN0 conditions, at –13.4 and –18.0 dB, respectively, with a mean BILD of 4.6 dB. The study showed that the thresholds of Mandarin tone detection and recognition in the presence of speech-spectrum noise are improved when phase inversion is applied to the target speech. The average BILDs of Mandarin tones are smaller than the average BMLDs of Mandarin tones. PMID:25835987

Tones Encountered with a Coannular Nozzle and a Method for Their Suppression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaman, Khairul Bmq; Bridges, James E.; Fagan, Amy Florence; Miller, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

With multi-stream coannular nozzles, sometimes tones occur that may cause the nozzle to fail noise regulation standards. A two-stream nozzle was studied experimentally and numerically in an attempt to identify the sources of such tones and explore remedies. For the given nozzle configuration, sharp tones occurred in a range of low jet Mach numbers. The tones apparently occurred due to a coupling between vortex shedding from the struts, which held the nozzles and the center-body together, with various duct acoustic modes. A leading edge treatment of the struts is shown to eliminate the tones via disruption of the vortex shedding.

Tones Encountered with a Coannular Nozzle and a Method for their Suppression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaman, Khairul; Bridges, James; Fagan, Amy; Miller, Chris

2017-01-01

With multi-stream coannular nozzles, sometimes tones are generated that make the nozzle fail noise regulation criteria. A two-stream nozzle was studied experimentally in an attempt to identify the sources of such tones and explore remedies. With the given nozzle configuration, sharp tones occurred in a range of low jet Mach numbers (M (sub j)). The tones could be traced to a coupling of vortex shedding from the struts, that hold the nozzles and the center-body together, and various acoustic resonance modes of the ducts. A leading edge treatment of the struts is shown to suppress the vortex shedding and eliminate the tones.

Tones Encountered with a Coannular Nozzle and a Method for their Suppression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaman, K. B. M. Q.; Bridges, J. E.; Fagan, A. F.; Miller, C. J.

2017-01-01

With multi-stream coannular nozzles, sometimes tones occur that may cause the nozzle to fail noise regulation standards. A two-stream nozzle was studied experimentally and numerically in an at-tempt to identify the sources of such tones and explore remedies. For the given nozzle configuration, sharp tones occurred in a range of low jet Mach numbers. The tones apparently occurred due to a coupling between vortex shedding from the struts, which held the nozzles and the center-body together, with various duct acoustic modes. A leading edge treatment of the struts is shown to eliminate the tones via disruption of the vortex shedding.

Perception of intonation in Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Yuan, Jiahong

2011-12-01

There is a tendency across languages to use a rising pitch contour to convey question intonation and a falling pitch contour to convey a statement. In a lexical tone language such as Mandarin Chinese, rising and falling pitch contours are also used to differentiate lexical meaning. How, then, does the multiplexing of the F(0) channel affect the perception of question and statement intonation in a lexical tone language? This study investigated the effects of lexical tones and focus on the perception of intonation in Mandarin Chinese. The results show that lexical tones and focus impact the perception of sentence intonation. Question intonation was easier for native speakers to identify on a sentence with a final falling tone and more difficult to identify on a sentence with a final rising tone, suggesting that tone identification intervenes in the mapping of F(0) contours to intonational categories and that tone and intonation interact at the phonological level. In contrast, there is no evidence that the interaction between focus and intonation goes beyond the psychoacoustic level. The results provide insights that will be useful for further research on tone and intonation interactions in both acoustic modeling studies and neurobiological studies. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America

Effects of remifentanil on gastric tone.

PubMed

Walldén, Jakob; Thörn, Sven-Egron; Lindberg, Greger; Wattwil, Magnus

2008-08-01

Opioids are well known for impairing gastric motility. The mechanism is far from clear and there is wide interindividual variability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of remifentanil on proximal gastric tone. Healthy volunteers were studied on two occasions and proximal gastric tone was measured by a gastric barostat. On the first occasion (n=8), glucagon 1 mg IV was given as a reference for a maximal relaxation of the stomach. On the second occasion (n=9), remifentanil was given in incremental doses (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 microg/kg/min) for 15 min each, followed by a washout period of 30 min. Thereafter, remifentanil was readministered, and 10 min later glucagon 1 mg was given. Mean intragastric bag volumes were calculated for each 5-min interval. Glucagon decreased gastric tone in all subjects. Remifentanil had a marked effect on gastric tone; we found two distinct patterns of reactions with both increases and decreases in gastric tone and, during the remifentanil infusion, glucagon did not affect gastric tone. Remifentanil induced changes in gastric tone with both increases and decreases. The effect of remifentanil on gastric tone is probably dependent on the current state of the systems involved.

Perceptual pitch deficits coexist with pitch production difficulties in music but not Mandarin speech

PubMed Central

Yang, Wu-xia; Feng, Jie; Huang, Wan-ting; Zhang, Cheng-xiang; Nan, Yun

2014-01-01

Congenital amusia is a musical disorder that mainly affects pitch perception. Among Mandarin speakers, some amusics also have difficulties in processing lexical tones (tone agnosics). To examine to what extent these perceptual deficits may be related to pitch production impairments in music and Mandarin speech, eight amusics, eight tone agnosics, and 12 age- and IQ-matched normal native Mandarin speakers were asked to imitate music note sequences and Mandarin words of comparable lengths. The results indicated that both the amusics and tone agnosics underperformed the controls on musical pitch production. However, tone agnosics performed no worse than the amusics, suggesting that lexical tone perception deficits may not aggravate musical pitch production difficulties. Moreover, these three groups were all able to imitate lexical tones with perfect intelligibility. Taken together, the current study shows that perceptual musical pitch and lexical tone deficits might coexist with musical pitch production difficulties. But at the same time these perceptual pitch deficits might not affect lexical tone production or the intelligibility of the speech words that were produced. The perception-production relationship for pitch among individuals with perceptual pitch deficits may be, therefore, domain-dependent. PMID:24474944

Contrasting the effects of duration and number of syllables on the perceptual normalization of lexical tones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciocca, Valter; Francis, Alexander L.; Yau, Teresa S.-K.

2004-05-01

In tonal languages, syllabic fundamental frequency (F0) patterns (``lexical tones'') convey lexical meaning. Listeners need to relate such pitch patterns to the pitch range of a speaker (``tone normalization'') to accurately identify lexical tones. This study investigated the amount of tonal information required to perform tone normalization. A target CV syllable, perceived as either a high level, a low level, or a mid level Cantonese tone, was preceded by a four-syllable carrier sentence whose F0 was shifted (1 semitone), or not shifted. Four conditions were obtained by gating one, two, three, or four syllables from the onset of the target. Presentation rate (normal versus fast) was set such that the duration of the one, two, and three syllable conditions (normal carrier) was equal to that of the two, three, and four syllable conditions (fast carrier). Results suggest that tone normalization is largely accomplished within 250 ms or so prior to target onset, independent of the number of syllables; additional tonal information produces a relatively small increase in tone normalization. Implications for models of lexical tone normalization will be discussed. [Work supported by the RGC of the Hong Kong SAR, Project No. HKU 7193/00H.

Musical experience and Mandarin tone discrimination and imitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gottfried, Terry L.; Staby, Ann M.; Ziemer, Christine J.

2004-05-01

Previous work [T. L. Gottfried and D. Riester, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 2604 (2000)] showed that native speakers of American English with musical training performed better than nonmusicians when identifying the four distinctive tones of Mandarin Chinese (high-level, mid-rising, low-dipping, high-falling). Accuracy for both groups was relatively low since listeners were not trained on the phonemic contrasts. Current research compares musicians and nonmusicians on discrimination and imitation of unfamiliar tones. Listeners were presented with two different Mandarin words that had either the same or different tones; listeners indicated whether the tones were same or different. Thus, they were required to determine a categorical match (same or different tone), rather than an auditory match. All listeners had significantly more difficulty discriminating between mid-rising and low-dipping tones than with other contrasts. Listeners with more musical training showed significantly greater accuracy in their discrimination. Likewise, musicians' spoken imitations of Mandarin tones (model tokens presented by a native speaker) were rated as significantly more native-like than those of nonmusicians. These findings suggest that musicians may have abilities or training that facilitate their perception and production of Mandarin tones. However, further research is needed to determine whether this advantage transfers to language learning situations.

Perception of coarticulated tones by non-native listeners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bent, Tessa

2005-04-01

Mandarin lexical tones vary in their acoustic realization depending on the surrounding context. Native listeners compensate for this tonal coarticulation when identifying tones in context. This study investigated how native English listeners handle tonal coarticulation by testing native English and Mandarin listeners discrimination of the four Mandarin lexical tones in tri-syllabic sequences in which the middle tone varied while the first and last tones were held constant. Three different such frames were tested. As expected, Mandarin listeners discriminated all pairs in all contexts with a high degree of accuracy. English listeners exhibited poorer discrimination than Mandarin listeners and their discrimination accuracy showed a high degree of context dependency. In addition to assessing accuracy, reactions times to correctly discriminated different trials were entered into a multidimensional scaling analysis. For both listener groups, the arrangement of tones in perceptual space varied depending on the surrounding context suggesting that listeners attend to different acoustic attributes of the target tone depending on the surrounding tones. These results demonstrate the importance for models of cross-language speech perception of including contextual variation when characterizing the perception of non-native prosodic categories. [Work supported by NIH/NIDCD

Fast learning of simple perceptual discriminations reduces brain activation in working memory and in high-level auditory regions.

PubMed

Daikhin, Luba; Ahissar, Merav

2015-07-01

Introducing simple stimulus regularities facilitates learning of both simple and complex tasks. This facilitation may reflect an implicit change in the strategies used to solve the task when successful predictions regarding incoming stimuli can be formed. We studied the modifications in brain activity associated with fast perceptual learning based on regularity detection. We administered a two-tone frequency discrimination task and measured brain activation (fMRI) under two conditions: with and without a repeated reference tone. Although participants could not explicitly tell the difference between these two conditions, the introduced regularity affected both performance and the pattern of brain activation. The "No-Reference" condition induced a larger activation in frontoparietal areas known to be part of the working memory network. However, only the condition with a reference showed fast learning, which was accompanied by a reduction of activity in two regions: the left intraparietal area, involved in stimulus retention, and the posterior superior-temporal area, involved in representing auditory regularities. We propose that this joint reduction reflects a reduction in the need for online storage of the compared tones. We further suggest that this change reflects an implicit strategic shift "backwards" from reliance mainly on working memory networks in the "No-Reference" condition to increased reliance on detected regularities stored in high-level auditory networks.

Clinical Implications of 20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acid in the Kidney, Liver, Lung and Brain: An Emerging Therapeutic Target

PubMed Central

Elshenawy, Osama H.; Shoieb, Sherif M.; Mohamed, Anwar; El-Kadi, Ayman O.S.

2017-01-01

Cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of arachidonic acid (AA) is an important pathway for the formation of eicosanoids. The ω-hydroxylation of AA generates significant levels of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) in various tissues. In the current review, we discussed the role of 20-HETE in the kidney, liver, lung, and brain during physiological and pathophysiological states. Moreover, we discussed the role of 20-HETE in tumor formation, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. In the kidney, 20-HETE is involved in modulation of preglomerular vascular tone and tubular ion transport. Furthermore, 20-HETE is involved in renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and polycystic kidney diseases. The role of 20-HETE in the liver is not clearly understood although it represents 50%–75% of liver CYP-dependent AA metabolism, and it is associated with liver cirrhotic ascites. In the respiratory system, 20-HETE plays a role in pulmonary cell survival, pulmonary vascular tone and tone of the airways. As for the brain, 20-HETE is involved in cerebral I/R injury. Moreover, 20-HETE has angiogenic and mitogenic properties and thus helps in tumor promotion. Several inhibitors and inducers of the synthesis of 20-HETE as well as 20-HETE analogues and antagonists are recently available and could be promising therapeutic options for the treatment of many disease states in the future. PMID:28230738

A theoretical model of fuselage pressure levels due to fan tones radiated from the intake of an installed turbofan aero-engine.

PubMed

Gaffney, James; McAlpine, Alan; Kingan, Michael J

2018-06-01

An existing theoretical model to predict the pressure levels on an aircraft's fuselage is improved by incorporating a more physically realistic method to predict fan tone radiation from the intake of an installed turbofan aero-engine. Such a model can be used as part of a method to assess cabin noise. Fan tone radiation from a turbofan intake is modelled using the exact solution for the radiated pressure from a spinning mode exiting a semi-infinite cylindrical duct immersed in a uniform flow. This approach for a spinning duct mode incorporates scattering/diffraction by the intake lip, enabling predictions of the radiated pressure valid in both the forward and aft directions. The aircraft's fuselage is represented by an infinitely long, rigid cylinder. There is uniform flow aligned with the cylinder, except close to the cylinder's surface where there is a constant-thickness boundary layer. In addition to single mode calculations it is shown how the model may be used to rapidly calculate a multi-mode incoherent radiation from the engine intake. Illustrative results are presented which demonstrate the relative importance of boundary-layer shielding both upstream and downstream of the source, as well as examples of the fuselage pressure levels due to a multi-mode tonal source at high Helmholtz number.

An automated approach for tone mapping operator parameter adjustment in security applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krasula, LukáÅ.¡; Narwaria, Manish; Le Callet, Patrick

2014-05-01

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging has been gaining popularity in recent years. Different from the traditional low dynamic range (LDR), HDR content tends to be visually more appealing and realistic as it can represent the dynamic range of the visual stimuli present in the real world. As a result, more scene details can be faithfully reproduced. As a direct consequence, the visual quality tends to improve. HDR can be also directly exploited for new applications such as video surveillance and other security tasks. Since more scene details are available in HDR, it can help in identifying/tracking visual information which otherwise might be difficult with typical LDR content due to factors such as lack/excess of illumination, extreme contrast in the scene, etc. On the other hand, with HDR, there might be issues related to increased privacy intrusion. To display the HDR content on the regular screen, tone-mapping operators (TMO) are used. In this paper, we present the universal method for TMO parameters tuning, in order to maintain as many details as possible, which is desirable in security applications. The method's performance is verified on several TMOs by comparing the outcomes from tone-mapping with default and optimized parameters. The results suggest that the proposed approach preserves more information which could be of advantage for security surveillance but, on the other hand, makes us consider possible increase in privacy intrusion.

Statistics of EMIC Rising Tones Observed by the Van Allen Probes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sigsbee, K. M.; Kletzing, C.; Smith, C. W.; Santolik, O.

2017-12-01

We will present results from an ongoing statistical study of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave rising tones observed by the Van Allen Probes. Using data from the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) fluxgate magnetometer, we have identified orbits by both Van Allen Probes with EMIC wave events from the start of the mission in fall 2012 through fall 2016. Orbits with EMIC wave events were further examined for evidence of rising tones. Most EMIC wave rising tones were found during H+ band EMIC wave events. In Fourier time-frequency power spectrograms of the fluxgate magnetometer data, H+ band rising tones generally took the form of triggered emission type events, where the discrete rising tone structures rapidly rise in frequency out of the main band of observed H+ EMIC waves. A smaller percentage of EMIC wave rising tone events were found in the He+ band, where rising tones may appear as discrete structures with a positive slope embedded within the main band of observed He+ EMIC waves, similar in appearance to whistler-mode chorus elements. Understanding the occurrence rate and properties of rising tone EMIC waves will provide observational context for theoretical studies indicating that EMIC waves exhibiting non-linear behavior, such as rising tones, may be more effective at scattering radiation belt electrons than ordinary EMIC waves.

Musical experience facilitates lexical tone processing among Mandarin speakers: Behavioral and neural evidence.

PubMed

Tang, Wei; Xiong, Wen; Zhang, Yu-Xuan; Dong, Qi; Nan, Yun

2016-10-01

Music and speech share many sound attributes. Pitch, as the percept of fundamental frequency, often occupies the center of researchers' attention in studies on the relationship between music and speech. One widely held assumption is that music experience may confer an advantage in speech tone processing. The cross-domain effects of musical training on non-tonal language speakers' linguistic pitch processing have been relatively well established. However, it remains unclear whether musical experience improves the processing of lexical tone for native tone language speakers who actually use lexical tones in their daily communication. Using a passive oddball paradigm, the present study revealed that among Mandarin speakers, musicians demonstrated enlarged electrical responses to lexical tone changes as reflected by the increased mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitudes, as well as faster behavioral discrimination performance compared with age- and IQ-matched nonmusicians. The current results suggest that in spite of the preexisting long-term experience with lexical tones in both musicians and nonmusicians, musical experience can still modulate the cortical plasticity of linguistic tone processing and is associated with enhanced neural processing of speech tones. Our current results thus provide the first electrophysiological evidence supporting the notion that pitch expertise in the music domain may indeed be transferable to the speech domain even for native tone language speakers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context.

PubMed

Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C

2017-01-01

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like-not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.

Perception and Acoustic Correlates of the Taiwanese Tone Sandhi Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Chen-Hsiu

2013-01-01

This dissertation investigates how the Taiwanese Tone Sandhi Groups are perceived, and the acoustic/phonetics correlates of listeners' judgments. A series of perception experiments have been conducted to scrutinize the following topics--Taiwanese tone neutralization, Tone Sandhi Group (TSG) as a prosodic domain, perceived boundary strength in…

Dynamics of infant cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) for tone and speech tokens.

PubMed

Cone, Barbara; Whitaker, Richard

2013-07-01

Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) to tones and speech sounds were obtained in infants to: (1) further knowledge of auditory development above the level of the brainstem during the first year of life; (2) establish CAEP input-output functions for tonal and speech stimuli as a function of stimulus level and (3) elaborate the data-base that establishes CAEP in infants tested while awake using clinically relevant stimuli, thus providing methodology that would have translation to pediatric audiological assessment. Hypotheses concerning CAEP development were that the latency and amplitude input-output functions would reflect immaturity in encoding stimulus level. In a second experiment, infants were tested with the same stimuli used to evoke the CAEPs. Thresholds for these stimuli were determined using observer-based psychophysical techniques. The hypothesis was that the behavioral thresholds would be correlated with CAEP input-output functions because of shared cortical response areas known to be active in sound detection. 36 infants, between the ages of 4 and 12 months (mean=8 months, s.d.=1.8 months) and 9 young adults (mean age 21 years) with normal hearing were tested. First, CAEPs amplitude and latency input-output functions were obtained for 4 tone bursts and 7 speech tokens. The tone bursts stimuli were 50 ms tokens of pure tones at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 kHz. The speech sound tokens, /a/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /m/, /s/, and /∫/, were created from natural speech samples and were also 50 ms in duration. CAEPs were obtained for tone burst and speech token stimuli at 10 dB level decrements in descending order from 70 dB SPL. All CAEP tests were completed while the infants were awake and engaged in quiet play. For the second experiment, observer-based psychophysical methods were used to establish perceptual threshold for the same speech sound and tone tokens. Infant CAEP component latencies were prolonged by 100-150 ms in comparison to adults. CAEP latency-intensity input output functions were steeper in infants compared to adults. CAEP amplitude growth functions with respect to stimulus SPL are adult-like at this age, particularly for the earliest component, P1-N1. Infant perceptual thresholds were elevated with respect to those found in adults. Furthermore, perceptual thresholds were higher, on average, than levels at which CAEPs could be obtained. When CAEP amplitudes were plotted with respect to perceptual threshold (dB SL), the infant CAEP amplitude growth slopes were steeper than in adults. Although CAEP latencies indicate immaturity in neural transmission at the level of the cortex, amplitude growth with respect to stimulus SPL is adult-like at this age, particularly for the earliest component, P1-N1. The latency and amplitude input-output functions may provide additional information as to how infants perceive stimulus level. The reasons for the discrepancy between electrophysiologic and perceptual threshold may be due to immaturity in perceptual temporal resolution abilities and the broad-band listening strategy employed by infants. The findings from the current study can be translated to the clinical setting. It is possible to use tonal or speech sound tokens to evoke CAEPs in an awake, passively alert infant, and thus determine whether these sounds activate the auditory cortex. This could be beneficial in the verification of hearing aid or cochlear implant benefit. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attractiveness as a Function of Skin Tone and Facial Features: Evidence from Categorization Studies.

PubMed

Stepanova, Elena V; Strube, Michael J

2018-01-01

Participants rated the attractiveness and racial typicality of male faces varying in their facial features from Afrocentric to Eurocentric and in skin tone from dark to light in two experiments. Experiment 1 provided evidence that facial features and skin tone have an interactive effect on perceptions of attractiveness and mixed-race faces are perceived as more attractive than single-race faces. Experiment 2 further confirmed that faces with medium levels of skin tone and facial features are perceived as more attractive than faces with extreme levels of these factors. Black phenotypes (combinations of dark skin tone and Afrocentric facial features) were rated as more attractive than White phenotypes (combinations of light skin tone and Eurocentric facial features); ambiguous faces (combinations of Afrocentric and Eurocentric physiognomy) with medium levels of skin tone were rated as the most attractive in Experiment 2. Perceptions of attractiveness were relatively independent of racial categorization in both experiments.

Acoustic pressure reduction at rhythm deviants causes magnetoencephalographic response.

PubMed

Takeshita, Yuya; Yokosawa, Koichi

2015-01-01

Rhythm is an element of music and is important for determining the impression of the music. To investigate the mechanism by which musical rhythmic changes are perceived, magnetoencephalographic responses to rhythm deviants were recorded from 11 healthy volunteers. Auditory stimuli consisting of physically controlled tones were adapted from a song. The auditory stimuli had a steady rhythm, but "early" and "late" deviants were inserted. Only the "early" deviant, which was a tone with a short duration, caused N100m-like prominent transient responses at around the offset of the deviant tone. The latency of the prominent response depended on the descending sound pressure of the deviant tone and was 65 ms after 50% descent. The results suggest that unexpected shortening of tone in a continuous rhythm evokes a transient response and that the response is caused by descending sound pressure of the shortened tone itself, not by the following tones.

Neural Control of Fundamental Frequency Rise and Fall in Mandarin Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howell, Peter; Jiang, Jing; Peng, Danling; Lu, Chunming

2012-01-01

The neural mechanisms used in tone rises and falls in Mandarin were investigated. Nine participants were scanned while they named one-character pictures that required rising or falling tone responses in Mandarin: the left insula and right putamen showed stronger activation between rising and falling tones; the left brainstem showed weaker…

Tone Features, Tone Perception, and Peak Alignment in Thai

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zsiga, Elizabeth; Nitisaroj, Rattima

2007-01-01

This paper investigates the relationship between the phonological features of tone and tone perception in Thai. Specifically, it tests the hypothesis (proposed by Moren & Zsiga, 2006) that the principle perceptual cues to the five-way tonal contrast in Thai are high and low pitch targets aligned to moras. Results of four perception studies, one…

English and Thai Speakers' Perception of Mandarin Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Ying

2016-01-01

Language learners' language experience is predicted to display a significant effect on their accurate perception of foreign language sounds (Flege, 1995). At the superasegmental level, there is still a debate regarding whether tone language speakers are better able to perceive foreign lexical tones than non-tone language speakers (i.e Lee et al.,…

47 CFR 11.12 - Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder... SYSTEM (EAS) General § 11.12 Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder. Existing two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder equipment type accepted for use as Emergency Broadcast System equipment under...

47 CFR 11.12 - Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder... SYSTEM (EAS) General § 11.12 Two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder. Existing two-tone Attention Signal encoder and decoder equipment type accepted for use as Emergency Broadcast System equipment under...

Pitch Ability as an Aptitude for Tone Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Anita R.; Chang, Charles B.; Karuzis, Valerie P.

2016-01-01

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience…

Infant Auditory Sensitivity to Pure Tones and Frequency-Modulated Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leibold, Lori J.; Werner, Lynne A.

2007-01-01

It has been suggested that infants respond preferentially to infant-directed speech because their auditory sensitivity to sounds with extensive frequency modulation (FM) is better than their sensitivity to less modulated sounds. In this experiment, auditory thresholds for FM tones and for unmodulated, or pure, tones in a background of noise were…

Colorism in the Classroom: How Skin Tone Stratifies African American and Latina/o Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Margaret

2016-01-01

Although racial inequality is frequently studied in education, skin tone stratification has received less attention from educational researchers. Inequality by skin tone, also known as "colorism", contributes to larger patterns of racial inequality for African Americans and Latina/os. Discrimination by skin tone affects many dimensions…

Effect of Linguistic and Musical Experience on Distributional Learning of Nonnative Lexical Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ong, Jia Hoong; Burnham, Denis; Escudero, Paola; Stevens, Catherine J.

2017-01-01

Purpose: Evidence suggests that extensive experience with lexical tones or musical training provides an advantage in perceiving nonnative lexical tones. This investigation concerns whether such an advantage is evident in learning nonnative lexical tones based on the distributional structure of the input. Method: Using an established protocol,…

The Role of Baseline Vagal Tone in Dealing with a Stressor during Face to Face and Computer-Based Social Interactions.

PubMed

Rigoni, Daniele; Morganti, Francesca; Braibanti, Paride

2017-01-01

Facing a stressor involves a cardiac vagal tone response and a feedback effect produced by social interaction in visceral regulation. This study evaluated the contribution of baseline vagal tone and of social engagement system (SES) functioning on the ability to deal with a stressor. Participants ( n = 70) were grouped into a minimized social interaction condition (procedure administered through a PC) and a social interaction condition (procedure administered by an experimenter). The State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and a debriefing questionnaire were completed by the subjects. The baseline vagal tone was registered during the baseline, stressor and recovery phases. The collected results highlighted a significant effect of the baseline vagal tone on vagal suppression. No effect of minimized vs. social interaction conditions on cardiac vagal tone during stressor and recovery phases was detected. Cardiac vagal tone and the results of the questionnaires appear to be not correlated. The study highlighted the main role of baseline vagal tone on visceral regulation. Some remarks on SES to be deepen in further research were raised.

The molecular basis of the genesis of basal tone in internal anal sphincter

PubMed Central

Zhang, Cheng-Hai; Wang, Pei; Liu, Dong-Hai; Chen, Cai-Ping; Zhao, Wei; Chen, Xin; Chen, Chen; He, Wei-Qi; Qiao, Yan-Ning; Tao, Tao; Sun, Jie; Peng, Ya-Jing; Lu, Ping; Zheng, Kaizhi; Craige, Siobhan M.; Lifshitz, Lawrence M.; Keaney Jr, John F.; Fogarty, Kevin E.; ZhuGe, Ronghua; Zhu, Min-Sheng

2016-01-01

Smooth muscle sphincters exhibit basal tone and control passage of contents through organs such as the gastrointestinal tract; loss of this tone leads to disorders such as faecal incontinence. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this tone remain unknown. Here, we show that deletion of myosin light-chain kinases (MLCK) in the smooth muscle cells from internal anal sphincter (IAS-SMCs) abolishes basal tone, impairing defecation. Pharmacological regulation of ryanodine receptors (RyRs), L-type voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels (VDCCs) or TMEM16A Ca2+-activated Cl− channels significantly changes global cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and the tone. TMEM16A deletion in IAS-SMCs abolishes the effects of modulators for TMEM16A or VDCCs on a RyR-mediated rise in global [Ca2+]i and impairs the tone and defecation. Hence, MLCK activation in IAS-SMCs caused by a global rise in [Ca2+]i via a RyR-TMEM16A-VDCC signalling module sets the basal tone. Targeting this module may lead to new treatments for diseases like faecal incontinence. PMID:27101932

Tone as a health concept: An analysis.

PubMed

McDowall, Donald; Emmanuel, Elizabeth; Grace, Sandra; Chaseling, Marilyn

2017-11-01

Concept analysis. This paper is a report on the analysis of the concept of tone in chiropractic. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of tone as originally understood by Daniel David Palmer from 1895 to 1914 and to monitor its evolution over time. Data was sourced from Palmer's original work, published between 1895 and 1914. A literature search from 1980 to 2016 was also performed on the online databases CINHAL, PubMed and Scopus with key terms including 'tone', 'chiropractic', 'Palmer', 'vitalism', 'health', 'homeostasis', 'holism' and 'wellness'. Finally hand-searches were conducted through chiropractic books and professional literature from 1906 to 1980 for any references to 'tone'. Rodgers' evolutionary method of analysis was used to categorise the data in relation to the surrogates, attributes, references, antecedents and consequences of tone. A total of 49 references were found: five from publications by Palmer; three from the database searches, and; the remaining 41 from professional books, trade journals and websites. There is no clear interpretation of tone in the contemporary chiropractic literature. Tone is closely aligned with functional neurology and can be understood as an interface between the metaphysical and the biomedical. Using the concept of tone as a foundation for practice could strengthen the identity of the chiropractic profession. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contra-Rotating Open Rotor Tone Noise Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Envia, Edmane

2014-01-01

Reliable prediction of contra-rotating open rotor (CROR) noise is an essential element of any strategy for the development of low-noise open rotor propulsion systems that can meet both the community noise regulations and the cabin noise limits. Since CROR noise spectra typically exhibits a preponderance of tones, significant efforts have been directed towards predicting their tone spectra. To that end, there has been an ongoing effort at NASA to assess various in-house open rotor tone noise prediction tools using a benchmark CROR blade set for which significant aerodynamic and acoustic data had been acquired in wind tunnel tests. In the work presented here, the focus is on the near-field noise of the benchmark open rotor blade set at the cruise condition. Using an analytical CROR tone noise model with input from high-fidelity aerodynamic simulations, detailed tone noise spectral predictions have been generated and compared with the experimental data. Comparisons indicate that the theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the data, especially for the dominant CROR tones and their overall sound pressure level. The results also indicate that, whereas individual rotor tones are well predicted by the linear sources (i.e., thickness and loading), for the interaction tones it is essential that the quadrupole sources be included in the analysis.

Processing of Acoustic Cues in Lexical-Tone Identification by Pediatric Cochlear-Implant Recipients

PubMed Central

Peng, Shu-Chen; Lu, Hui-Ping; Lu, Nelson; Lin, Yung-Song; Deroche, Mickael L. D.

2017-01-01

Purpose The objective was to investigate acoustic cue processing in lexical-tone recognition by pediatric cochlear-implant (CI) recipients who are native Mandarin speakers. Method Lexical-tone recognition was assessed in pediatric CI recipients and listeners with normal hearing (NH) in 2 tasks. In Task 1, participants identified naturally uttered words that were contrastive in lexical tones. For Task 2, a disyllabic word (yanjing) was manipulated orthogonally, varying in fundamental-frequency (F0) contours and duration patterns. Participants identified each token with the second syllable jing pronounced with Tone 1 (a high level tone) as eyes or with Tone 4 (a high falling tone) as eyeglasses. Results CI participants' recognition accuracy was significantly lower than NH listeners' in Task 1. In Task 2, CI participants' reliance on F0 contours was significantly less than that of NH listeners; their reliance on duration patterns, however, was significantly higher than that of NH listeners. Both CI and NH listeners' performance in Task 1 was significantly correlated with their reliance on F0 contours in Task 2. Conclusion For pediatric CI recipients, lexical-tone recognition using naturally uttered words is primarily related to their reliance on F0 contours, although duration patterns may be used as an additional cue. PMID:28388709

Ear Advantage for Musical Location and Relative Pitch: Effects of Musical Training and Attention.

PubMed

Hutchison, Joanna L; Hubbard, Timothy L; Hubbard, Nicholas A; Rypma, Bart

2017-06-01

Trained musicians have been found to exhibit a right-ear advantage for high tones and a left-ear advantage for low tones. We investigated whether this right/high, left/low pattern of musical processing advantage exists in listeners who had varying levels of musical experience, and whether such a pattern might be modulated by attentional strategy. A dichotic listening paradigm was used in which different melodic sequences were presented to each ear, and listeners attended to (a) the left ear or the right ear or (b) the higher pitched tones or the lower pitched tones. Listeners judged whether tone-to-tone transitions within each melodic sequence moved upward or downward in pitch. Only musically experienced listeners could adequately judge the direction of successive pitch transitions when attending to a specific ear; however, all listeners could judge the direction of successive pitch transitions within a high-tone stream or a low-tone stream. Overall, listeners exhibited greater accuracy when attending to relatively higher pitches, but there was no evidence to support a right/high, left/low bias. Results were consistent with effects of attentional strategy rather than an ear advantage for high or low tones. Implications for a potential performer/audience paradox in listening space are considered.

Perceptual Reorganization of Lexical Tones: Effects of Age and Experimental Procedure

PubMed Central

Götz, Antonia; Yeung, H. Henny; Krasotkina, Anna; Schwarzer, Gudrun; Höhle, Barbara

2018-01-01

Findings on the perceptual reorganization of lexical tones are mixed. Some studies report good tone discrimination abilities for all tested age groups, others report decreased or enhanced discrimination with increasing age, and still others report U-shaped developmental curves. Since prior studies have used a wide range of contrasts and experimental procedures, it is unclear how specific task requirements interact with discrimination abilities at different ages. In the present work, we tested German and Cantonese adults on their discrimination of Cantonese lexical tones, as well as German-learning infants between 6 and 18 months of age on their discrimination of two specific Cantonese tones using two different types of experimental procedures. The adult experiment showed that German native speakers can discriminate between lexical tones, but native Cantonese speakers show significantly better performance. The results from German-learning infants suggest that 6- and 18-month-olds discriminate tones, while 9-month-olds do not, supporting a U-shaped developmental curve. Furthermore, our results revealed an effect of methodology, with good discrimination performance at 6 months after habituation but not after familiarization. These results support three main conclusions. First, habituation can be a more sensitive procedure for measuring infants' discrimination than familiarization. Second, the previous finding of a U-shaped curve in the discrimination of lexical tones is further supported. Third, discrimination abilities at 18 months appear to reflect mature perceptual sensitivity to lexical tones, since German adults also discriminated the lexical tones with high accuracy. PMID:29681877

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

PubMed Central

Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C.

2017-01-01

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context. PMID:28076400

Musicians' working memory for tones, words, and pseudowords.

PubMed

Benassi-Werke, Mariana E; Queiroz, Marcelo; Araújo, Rúben S; Bueno, Orlando F A; Oliveira, Maria Gabriela M

2012-01-01

Studies investigating factors that influence tone recognition generally use recognition tests, whereas the majority of the studies on verbal material use self-generated responses in the form of serial recall tests. In the present study we intended to investigate whether tonal and verbal materials share the same cognitive mechanisms, by presenting an experimental instrument that evaluates short-term and working memories for tones, using self-generated sung responses that may be compared to verbal tests. This paradigm was designed according to the same structure of the forward and backward digit span tests, but using digits, pseudowords, and tones as stimuli. The profile of amateur singers and professional singers in these tests was compared in forward and backward digit, pseudoword, tone, and contour spans. In addition, an absolute pitch experimental group was included, in order to observe the possible use of verbal labels in tone memorization tasks. In general, we observed that musical schooling has a slight positive influence on the recall of tones, as opposed to verbal material, which is not influenced by musical schooling. Furthermore, the ability to reproduce melodic contours (up and down patterns) is generally higher than the ability to reproduce exact tone sequences. However, backward spans were lower than forward spans for all stimuli (digits, pseudowords, tones, contour). Curiously, backward spans were disproportionately lower for tones than for verbal material-that is, the requirement to recall sequences in backward rather than forward order seems to differentially affect tonal stimuli. This difference does not vary according to musical expertise.

PC-PLC/sphingomyelin synthase activity plays a central role in the development of myogenic tone in murine resistance arteries

PubMed Central

Zacharia, Joseph; Fairfax, Seth; Wier, Withrow Gil

2015-01-01

Myogenic tone is an intrinsic property of the vasculature that contributes to blood pressure control and tissue perfusion. Earlier investigations assigned a key role in myogenic tone to phospholipase C (PLC) and its products, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG). Here, we used the PLC inhibitor, U-73122, and two other, specific inhibitors of PLC subtypes (PI-PLC and PC-PLC) to delineate the role of PLC in myogenic tone of pressurized murine mesenteric arteries. U-73122 inhibited depolarization-induced contractions (high external K+ concentration), thus confirming reports of nonspecific actions of U-73122 and its limited utility for studies of myogenic tone. Edelfosine, a specific inhibitor of PI-PLC, did not affect depolarization-induced contractions but modulated myogenic tone. Because PI-PLC produces IP3, we investigated the effect of blocking IP3 receptor-mediated Ca2+ release on myogenic tone. Incubation of arteries with xestospongin C did not affect tone, consistent with the virtual absence of Ca2+ waves in arteries with myogenic tone. D-609, an inhibitor of PC-PLC and sphingomyelin synthase, strongly inhibited myogenic tone and had no effect on depolarization-induced contraction. D-609 appeared to act by lowering cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration to levels below those that activate contraction. Importantly, incubation of pressurized arteries with a membrane-permeable analog of DAG induced vasoconstriction. The results therefore mandate a reexamination of the signaling pathways activated by the Bayliss mechanism. Our results suggest that PI-PLC and IP3 are not required in maintaining myogenic tone, but DAG, produced by PC-PLC and/or SM synthase, is likely through multiple mechanisms to increase Ca2+ entry and promote vasoconstriction. PMID:25888510

Event-related potential correlates of mindfulness meditation competence

PubMed Central

Atchley, Rachel; Klee, Dan; Memmott, Tabatha; Goodrich, Elena; Wahbeh, Helané; Oken, Barry

2016-01-01

Objective This cross-sectional study evaluated event-related potentials (ERPs) across three groups: naïve, novice, and experienced meditators as potential physiological markers of mindfulness meditation competence. Methods Electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected during a target tone detection task and a Breath Counting task. The Breath Counting task served as the mindfulness meditation condition for the novice and experienced meditator groups. Participants were instructed to respond to target tones with a button press in the first task (Tones), and then ignore the primed tones while breath counting. The primary outcomes were ERP responses to target tones, namely the N2 and P3, as markers of stimulus discrimination and attention, respectively. Results As expected, P3 amplitudes elicited by target tones were attenuated within groups during the Breath Counting task in comparison to the Tones task (p < .001). There was a task by group interaction for P3 (p = .039). Both meditator groups displayed greater change in peak-to-trough P3 amplitudes, with higher amplitudes during the Tones condition and more pronounced reductions in P3 amplitudes during the Breath Counting meditation task in comparison to the naïve group. Conclusions Meditators had stronger P3 amplitude responses to target tones when instructed to attend to the tones, and a greater attenuation of P3 amplitudes when instructed to ignore the same tones during the Breath Counting task. This study introduces the idea of identifying ERP markers as a means of measuring mindfulness meditation competence, and results suggest this may be a valid approach. This information has the potential to improve mindfulness meditation interventions by allowing objective assessment of mindfulness meditation quality. PMID:26850995

Event-related potential correlates of mindfulness meditation competence.

PubMed

Atchley, R; Klee, D; Memmott, T; Goodrich, E; Wahbeh, H; Oken, B

2016-04-21

This cross-sectional study evaluated event-related potentials (ERPs) across three groups: naïve, novice, and experienced meditators as potential physiological markers of mindfulness meditation competence. Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected during a target tone detection task and a Breath Counting task. The Breath Counting task served as the mindfulness meditation condition for the novice and experienced meditator groups. Participants were instructed to respond to target tones with a button press in the first task (Tones), and then ignore the primed tones while Breath Counting. The primary outcomes were ERP responses to target tones, namely the N2 and P3, as markers of stimulus discrimination and attention, respectively. As expected, P3 amplitudes elicited by target tones were attenuated within groups during the Breath Counting task in comparison to the Tones task (p<.001). There was a task by group interaction for P3 (p=.039). Both meditator groups displayed greater change in peak-to-trough P3 amplitudes, with higher amplitudes during the Tones condition and more pronounced reductions in P3 amplitudes during the Breath Counting meditation task in comparison to the naïve group. Meditators had stronger P3 amplitude responses to target tones when instructed to attend to the tones, and a greater attenuation of P3 amplitudes when instructed to ignore the same tones during the Breath Counting task. This study introduces the idea of identifying ERP markers as a means of measuring mindfulness meditation competence, and results suggest this may be a valid approach. This information has the potential to improve mindfulness meditation interventions by allowing objective assessment of mindfulness meditation quality. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A Tale of Two Features: Perception of Cantonese Lexical Tone and English Lexical Stress in Cantonese-English Bilinguals.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; Lee, Stephen Man Kit; Lee, Meg Mei Ling; Burnham, Denis

2015-01-01

This study investigated the similarities and differences in perception of Cantonese tones and English stress patterns by Cantonese-English bilingual children, adults, and English monolingual adults. All three groups were asked to discriminate pairs of syllables that minimally differed in either Cantonese tone or in English stress. Bilingual children's performance on tone perception was comparable to their performance on stress perception. By contrast, bilingual adults' performance on tone perception was lower than their performance on stress perception, and there was a similar pattern in English monolingual adults. Bilingual adults tended to perform better than English monolingual adults on both the tone and stress perception tests. A significant correlation between tone perception and stress perception performance was found in bilingual children but not in bilingual adults. All three groups showed lower accuracy in the high rising-low rising contrast than any of the other 14 Cantonese tone contrasts. The acoustic analyses revealed that average F0, F0 onset, and F0 major slope were the critical acoustic correlates of Cantonese tones, whereas multiple acoustic correlates were salient in English stress, including average F0, spectral balance, duration and intensity. We argue that participants' difficulty in perceiving high rising-low rising contrasts originated from the contrasts' similarities in F0 onset and average F0; indeed the difference between their major slopes was the only cue with which to distinguish them. Acoustic-perceptual correlation analyses showed that although the average F0 and F0 onset were associated with tone perception performance in all three groups, F0 major slope was only associated with tone perception in the bilingual adult group. These results support a dynamic interactive account of suprasegmental speech perception by emphasizing the positive prosodic transfer between Cantonese tone and English stress, and the role that level of bilingual language experience and age play in shaping suprasegmental speech perception.

Attention deficits revealed by passive auditory change detection for pure tones and lexical tones in ADHD children.

PubMed

Yang, Ming-Tao; Hsu, Chun-Hsien; Yeh, Pei-Wen; Lee, Wang-Tso; Liang, Jao-Shwann; Fu, Wen-Mei; Lee, Chia-Ying

2015-01-01

Inattention (IA) has been a major problem in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), accounting for their behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions. However, there are at least three processing steps underlying attentional control for auditory change detection, namely pre-attentive change detection, involuntary attention orienting, and attention reorienting for further evaluation. This study aimed to examine whether children with ADHD would show deficits in any of these subcomponents by using mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and late discriminative negativity (LDN) as event-related potential (ERP) markers, under the passive auditory oddball paradigm. Two types of stimuli-pure tones and Mandarin lexical tones-were used to examine if the deficits were general across linguistic and non-linguistic domains. Participants included 15 native Mandarin-speaking children with ADHD and 16 age-matched controls (across groups, age ranged between 6 and 15 years). Two passive auditory oddball paradigms (lexical tones and pure tones) were applied. The pure tone oddball paradigm included a standard stimulus (1000 Hz, 80%) and two deviant stimuli (1015 and 1090 Hz, 10% each). The Mandarin lexical tone oddball paradigm's standard stimulus was /yi3/ (80%) and two deviant stimuli were /yi1/ and /yi2/ (10% each). The results showed no MMN difference, but did show attenuated P3a and enhanced LDN to the large deviants for both pure and lexical tone changes in the ADHD group. Correlation analysis showed that children with higher ADHD tendency, as indexed by parents' and teachers' ratings on ADHD symptoms, showed less positive P3a amplitudes when responding to large lexical tone deviants. Thus, children with ADHD showed impaired auditory change detection for both pure tones and lexical tones in both involuntary attention switching, and attention reorienting for further evaluation. These ERP markers may therefore be used for the evaluation of anti-ADHD drugs that aim to alleviate these dysfunctions.

A Tale of Two Features: Perception of Cantonese Lexical Tone and English Lexical Stress in Cantonese-English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Tong, Xiuli; Burnham, Denis

2015-01-01

This study investigated the similarities and differences in perception of Cantonese tones and English stress patterns by Cantonese-English bilingual children, adults, and English monolingual adults. All three groups were asked to discriminate pairs of syllables that minimally differed in either Cantonese tone or in English stress. Bilingual children’s performance on tone perception was comparable to their performance on stress perception. By contrast, bilingual adults’ performance on tone perception was lower than their performance on stress perception, and there was a similar pattern in English monolingual adults. Bilingual adults tended to perform better than English monolingual adults on both the tone and stress perception tests. A significant correlation between tone perception and stress perception performance was found in bilingual children but not in bilingual adults. All three groups showed lower accuracy in the high rising-low rising contrast than any of the other 14 Cantonese tone contrasts. The acoustic analyses revealed that average F0, F0 onset, and F0 major slope were the critical acoustic correlates of Cantonese tones, whereas multiple acoustic correlates were salient in English stress, including average F0, spectral balance, duration and intensity. We argue that participants’ difficulty in perceiving high rising-low rising contrasts originated from the contrasts’ similarities in F0 onset and average F0; indeed the difference between their major slopes was the only cue with which to distinguish them. Acoustic-perceptual correlation analyses showed that although the average F0 and F0 onset were associated with tone perception performance in all three groups, F0 major slope was only associated with tone perception in the bilingual adult group. These results support a dynamic interactive account of suprasegmental speech perception by emphasizing the positive prosodic transfer between Cantonese tone and English stress, and the role that level of bilingual language experience and age play in shaping suprasegmental speech perception. PMID:26606073

Monaural informational masking release in children and adults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buss, Emily; Hall, Joseph W.; Grose, John H.

2004-05-01

Informational masking refers to an elevation in signal threshold due to stimulus uncertainty, rather than to energetic masking. This study assessed informational masking and utilization of cues to reduce that masking in children aged 5-9 and adults. We used a manipulation introduced by Kidd et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 95, 3475-3480 (1994)] in which the signal was a train of eight consecutive tone bursts, each at 1 kHz and 60 ms in duration. Maskers were comprised of a pair of synchronous tone-burst trains whose frequencies were selected from the range spanning 0.2-5 kHz, with a protected region 851-1175 Hz. In the reference condition, where informational masking is pronounced, these maskers were eight bursts and had a fixed frequency within each interval, with new frequencies chosen randomly prior to each interval. Two conditions of masking release were tested: random frequency selection for each masker burst and a masker leading fringe of two additional 60-ms bursts. Both children and adults showed a significant informational masking effect, with children showing a larger effect. Both groups also showed significant release from masking, though initial results suggest that this may have been reduced in the youngest children. [Work supported by NIH, RO1 DC00397.

Matching native electrical stimulation by graded chemical stimulation in isolated mouse adrenal chromaffin cells.

PubMed

Fulop, Tiberiu; Smith, Corey

2007-11-30

Adrenal chromaffin cells release multiple transmitters in response to sympathetic stimulation. Modest cell firing, matching sympathetic tone, releases small freely soluble catecholamines. Elevated electrical firing rates matching input under sympathetic stress results in release of catecholamines as well as semi-soluble vaso- and neuro-active peptides packaged within the dense core of the secretory granule. This activity-dependent differential transmitter release has been shown to rely on a mechanistic shift in the mode of exocytosis through the regulated dilation of the secretory fusion pore between granule and cell surface membranes. However, biochemical description of the mechanism regulating fusion pore dilation remains elusive. In the experimental setting, electrical stimulation designed to mimic sympathetic input, is achieved through single-cell voltage-clamp. While precise, this approach is incompatible with biochemical and proteomic analysis, both of which require large sample sizes. We address this limitation in the current study. We describe a bulk chemical stimulation paradigm calibrated to match defined electrical activity. We utilize calcium and single-cell amperometric measurements to match extracellular potassium concentrations to physiological electrical stimulation under sympathetic tone as well as acute stress conditions. This approach provides larger samples of uniformly stimulated cells for determining molecular players in activity-dependent differential transmitter release from adrenal chromaffin cells.

Usefulness of 1000-Hz probe tone in tympanometry according to age in Korean infants.

PubMed

Park, Mina; Han, Kyu-Hee; Jung, Hyunseo; Kim, Mee-Hee; Chang, Hyun-Kyung; Kim, Shin Hye; Park, Moo Kyun; Lee, Jun Ho

2015-01-01

Numerous studies have shown the superiority of a 1000-Hz frequency probe tone for evaluating the middle ear status of infants. However, most of these studies examined Caucasian populations. This study validated the 1000-Hz probe tone and evaluated the age at which it should be used in Korean infants. Data from 83 infants (43 males, 40 females; mean age 9.2±6.2 (range 1-30) months, 165 ears) were analyzed. Tympanograms were classified according to Baldwin's modification of the method of Marchant et al. and correlated with results based on combined diagnostic tests, including an endoscopic examination of the tympanic membrane, myringotomy findings, and the air and bone conduction auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds. Data were analyzed in five age groups, each covering a 3-month range. The traces were measured for both 226- and 1000-Hz probe tones. The sensitivity and specificity for the different age groups were also determined. For the 226-Hz probe tone, the tympanograms showed normal traces for most ears with otitis media effusions in infants younger than 12 months. By contrast, the tympanograms using the 1000-Hz probe tone showed abnormal traces in most of the infants with otitis media effusions in all age groups. In infants with no otitis media effusion, the tympanograms using both 226- and 1000-Hz probe tones were interpreted as normal in most cases in all age groups. In infants younger than 12 months, the sensitivity of the 226-Hz probe tone was very low (0-6.6%), whereas that of the 1000-Hz probe tone was very high (90-100%). In infants older than 13 months, however, the sensitivities of the 226- and 1000-Hz probe tones were 76.2% and 85.7%, respectively. Regarding specificity, the difference between the two probe tones was not significant for any age group. This study confirmed the superiority of the 1000-Hz probe tone for evaluating the middle ear in infants. We recommend using a 1000-Hz probe tone at least up to the age of 12 months for Korean infants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perspectives on the Pure-Tone Audiogram.

PubMed

Musiek, Frank E; Shinn, Jennifer; Chermak, Gail D; Bamiou, Doris-Eva

The pure-tone audiogram, though fundamental to audiology, presents limitations, especially in the case of central auditory involvement. Advances in auditory neuroscience underscore the considerably larger role of the central auditory nervous system (CANS) in hearing and related disorders. Given the availability of behavioral audiological tests and electrophysiological procedures that can provide better insights as to the function of the various components of the auditory system, this perspective piece reviews the limitations of the pure-tone audiogram and notes some of the advantages of other tests and procedures used in tandem with the pure-tone threshold measurement. To review and synthesize the literature regarding the utility and limitations of the pure-tone audiogram in determining dysfunction of peripheral sensory and neural systems, as well as the CANS, and to identify other tests and procedures that can supplement pure-tone thresholds and provide enhanced diagnostic insight, especially regarding problems of the central auditory system. A systematic review and synthesis of the literature. The authors independently searched and reviewed literature (journal articles, book chapters) pertaining to the limitations of the pure-tone audiogram. The pure-tone audiogram provides information as to hearing sensitivity across a selected frequency range. Normal or near-normal pure-tone thresholds sometimes are observed despite cochlear damage. There are a surprising number of patients with acoustic neuromas who have essentially normal pure-tone thresholds. In cases of central deafness, depressed pure-tone thresholds may not accurately reflect the status of the peripheral auditory system. Listening difficulties are seen in the presence of normal pure-tone thresholds. Suprathreshold procedures and a variety of other tests can provide information regarding other and often more central functions of the auditory system. The audiogram is a primary tool for determining type, degree, and configuration of hearing loss; however, it provides the clinician with information regarding only hearing sensitivity, and no information about central auditory processing or the auditory processing of real-world signals (i.e., speech, music). The pure-tone audiogram offers limited insight into functional hearing and should be viewed only as a test of hearing sensitivity. Given the limitations of the pure-tone audiogram, a brief overview is provided of available behavioral tests and electrophysiological procedures that are sensitive to the function and integrity of the central auditory system, which provide better diagnostic and rehabilitative information to the clinician and patient. American Academy of Audiology

Effects of sound level fluctuations on annoyance caused by aircraft-flyover noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, D. A.

1979-01-01

A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the effects of variations in the rate and magnitude of sound level fluctuations on the annoyance caused by aircraft-flyover noise. The effects of tonal content, noise duration, and sound pressure level on annoyance were also studied. An aircraft-noise synthesis system was used to synthesize 32 aircraft-flyover noise stimuli representing the factorial combinations of 2 tone conditions, 2 noise durations, 2 sound pressure levels, 2 level fluctuation rates, and 2 level fluctuation magnitudes. Thirty-two test subjects made annoyance judgements on a total of 64 stimuli in a subjective listening test facility simulating an outdoor acoustic environment. Variations in the rate and magnitude of level fluctuations were found to have little, if any, effect on annoyance. Tonal content, noise duration, sound pressure level, and the interaction of tonal content with sound pressure level were found to affect the judged annoyance significantly. The addition of tone corrections and/or duration corrections significantly improved the annoyance prediction ability of noise rating scales.

CaMKII Regulates Synaptic NMDA Receptor Activity of Hypothalamic Presympathetic Neurons and Sympathetic Outflow in Hypertension.

PubMed

Li, De-Pei; Zhou, Jing-Jing; Zhang, Jixiang; Pan, Hui-Lin

2017-11-01

NMDAR activity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is increased and critically involved in heightened sympathetic vasomotor tone in hypertension. Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) binds to and modulates NMDAR activity. In this study, we determined the role of CaMKII in regulating NMDAR activity of PVN presympathetic neurons in male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). NMDAR-mediated EPSCs and puff NMDA-elicited currents were recorded in spinally projecting PVN neurons in SHRs and male Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. The basal amplitude of evoked NMDAR-EPSCs and puff NMDA currents in retrogradely labeled PVN neurons were significantly higher in SHRs than in WKY rats. The CaMKII inhibitor autocamtide-2-related inhibitory peptide (AIP) normalized the increased amplitude of NMDAR-EPSCs and puff NMDA currents in labeled PVN neurons in SHRs but had no effect in WKY rats. Treatment with AIP also normalized the higher frequency of NMDAR-mediated miniature EPSCs of PVN neurons in SHRs. CaMKII-mediated phosphorylation level of GluN2B serine 1303 (S1303) in the PVN, but not in the hippocampus and frontal cortex, was significantly higher in SHRs than in WKY rats. Lowering blood pressure with celiac ganglionectomy in SHRs did not alter the increased level of phosphorylated GluN2B S1303 in the PVN. In addition, microinjection of AIP into the PVN significantly reduced arterial blood pressure and lumbar sympathetic nerve discharges in SHRs. Our findings suggest that CaMKII activity is increased in the PVN and contributes to potentiated presynaptic and postsynaptic NMDAR activity to elevate sympathetic vasomotor tone in hypertension. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Heightened sympathetic vasomotor tone is a major contributor to the development of hypertension. Although glutamate NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated excitatory drive in the hypothalamus plays a critical role in increased sympathetic output in hypertension, the molecular mechanism involved in potentiated NMDAR activity of hypothalamic presympathetic neurons remains unclear. Here we show that the activity of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is increased and plays a key role in the potentiated presynaptic and postsynaptic NMDAR activity of hypothalamic presympathetic neurons in hypertension. Also, the inhibition of CaMKII in the hypothalamus reduces elevated blood pressure and sympathetic nerve discharges in hypertension. This new knowledge extends our understanding of the mechanism of synaptic plasticity in the hypothalamus and suggests new strategies to treat neurogenic hypertension. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710690-10$15.00/0.

Episodic Social Stress-Escalated Cocaine Self-Administration: Role of Phasic and Tonic Corticotropin Releasing Factor in the Anterior and Posterior Ventral Tegmental Area.

PubMed

Holly, Elizabeth N; Boyson, Christopher O; Montagud-Romero, Sandra; Stein, Dirson J; Gobrogge, Kyle L; DeBold, Joseph F; Miczek, Klaus A

2016-04-06

Intermittent social defeat stress escalates later cocaine self-administration. Reward and stress both activate ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, increasing downstream extracellular dopamine concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. The stress neuropeptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) and its receptors (CRF-R1, CRF-R2) are located in the VTA and influence dopaminergic activity. These experiments explore how CRF release and the activation of its receptors within the VTA both during and after stress influence later cocaine self-administration in rats.In vivo microdialysis of CRF in the VTA demonstrated that CRF is phasically released in the posterior VTA (pVTA) during acute defeat, but, with repeated defeat, CRF is recruited into the anterior VTA (aVTA) and CRF tone is increased in both subregions. Intra-VTA antagonism of CRF-R1 in the pVTA and CRF-R2 in the aVTA during each social defeat prevented escalated cocaine self-administration in a 24 h "binge." VTA CRF continues to influence cocaine seeking in stressed animals long after social defeat exposure. Unlike nonstressed controls, previously stressed rats show significant cocaine seeking after 15 d of forced abstinence. Previously stressed rats continue to express elevated CRF tone within the VTA and antagonism of pVTA CRF-R1 or aVTA CRF-R2 reverses cocaine seeking. In conclusion, these experiments demonstrate neuroadaptive changes in tonic and phasic CRF with repeated stress, that CRF release during stress may contribute to later escalated cocaine taking, and that persistently elevated CRF tone in the VTA may drive later cocaine seeking through increased activation of pVTA CRF-R1 and aVTA CRF-R2. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has emerged as a likely candidate molecule underlying the fundamental link between stress history and escalated drug self-administration. However, the nature of CRF release in the VTA during acute and repeated stress, as well as its role in enduring neuroadaptations driving later drug taking and seeking, are poorly understood. These experiments explore how CRF is released and interacts with its receptors in specific regions of the VTA both during and after stress to fuel later escalated cocaine taking and seeking behavior. Understanding these acute and persistent changes to the VTA CRF system may lead to better therapeutic interventions for addiction. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/364094-13$15.00/0.

Episodic Social Stress-Escalated Cocaine Self-Administration: Role of Phasic and Tonic Corticotropin Releasing Factor in the Anterior and Posterior Ventral Tegmental Area

PubMed Central

Boyson, Christopher O.; Montagud-Romero, Sandra; Stein, Dirson J.; Gobrogge, Kyle L.; DeBold, Joseph F.; Miczek, Klaus A.

2016-01-01

Intermittent social defeat stress escalates later cocaine self-administration. Reward and stress both activate ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, increasing downstream extracellular dopamine concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. The stress neuropeptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) and its receptors (CRF-R1, CRF-R2) are located in the VTA and influence dopaminergic activity. These experiments explore how CRF release and the activation of its receptors within the VTA both during and after stress influence later cocaine self-administration in rats. In vivo microdialysis of CRF in the VTA demonstrated that CRF is phasically released in the posterior VTA (pVTA) during acute defeat, but, with repeated defeat, CRF is recruited into the anterior VTA (aVTA) and CRF tone is increased in both subregions. Intra-VTA antagonism of CRF-R1 in the pVTA and CRF-R2 in the aVTA during each social defeat prevented escalated cocaine self-administration in a 24 h “binge.” VTA CRF continues to influence cocaine seeking in stressed animals long after social defeat exposure. Unlike nonstressed controls, previously stressed rats show significant cocaine seeking after 15 d of forced abstinence. Previously stressed rats continue to express elevated CRF tone within the VTA and antagonism of pVTA CRF-R1 or aVTA CRF-R2 reverses cocaine seeking. In conclusion, these experiments demonstrate neuroadaptive changes in tonic and phasic CRF with repeated stress, that CRF release during stress may contribute to later escalated cocaine taking, and that persistently elevated CRF tone in the VTA may drive later cocaine seeking through increased activation of pVTA CRF-R1 and aVTA CRF-R2. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has emerged as a likely candidate molecule underlying the fundamental link between stress history and escalated drug self-administration. However, the nature of CRF release in the VTA during acute and repeated stress, as well as its role in enduring neuroadaptations driving later drug taking and seeking, are poorly understood. These experiments explore how CRF is released and interacts with its receptors in specific regions of the VTA both during and after stress to fuel later escalated cocaine taking and seeking behavior. Understanding these acute and persistent changes to the VTA CRF system may lead to better therapeutic interventions for addiction. PMID:27053215

Nonassociative Learning Processes Determine Expression and Extinction of Conditioned Fear in Mice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamprath, Kornelia; Wotjak, Carsten T.

2004-01-01

Freezing to a tone following auditory fear conditioning is commonly considered as a measure of the strength of the tone-shock association. The decrease in freezing on repeated nonreinforced tone presentation following conditioning, in turn, is attributed to the formation of an inhibitory association between tone and shock that leads to a…

Perception of Mandarin Tones: The Effect of L1 Background and Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xinchun

2013-01-01

This study investigates whether native Hmong speakers' first language (L1) lexical tone experience facilitates or interferes with their perception of Mandarin tones and whether training is effective for perceptual learning of second (L2) tones. In Experiment 1, 3 groups of beginning level learners of Mandarin with different L1 prosodic background…

Effects of Tone-Quality Changes on Intonation and Tone-Quality Ratings of High School and College Instrumentalists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geringer, John M.; Worthy, Michael D.

1999-01-01

Investigates effects of variations in tone quality on listeners' perception of both tone quality and intonation. Indicates that more inexperienced instrumentalists rated stimuli that were "brighter" in quality as sharper in intonation, and those that were "darker" as flatter. Also, finds differences for brass versus woodwind instruments. (DSK)

The Octave Illusion Revisited Again

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deutsch, Diana

2004-01-01

The octave illusion (D. Deutsch, 1974) occurs when 2 tones separated by an octave are alternated repeatedly, such that when the right ear receives the high tone, the left ear receives the low tone, and vice versa. Most subjects in the original study reported hearing a single tone that alternated from ear to ear, whose pitch also alternated from…

Theoretical studies of tone noise from a fan rotor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rao, G. V. R.; Chu, W. T.; Digumarthi, R. V.

1973-01-01

An analytical study was made of some possible rotor alone noise sources of dipole, quadrapole and monopole characters which generate discrete tone noise. Particular emphasis is given to the tone noise caused by fan inlet flow distortion and turbulence. Analytical models are developed to allow prediction of absolute levels. Experimental data measured on a small scale fan is presented which indicates inlet turbulence interaction with a fan rotor can be a source of tone noise. Predicted and measured tone noise for the small scale rotor are shown to be in reasonable agreement.

22. View to north in representative rooftop penthouse, showing. elevator ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

22. View to north in representative rooftop penthouse, showing. elevator cable drums, governors, and (at rear) control panel. - U.S. Navy Fleet Supply Base, Storehouse No. 1, 830 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY

Use of Munsell color charts to measure skin tone objectively in nursing home residents at risk for pressure ulcer development.

PubMed

McCreath, Heather E; Bates-Jensen, Barbara M; Nakagami, Gojiro; Patlan, Anabel; Booth, Howard; Connolly, Dana; Truong, Cyndi; Woldai, Agazi

2016-09-01

To assess the feasibility of classifying skin tone using Munsell color chart values and to compare Munsell-based skin tone categories to ethnicity/race to predict pressure ulcer risk. Pressure ulcer classification uses level of visible tissue damage, including skin discoloration over bony prominences. Prevention begins with early detection of damage. Skin discoloration in those with dark skin tones can be difficult to observe, hindering early detection. Observational cohort of 417 nursing home residents from 19 nursing homes collected between 2009-2014, with weekly skin assessments for up to 16 weeks. Assessment included forearm and buttocks skin tone based on Munsell values (Dark, Medium, Light) at three time points, ethnicity/race medical record documentation, and weekly skin assessment on trunk and heels. Inter-rater reliability was high for forearm and buttock values and skin tone. Mean Munsell buttocks values differed significantly by ethnicity/race. Across ethnicity/race, Munsell value ranges overlapped, with the greatest range among African Americans. Trunk pressure ulcer incidence varied by skin tone, regardless of ethnicity/race. In multinomial regression, skin tone was more predictive of skin damage than ethnicity/race for trunk locations but ethnicity/race was more predictive for heels. Given the overlap of Munsell values across ethnicity/race, color charts provide more objective measurement of skin tone than demographic categories. An objective measure of skin tone can improve pressure ulcer risk assessment among patients for whom current clinical guidelines are less effective. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Darker Skin Tone Increases Perceived Discrimination among Male but Not Female Caribbean Black Youth.

PubMed

Assari, Shervin; Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard

2017-12-12

Among most minority groups, males seem to report higher levels of exposure and vulnerability to racial discrimination. Although darker skin tone may increase exposure to racial discrimination, it is yet unknown whether skin tone similarly influences perceived discrimination among male and female Caribbean Black youth. The current cross-sectional study tests the role of gender on the effects of skin tone on perceived discrimination among Caribbean Black youth. Data came from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), 2003-2004, which included 360 Caribbean Black youth (ages 13 to 17). Demographic factors (age and gender), socioeconomic status (SES; family income, income to needs ratio, and subjective SES), skin tone, and perceived everyday discrimination were measured. Linear regressions were used for data analysis. In the pooled sample, darker skin tone was associated with higher levels of perceived discrimination among Caribbean Black youth ( b = 0.48; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.07-0.89). A significant interaction was found between gender and skin tone ( b = 1.17; 95% CI = 0.49-1.86), suggesting a larger effect of skin tone on perceived discrimination for males than females. In stratified models, darker skin tone was associated with more perceived discrimination for males ( b = 1.20; 95% CI = 0.69-0.72) but not females ( b = 0.06; 95% CI = -0.42-0.55). Similar to the literature documenting male gender as a vulnerability factor to the effects of racial discrimination, we found that male but not female Caribbean Black youth with darker skin tones perceive more discrimination.

Contribution of tonal components to the overall loudness, annoyance and noisiness of noise: Relation between single tones and noise spectral shape

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hellman, R. P.

1985-01-01

A large scale laboratory investigation of loudness, annoyance, and noisiness produced by single-tone-noise complexes was undertaken to establish a broader data base for quanitification and prediction of perceived annoyance of sounds containing tonal components. Loudness, annoyance, and noisiness were distinguished as separate, distinct, attributes of sound. Three different spectral patterns of broadband noise with and without added tones were studied: broadband-flat, low-pass, and high-pass. Judgments were obtained by absolute magnitude estimation supplement by loudness matching. The data were examined and evaluated to determine the potential effects of (1) the overall sound pressure level (SPL) of the noise-tone complex, (2) tone SPL, (3) noise SPL, (4) tone-to-noise ratio, (5) the frequency of the added tone, (6) noise spectral shape, and (7) subjective attribute judged on absolute magnitude of annoyance. Results showed that, in contrast to noisiness, loudness and annoyance growth behavior depends on the relationship between the frequency of the added tone and the spectral shape of the noise. The close correspondence between the frequency of the added tone and the spectral shape of the noise. The close correspondence between loundness and annoyance suggests that, to better understand perceived annoyance of sound mixtures, it is necessary to relate the results to basic auditory mechanisms governing loudness and masking.

On the nature of phase attraction in sensorimotor synchronization with interleaved auditory sequences.

PubMed

Repp, Bruno H

2004-10-01

In a task that requires in-phase synchronization of finger taps with an isochronous sequence of target tones that is interleaved with a sequence of distractor tones at various fixed phase relationships, the taps tend to be attracted to the distractor tones, especially when the distractor tones closely precede the target tones [Repp, B. H. (2003a). Phase attraction in sensorimotor synchronization with auditory sequences: Effects of single and periodic distractors on synchronization accuracy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29, 290-309]. The present research addressed two related questions about this distractor effect: (1) Is it a function of the absolute temporal separation or of the relative phase of the two stimulus sequences? (2) Is it the result of perceptual grouping (integration) of target and distractor tones or of simultaneous attraction to two independent sequences? In three experiments, distractor effects were compared across two different sequence rates. The results suggest that absolute temporal separation, not relative phase, is the critical variable. Experiment 3 also included an anti-phase tapping task that addressed the second question directly. The results suggest that the attraction of taps to distractor tones is caused mainly by temporal integration of target and distractor tones within a fixed window of 100-150 ms duration, with the earlier-occurring tone being weighted more strongly than the later-occurring one.

Relative contributions of acoustic temporal fine structure and envelope cues for lexical tone perception in noise

PubMed Central

Qi, Beier; Mao, Yitao; Liu, Jiaxing; Liu, Bo; Xu, Li

2017-01-01

Previous studies have shown that lexical tone perception in quiet relies on the acoustic temporal fine structure (TFS) but not on the envelope (E) cues. The contributions of TFS to speech recognition in noise are under debate. In the present study, Mandarin tone tokens were mixed with speech-shaped noise (SSN) or two-talker babble (TTB) at five signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs; −18 to +6 dB). The TFS and E were then extracted from each of the 30 bands using Hilbert transform. Twenty-five combinations of TFS and E from the sound mixtures of the same tone tokens at various SNRs were created. Twenty normal-hearing, native-Mandarin-speaking listeners participated in the tone-recognition test. Results showed that tone-recognition performance improved as the SNRs in either TFS or E increased. The masking effects on tone perception for the TTB were weaker than those for the SSN. For both types of masker, the perceptual weights of TFS and E in tone perception in noise was nearly equivalent, with E playing a slightly greater role than TFS. Thus, the relative contributions of TFS and E cues to lexical tone perception in noise or in competing-talker maskers differ from those in quiet and those to speech perception of non-tonal languages. PMID:28599529

Lexical tone and stuttering in Cantonese.

PubMed

Law, Thomas; Packman, Ann; Onslow, Mark; To, Carol K-S; Tong, Michael C-F; Lee, Kathy Y-S

2018-01-01

Cantonese is a tone language, in which the variation of the fundamental frequency contour of a syllable can change meaning. There are six different lexical tones in Cantonese. While research with Western languages has shown an association between stuttering and syllabic stress, nothing is known about whether stuttering in Cantonese speakers is associated with one or more of the six lexical tones. Such an association has been reported in conversational speech in Mandarin, which is also a tone language, but which varies markedly from Cantonese. Twenty-four native Cantonese-speaking adults who stutter participated in this study, ranging in age from 18-33 years. There were 18 men and 6 women. Participants read aloud 13 Cantonese syllables, each of which was produced with six contrastive lexical tones. All 78 syllables were embedded in the same carrier sentence, to reduce the influence of suprasegmental or linguistic stress, and were presented in random order. No significant differences were found for stuttering moments across the six lexical tones. It is suggested that this is because lexical tones, at least in Cantonese, do not place the task demands on the speech motor system that typify varying syllabic stress in Western languages: variations not only in fundamental frequency, but also in duration and intensity. The findings of this study suggest that treatments for adults who stutter in Western languages, such as speech restructuring, can be used with Cantonese speakers without undue attention to lexical tone.

The Tonology of Itoman Okinawan: A Phonological Analysis of the Nominal Tone System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Takara, Nobutaka

2012-01-01

Itoman, one of the varieties spoken in the southern part of Okinawa Island, exhibits several tone patterns. Although the tone patterns of Itoman were examined in previous studies (Nakasone ms., Hattori 1959, Oshiro 1963, and Hirayama et al. 1966), they ended at the descriptive level, and no phonological accounts for the surface tone patterns were…

Effects of Temporal Sequencing and Auditory Discrimination on Children's Memory Patterns for Tones, Numbers, and Nonsense Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gromko, Joyce Eastlund; Hansen, Dee; Tortora, Anne Halloran; Higgins, Daniel; Boccia, Eric

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and words was supported by a common temporal sequencing mechanism; whether children's patterns of memory for tones, numbers, and nonsense words were the same despite differences in symbol systems; and whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and nonsense…

Effects of Fundamental Frequency and Duration Variation on the Perception of South Kyungsang Korean Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Seung-Eun

2013-01-01

The perception of lexical tones is addressed through research on South Kyungsang Korean, spoken in the southeastern part of Korea. Based on an earlier production study (Chang, 2008a, 2008b), a categorization experiment was conducted to determine the perceptually salient aspects of the perceptual nature of a high tone and a rising tone. The…

Nursing Care Hour Standards Study. Part 1. Section A. Patient Classification System Model Development

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-09-01

Change = 2311 (257) Teaching - Diabetic = 2313 (258) Labor Room Examination and Preparation, Routine = 2434 (259) Fetal Heart Tones, Manual = 2412 (260... Fetal Heart Tones, Doppler = 2413 (261) Dilatation and Effecement Assessment = 2403 (262) Dilatation and Effacement Assessment, Assisting Physician...Ultrasonic Transducer/Tocotransducer = 2435 (270) Monitoring Fetal Heart Tones, Ultrasonic Transducer = 2436 (271) Monitoring Fetal Heart Tones, Ultrasonic

Who Do You Love, Your Mother or Your Horse? An Event-Related Brain Potential Analysis of Tone Processing in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Canseco-Gonzalez, Enriqueta

2004-01-01

In Mandarin Chinese, word meaning is partially determined by lexical tone (Wang, 1973). Previous studies suggest that lexical tone is processed as linguistic information and not as pure tonal information (Gandour, 1998; Van Lanker & Fromkin, 1973). The current study explored the online processing of lexical tones. Event-related potentials were…

The Theory of Adaptive Dispersion and Acoustic-Phonetic Properties of Cross-Language Lexical-Tone Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Jennifer Alexandra

2010-01-01

Lexical-tone languages use fundamental frequency (F0/pitch) to convey word meaning. About 41.8% of the world's languages use lexical tone (Maddieson, 2008), yet those systems are under-studied. I aim to increase our understanding of speech-sound inventory organization by extending to tone-systems a model of vowel-system organization, the Theory of…

Contribution of low-frequency harmonics to Mandarin Chinese tone identification in quiet and six-talker babble background.

PubMed

Liu, Chang; Azimi, Behnam; Bhandary, Moulesh; Hu, Yi

2014-01-01

The goal of this study was to investigate Mandarin Chinese tone identification in quiet and multi-talker babble conditions for normal-hearing listeners. Tone identification was measured with speech stimuli and stimuli with low and/or high harmonics that were embedded in three Mandarin vowels with two fundamental frequencies. There were six types of stimuli: all harmonics (All), low harmonics (Low), high harmonics (High), and the first (H1), second (H2), and third (H3) harmonic. Results showed that, for quiet conditions, individual harmonics carried frequency contour information well enough for tone identification with high accuracy; however, in noisy conditions, tone identification with individual low harmonics (e.g., H1, H2, and H3) was significantly lower than that with the Low, High, and All harmonics. Moreover, tone identification with individual harmonics in noise was lower for a low F0 than for a high F0, and was also dependent on vowel category. Tone identification with individual low-frequency harmonics was accounted for by local signal-to-noise ratios, indicating that audibility of harmonics in noise may play a primary role in tone identification.

The perceptual enhancement of tones by frequency shifts.

PubMed

Demany, Laurent; Carcagno, Samuele; Semal, Catherine

2013-04-01

In a chord of pure tones with a flat spectral profile, one tone can be perceptually enhanced relative to the other tones by the previous presentation of a slightly different chord. "Intensity enhancement" (IE) is obtained when the component tones of the two chords have the same frequencies, but in the first chord the target of enhancement is attenuated relative to the other tones. "Frequency enhancement" (FE) is obtained when both chords have a flat spectral profile, but the target of enhancement shifts in frequency from the first to the second chord. We report here an experiment in which IE and FE were measured using a task requiring the listener to indicate whether or not the second chord included a tone identical to a subsequent probe tone. The results showed that a global attenuation of the first chord relative to the second chord disrupted IE more than FE. This suggests that the mechanisms of IE and FE are not the same. In accordance with this suggestion, computations of the auditory excitation patterns produced by the chords indicate that the mechanism of IE is not sufficient to explain FE for small frequency shifts. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of low postural tone compensatory patterns in children - theoretical basis.

PubMed

Gogola, Anna; Saulicz, Edward; Kuszewski, Michał; Matyja, Małgorzata; Myśliwiec, Andrzej

2014-01-01

Neurological literature indicates the existence of children with low postural tone without association with central nervous system damage. This fact induces to think about mechanisms, which allow these children to maintain upright posture. There is a suspicion that compensatory mechanism included in this process, enables to achieve upright posture, but at expense of body posture quality. Observations of children's developmental stages caused determination of some postural tone area, which comprise both children with normotonia and with low postural tone without characteristics of central nervous system (CNS) damage. Set of specific qualities allows determination of two types of low postural tone: spastoidal and atetoidal type. Spastoidal type is characterized by deep trunk muscles (local) low postural tone compensated by excessive tension of superficial muscles (global). Atetoidal type includes children with low postural tone in both deep and superficial muscles. At inefficient active subsystem, verticalization proceeds at excessive use of passive subsystem qualities, that is meniscus, ligament, bone shape, and muscles passive features. From neurodevelopmental point of view compensatory mechanisms can be used in children with low postural tone in order to achieve upright posture, but at expense of body posture quality.

The Role of Baseline Vagal Tone in Dealing with a Stressor during Face to Face and Computer-Based Social Interactions

PubMed Central

Rigoni, Daniele; Morganti, Francesca; Braibanti, Paride

2017-01-01

Facing a stressor involves a cardiac vagal tone response and a feedback effect produced by social interaction in visceral regulation. This study evaluated the contribution of baseline vagal tone and of social engagement system (SES) functioning on the ability to deal with a stressor. Participants (n = 70) were grouped into a minimized social interaction condition (procedure administered through a PC) and a social interaction condition (procedure administered by an experimenter). The State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and a debriefing questionnaire were completed by the subjects. The baseline vagal tone was registered during the baseline, stressor and recovery phases. The collected results highlighted a significant effect of the baseline vagal tone on vagal suppression. No effect of minimized vs. social interaction conditions on cardiac vagal tone during stressor and recovery phases was detected. Cardiac vagal tone and the results of the questionnaires appear to be not correlated. The study highlighted the main role of baseline vagal tone on visceral regulation. Some remarks on SES to be deepen in further research were raised. PMID:29234291

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy on muscle tissue: the effects on healthy athletes.

PubMed

Notarnicola, A; Covelli, I; Maccagnano, G; Marvulli, R; Mastromauro, L; Ianieri, G; Boodhoo, S; Turitto, A; Petruzzella, L; Farì, G; Bianchi, F P; Tafuri, S; Moretti, B

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on muscle rheological and functional properties in a population of young athletes. Thirty-two football and basketball players were recruited and randomized into two groups. The athletes underwent three sessions of therapy administered every five days to the thigh muscles. The treatment consisted of ESWT (electromagnetic generator, Energy Flux Density=0.03 mJ/mm2) or a placebo treatment bilaterally on the quadricep and femoral bicep muscles. Monitoring was carried out at recruitment (T0), at the end of treatment (15 days, T1) and at 30 days (T2) with myometric evaluation (measuring elasticity, stiffness and muscular tone) and electromiography exam (recording the Motor Unit Amplitude Potential values). The results showed a significant increase in the treated athletes in the elasticity (lateral vastus muscle, p=0.007), in muscular tone (femoral rectus, p=0.031) and in muscular recruitment (the lateral vastus, p<0.005; medial vastus muscle, p=0.055). These results could represent a translational interpretation of the known biological effect on connective tissue: an increase in blood flow, oxygenation, metabolic process activation and proliferative effect. The effects found may represent the justification for verifying the usefulness of using of shockwave therapy to reduce muscular fatigue and improve performance during the sport season.

Secondhand Smoke Exposure and the Risk of Hearing Loss

PubMed Central

Fabry, David A.; Davila, Evelyn P.; Arheart, Kristopher L.; Serdar, Berrin; Dietz, Noella A.; Bandiera, Frank C.; Lee, David J.

2011-01-01

Background Hearing loss has been associated with tobacco smoking, but its relationship with secondhand smoke is not known. We sought to investigate the association between secondhand smoke exposure and hearing loss in a nationally representative sample of adults. Methods The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative cross-sectional dataset, was utilized to investigate the association between secondhand smoke exposure and hearing loss. Data collected from non-smoking participants aged 20-69 years were included in the analysis if they had completed audiometric testing, had a valid serum cotinine value, and provided complete smoking, medical co-morbidity and noise exposure histories (n=3,307). Hearing loss was assessed from averaged pure-tone thresholds over low- or mid-frequencies (500, 1,000, and 2,000 Hz) and high-frequencies (3,000, 4,000, 6,000, and 8,000 Hz), and was defined as mild or greater severity (pure-tone average in excess of 25 dB HL). Results SHS exposure was significantly associated with increased risk of hearing loss for low-/mid-frequencies (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.02-1.28 for never smokers and 1.30; 1.10-1.54 for former smokers) and high-frequencies (1.40; 1.22-1.81 for former smokers), after controlling for potential confounders. Conclusions Findings from the present analysis indicate that SHS exposure is associated with hearing loss in non-smoking adults. PMID:21081307

The Encoding of Sound Source Elevation in the Human Auditory Cortex.

PubMed

Trapeau, Régis; Schönwiesner, Marc

2018-03-28

Spatial hearing is a crucial capacity of the auditory system. While the encoding of horizontal sound direction has been extensively studied, very little is known about the representation of vertical sound direction in the auditory cortex. Using high-resolution fMRI, we measured voxelwise sound elevation tuning curves in human auditory cortex and show that sound elevation is represented by broad tuning functions preferring lower elevations as well as secondary narrow tuning functions preferring individual elevation directions. We changed the ear shape of participants (male and female) with silicone molds for several days. This manipulation reduced or abolished the ability to discriminate sound elevation and flattened cortical tuning curves. Tuning curves recovered their original shape as participants adapted to the modified ears and regained elevation perception over time. These findings suggest that the elevation tuning observed in low-level auditory cortex did not arise from the physical features of the stimuli but is contingent on experience with spectral cues and covaries with the change in perception. One explanation for this observation may be that the tuning in low-level auditory cortex underlies the subjective perception of sound elevation. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study addresses two fundamental questions about the brain representation of sensory stimuli: how the vertical spatial axis of auditory space is represented in the auditory cortex and whether low-level sensory cortex represents physical stimulus features or subjective perceptual attributes. Using high-resolution fMRI, we show that vertical sound direction is represented by broad tuning functions preferring lower elevations as well as secondary narrow tuning functions preferring individual elevation directions. In addition, we demonstrate that the shape of these tuning functions is contingent on experience with spectral cues and covaries with the change in perception, which may indicate that the tuning functions in low-level auditory cortex underlie the perceived elevation of a sound source. Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/383252-13$15.00/0.

Endogenous cholinergic tone modulates spontaneous network level neuronal activity in primary cortical cultures grown on multi-electrode arrays.

PubMed

Hammond, Mark W; Xydas, Dimitris; Downes, Julia H; Bucci, Giovanna; Becerra, Victor; Warwick, Kevin; Constanti, Andrew; Nasuto, Slawomir J; Whalley, Benjamin J

2013-03-26

Cortical cultures grown long-term on multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) are frequently and extensively used as models of cortical networks in studies of neuronal firing activity, neuropharmacology, toxicology and mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity. However, in contrast to the predominantly asynchronous neuronal firing activity exhibited by intact cortex, electrophysiological activity of mature cortical cultures is dominated by spontaneous epileptiform-like global burst events which hinders their effective use in network-level studies, particularly for neurally-controlled animat ('artificial animal') applications. Thus, the identification of culture features that can be exploited to produce neuronal activity more representative of that seen in vivo could increase the utility and relevance of studies that employ these preparations. Acetylcholine has a recognised neuromodulatory role affecting excitability, rhythmicity, plasticity and information flow in vivo although its endogenous production by cortical cultures and subsequent functional influence upon neuronal excitability remains unknown. Consequently, using MEA electrophysiological recording supported by immunohistochemical and RT-qPCR methods, we demonstrate for the first time, the presence of intrinsic cholinergic neurons and significant, endogenous cholinergic tone in cortical cultures with a characterisation of the muscarinic and nicotinic components that underlie modulation of spontaneous neuronal activity. We found that tonic muscarinic ACh receptor (mAChR) activation affects global excitability and burst event regularity in a culture age-dependent manner whilst, in contrast, tonic nicotinic ACh receptor (nAChR) activation can modulate burst duration and the proportion of spikes occurring within bursts in a spatio-temporal fashion. We suggest that the presence of significant endogenous cholinergic tone in cortical cultures and the comparability of its modulatory effects to those seen in intact brain tissues support emerging, exploitable commonalities between in vivo and in vitro preparations. We conclude that experimental manipulation of endogenous cholinergic tone could offer a novel opportunity to improve the use of cortical cultures for studies of network-level mechanisms in a manner that remains largely consistent with its functional role.

Adapted wavelet transform improves time-frequency representations: a study of auditory elicited P300-like event-related potentials in rats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richard, Nelly; Laursen, Bettina; Grupe, Morten; Drewes, Asbjørn M.; Graversen, Carina; Sørensen, Helge B. D.; Bastlund, Jesper F.

2017-04-01

Objective. Active auditory oddball paradigms are simple tone discrimination tasks used to study the P300 deflection of event-related potentials (ERPs). These ERPs may be quantified by time-frequency analysis. As auditory stimuli cause early high frequency and late low frequency ERP oscillations, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is often chosen for decomposition due to its multi-resolution properties. However, as the conventional CWT traditionally applies only one mother wavelet to represent the entire spectrum, the time-frequency resolution is not optimal across all scales. To account for this, we developed and validated a novel method specifically refined to analyse P300-like ERPs in rats. Approach. An adapted CWT (aCWT) was implemented to preserve high time-frequency resolution across all scales by commissioning of multiple wavelets operating at different scales. First, decomposition of simulated ERPs was illustrated using the classical CWT and the aCWT. Next, the two methods were applied to EEG recordings obtained from prefrontal cortex in rats performing a two-tone auditory discrimination task. Main results. While only early ERP frequency changes between responses to target and non-target tones were detected by the CWT, both early and late changes were successfully described with strong accuracy by the aCWT in rat ERPs. Increased frontal gamma power and phase synchrony was observed particularly within theta and gamma frequency bands during deviant tones. Significance. The study suggests superior performance of the aCWT over the CWT in terms of detailed quantification of time-frequency properties of ERPs. Our methodological investigation indicates that accurate and complete assessment of time-frequency components of short-time neural signals is feasible with the novel analysis approach which may be advantageous for characterisation of several types of evoked potentials in particularly rodents.

Evaluation of an Imputed Pitch Velocity Model of the Auditory Kappa Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Molly J.; McAuley, J. Devin

2009-01-01

Three experiments evaluated an imputed pitch velocity model of the auditory kappa effect. Listeners heard 3-tone sequences and judged the timing of the middle (target) tone relative to the timing of the 1st and 3rd (bounding) tones. Experiment 1 held pitch constant but varied the time (T) interval between bounding tones (T = 728, 1,000, or 1,600…

Scattering and Imaging of Nonlinearly Loaded Antenna Structures in Half-Space and Complex-Room Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

ABSTRACT The electromagnetic scattering responses of nonlinearly loaded antenna structures excited by single- tone or multi- tone incident fields are...3  Fig. 2 Monostatic scattered electric field strength for center array element: a) Single- tone excitation at 300 MHz...three diode-loaded targets and b) Two- tone excitation at 300 MHz and 305 MHz; two varactor-loaded targets

Effects of noise exposure on young adults with normal audiograms I: Electrophysiology.

PubMed

Prendergast, Garreth; Guest, Hannah; Munro, Kevin J; Kluk, Karolina; Léger, Agnès; Hall, Deborah A; Heinz, Michael G; Plack, Christopher J

2017-02-01

Noise-induced cochlear synaptopathy has been demonstrated in numerous rodent studies. In these animal models, the disorder is characterized by a reduction in amplitude of wave I of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) to high-level stimuli, whereas the response at threshold is unaffected. The aim of the present study was to determine if this disorder is prevalent in young adult humans with normal audiometric hearing. One hundred and twenty six participants (75 females) aged 18-36 were tested. Participants had a wide range of lifetime noise exposures as estimated by a structured interview. Audiometric thresholds did not differ across noise exposures up to 8 kHz, although 16-kHz audiometric thresholds were elevated with increasing noise exposure for females but not for males. ABRs were measured in response to high-pass (1.5 kHz) filtered clicks of 80 and 100 dB peSPL. Frequency-following responses (FFRs) were measured to 80 dB SPL pure tones from 240 to 285 Hz, and to 80 dB SPL 4 kHz pure tones amplitude modulated at frequencies from 240 to 285 Hz (transposed tones). The bandwidth of the ABR stimuli and the carrier frequency of the transposed tones were chosen to target the 3-6 kHz characteristic frequency region which is usually associated with noise damage in humans. The results indicate no relation between noise exposure and the amplitude of the ABR. In particular, wave I of the ABR did not decrease with increasing noise exposure as predicted. ABR wave V latency increased with increasing noise exposure for the 80 dB peSPL click. High carrier-frequency (envelope) FFR signal-to-noise ratios decreased as a function of noise exposure in males but not females. However, these correlations were not significant after the effects of age were controlled. The results suggest either that noise-induced cochlear synaptopathy is not a significant problem in young, audiometrically normal adults, or that the ABR and FFR are relatively insensitive to this disorder in young humans, although it is possible that the effects become more pronounced with age. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language experience enhances early cortical pitch-dependent responses

PubMed Central

Krishnan, Ananthanarayan; Gandour, Jackson T.; Ananthakrishnan, Saradha; Vijayaraghavan, Venkatakrishnan

2014-01-01

Pitch processing at cortical and subcortical stages of processing is shaped by language experience. We recently demonstrated that specific components of the cortical pitch response (CPR) index the more rapidly-changing portions of the high rising Tone 2 of Mandarin Chinese, in addition to marking pitch onset and sound offset. In this study, we examine how language experience (Mandarin vs. English) shapes the processing of different temporal attributes of pitch reflected in the CPR components using stimuli representative of within-category variants of Tone 2. Results showed that the magnitude of CPR components (Na-Pb and Pb-Nb) and the correlation between these two components and pitch acceleration were stronger for the Chinese listeners compared to English listeners for stimuli that fell within the range of Tone 2 citation forms. Discriminant function analysis revealed that the Na-Pb component was more than twice as important as Pb-Nb in grouping listeners by language affiliation. In addition, a stronger stimulus-dependent, rightward asymmetry was observed for the Chinese group at the temporal, but not frontal, electrode sites. This finding may reflect selective recruitment of experience-dependent, pitch-specific mechanisms in right auditory cortex to extract more complex, time-varying pitch patterns. Taken together, these findings suggest that long-term language experience shapes early sensory level processing of pitch in the auditory cortex, and that the sensitivity of the CPR may vary depending on the relative linguistic importance of specific temporal attributes of dynamic pitch. PMID:25506127

Darker Skin Tone Increases Perceived Discrimination among Male but Not Female Caribbean Black Youth

PubMed Central

Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard

2017-01-01

Background: Among most minority groups, males seem to report higher levels of exposure and vulnerability to racial discrimination. Although darker skin tone may increase exposure to racial discrimination, it is yet unknown whether skin tone similarly influences perceived discrimination among male and female Caribbean Black youth. Objective: The current cross-sectional study tests the role of gender on the effects of skin tone on perceived discrimination among Caribbean Black youth. Methods: Data came from the National Survey of American Life-Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), 2003–2004, which included 360 Caribbean Black youth (ages 13 to 17). Demographic factors (age and gender), socioeconomic status (SES; family income, income to needs ratio, and subjective SES), skin tone, and perceived everyday discrimination were measured. Linear regressions were used for data analysis. Results: In the pooled sample, darker skin tone was associated with higher levels of perceived discrimination among Caribbean Black youth (b = 0.48; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.07–0.89). A significant interaction was found between gender and skin tone (b = 1.17; 95% CI = 0.49–1.86), suggesting a larger effect of skin tone on perceived discrimination for males than females. In stratified models, darker skin tone was associated with more perceived discrimination for males (b = 1.20; 95% CI = 0.69–0.72) but not females (b = 0.06; 95% CI = −0.42–0.55). Conclusion: Similar to the literature documenting male gender as a vulnerability factor to the effects of racial discrimination, we found that male but not female Caribbean Black youth with darker skin tones perceive more discrimination. PMID:29231903

[Correlation analysis of hearing level and soft palate movement after palatoplasty].

PubMed

Lou, Qun; Ma, Xiaoran; Ma, Lian; Luo, Yi; Zhu, Hongping; Zhou, Zhibo

2015-10-01

To explore the relationship between hearing level and soft palate movement after palatoplasty and to verify the importance of recovery of soft palate movement function for improving the middle ear function as well as reducing the hearing loss. A total of 64 non-syndromic cleft palate patients were selected and the lateral cephalometric radiographs were taken. The patients hearing level was evaluated by the pure tone hearing threshold examination. This study also analyzed the correlation between hearing threshold of the patients after palatoplasty and the soft palate elevation angle and velopharyngeal rate respectively. Kendall correlation analysis revealed that the correlation coefficient between hearing threshold and the soft palate elevation angle after palatoplasty was -0.339 (r = -0.339, P < 0.01).The correlation showed a negative correlation. The hearing threshold decreased as the soft palate elevation angle increased. After palatoplasty, the correlation coefficient between the hearing threshold and the rate of velopharyngeal closure was -0.277 (r = -0.277, P < 0.01). The correlation showed a negative correlation. While, The hearing threshold decreased with the increase of velopharyngeal closure rate. The hearing threshold was correlated with soft palate elevation angle and velpharyngeal closure rate. The movement of soft palate and velopharyngeal closure function after palatoplasty both have impact on patient hearing level. In terms of the influence level, the movement of soft palate has a higher level of impact on patient hearing level than velopharygeal closure function.

Habituation analysis of chirp vs. tone evoked auditory late responses.

PubMed

Kern, Kevin; Royter, Vladislav; Corona-Strauss, Farah I; Mariam, Mai; Strauss, Daniel J

2010-01-01

We have recently shown that tone evoked auditory late responses are able to proof that habituation is occurring [1], [2]. The sweep to sweep analysis using time scale coherence method from [1] is used. Where clear results using tone evoked ALRs were obtained. Now it is of interest how does the results behave using chirp evoked ALRs compared to tone evoked ALRs so that basilar membrane dispersion is compensated. We presented three different tone bursts and three different band limited chirps to 10 subjects using two different loudness levels which the subjects determined themselves before as medium and uncomfortably loud. The 3 chirps are band limited within 3 different ranges, the chirp with the lowest center frequency has the smallest range (according to octave-band). Chirps and tone bursts are using the same center frequencies.

From Lexical Tone to Lexical Stress: A Cross-Language Mediation Model for Cantonese Children Learning English as a Second Language

PubMed Central

Choi, William; Tong, Xiuli; Singh, Leher

2017-01-01

This study investigated how Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity contributed to English lexical stress sensitivity among Cantonese children who learned English as a second language (ESL). Five-hundred-and-sixteen second-to-third grade Cantonese ESL children were tested on their Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity, English lexical stress sensitivity, general auditory sensitivity, and working memory. Structural equation modeling revealed that Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity contributed to English lexical stress sensitivity both directly, and indirectly through the mediation of general auditory sensitivity, in which the direct pathway had a larger relative contribution to English lexical stress sensitivity than the indirect pathway. These results suggest that the tone-stress association might be accounted for by joint phonological and acoustic processes that underlie lexical tone and lexical stress perception. PMID:28408898

Tone signal generator for producing multioperator tone signals using an operator circuit including a waveform generator, a selector and an enveloper

DOEpatents

Dong, Qiujie; Jenkins, Michael V.; Bernadas, Salvador R.

1997-01-01

A frequency modulation (FM) tone signal generator for generating a FM tone signal is disclosed. The tone signal generator includes a waveform generator having a plurality of wave tables, a selector and an enveloper. The waveform generator furnishes a waveform signal in response to a phase angle address signal. Each wave table stores a different waveform. The selector selects one of the wave tables in response to a plurality of selection signals such that the selected wave table largely provides the waveform signal upon being addressed largely by the phase angle address signal. Selection of the selected wave table varies with each selection signal. The enveloper impresses an envelope signal on the waveform signal. The envelope signal is used as a carrier or modulator for generating the FM tone signal.

The auditory enhancement effect is not reflected in the 80-Hz auditory steady-state response.

PubMed

Carcagno, Samuele; Plack, Christopher J; Portron, Arthur; Semal, Catherine; Demany, Laurent

2014-08-01

The perceptual salience of a target tone presented in a multitone background is increased by the presentation of a precursor sound consisting of the multitone background alone. It has been proposed that this "enhancement" phenomenon results from an effective amplification of the neural response to the target tone. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in humans, by comparing the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) to a target tone that was enhanced by a precursor sound with the ASSR to a target tone that was not enhanced. In order to record neural responses originating in the brainstem, the ASSR was elicited by amplitude modulating the target tone at a frequency close to 80 Hz. The results did not show evidence of an amplified neural response to enhanced tones. In a control condition, we measured the ASSR to a target tone that, instead of being perceptually enhanced by a precursor sound, was acoustically increased in level. This level increase matched the magnitude of enhancement estimated psychophysically with a forward masking paradigm in a previous experimental phase. We found that the ASSR to the tone acoustically increased in level was significantly greater than the ASSR to the tone enhanced by the precursor sound. Overall, our results suggest that the enhancement effect cannot be explained by an amplified neural response at the level of the brainstem. However, an alternative possibility is that brainstem neurons with enhanced responses do not contribute to the scalp-recorded ASSR.

The Analysis for Activations in the Brain during Hearing the Amplitude-Modulated Tone by fMRI Measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukami, Tadanori; Shimada, Takamasa; Akatsuka, Takao; Saito, Yoichi

In audiometry, ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) is widely used. However, it shows low accuracy in low frequency band. Meanwhile, AMFR (Amplitude-Modulation-Following Response), the response during hearing an amplitude-modulated tone, has high frequency specificity and is brought to attention. As the first step to clinical application of AMFR, we investigated the activated areas in a brain when the subjects hear SAM tone (Sinusoidally Amplitude-Modulated tone) with both ears. We measured following two signals. One is the difference of BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent) signal between hearing SAM tone vs. silence, the other is the difference of BOLD signal between hearing SAM tone vs. unmodulated tone. As a result, in the case of SAM vs. silence, the bilaterally auditory cortex (Broadmann Area 41, 42), the biratelally BA 10, left superior frontal gyrus and right superior temporal gyrus were activated (p<0.0037, uncorrected). In the case of SAM vs. unmodulated tone, the bilaterally superior frontal gyrus (BA 6) and precuneus (BA 7), neighboring area including the bilaterally inferior parietal lobule (BA 40), the bilaterally medial frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus were activated (p<0.021, uncorrected). Activations of visual perception due to eye-opened state were detected in some parts of activations. As a result, we inferred that modulated tone was recognized in the medial frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule was the part related to perception of amplitude-modulation.

The Digital Distribution of Public Health News Surrounding the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: A Longitudinal Infodemiology Study.

PubMed

Mahoney, L Meghan; Tang, Tang; Ji, Kai; Ulrich-Schad, Jessica

2015-01-01

New media changes the dissemination of public health information and misinformation. During a guest appearance on the Today Show, US Representative Michele Bachmann claimed that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines could cause "mental retardation". The purpose of this study is to explore how new media influences the type of public health information users access, as well as the impact to these platforms after a major controversy. Specifically, this study aims to examine the similarities and differences in the dissemination of news articles related to the HPV vaccination between Google News and Twitter, as well as how the content of news changed after Michele Bachmann's controversial comment. This study used a purposive sampling to draw the first 100 news articles that appeared on Google News and the first 100 articles that appeared on Twitter from August 1-October 31, 2011. Article tone, source, topics, concerns, references, publication date, and interactive features were coded. The intercoder reliability had a total agreement of .90. Results indicate that 44.0% of the articles (88/200) about the HPV vaccination had a positive tone, 32.5% (65/200) maintained a neutral tone, while 23.5% (47/200) presented a negative tone. Protection against diseases 82.0% (164/200), vaccine eligibility for females 75.5% (151/200), and side effects 59.0% (118/200) were the top three topics covered by these articles. Google News and Twitter articles significantly differed in article tone, source, topics, concerns covered, types of sources referenced in the article, and uses of interactive features. Most notably, topic focus changed from public health information towards political conversation after Bachmann's comment. Before the comment, the HPV vaccine news talked more often about vaccine dosing (P<.001), duration (P=.005), vaccine eligibility for females (P=.03), and protection against diseases (P=.04) than did the later pieces. After the controversy, the news topic shifted towards politics (P=.01) and talked more about HPV vaccine eligibility for males (P=.01). This longitudinal infodemiology study suggests that new media influences public health communication, knowledge transaction, and poses potential problems in the amount of misinformation disseminated during public health campaigns. In addition, the study calls for more research to adopt an infodemiology approach to explore relationships between online information supply and public health decisions.

The Digital Distribution of Public Health News Surrounding the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: A Longitudinal Infodemiology Study

PubMed Central

Tang, Tang; Ji, Kai; Ulrich-Schad, Jessica

2015-01-01

Background New media changes the dissemination of public health information and misinformation. During a guest appearance on the Today Show, US Representative Michele Bachmann claimed that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines could cause “mental retardation”. Objective The purpose of this study is to explore how new media influences the type of public health information users access, as well as the impact to these platforms after a major controversy. Specifically, this study aims to examine the similarities and differences in the dissemination of news articles related to the HPV vaccination between Google News and Twitter, as well as how the content of news changed after Michele Bachmann’s controversial comment. Methods This study used a purposive sampling to draw the first 100 news articles that appeared on Google News and the first 100 articles that appeared on Twitter from August 1-October 31, 2011. Article tone, source, topics, concerns, references, publication date, and interactive features were coded. The intercoder reliability had a total agreement of .90. Results Results indicate that 44.0% of the articles (88/200) about the HPV vaccination had a positive tone, 32.5% (65/200) maintained a neutral tone, while 23.5% (47/200) presented a negative tone. Protection against diseases 82.0% (164/200), vaccine eligibility for females 75.5% (151/200), and side effects 59.0% (118/200) were the top three topics covered by these articles. Google News and Twitter articles significantly differed in article tone, source, topics, concerns covered, types of sources referenced in the article, and uses of interactive features. Most notably, topic focus changed from public health information towards political conversation after Bachmann’s comment. Before the comment, the HPV vaccine news talked more often about vaccine dosing (P<.001), duration (P=.005), vaccine eligibility for females (P=.03), and protection against diseases (P=.04) than did the later pieces. After the controversy, the news topic shifted towards politics (P=.01) and talked more about HPV vaccine eligibility for males (P=.01). Conclusions This longitudinal infodemiology study suggests that new media influences public health communication, knowledge transaction, and poses potential problems in the amount of misinformation disseminated during public health campaigns. In addition, the study calls for more research to adopt an infodemiology approach to explore relationships between online information supply and public health decisions. PMID:27227125

Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch and L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension by Adult Tone and Non-Tone Language Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Wertz, Sloane Celeste

2017-01-01

Languages generally use musical pitch variation of the voice as part of their sound systems (Maddieson, 2011)--pitch variations that can be somewhat reminiscent of music. Music ability and/or training may influence language processing (e.g., Bidelman et al., 2011; Delogue et al., 2010). In particular, studies have concluded that there may be a…

Antimultipath communication by injecting tone into null in signal spectrum

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davarian, Faramaz (Inventor)

1987-01-01

A transmitter for digital radio communication creates a null by balanced encoding of data modulated on an RF carrier, and inserts a calibration tone within the null. This is accomplished by having the calibration tone coincide in phase and frequency with the transmitted radio frequency output, for coherent demodulation of data at the receiver where the tone calibration signal is extracted and used for multipath fading compensation.

Single-tone and two-tone AM-FM spectral calculations for tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chou, Nee-Yin; Sachse, Glen W.

1987-01-01

A generalized theory for optical heterodyne spectroscopy with phase modulated laser radiation is used which allows the calculation of signal line shapes for frequency modulation spectroscopy of Lorentzian gas absorption lines. In particular, synthetic spectral line shapes for both single-tone and two-tone modulation of lead-salt diode lasers are presented in which the contributions from both amplitude and frequency modulations are included.

Pitch perception and production in congenital amusia: Evidence from Cantonese speakers.

PubMed

Liu, Fang; Chan, Alice H D; Ciocca, Valter; Roquet, Catherine; Peretz, Isabelle; Wong, Patrick C M

2016-07-01

This study investigated pitch perception and production in speech and music in individuals with congenital amusia (a disorder of musical pitch processing) who are native speakers of Cantonese, a tone language with a highly complex tonal system. Sixteen Cantonese-speaking congenital amusics and 16 controls performed a set of lexical tone perception, production, singing, and psychophysical pitch threshold tasks. Their tone production accuracy and singing proficiency were subsequently judged by independent listeners, and subjected to acoustic analyses. Relative to controls, amusics showed impaired discrimination of lexical tones in both speech and non-speech conditions. They also received lower ratings for singing proficiency, producing larger pitch interval deviations and making more pitch interval errors compared to controls. Demonstrating higher pitch direction identification thresholds than controls for both speech syllables and piano tones, amusics nevertheless produced native lexical tones with comparable pitch trajectories and intelligibility as controls. Significant correlations were found between pitch threshold and lexical tone perception, music perception and production, but not between lexical tone perception and production for amusics. These findings provide further evidence that congenital amusia is a domain-general language-independent pitch-processing deficit that is associated with severely impaired music perception and production, mildly impaired speech perception, and largely intact speech production.

Pitch perception and production in congenital amusia: Evidence from Cantonese speakers

PubMed Central

Liu, Fang; Chan, Alice H. D.; Ciocca, Valter; Roquet, Catherine; Peretz, Isabelle; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2016-01-01

This study investigated pitch perception and production in speech and music in individuals with congenital amusia (a disorder of musical pitch processing) who are native speakers of Cantonese, a tone language with a highly complex tonal system. Sixteen Cantonese-speaking congenital amusics and 16 controls performed a set of lexical tone perception, production, singing, and psychophysical pitch threshold tasks. Their tone production accuracy and singing proficiency were subsequently judged by independent listeners, and subjected to acoustic analyses. Relative to controls, amusics showed impaired discrimination of lexical tones in both speech and non-speech conditions. They also received lower ratings for singing proficiency, producing larger pitch interval deviations and making more pitch interval errors compared to controls. Demonstrating higher pitch direction identification thresholds than controls for both speech syllables and piano tones, amusics nevertheless produced native lexical tones with comparable pitch trajectories and intelligibility as controls. Significant correlations were found between pitch threshold and lexical tone perception, music perception and production, but not between lexical tone perception and production for amusics. These findings provide further evidence that congenital amusia is a domain-general language-independent pitch-processing deficit that is associated with severely impaired music perception and production, mildly impaired speech perception, and largely intact speech production. PMID:27475178

Importance of vagal input in maintaining gastric tone in the dog.

PubMed Central

Azpiroz, F; Malagelada, J R

1987-01-01

1. Using a gastric barostat to quantify variations in gastric tone, we had previously demonstrated that food ingestion or intestinal nutrient perfusion induces gastric relaxation. These data suggested a basal tonic contraction of the stomach during fasting. 2. To determine the role of vagal input in maintaining fasting gastric tone, we prepared two chronic canine models, either isolating both cervical vagal trunks in a cutaneous tunnel or including the supradiaphragmatic vagi within an implanted cooling jacket. In the fasted conscious dogs, we then studied the effect, on gastric tone, of acute and reversible vagal blockade by cooling. 3. Cervical vagal cooling produced a reversible gastric relaxation and increased the heart rate. Supradiaphragmatic vagal cooling produced a similar gastric relaxation without the cardiac effect. 4. Adrenergic blockade did not change either the base-line gastric tone or the cooling-induced relaxation. Adrenaline decreased gastric tone, but vagal cooling still produced a significant relaxation. 5. Atropine alone or combined with adrenergic antagonists produced a gastric relaxation that was not further increased by vagal cooling. Bethanechol increased gastric tone, an effect unchanged by vagal cooling. 6. We conclude that gastric tone during fasting is maintained by a cholinergic input, which is vagally mediated at both the cervical and the supradiaphragmatic levels. Images Fig. 1 PMID:2888879

Numerical Simulation of the Generation of Axisymmetric Mode Jet Screech Tones

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, Hao; Tam, Christopher K. W.

1998-01-01

An imperfectly expanded supersonic jet, invariably, radiates both broadband noise and discrete frequency sound called screech tones. Screech tones are known to be generated by a feedback loop driven by the large scale instability waves of the jet flow. Inside the jet plume is a quasi-periodic shock cell structure. The interaction of the instability waves and the shock cell structure, as the former propagates through the latter, is responsible for the generation of the tones. Presently, there are formulas that can predict the tone frequency fairly accurately. However, there is no known way to predict the screech tone intensity. In this work, the screech phenomenon of an axisymmetric jet at low supersonic Mach number is reproduced by numerical simulation. The computed mean velocity profiles and the shock cell pressure distribution of the jet are found to be in good agreement with experimental measurements. The same is true with the simulated screech frequency. Calculated screech tone intensity and directivity at selected jet Mach number are reported in this paper. The present results demonstrate that numerical simulation using computational aeroacoustics methods offers not only a reliable way to determine the screech tone intensity and directivity but also an opportunity to study the physics and detailed mechanisms of the phenomenon by an entirely new approach.

Musical Scales in Tone Sequences Improve Temporal Accuracy.

PubMed

Li, Min S; Di Luca, Massimiliano

2018-01-01

Predicting the time of stimulus onset is a key component in perception. Previous investigations of perceived timing have focused on the effect of stimulus properties such as rhythm and temporal irregularity, but the influence of non-temporal properties and their role in predicting stimulus timing has not been exhaustively considered. The present study aims to understand how a non-temporal pattern in a sequence of regularly timed stimuli could improve or bias the detection of temporal deviations. We presented interspersed sequences of 3, 4, 5, and 6 auditory tones where only the timing of the last stimulus could slightly deviate from isochrony. Participants reported whether the last tone was 'earlier' or 'later' relative to the expected regular timing. In two conditions, the tones composing the sequence were either organized into musical scales or they were random tones. In one experiment, all sequences ended with the same tone; in the other experiment, each sequence ended with a different tone. Results indicate higher discriminability of anisochrony with musical scales and with longer sequences, irrespective of the knowledge of the final tone. Such an outcome suggests that the predictability of non-temporal properties, as enabled by the musical scale pattern, can be a factor in determining the sensitivity of time judgments.

Familiarity-Based Stimulus Generalization of Conditioned Suppression

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

We report that stimulus novelty/familiarity is able to modulate stimulus generalization and discuss the theoretical implications of novelty/familiarity coding. Rats in Skinner boxes received clicker → shock pairings before generalization testing to a tone. Before clicker training, different groups of rats received preexposure treatments designed to systematically modulate the clicker and the tone’s novelty and familiarity. Rats whose preexposure matched novelty/familiarity (i.e., either both or neither clicker and tone were preexposed) showed enhanced suppression to the tone relative to rats whose preexposure mixed novelty/familiarity (i.e., only clicker or tone was preexposed). This was not the result of sensory preconditioning to clicker and tone. PMID:28383938

Pitch jnd and the tritone paradox: The linguistic nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safari, Kourosh

2002-11-01

Previous research has shown a connection between absolute pitch (the ability to name a specific pitch in the absence of any reference) and native competence in a tone language (Deutsch, 1990). In tone languages, tone is one of the features which determines the lexical meaning of a word. This study investigates the relationship between native competence in a tone language and the just noticeable difference of pitch. Furthermore, the tritone paradox studies have shown that subjects hear two tritones (with bell-shaped spectral envelopes) as either ascending or descending depending on their linguistic backgrounds (Deutsch, 1987). It is hypothesized that the native speakers of tone languages have a higher JND for pitch, and hear the two tones of the tritone paradox as ascending, whereas, native speakers of nontone languages hear them as descending. This study will indicate the importance of early musical training for the development of acute tone sensitivity. It will also underline the importance of language and culture in the way it shapes our musical understanding. The significance of this study will be in the areas of music education and pedagogy.

Who do you love, your mother or your horse? An event-related brain potential analysis of tone processing in Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Canseco-Gonzalez, Enriqueta

2004-03-01

In Mandarin Chinese, word meaning is partially determined by lexical tone (Wang, 1973). Previous studies suggest that lexical tone is processed as linguistic information and not as pure tonal information (Gandour, 1998; Van Lanker & Fromkin, 1973). The current study explored the online processing of lexical tones. Event-related potentials were obtained from 25 Mandarin speakers while they listened to normal and anomalous sentences containing one of three types of semantic anomalies created by manipulating the tone, the syllable, or both tone and syllable (double-anomaly) of sentence-final words. We hypothesized N400 effects elicited by all three types of anomalies and the largest by the double-anomaly. As expected, all three elicited N400 effects starting approximately 150 ms poststimulus and continuing until 1000 ms in some areas. Surprisingly, onset of the double-anomaly effect was approximately 50 ms later than the rest. Delayed detection of errors in this condition may be responsible for the apparent delay. Slight differences between syllable and tone conditions may be due to the relative timing of these acoustic cues.

General perceptual contributions to lexical tone normalization.

PubMed

Huang, Jingyuan; Holt, Lori L

2009-06-01

Within tone languages that use pitch variations to contrast meaning, large variability exists in the pitches produced by different speakers. Context-dependent perception may help to resolve this perceptual challenge. However, whether speakers rely on context in contour tone perception is unclear; previous studies have produced inconsistent results. The present study aimed to provide an unambiguous test of the effect of context on contour lexical tone perception and to explore its underlying mechanisms. In three experiments, Mandarin listeners' perception of Mandarin first and second (high-level and mid-rising) tones was investigated with preceding speech and non-speech contexts. Results indicate that the mean fundamental frequency (f0) of a preceding sentence affects perception of contour lexical tones and the effect is contrastive. Following a sentence with a higher-frequency mean f0, the following syllable is more likely to be perceived as a lower frequency lexical tone and vice versa. Moreover, non-speech precursors modeling the mean spectrum of f0 also elicit this effect, suggesting general perceptual processing rather than articulatory-based or speaker-identity-driven mechanisms.

The Glass Ceiling Effect and Its Impact on Mid-Level Female Military Officer Career Progression in the United States Marine Corps and Air Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-03-01

to as “trailblazers” and “ pioneers ”. Their initial experience and handling of resistance and obstacles set the tone for those who follow in their...Academies or participate in ROTC commissioning programs display an advantage when it comes to promotion and longevity (Career Progression of...is increasing awareness concerning their longevity . Officer survival rates represent retention as accumulated years of service. Because it is an

MR imaging findings in the reticular formation in siblings with MPV17-related mitochondrial depletion syndrome.

PubMed

Merkle, A N; Nascene, D R; McKinney, A M

2012-03-01

Hepatocerebral MPV17-MDS is quite rare (<30 confirmed cases), with limited findings described on MR imaging. We report 2 siblings having abnormalities within the reticular formation of the lower brain stem and within the reticulospinal tracts at the cervicocranial junction on T2WI. The presence of these MR imaging findings (relative to previous reports) raises the possibility that they represent subtle but characteristic findings corresponding to clinically observed abnormalities of tone encountered with this recently described disorder.

Influence of Gravity on Blood Volume and Flow Distribution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pendergast, D.; Olszowka, A.; Bednarczyk, E.; Shykoff, B.; Farhi, L.

1999-01-01

In our previous experiments during NASA Shuttle flights SLS 1 and 2 (9-15 days) and EUROMIR flights (30-90 days) we observed that pulmonary blood flow (cardiac output) was elevated initially, and surprisingly remained elevated for the duration of the flights. Stroke volume increased initially and then decreased, but was still above 1 Gz values. As venous return was constant, the changes in SV were secondary to modulation of heart rate. Mean blood pressure was at or slightly below 1 Gz levels in space, indicating a decrease in total peripheral resistance. It has been suggested that plasma volume is reduced in space, however cardiac output/venous return do not return to 1 Gz levels over the duration of flight. In spite of the increased cardiac output, central venous pressure was not elevated in space. These data suggest that there is a change in the basic relationship between cardiac output and central venous pressure, a persistent "hyperperfusion" and a re-distribution of blood flow and volume during space flight. Increased pulmonary blood flow has been reported to increase diffusing capacity in space, presumably due to the improved homogeneity of ventilation and perfusion. Other studies have suggested that ventilation may be independent of gravity, and perfusion may not be gravity- dependent. No data for the distribution of pulmonary blood volume were available for flight or simulated microgravity. Recent studies have suggested that the pulmonary vascular tree is influenced by sympathetic tone in a manner similar to that of the systemic system. This implies that the pulmonary circulation is dilated during microgravity and that the distribution of blood flow and volume may be influenced more by vascular control than by gravity. The cerebral circulation is influenced by sympathetic tone similarly to that of the systemic and pulmonary circulations; however its effects are modulated by cerebral autoregulation. Thus it is difficult to predict if cerebral perfusion is increased and if there is edema in space. Anecdotal evidence suggests there may be cerebral edema early in flight. Cerebral artery velocity has been shown to be elevated in simulated microgravity. The elevated cerebral artery velocity during simulated microgravity may reflect vasoconstriction of the arteries and not increased cerebral blood flow. The purpose of our investigations was to evaluate the effects of alterations in simulated gravity (+/-), resulting in changes in cardiac output (+/-), and on the blood flow and volume distribution in the lung and brain of human subjects. The first hypothesis of these studies was that blood flow and volume would be affected by gravity, but their distribution in the lung would be independent of gravity and due to vasoactivity changing vascular resistance in lung vessels. The vasodilitation of the lung vasculature (lower resistance) along with increased "compliance" of the heart could account for the absence of increased central venous pressure in microgravity. Secondly, we postulate that cerebral blood velocity is increased in microgravity due to large artery vasoconstriction, but that cerebral blood flow would be reduced due to autoregulation.

The Study of Tone and Related Phenomena in an Amazonian Tone Language: Gavião of Rondônia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Denny; Meyer, Julien

2014-01-01

This paper describes the methods used to study the tone and some related phenomena of the language of the Gavião of Rondônia, Brazil, which is part of the Mondé branch of the Tupi family. Whistling of words by indigenous informants was discovered to be a very effective method for obtaining phonetic accuracy in tone and length. Methods were devised…

Intermodulation in nonlinear SQUID metamaterials: Experiment and theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Daimeng; Trepanier, Melissa; Antonsen, Thomas; Ott, Edward; Anlage, Steven M.

2016-11-01

The response of nonlinear metamaterials and superconducting electronics to two-tone excitation is critical for understanding their use as low-noise amplifiers and tunable filters. A new setting for such studies is that of metamaterials made of radio frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs). The two-tone response of self-resonant rf-SQUID meta-atoms and metamaterials is studied here via intermodulation (IM) measurement over a broad range of tone frequencies and tone powers. A sharp onset followed by a surprising strongly suppressed IM region near the resonance is observed. Using a two time scale analysis technique, we present an analytical theory that successfully explains our experimental observations. The theory predicts that the IM can be manipulated with tone power, center frequency, frequency difference between the two tones, and temperature. This quantitative understanding potentially allows for the design of rf-SQUID metamaterials with either very low or very high IM response.

The effect of tonal changes on voice onset time in Mandarin esophageal speech.

PubMed

Liu, Hanjun; Ng, Manwa L; Wan, Mingxi; Wang, Supin; Zhang, Yi

2008-03-01

The present study investigated the effect of tonal changes on voice onset time (VOT) between normal laryngeal (NL) and superior esophageal (SE) speakers of Mandarin Chinese. VOT values were measured from the syllables /pha/, /tha/, and /kha/ produced at four tone levels by eight NL and seven SE speakers who were native speakers of Mandarin. Results indicated that Mandarin tones were associated with significantly different VOT values for NL speakers, in which high-falling tone was associated with significantly shorter VOT values than mid-rising tone and falling-rising tone. Regarding speaker group, SE speakers showed significantly shorter VOT values than NL speakers across all tone levels. This may be related to their use of pharyngoesophageal (PE) segment as another sound source. SE speakers appear to take a shorter time to start PE segment vibration compared to NL speakers using the vocal folds for vibration.

Neuroplasticity in Human Alcoholism

PubMed Central

Fein, George; Cardenas, Valerie A.

2015-01-01

Alcoholism is characterized by a lack of control over excessive alcohol consumption despite significant negative consequences. This impulsive and compulsive behavior may be related to functional abnormalities within networks of brain regions responsible for how we make decisions. The abnormalities may result in strengthened networks related to appetitive drive—or the need to fulfill desires—and simultaneously weakened networks that exercise control over behaviors. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in abstinent alcoholics suggest that abstinence is associated with changes in the tone of such networks, decreasing resting tone in appetitive drive networks, and increasing resting tone in inhibitory control networks to support continued abstinence. Identifying electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of resting tone in these networks initially identified using fMRI, and establishing in longitudinal studies that these abstinence-related changes in network tone are progressive would motivate treatment initiatives to facilitate these changes in network tone, thereby supporting successful ongoing abstinence. PMID:26259093

Longitudinal relations between child vagal tone and parenting behavior: 2 to 4 years.

PubMed

Kennedy, Amy E; Rubin, Kenneth H; Hastings, Paul D; Maisel, Beth

2004-07-01

The longitudinal relations between physiological markers of child emotion regulation and maternal parenting practices were examined from 2 to 4 years of age. At Time 1, cardiac vagal tone was assessed for one hundred four 2-year-olds (54 females); their mothers completed an assessment of parenting styles. Two years later, at Time 2, 84 of the original participants were reassessed on measures of cardiac vagal tone and parenting style. Results indicated both baseline cardiac vagal tone and maternal parenting practices to be stable from 2 to 4 years of age. Children's cardiac vagal tone predicted specific parenting practices from the toddler to preschool years. Further, child cardiac vagal tone moderated maternal restrictive-parenting practices from 2 to 4 years of age; mothers of children who were highly or moderately physiologically dysregulated were more likely to report restrictive parenting practices at both 2 and 4 years of age. Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Tone signal generator for producing multioperator tone signals using an operator circuit including a waveform generator, a selector and an enveloper

DOEpatents

Dong, Q.; Jenkins, M.V.; Bernadas, S.R.

1997-09-09

A frequency modulation (FM) tone signal generator for generating a FM tone signal is disclosed. The tone signal generator includes a waveform generator having a plurality of wave tables, a selector and an enveloper. The waveform generator furnishes a waveform signal in response to a phase angle address signal. Each wave table stores a different waveform. The selector selects one of the wave tables in response to a plurality of selection signals such that the selected wave table largely provides the waveform signal upon being addressed largely by the phase angle address signal. Selection of the selected wave table varies with each selection signal. The enveloper impresses an envelope signal on the waveform signal. The envelope signal is used as a carrier or modulator for generating the FM tone signal. 17 figs.

Diagnosis of Brugada's syndrome after subarachnoid injection of prilocaine.

PubMed

Oliván, B; Arbeláez, A; de Miguel, M; Pelavski, A

2016-10-01

Brugada syndrome is an autosomal dominant genetic disease affecting sodium ion channels. It is characterised by right bundle branch block and ST elevation in the right precordial leads, and with no structural cardiac abnormalities. It is associated with sudden death. This disease may be unmasked by certain drugs and sudden changes in autonomic tone. Local anaesthetics may increase ECG changes due to a blockade of the sodium channels, mainly depending on the dose and the type of anaesthetic. Thus, there have been reported electrocardiographic changes consistent with Brugada syndrome, triggered after epidural or paravertebral infusion of bupivacaine and ropivacaine. The case is described of a 66 years old man, scheduled for inguinal herniorrhaphy as an outpatient. He had no history of syncope or arrhythmias. After spinal anaesthesia with 40mg of prilocaine the ECG showed ST elevation>2mm, and right bundle branch block in V1-V3. Copyright © 2015 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Contralateral Effects and Binaural Interactions in Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus

PubMed Central

2005-01-01

The dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) receives afferent input from the auditory nerve and is thus usually thought of as a monaural nucleus, but it also receives inputs from the contralateral cochlear nucleus as well as descending projections from binaural nuclei. Evidence suggests that some of these commissural and efferent projections are excitatory, whereas others are inhibitory. The goals of this study were to investigate the nature and effects of these inputs in the DCN by measuring DCN principal cell (type IV unit) responses to a variety of contralateral monaural and binaural stimuli. As expected, the results of contralateral stimulation demonstrate a mixture of excitatory and inhibitory influences, although inhibitory effects predominate. Most type IV units are weakly, if at all, inhibited by tones but are strongly inhibited by broadband noise (BBN). The inhibition evoked by BBN is also low threshold and short latency. This inhibition is abolished and excitation is revealed when strychnine, a glycine-receptor antagonist, is applied to the DCN; application of bicuculline, a GABAA-receptor antagonist, has similar effects but does not block the onset of inhibition. Manipulations of discrete fiber bundles suggest that the inhibitory, but not excitatory, inputs to DCN principal cells enter the DCN via its output pathway, and that the short latency inhibition is carried by commissural axons. Consistent with their respective monaural effects, responses to binaural tones as a function of interaural level difference are essentially the same as responses to ipsilateral tones, whereas binaural BBN responses decrease with increasing contralateral level. In comparison to monaural responses, binaural responses to virtual space stimuli show enhanced sensitivity to the elevation of a sound source in ipsilateral space but reduced sensitivity in contralateral space. These results show that the contralateral inputs to the DCN are functionally relevant in natural listening conditions, and that one role of these inputs is to enhance DCN processing of spectral sound localization cues produced by the pinna. PMID:16075189

The dissimilar time course of temporary threshold shifts and reduction of inhibition in the inferior colliculus following intense sound exposure.

PubMed

Heeringa, A N; van Dijk, P

2014-06-01

Excessive noise exposure is known to produce an auditory threshold shift, which can be permanent or transient in nature. Recent studies showed that noise-induced temporary threshold shifts are associated with loss of synaptic connections to the inner hair cells and with cochlear nerve degeneration, which is reflected in a decreased amplitude of wave I of the auditory brainstem response (ABR). This suggests that, despite normal auditory thresholds, central auditory processing may be abnormal. We recorded changes in central auditory processing following a sound-induced temporary threshold shift. Anesthetized guinea pigs were exposed for 1 h to a pure tone of 11 kHz (124 dB sound pressure level). Hearing thresholds, amplitudes of ABR waves I and IV, and spontaneous and tone-evoked firing rates in the inferior colliculus (IC) were assessed immediately, one week, two weeks, and four weeks post exposure. Hearing thresholds were elevated immediately following overexposure, but recovered within one week. The amplitude of the ABR wave I was decreased in all sound-exposed animals for all test periods. In contrast, the ABR wave IV amplitude was only decreased immediately after overexposure and recovered within a week. The proportion of IC units that show inhibitory responses to pure tones decreased substantially up to two weeks after overexposure, especially when stimulated with high frequencies. The proportion of excitatory responses to low frequencies was increased. Spontaneous activity was unaffected by the overexposure. Despite rapid normalization of auditory thresholds, our results suggest an increased central gain following sound exposure and an abnormal balance between excitatory and inhibitory responses in the midbrain up to two weeks after overexposure. These findings may be associated with hyperacusis after a sound-induced temporary threshold shift. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Increased Notch3 Activity Mediates pathological Changes in Structure of Cerebral arteries

PubMed Central

Baron-Menguy, Celine; Domenga-Denier, Valérie; Ghezali, Lamia; Faraci, Frank; Joutel, Anne

2016-01-01

CADASIL, the most frequent genetic cause of stroke and vascular dementia, is caused by highly stereotyped mutations in the NOTCH3 receptor, which is predominantly expressed in vascular smooth muscle. The well-established TgNotch3R169C mouse model develops characteristic features of the human disease, with deposition of NOTCH3 and other proteins, including TIMP3 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3), on brain vessels as well as reduced maximal dilation, and attenuated myogenic tone of cerebral arteries, but without elevated blood pressure. Increased TIMP3 levels were recently shown to be a major determinant of altered myogenic tone. In this study, we investigated the contribution of TIMP3 and Notch3 signaling to the impairment of maximal vasodilator capacity caused by the archetypal R169C mutation. Maximally dilated cerebral arteries in TgNotch3R169C mice exhibited a decrease in lumen diameter over a range of physiological pressures that occurred prior to myogenic tone deficits. This defect was not prevented by genetic reduction of TIMP3 in TgNotch3R169C mice and was not observed in mice overexpressing TIMP3. Knock-in mice with the R169C mutation (Notch3R170C/R170C) exhibited similar reductions in arterial lumen, and both TgNotch3R169C and Notch3R170C/R170C mice showed increased cerebral artery expression of Notch3 target genes. Reduced maximal vasodilation was prevented by conditional reduction of Notch activity in smooth muscle of TgNotch3R169C mice and mimicked by conditional activation of Notch3 in smooth muscle, an effect that was blood pressure-independent. We conclude that increased Notch3 activity mediates reduction in maximal dilator capacity of cerebral arteries in CADASIL and may contribute to reductions in cerebral blood flow. PMID:27821617

Increased Notch3 Activity Mediates Pathological Changes in Structure of Cerebral Arteries.

PubMed

Baron-Menguy, Celine; Domenga-Denier, Valérie; Ghezali, Lamia; Faraci, Frank M; Joutel, Anne

2017-01-01

CADASIL (Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy With Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy), the most frequent genetic cause of stroke and vascular dementia, is caused by highly stereotyped mutations in the NOTCH3 receptor, which is predominantly expressed in vascular smooth muscle. The well-established TgNotch3 R169C mouse model develops characteristic features of the human disease, with deposition of NOTCH3 and other proteins, including TIMP3 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3), on brain vessels, as well as reduced maximal dilation, and attenuated myogenic tone of cerebral arteries, but without elevated blood pressure. Increased TIMP3 levels were recently shown to be a major determinant of altered myogenic tone. In this study, we investigated the contribution of TIMP3 and Notch3 signaling to the impairment of maximal vasodilator capacity caused by the archetypal R169C mutation. Maximally dilated cerebral arteries in TgNotch3 R169C mice exhibited a decrease in lumen diameter over a range of physiological pressures that occurred before myogenic tone deficits. This defect was not prevented by genetic reduction of TIMP3 in TgNotch3 R169C mice and was not observed in mice overexpressing TIMP3. Knock-in mice with the R169C mutation (Notch3 R170C/R170C ) exhibited similar reductions in arterial lumen, and both TgNotch3 R169C and Notch3 R170C/R170C mice showed increased cerebral artery expression of Notch3 target genes. Reduced maximal vasodilation was prevented by conditional reduction of Notch activity in smooth muscle of TgNotch3 R169C mice and mimicked by conditional activation of Notch3 in smooth muscle, an effect that was blood pressure-independent. We conclude that increased Notch3 activity mediates reduction in maximal dilator capacity of cerebral arteries in CADASIL and may contribute to reductions in cerebral blood flow. © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

Timbre-induced pitch shift from the perspective of Signal Detection Theory: the impact of musical expertise, silence interval, and pitch region

PubMed Central

Vurma, Allan

2014-01-01

The paradigm of Signal Detection Theory (SDT) was used to analyze the ability of professional pianists (N = 16) and string players (N = 15) to discriminate small F0 differences between consecutive musical tones, presented in pairs, with identical and with different (bright and dull) timbres. The sensitivity (d′) and response bias (c) were heavily dependent on the timbral arrangement of the pairs of tones (the “comparable tones”), which can be interpreted as the influence of timbre-induced pitch shift on F0 discrimination. The participants were somewhat biased to “miss” signals when comparable tones had identical timbres and to make “false alarms” when the tones had different timbres. The d′ was lowest when the tones with a lower F0 in those stimulus-pairs containing tones with different timbres had a brighter timber, and highest when both tones had bright timbre. On average, the string players had a somewhat higher d′ and their perception was slightly less influenced by timbre-induced pitch shift when compared to the pianists. Nevertheless, the dependence of d′ and c on the timbral arrangement of the tones was registered in the case of all the participants at all the investigated pitch regions around D#3, D4, and C#5. Furthermore, the presence of a silence of 3.5 s—a silence interval—between the tones to be compared had an impact on both d′- and c-values as well as on the degree of vulnerability to timbre-induced pitch shift. PMID:24550867

The interaction of lexical tone, intonation and semantic context in on-line spoken word recognition: an ERP study on Cantonese Chinese.

PubMed

Kung, Carmen; Chwilla, Dorothee J; Schriefers, Herbert

2014-01-01

In two ERP experiments, we investigate the on-line interplay of lexical tone, intonation and semantic context during spoken word recognition in Cantonese Chinese. Experiment 1 shows that lexical tone and intonation interact immediately. Words with a low lexical tone at the end of questions (with a rising question intonation) lead to a processing conflict. This is reflected in a low accuracy in lexical identification and in a P600 effect compared to the same words at the end of a statement. Experiment 2 shows that a strongly biasing semantic context leads to much better lexical-identification performance for words with a low tone at the end of questions and to a disappearance of the P600 effect. These results support the claim that semantic context plays a major role in disentangling the tonal information from the intonational information, and thus, in resolving the on-line conflict between intonation and tone. However, the ERP data indicate that the introduction of a semantic context does not entirely eliminate on-line processing problems for words at the end of questions. This is revealed by the presence of an N400 effect for words with a low lexical tone and for words with a high-mid lexical tone at the end of questions. The ERP data thus show that, while semantic context helps in the eventual lexical identification, it makes the deviation of the contextually expected lexical tone from the actual acoustic signal more salient. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Deep Cerebellar Nuclei Play an Important Role in Two-Tone Discrimination on Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in C57BL/6 Mice

PubMed Central

Sakamoto, Toshiro; Endo, Shogo

2013-01-01

Previous studies have shown that deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN)-lesioned mice develop conditioned responses (CR) on delay eyeblink conditioning when a salient tone conditioned stimulus (CS) is used, which suggests that the cerebellum potentially plays a role in more complicated cognitive functions. In the present study, we examined the role of DCN in tone frequency discrimination in the delay eyeblink-conditioning paradigm. In the first experiment, DCN-lesioned and sham-operated mice were subjected to standard simple eyeblink conditioning under low-frequency tone CS (LCS: 1 kHz, 80 dB) or high-frequency tone CS (HCS: 10 kHz, 70 dB) conditions. DCN-lesioned mice developed CR in both CS conditions as well as sham-operated mice. In the second experiment, DCN-lesioned and sham-operated mice were subjected to two-tone discrimination tasks, with LCS+ (or HCS+) paired with unconditioned stimulus (US), and HCS− (or LCS−) without US. CR% in sham-operated mice increased in LCS+ (or HCS+) trials, regardless of tone frequency of CS, but not in HCS− (or LCS−) trials. The results indicate that sham-operated mice can discriminate between LCS+ and HCS− (or HCS+ and LCS−). In contrast, DCN-lesioned mice showed high CR% in not only LCS+ (or HCS+) trials but also HCS− (or LCS−) trials. The results indicate that DCN lesions impair the discrimination between tone frequency in eyeblink conditioning. Our results suggest that the cerebellum plays a pivotal role in the discrimination of tone frequency. PMID:23555821

Morocco and border of spain as seen from STS-59

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The Atlantic Ocean, Straits of Gibraltar, and Alboran Sea (the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea) separate Spain on the left from Morocco on the right. Algeciras Harbor is the prominent notch cut out of the eastern end of the north shore of the Strait; the Rock of Gibraltar is the tiny arrowhead that separates the notch from the Alboran Sea. The Sierra Nevada, farther away down the Spanish coast, lives up to its name in this April scene. The difference in elevation between the Sierra Morena and the Guadalquivir River valley is highlighted nicely by cumulus clouds. Tangier, Morocco can be seen as a light-toned spot on the southern shore of the Strait, near the entrance to the Atlantic Ocean.

Mapping of soil banks using ERTS-1 pictures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahmad, M. U.; Kantner, D. A.; Antalovich, J. W.

1973-01-01

Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) pictures of different wavelengths (MSS 4,5,6,7) were used in the study of two strip mine areas in southeastern Ohio. The first area was near Piedmont Lake and the second area was near New Lexington. Prints were examined under a binocular microscope and the gray tone was correlated with the actual ground conditions at several sites. For the New Lexington area, color infrared pictures taken at an elevation of 18,000 feet were also used for correlation with the ERTS-1 imagery. The results indicate that MSS 5 and 7 are most useful in defining the stripped land and show that the hydrological and soil characteristics are remarkably different than the surrounding lands.

Tone based command system for reception of very weak signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bokulic, Robert Steven (Inventor); Jensen, James Robert (Inventor)

2006-01-01

This disclosure presents a communication receiver system for spacecraft that includes an open loop receiver adapted to receive a communication signal. An ultrastable oscillator (USO) and a tone detector are connected to the open loop receiver. The open loop receiver translates the communication signal to an intermediate frequency signal using a highly stable reference frequency from the USO. The tone detector extracts commands from the communication signal by evaluating the difference between tones of the communication signal.

Task choice and semantic interference in picture naming.

PubMed

Piai, Vitória; Roelofs, Ardi; Schriefers, Herbert

2015-05-01

Evidence from dual-task performance indicates that speakers prefer not to select simultaneous responses in picture naming and another unrelated task, suggesting a response selection bottleneck in naming. In particular, when participants respond to tones with a manual response and name pictures with superimposed semantically related or unrelated distractor words, semantic interference in naming tends to be constant across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the tone stimulus and the picture-word stimulus. In the present study, we examine whether semantic interference in picture naming depends on SOA in case of a task choice (naming the picture vs reading the word of a picture-word stimulus) based on tones. This situation requires concurrent processing of the tone stimulus and the picture-word stimulus, but not a manual response to the tones. On each trial, participants either named a picture or read aloud a word depending on the pitch of a tone, which was presented simultaneously with picture-word onset or 350 ms or 1000 ms before picture-word onset. Semantic interference was present with tone pre-exposure, but absent when tone and picture-word stimulus were presented simultaneously. Against the background of the available studies, these results support an account according to which speakers tend to avoid concurrent response selection, but can engage in other types of concurrent processing, such as task choices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of language experience on perceptual normalization of Mandarin tones and non-speech pitch contours.

PubMed

Luo, Xin; Ashmore, Krista B

2014-06-01

Context-dependent pitch perception helps listeners recognize tones produced by speakers with different fundamental frequencies (f0s). The role of language experience in tone normalization remains unclear. In this cross-language study of tone normalization, native Mandarin and English listeners were asked to recognize Mandarin Tone 1 (high-flat) and Tone 2 (mid-rising) with a preceding Mandarin sentence. To further test whether context-dependent pitch perception is speech-specific or domain-general, both language groups were asked to identify non-speech flat and rising pitch contours with a preceding non-speech flat pitch contour. Results showed that both Mandarin and English listeners made more rising responses with non-speech than with speech stimuli, due to differences in spectral complexity and listening task between the two stimulus types. English listeners made more rising responses than Mandarin listeners with both speech and non-speech stimuli. Contrastive context effects (more rising responses in the high-f0 context than in the low-f0 context) were found with both speech and non-speech stimuli for Mandarin listeners, but not for English listeners. English listeners' lack of tone experience may have caused more rising responses and limited use of context f0 cues. These results suggest that context-dependent pitch perception in tone normalization is domain-general, but influenced by long-term language experience.

Unequal effects of speech and nonspeech contexts on the perceptual normalization of Cantonese level tones.

PubMed

Zhang, Caicai; Peng, Gang; Wang, William S-Y

2012-08-01

Context is important for recovering language information from talker-induced variability in acoustic signals. In tone perception, previous studies reported similar effects of speech and nonspeech contexts in Mandarin, supporting a general perceptual mechanism underlying tone normalization. However, no supportive evidence was obtained in Cantonese, also a tone language. Moreover, no study has compared speech and nonspeech contexts in the multi-talker condition, which is essential for exploring the normalization mechanism of inter-talker variability in speaking F0. The other question is whether a talker's full F0 range and mean F0 equally facilitate normalization. To answer these questions, this study examines the effects of four context conditions (speech/nonspeech × F0 contour/mean F0) in the multi-talker condition in Cantonese. Results show that raising and lowering the F0 of speech contexts change the perception of identical stimuli from mid level tone to low and high level tone, whereas nonspeech contexts only mildly increase the identification preference. It supports the speech-specific mechanism of tone normalization. Moreover, speech context with flattened F0 trajectory, which neutralizes cues of a talker's full F0 range, fails to facilitate normalization in some conditions, implying that a talker's mean F0 is less efficient for minimizing talker-induced lexical ambiguity in tone perception.

Tone matters for Cantonese-English bilingual children's English word reading development: A unified model of phonological transfer.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; He, Xinjie; Deacon, S Hélène

2017-02-01

Languages differ considerably in how they use prosodic features, or variations in pitch, duration, and intensity, to distinguish one word from another. Prosodic features include lexical tone in Chinese and lexical stress in English. Recent cross-sectional studies show a surprising result that Mandarin Chinese tone sensitivity is related to Mandarin-English bilingual children's English word reading. This study explores the mechanism underlying this relation by testing two explanations of these effects: the prosodic hypothesis and segmental phonological awareness transfer. We administered multiple measures of Cantonese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, segmental phonological awareness in Cantonese and English, nonverbal ability, and English word reading to 123 Cantonese-English bilingual children ages 7 and 8 years. Structural equation modeling revealed a longitudinal prediction of Cantonese tone sensitivity to English word reading between 8 and 9 years of age. This relation was realized through two parallel routes. In one, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English stress sensitivity, and English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, as postulated by the prosodic hypothesis. In the second, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English word reading through the transfer of segmental phonological awareness between Cantonese and English, as predicted by segmental phonological transfer. These results support a unified model of phonological transfer, emphasizing the role of tone in English word reading for Cantonese-English bilingual children.

Assessing the Importance of Lexical Tone Contour to Sentence Perception in Mandarin-Speaking Children With Normal Hearing.

PubMed

Zhu, Shufeng; Wong, Lena L N; Wang, Bin; Chen, Fei

2017-07-12

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of lexical tone contour and age on sentence perception in quiet and in noise conditions in Mandarin-speaking children ages 7 to 11 years with normal hearing. Test materials were synthesized Mandarin sentences, each word with a manipulated lexical contour, that is, normal contour, flat contour, or a tone contour randomly selected from the four Mandarin lexical tone contours. A convenience sample of 75 Mandarin-speaking participants with normal hearing, ages 7, 9, and 11 years (25 participants in each age group), was selected. Participants were asked to repeat the synthesized speech in quiet and in speech spectrum-shaped noise at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. In quiet, sentence recognition by the 11-year-old children was similar to that of adults, and misrepresented lexical tone contours did not have a detrimental effect. However, the performance of children ages 9 and 7 years was significantly poorer. The performance of all three age groups, especially the younger children, declined significantly in noise. The present research suggests that lexical tone contour plays an important role in Mandarin sentence recognition, and misrepresented tone contours result in greater difficulty in sentence recognition in younger children. These results imply that maturation and/or language use experience play a role in the processing of tone contours for Mandarin speech understanding, particularly in noise.

Blood flow vs. venous pressure effects on filtration coefficient in oleic acid-injured lung.

PubMed

Anglade, D; Corboz, M; Menaouar, A; Parker, J C; Sanou, S; Bayat, S; Benchetrit, G; Grimbert, F A

1998-03-01

On the basis of changes in capillary filtration coefficient (Kfc) in 24 rabbit lungs, we determined whether elevations in pulmonary venous pressure (Ppv) or blood flow (BF) produced differences in filtration surface area in oleic acid-injured (OA) or control (Con) lungs. Lungs were cyclically ventilated and perfused under zone 3 conditions by using blood and 5% albumin with no pharmacological modulation of vascular tone. Pulmonary arterial, venous, and capillary pressures were measured by using arterial, venous, and double occlusion. Before and during each Kfc-measurement maneuver, microvascular/total vascular compliance was measured by using venous occlusion. Kfc was measured before and 30 min after injury, by using a Ppv elevation of 7 cmH2O or a BF elevation from 1 to 2 l . min-1 . 100 g-1 to obtain a similar double occlusion pressure. Pulmonary arterial pressure increased more with BF than with Ppv in both Con and OA lungs [29 +/- 2 vs. 19 +/- 0.7 (means +/- SE) cmH2O; P < 0. 001]. In OA lungs compared with Con lungs, values of Kfc (200 +/- 40 vs. 83 +/- 14%, respectively; P < 0.01) and microvascular/total vascular compliance ratio (86 +/- 4 vs. 68 +/- 5%, respectively; P < 0.01) increased more with BF than with Ppv. In conclusion, for a given OA-induced increase in hydraulic conductivity, BF elevation increased filtration surface area more than did Ppv elevation. The steep pulmonary pressure profile induced by increased BF could result in the recruitment of injured capillaries and could also shift downstream the compression point of blind (zone 1) and open injured vessels (zone 2).

Low-frequency bias tone suppression of auditory-nerve responses to low-level clicks and tones.

PubMed

Nam, Hui; Guinan, John J

2016-11-01

We used low-frequency "bias" tones (BT's) to explore whether click and tone responses are affected in the same way by cochlear active processes. In nonlinear systems the responses to clicks are not always simply related to the responses to tones. Cochlear amplifier gain depends on the incremental slope of the outer-hair-cell (OHC) stereocilia mechano-electric transduction (MET) function. BTs transiently change the operating-point of OHC MET channels and can suppress cochlear-amplifier gain by pushing OHC METs into low-slope saturation regions. BT effects on single auditory-nerve (AN) fibers have been studied on tone responses but not on click responses. We recorded from AN fibers in anesthetized cats and compared tone and click responses using 50 Hz BTs at 70-120 dB SPL to manipulate OHC stereocilia position. BTs can also excite and thereby obscure the BT suppression. We measured AN-fiber response synchrony to BTs alone so that we could exclude suppression measurements when the BT synchrony might obscure the suppression. BT suppression of low-level tone and click responses followed the traditional pattern of twice-a-BT-cycle suppression with more suppression at one phase than the other. The major suppression phases of most fibers were tightly grouped with little difference between click and tone suppressions, which is consistent with low-level click and tone responses being amplified in the same way. The data are also consistent with the operating point of the OHC MET function varying smoothly from symmetric in the base to offset in the apex, and, in contrast, with the IHC MET function being offset throughout the cochlea. As previously reported, bias-tones presented alone excited AN fibers at one or more phases, a phenomena termed "peak splitting" with most BT excitation phases ∼¼ cycle before or after the major suppression phase. We explain peak splitting as being due to distortion in multiple fluid drives to inner-hair-cell stereocilia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

PubMed Central

Marin, Manuela M.; Lampatz, Allegra; Wandl, Michaela; Leder, Helmut

2016-01-01

In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all rs > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all rs > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty (rs = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness (rs = -0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all rs > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative (rs = -0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive (rs = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne’s theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms. PMID:27867350

Is a High Tone Pointy? Speakers of Different Languages Match Mandarin Chinese Tones to Visual Shapes Differently

PubMed Central

Shang, Nan; Styles, Suzy J.

2017-01-01

Studies investigating cross-modal correspondences between auditory pitch and visual shapes have shown children and adults consistently match high pitch to pointy shapes and low pitch to curvy shapes, yet no studies have investigated linguistic-uses of pitch. In the present study, we used a bouba/kiki style task to investigate the sound/shape mappings for Tones of Mandarin Chinese, for three groups of participants with different language backgrounds. We recorded the vowels [i] and [u] articulated in each of the four tones of Mandarin Chinese. In Study 1 a single auditory stimulus was presented with two images (one curvy, one spiky). In Study 2 a single image was presented with two auditory stimuli differing only in tone. Participants were asked to select the best match in an online ‘Quiz.’ Across both studies, we replicated the previously observed ‘u-curvy, i-pointy’ sound/shape cross-modal correspondence in all groups. However, Tones were mapped differently by people with different language backgrounds: speakers of Mandarin Chinese classified as Chinese-dominant systematically matched Tone 1 (high, steady) to the curvy shape and Tone 4 (falling) to the pointy shape, while English speakers with no knowledge of Chinese preferred to match Tone 1 (high, steady) to the pointy shape and Tone 3 (low, dipping) to the curvy shape. These effects were observed most clearly in Study 2 where tone-pairs were contrasted explicitly. These findings are in line with the dominant patterns of linguistic pitch perception for speakers of these languages (pitch-change, and pitch height, respectively). Chinese English balanced bilinguals showed a bivalent pattern, swapping between the Chinese pitch-change pattern and the English pitch-height pattern depending on the task. These findings show for that the supposedly universal pattern of mapping linguistic sounds to shape is modulated by the sensory properties of a speaker’s language system, and that people with high functioning in more than one language can dynamically shift between patterns. PMID:29270147

A new framework for an electrophotographic printer model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colon-Lopez, Fermin A.

Digital halftoning is a printing technology that creates the illusion of continuous tone images for printing devices such as electrophotographic printers that can only produce a limited number of tone levels. Digital halftoning works because the human visual system has limited spatial resolution which blurs the printed dots of the halftone image, creating the gray sensation of a continuous tone image. Because the printing process is imperfect it introduces distortions to the halftone image. The quality of the printed image depends, among other factors, on the complex interactions between the halftone image, the printer characteristics, the colorant, and the printing substrate. Printer models are used to assist in the development of new types of halftone algorithms that are designed to withstand the effects of printer distortions. For example, model-based halftone algorithms optimize the halftone image through an iterative process that integrates a printer model within the algorithm. The two main goals of a printer model are to provide accurate estimates of the tone and of the spatial characteristics of the printed halftone pattern. Various classes of printer models, from simple tone calibrations to complex mechanistic models, have been reported in the literature. Existing models have one or more of the following limiting factors: they only predict tone reproduction, they depend on the halftone pattern, they require complex calibrations or complex calculations, they are printer specific, they reproduce unrealistic dot structures, and they are unable to adapt responses to new data. The two research objectives of this dissertation are (1) to introduce a new framework for printer modeling and (2) to demonstrate the feasibility of such a framework in building an electrophotographic printer model. The proposed framework introduces the concept of modeling a printer as a texture transformation machine. The basic premise is that modeling the texture differences between the output printed images and the input images encompasses all printing distortions. The feasibility of the framework was tested with a case study modeling a monotone electrophotographic printer. The printer model was implemented as a bank of feed-forward neural networks, each one specialized in modeling a group of textural features of the printed halftone pattern. The textural features were obtained using a parametric representation of texture developed from a multiresolution decomposition proposed by other researchers. The textural properties of halftone patterns were analyzed and the key texture parameters to be modeled by the bank were identified. Guidelines for the multiresolution texture decomposition and the model operational parameters and operational limits were established. A method for the selection of training sets based on the morphological properties of the halftone patterns was also developed. The model is fast and has the capability to continue to learn with additional training. The model can be easily implemented because it only requires a calibrated scanner. The model was tested with halftone patterns representing a range of spatial characteristics found in halftoning. Results show that the model provides accurate predictions for the tone and the spatial characteristics when modeling halftone patterns individually and it provides close approximations when modeling multiple halftone patterns simultaneously. The success of the model justifies continued research of this new printer model framework.

Light-Toned Bedrock Along Cracks as Evidence of Fluid Alteration

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-02-15

This enhanced-color image from the HiRISE camera on NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a landscape of sand dunes and buttes among a background of light-toned bands and dark-toned bands in the Candor Chasma region

Rho/Rho kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase are parallel pathways in the development of spontaneous arterial tone in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertension.

PubMed

Wehrwein, Erica A; Northcott, Carrie A; Loberg, Robert D; Watts, Stephanie W

2004-06-01

Hypertension is characterized by abnormal vascular contractility and function. Arteries from deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats develop spontaneous tone that is not observed in arteries from normotensive rats. Inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) by 2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (LY294002) reduces spontaneous tone development. The Rho/Rho-kinase pathway has been suggested to play a role in hypertension and may be dependent on PI3-kinase activity. We hypothesized that Rhokinase is involved in spontaneous tone development and that Rho/Rho-kinase is a downstream effector of PI3-kinase. Using endothelium-denuded aortic strips in isolated tissue bath, we demonstrated that (+)-(R)-trans-4-(1-aminoethyl)-N-(4-pyridyl) (Y27632) (1 microM), a Rho-kinase inhibitor, significantly reduced spontaneous tone in the DOCA aorta but that it did not affect sham aorta basal tone (DOCA 63.5 +/- 15.9 versus sham 1.2 +/- 0.4 total change in percentage of phenylephrine contraction). We examined the interaction between the PI3-kinase and Rho pathways by observing the effects of LY294002 on a Rhokinase effector, myosin phosphatase (MYPT), and Y27632 on a PI3-kinase effector, Akt, using Western blot analysis. Inhibition of PI3-kinase reduced spontaneous tone, but it had no effect on the phosphorylation status of MYPT, indicating that PI3-kinase is not a downstream effector of Rho/Rho-kinase. These data indicate that there is little interaction between the Rho/Rhokinase and PI3-kinase pathways in the DOCA-salt aorta, and the two pathways seem to operate in parallel in supporting spontaneous arterial tone. These data reflect spontaneous tone only and do not rule out the possibility of interaction between these pathways in agonist-stimulated tone.

Relationship between vagal tone, cortisol, TNF-alpha, epinephrine and negative affects in Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome.

PubMed

Pellissier, Sonia; Dantzer, Cécile; Mondillon, Laurie; Trocme, Candice; Gauchez, Anne-Sophie; Ducros, Véronique; Mathieu, Nicolas; Toussaint, Bertrand; Fournier, Alicia; Canini, Frédéric; Bonaz, Bruno

2014-01-01

Crohn's disease (CD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) involve brain-gut dysfunctions where vagus nerve is an important component. The aim of this work was to study the association between vagal tone and markers of stress and inflammation in patients with CD or IBS compared to healthy subjects (controls). The study was performed in 73 subjects (26 controls, 21 CD in remission and 26 IBS patients). The day prior to the experiment, salivary cortisol was measured at 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM. The day of the experiment, subjects completed questionnaires for anxiety (STAI) and depressive symptoms (CES-D). After 30 min of rest, ECG was recorded for heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. Plasma cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, TNF-alpha and IL-6 were measured in blood samples taken at the end of ECG recording. Compared with controls, CD and IBS patients had higher scores of state-anxiety and depressive symptomatology. A subgroup classification based on HRV-normalized high frequency band (HFnu) as a marker of vagal tone, showed that control subjects with high vagal tone had significantly lower evening salivary cortisol levels than subjects with low vagal tone. Such an effect was not observed in CD and IBS patients. Moreover, an inverse association (r =  -0.48; p<0.05) was observed between the vagal tone and TNF-alpha level in CD patients exclusively. In contrast, in IBS patients, vagal tone was inversely correlated with plasma epinephrine (r =  -0.39; p<0.05). No relationship was observed between vagal tone and IL-6, norepinephrine or negative affects (anxiety and depressive symptomatology) in any group. In conclusion, these data argue for an imbalance between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the vagal tone in CD and IBS patients. Furthermore, they highlight the specific homeostatic link between vagal tone and TNF-alpha in CD and epinephrine in IBS and argue for the relevance of vagus nerve reinforcement interventions in those diseases.

Emotionally negative pictures increase attention to a subsequent auditory stimulus.

PubMed

Tartar, Jaime L; de Almeida, Kristen; McIntosh, Roger C; Rosselli, Monica; Nash, Allan J

2012-01-01

Emotionally negative stimuli serve as a mechanism of biological preparedness to enhance attention. We hypothesized that emotionally negative stimuli would also serve as motivational priming to increase attention resources for subsequent stimuli. To that end, we tested 11 participants in a dual sensory modality task, wherein emotionally negative pictures were contrasted with emotionally neutral pictures and each picture was followed 600 ms later by a tone in an auditory oddball paradigm. Each trial began with a picture displayed for 200 ms; half of the trials began with an emotionally negative picture and half of the trials began with an emotionally neutral picture; 600 ms following picture presentation, the participants heard either an oddball tone or a standard tone. At the end of each trial (picture followed by tone), the participants categorized, with a button press, the picture and tone combination. As expected, and consistent with previous studies, we found an enhanced visual late positive potential (latency range=300-700 ms) to the negative picture stimuli. We further found that compared to neutral pictures, negative pictures resulted in early attention and orienting effects to subsequent tones (measured through an enhanced N1 and N2) and sustained attention effects only to the subsequent oddball tones (measured through late processing negativity, latency range=400-700 ms). Number pad responses to both the picture and tone category showed the shortest response latencies and greatest percentage of correct picture-tone categorization on the negative picture followed by oddball tone trials. Consistent with previous work on natural selective attention, our results support the idea that emotional stimuli can alter attention resource allocation. This finding has broad implications for human attention and performance as it specifically shows the conditions in which an emotionally negative stimulus can result in extended stimulus evaluation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vascular origin of vildagliptin-induced skin effects in Cynomolgus monkeys: pathomechanistic role of peripheral sympathetic system and neuropeptide Y.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Peter; Bentley, Phil; Sahota, Pritam; Schoenfeld, Heidi; Martin, Lori; Longo, Linda; Spaet, Robert; Moulin, Pierre; Pantano, Serafino; Dubost, Valerie; Lapadula, Dan; Burkey, Bryan; Kaushik, Virendar; Zhou, Wei; Hayes, Michael; Flavahan, Nick; Chibout, Salah-Dine; Busch, Steve

2014-06-01

The purpose of this article is to characterize skin lesions in cynomolgus monkeys following vildagliptin (dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor) treatment. Oral vildagliptin administration caused dose-dependent and reversible blister formation, peeling and flaking skin, erosions, ulcerations, scabs, and sores involving the extremities at ≥5 mg/kg/day and necrosis of the tail and the pinnae at ≥80 mg/kg/day after 3 weeks of treatment. At the affected sites, the media and the endothelium of dermal arterioles showed hypertrophy/hyperplasia. Skin lesion formation was prevented by elevating ambient temperature. Vildagliptin treatment also produced an increase in blood pressure and heart rate likely via increased sympathetic tone. Following treatment with vildagliptin at 80 mg/kg/day, the recovery time after lowering the temperature in the feet of monkeys and inducing cold stress was prolonged. Ex vivo investigations showed that small digital arteries from skin biopsies of vildagliptin-treated monkeys exhibited an increase in neuropeptide Y-induced vasoconstriction. This finding correlated with a specific increase in NPY and in NPY1 receptors observed in the skin of vildagliptin-treated monkeys. Present data provide evidence that skin effects in monkeys are of vascular origin and that the effects on the NPY system in combination with increased peripheral sympathetic tone play an important pathomechanistic role in the pathogenesis of cutaneous toxicity. © 2014 by The Author(s).

Nocturnal snoring decreases daytime baroreceptor sensitivity.

PubMed

Schöbel, Christoph; Fietze, Ingo; Glos, Martin; Schary, Inett; Blau, Alexander; Baumann, Gert; Penzel, Thomas

2014-07-01

In patients with obstructive sleep apnea heart rate variability and baroreceptor sensitivity during night and daytime are impaired. Snoring without obstructive sleep apnea may already influence heart rate variability and baroreceptor sensitivity during daytime. Cardiovascular daytime testing was performed in 11 snorers and age, BMI, and gender matched controls. Sleep apnea and snoring were quantified by sleep recordings. Paced breathing was performed during daytime with ECG, non-invasive blood pressure, and respiration recorded. Heart rate variability and blood pressure variability were analyzed in the time and frequency domain. Baroreceptor sensitivity (alpha gain) was calculated. In snorers a significant increase in high frequency systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV-HF) compared to control group (0.37 mm Hg(2) vs. 0.11 mm Hg(2) for 12 breaths and 0.35 mm Hg(2) vs. 0.10 mm Hg(2) for 15 breaths) was demonstrated. Furthermore a lower baroreceptor sensitivity was found in snorers compared to controls (9.2 ms/mm Hg vs. 16.2 ms/mm Hg for 12 breaths and 8.5 ms/mm Hg vs. 17.4 ms/mm Hg for 15 breaths per minute) using the paced breathing protocol. Mean heart rate was elevated in snorers as well. Snorers may have a reduced parasympathetic tone during daytime rather than an increased sympathetic tone. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of noise exposure on neonatal auditory brainstem response thresholds in pregnant guinea pigs at different gestational periods.

PubMed

Morimoto, Chihiro; Nario, Kazuhiko; Nishimura, Tadashi; Shimokura, Ryota; Hosoi, Hiroshi; Kitahara, Tadashi

2017-01-01

Noise exposure during pregnancy has been reported to cause fetal hearing impairment. However, little is known about the effects of noise exposure during various gestational stages on postnatal hearing. In the present study, we investigated the effects of noise exposure on auditory brainstem response (ABR) at the early, mid-, and late gestational periods in newborn guinea pigs. Pregnant guinea pigs were exposed to 4-kHz pure tone at a 120-dB sound pressure level for 4 h. We divided the animals into four groups as follows: the control, early gestational exposure, mid-gestational exposure, and late gestational exposure groups. ABR thresholds and latencies in newborns were recorded using 1-, 2-, and 4-kHz tone burst on postnatal days 1, 7, 14, and 28. Changes in ABR thresholds and latencies were measured between the 4 × 4 and 4 × 3 factorial groups mentioned above (gestational periods × postnatal days, gestational periods × frequencies). The thresholds were low in the order of control group < early gestational exposure group < mid-gestational exposure group and late gestational exposure group. Noise exposure during pregnancy influenced ABR thresholds in neonatal guinea pigs. This is the first study to show that noise exposure during the early, mid-, and late gestational periods significantly elevated ABR thresholds in neonatal guinea pigs. © 2016 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Longitudinal relations among Mexican-origin mothers' cultural characteristics, cultural socialization, and 5-year-old children's ethnic-racial identification.

PubMed

Derlan, Chelsea L; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J; Updegraff, Kimberly A; Jahromi, Laudan B

2017-11-01

The current longitudinal study examined the intergenerational transmission of ethnic-racial identity/identification and cultural orientation among Mexican-origin adolescent young mothers and their children (N = 161 dyads). Findings indicated that mothers' ethnic-racial identity and their cultural involvement were significantly associated with children's ethnic-racial identification via mothers' cultural socialization; however, associations varied significantly by children's gender and skin tone. For example, mothers' ethnic-racial centrality was positively associated with cultural socialization efforts among mothers with sons (regardless of skin tone); but with daughters, a positive association only emerged among those with lighter skin tones. Associations between cultural socialization and children's ethnic-racial identification also varied by children's gender and skin tone. For example, the relation between mothers' cultural socialization and children's self-labeling as Mexican was positive for girls regardless of skin tone, and for boys with lighter skin tones, but was not significant for boys with darker skin tones. Findings highlight the critical role of children's own characteristics, mothers' ethnic-racial identity and adaptive cultural characteristics, and mothers' cultural socialization efforts in the formation of young Mexican-origin children's ethnic-racial identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The influence of reed curvature on the tone quality of lingual organ pipes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plitnik, G. R.; Angster, J.

2002-11-01

Given certain design constraints, such as the type of stop being voiced and the desired tone quality, reed voicers must use consummate skill to curve each tongue so as to produce the best and most stable tone, as well as maintaining a consistent tone quality across an entire rank of pipes. The curvature given to a reed tongue influences not only the harmonic structure of the steady-state sound, but also the attack. Two fundamentally different types of curvature are typically employed, the chorus reed (trompette) curve (which yields a bright sound) and the smooth-toned curve employed for solo reeds such as the clarinet. This study investigated the effect of reed curvature on the vibration and tone of reed tongues of both types. Two F2 pipes (a trompette and a clarinet) were constructed and voiced with 6 different tongues each to produce a variety of tones. The reed's vibration was measured under typical conditions by laser vibrometer; the pressure waves in the boot and in the shallot were measured by means of one-eighth inch microphones and the emitted sound was recorded at the egress. By performing various measurements simultaneously, phase differences were also determined.

Flying in tune: sexual recognition in mosquitoes.

PubMed

Gibson, Gabriella; Russell, Ian

2006-07-11

Mosquitoes hear with their antennae, which in most species are sexually dimorphic. Johnston, who discovered the mosquito auditory organ at the base of the antenna 150 years ago, speculated that audition was involved with mating behaviour. Indeed, male mosquitoes are attracted to female flight tones. The male auditory organ has been proposed to act as an acoustic filter for female flight tones, but female auditory behavior is unknown. We show, for the first time, interactive auditory behavior between males and females that leads to sexual recognition. Individual males and females both respond to pure tones by altering wing-beat frequency. Behavioral auditory tuning curves, based on minimum threshold sound levels that elicit a change in wing-beat frequency to pure tones, are sharper than the mechanical tuning of the antennae, with males being more sensitive than females. We flew opposite-sex pairs of tethered Toxorhynchites brevipalpis and found that each mosquito alters its wing-beat frequency in response to the flight tone of the other, so that within seconds their flight-tone frequencies are closely matched, if not completely synchronized. The flight tones of same-sex pairs may converge in frequency but eventually diverge dramatically.

Accounting for rate-dependent category boundary shifts in speech perception.

PubMed

Bosker, Hans Rutger

2017-01-01

The perception of temporal contrasts in speech is known to be influenced by the speech rate in the surrounding context. This rate-dependent perception is suggested to involve general auditory processes because it is also elicited by nonspeech contexts, such as pure tone sequences. Two general auditory mechanisms have been proposed to underlie rate-dependent perception: durational contrast and neural entrainment. This study compares the predictions of these two accounts of rate-dependent speech perception by means of four experiments, in which participants heard tone sequences followed by Dutch target words ambiguous between /ɑs/ "ash" and /a:s/ "bait". Tone sequences varied in the duration of tones (short vs. long) and in the presentation rate of the tones (fast vs. slow). Results show that the duration of preceding tones did not influence target perception in any of the experiments, thus challenging durational contrast as explanatory mechanism behind rate-dependent perception. Instead, the presentation rate consistently elicited a category boundary shift, with faster presentation rates inducing more /a:s/ responses, but only if the tone sequence was isochronous. Therefore, this study proposes an alternative, neurobiologically plausible account of rate-dependent perception involving neural entrainment of endogenous oscillations to the rate of a rhythmic stimulus.

Tone discrimination performance in schizophrenic patients and normal volunteers: impact of stimulus presentation levels and frequency differences.

PubMed

Holcomb, H H; Ritzl, E K; Medoff, D R; Nevitt, J; Gordon, B; Tamminga, C A

1995-06-29

Psychophysical and cognitive studies carried out in schizophrenic patients show high within-group performance variance and sizable differences between patients and normal volunteers. Experimental manipulation of a target's signal-to-noise characteristics can, however, make a given task more or less difficult for a given subject. Such signal-to-noise manipulations can substantially reduce performance differences between individuals. Frequency and presentation level (volume) changes of an auditory tone can make a sound more or less difficult to recognize. This study determined how the discrimination accuracy of medicated schizophrenic patients and normal volunteers changed when the frequency difference between two tones (high frequency vs. low frequency) and the presentation levels of tones were systematically degraded. The investigators hypothesized that each group would become impaired in its discrimination accuracy when tone signals were degraded by making the frequencies more similar and the presentation levels lower. Schizophrenic patients were slower and less accurate than normal volunteers on tests using four tone levels and two frequency differences; the schizophrenic patient group showed a significant decrement in accuracy when the signal-to-noise characteristics of the target tones were degraded. The benefits of controlling stimulus discrimination difficulty in functional imaging paradigms are discussed.

Bimodal distribution of performance in discriminating major/minor modes.

PubMed

Chubb, Charles; Dickson, Christopher A; Dean, Tyler; Fagan, Christopher; Mann, Daniel S; Wright, Charles E; Guan, Maime; Silva, Andrew E; Gregersen, Peter K; Kowalsky, Elena

2013-10-01

This study investigated the abilities of listeners to classify various sorts of musical stimuli as major vs minor. All stimuli combined four pure tones: low and high tonics (G5 and G6), dominant (D), and either a major third (B) or a minor third (B[symbol: see text]). Especially interesting results were obtained using tone-scrambles, randomly ordered sequences of pure tones presented at ≈15 per second. All tone-scrambles tested comprised 16 G's (G5's + G6's), 8 D's, and either 8 B's or 8 B[symbol: see text]'s. The distribution of proportion correct across 275 listeners tested over the course of three experiments was strikingly bimodal, with one mode very close to chance performance, and the other very close to perfect performance. Testing with tone-scrambles thus sorts listeners fairly cleanly into two subpopulations. Listeners in subpopulation 1 are sufficiently sensitive to major vs minor to classify tone-scrambles nearly perfectly; listeners in subpopulation 2 (comprising roughly 70% of the population) have very little sensitivity to major vs minor. Skill in classifying major vs minor tone-scrambles shows a modest correlation of around 0.5 with years of musical training.

Establishment of auditory discrimination and detection of tinnitus induced by salicylic acid and intense tone exposure in the rat.

PubMed

Sederholm, Fredrik; Swedberg, Michael D B

2013-05-13

Rats were trained in a two lever food reinforced operant procedure to discriminate a 8000 Hz pure tone stimulus from its absence. Responding on one lever was reinforced in the presence of the tone and responding on the other lever was reinforced when the tone was absent. Frequency generalization testing yielded an inverted U-shaped function, whereas sound pressure level generalization testing yielded a continuous decrease in responding on the tone associated lever with decreasing sound pressure levels. The administration of sodium salicylic acid (150-450 mg/kg) generated responding on the tone associated lever suggesting that salicylic acid induced an experience that had commonalities with the percept of the training tone stimulus. After exposure to intense sound, responding consistent with the presence of tinnitus was achieved and Lidocaine failed to reduce tinnitus behavior. The use of a two choice design helped avoid confounding factors induced by drug induced side effects. Further, since no auditory cues were employed in the test situation the model achieves resistance to potential bias due to hearing impairment and hyperacusis. We propose that this model may be useful in detecting tinnitus. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Absolute pitch among students in an American music conservatory: association with tone language fluency.

PubMed

Deutsch, Diana; Dooley, Kevin; Henthorn, Trevor; Head, Brian

2009-04-01

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe, and its genesis is unclear. The prevalence of AP was examined among students in an American music conservatory as a function of age of onset of musical training, ethnicity, and fluency in speaking a tone language. Taking those of East Asian ethnicity, the performance level on a test of AP was significantly higher among those who spoke a tone language very fluently compared with those who spoke a tone language fairly fluently and also compared with those who were not fluent in speaking a tone language. The performance level of this last group did not differ significantly from that of Caucasian students who spoke only nontone language. Early onset of musical training was associated with enhanced performance, but this did not interact with the effect of language. Further analyses showed that the results could not be explained by country of early music education. The findings support the hypothesis that the acquisition of AP by tone language speakers involves the same process as occurs in the acquisition of a second tone language.

Skin and Bones: The Contribution of Skin Tone and Facial Structure to Racial Prototypicality Ratings

PubMed Central

Strom, Michael A.; Zebrowitz, Leslie A.; Zhang, Shunan; Bronstad, P. Matthew; Lee, Hoon Koo

2012-01-01

Previous research reveals that a more ‘African’ appearance has significant social consequences, yielding more negative first impressions and harsher criminal sentencing of Black or White individuals. This study is the first to systematically assess the relative contribution of skin tone and facial metrics to White, Black, and Korean perceivers’ ratings of the racial prototypicality of faces from the same three groups. Our results revealed that the relative contribution of metrics and skin tone depended on both perceiver race and face race. White perceivers’ racial prototypicality ratings were less responsive to variations in skin tone than were Black or Korean perceivers’ ratings. White perceivers ratings’ also were more responsive to facial metrics than to skin tone, while the reverse was true for Black perceivers. Additionally, across all perceiver groups, skin tone had a more consistent impact than metrics on racial prototypicality ratings of White faces, with the reverse for Korean faces. For Black faces, the relative impact varied with perceiver race: skin tone had a more consistent impact than metrics for Black and Korean perceivers, with the reverse for White perceivers. These results have significant implications for predicting who will experience racial prototypicality biases and from whom. PMID:22815966

Feasibity of Using a Measure of Heart Rate Change in Human Adults to Signal Occurrence of Tone

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-11-01

clearly with the binaural subjects in the 85 dB free response live trials situation on post-tone offset beat 1. Here, the significant response...seen when comparing the sign test results of post-tone offset beat I in the binaural 15 db motor response live trial situation to the analagous 85 db...subject response consistency. Tills is most evident in the binaural 85 db fret live situation comparison of post-tone offset beat one to

Relations among pure-tone sound stimuli, neural activity, and the loudness sensation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howes, W. L.

1972-01-01

Both the physiological and psychological responses to pure-tone sound stimuli are used to derive formulas which: (1) relate the loudness, loudness level, and sound-pressure level of pure tones; (2) apply continuously over most of the acoustic regime, including the loudness threshold; and (3) contain no undetermined coefficients. Some of the formulas are fundamental for calculating the loudness of any sound. Power-law formulas relating the pure-tone sound stimulus, neural activity, and loudness are derived from published data.

Loudness enhancement following contralateral stimulation.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Galambos, R.; Bauer, J.; Picton, T.; Squires, K.; Squires , N.

1972-01-01

The apparent loudness of a tone pip can be increased by 15 dB or more if it is preceded by a tone burst to the contralateral ear. The experiment is done by delaying the pip, S1, by a variable time, Delta-T, after the offset of a contralateral tone; the listener assesses the loudness of S1 by adjusting the intensity of a second tone pip, S2, that follows S1 by 1500 msec. Some parametric explorations of the phenomenon are reported here.

Increased dynamic regulation of postural tone through Alexander Technique training

PubMed Central

Cacciatore, TW; Gurfinkel, VS; Horak, FB; Cordo, PJ; Ames, KE

2010-01-01

Gurfinkel and colleagues (2006) recently found that healthy adults dynamically modulate postural muscle tone in the body axis during anti-gravity postural maintenance and that this modulation is inversely correlated with axial stiffness. Our objective in the present study was to investigate whether dynamic modulation of axial postural tone can change through training. We examined whether teachers of the Alexander Technique (AT), who undergo “long-term” (3-year) training, have greater modulation of axial postural tone than matched control subjects. In addition, we performed a longitudinal study on the effect of “short-term” (10-week) AT training on the axial postural tone of individuals with low back pain (LBP), since short term AT training has previously been shown to reduce LBP. Axial postural tone was quantified by measuring the resistance of the neck, trunk and hips to small (±10°), slow (1°/s) torsional rotation during stance. Modulation of tone was determined by the torsional resistance to rotation (peak-to-peak, phase-advance, and variability of torque) and axial muscle activity (EMG). Peak-to-peak torque was lower (~50%), while phase-advance and cycle-to-cycle variability were enhanced for AT teachers compared to matched control subjects at all levels of the axis. In addition, LBP subjects decreased trunk and hip stiffness following short-term AT training compared to a control intervention. While changes in static levels of postural tone may have contributed to the reduced stiffness observed with the AT, our results suggest that dynamic modulation of postural tone can be enhanced through long-term training in the AT, which may constitute an important direction for therapeutic intervention. PMID:21185100

Increased dynamic regulation of postural tone through Alexander Technique training.

PubMed

Cacciatore, T W; Gurfinkel, V S; Horak, F B; Cordo, P J; Ames, K E

2011-02-01

Gurfinkel and colleagues (2006) recently found that healthy adults dynamically modulate postural muscle tone in the body axis during anti-gravity postural maintenance and that this modulation is inversely correlated with axial stiffness. Our objective in the present study was to investigate whether dynamic modulation of axial postural tone can change through training. We examined whether teachers of the Alexander Technique (AT), who undergo "long-term" (3-year) training, have greater modulation of axial postural tone than matched control subjects. In addition, we performed a longitudinal study on the effect of "short-term" (10-week) AT training on the axial postural tone of individuals with low back pain (LBP), since short term AT training has previously been shown to reduce LBP. Axial postural tone was quantified by measuring the resistance of the neck, trunk and hips to small (±10°), slow (1°/s) torsional rotation during stance. Modulation of tone was determined by the torsional resistance to rotation (peak-to-peak, phase-advance, and variability of torque) and axial muscle activity (EMG). Peak-to-peak torque was lower (∼50%), while phase-advance and cycle-to-cycle variability were enhanced for AT teachers compared to matched control subjects at all levels of the axis. In addition, LBP subjects decreased trunk and hip stiffness following short-term AT training compared to a control intervention. While changes in static levels of postural tone may have contributed to the reduced stiffness observed with the AT, our results suggest that dynamic modulation of postural tone can be enhanced through long-term training in the AT, which may constitute an important direction for therapeutic intervention. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lower Cardiac Vagal Tone in Non-Obese Healthy Men with Unfavorable Anthropometric Characteristics

PubMed Central

Ramos, Plínio S.; Araújo, Claudio Gil S.

2010-01-01

OBJECTIVES: to determine if there are differences in cardiac vagal tone values in non-obese healthy, adult men with and without unfavorable anthropometric characteristics. INTRODUCTION: It is well established that obesity reduces cardiac vagal tone. However, it remains unknown if decreases in cardiac vagal tone can be observed early in non-obese healthy, adult men presenting unfavorable anthropometric characteristics. METHODS: Among 1688 individuals assessed between 2004 and 2008, we selected 118 non-obese (BMI <30 kg/m2), healthy men (no known disease conditions or regular use of relevant medications), aged between 20 and 77 years old (42 ± 12-years-old). Their evaluation included clinical examination, anthropometric assessment (body height and weight, sum of six skinfolds, waist circumference and somatotype), a 4-second exercise test to estimate cardiac vagal tone and a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test to exclude individuals with myocardial ischemia. The same physician performed all procedures. RESULTS: A lower cardiac vagal tone was found for the individuals in the higher quintiles – unfavorable anthropometric characteristics - of BMI (p=0.005), sum of six skinfolds (p=0.037) and waist circumference (p<0.001). In addition, the more endomorphic individuals also presented a lower cardiac vagal tone (p=0.023), while an ectomorphic build was related to higher cardiac vagal tone values as estimated by the 4-second exercise test (r=0.23; p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Non-obese and healthy adult men with unfavorable anthropometric characteristics tend to present lower cardiac vagal tone levels. Early identification of this trend by simple protocols that are non-invasive and risk-free, using select anthropometric characteristics, may be clinically useful in a global strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease. PMID:20126345

COX-1 vs. COX-2 as a determinant of basal tone in the internal anal sphincter

PubMed Central

de Godoy, Márcio A. F.; Rattan, Neeru; Rattan, Satish

2009-01-01

Prostanoids, produced endogenously via cyclooxygenases (COXs), have been implicated in the sustained contraction of different smooth muscles. The two major types of COXs are COX-1 and COX-2. The COX subtype involved in the basal state of the internal anal sphincter (IAS) smooth muscle tone is not known. To identify the COX subtype, we examined the effect of COX-1- and COX-2-selective inhibitors, SC-560 and rofecoxib, respectively, on basal tone in the rat IAS. We also determined the effect of selective deletion of COX-1 and COX-2 genes (COX-1−/− and COX-2−/− mice) on basal tone in murine IAS. Our data show that SC-560 causes significantly more efficacious and potent concentration-dependent decreases in IAS tone than rofecoxib. In support of these data, significantly higher levels of COX-1 than COX-2 mRNA were found in the IAS. In addition, higher levels of COX-1 mRNA and protein were expressed in rat IAS than rectal smooth muscle. In wild-type mice, IAS tone was decreased 41.4 ± 3.4% (mean ± SE) by SC-560 (1 × 10−5 M) and 5.4 ± 2.2% by rofecoxib (P < 0.05, n = 5). Basal tone was 0.172 ± 0.021 mN//mg in the IAS from wild-type mice and significantly less (0.080 ± 0.015 mN/mg) in the IAS from COX-1−/− mice (P < 0.05, n = 5). However, basal tone in COX-2−/− mice was not significantly different from that in wild-type mice. We conclude that COX-1-related products contribute significantly to IAS tone. PMID:19056763

COX-1 vs. COX-2 as a determinant of basal tone in the internal anal sphincter.

PubMed

de Godoy, Márcio A F; Rattan, Neeru; Rattan, Satish

2009-02-01

Prostanoids, produced endogenously via cyclooxygenases (COXs), have been implicated in the sustained contraction of different smooth muscles. The two major types of COXs are COX-1 and COX-2. The COX subtype involved in the basal state of the internal anal sphincter (IAS) smooth muscle tone is not known. To identify the COX subtype, we examined the effect of COX-1- and COX-2-selective inhibitors, SC-560 and rofecoxib, respectively, on basal tone in the rat IAS. We also determined the effect of selective deletion of COX-1 and COX-2 genes (COX-1(-/-) and COX-2(-/-) mice) on basal tone in murine IAS. Our data show that SC-560 causes significantly more efficacious and potent concentration-dependent decreases in IAS tone than rofecoxib. In support of these data, significantly higher levels of COX-1 than COX-2 mRNA were found in the IAS. In addition, higher levels of COX-1 mRNA and protein were expressed in rat IAS than rectal smooth muscle. In wild-type mice, IAS tone was decreased 41.4 +/- 3.4% (mean +/- SE) by SC-560 (1 x 10(-5) M) and 5.4 +/- 2.2% by rofecoxib (P < 0.05, n = 5). Basal tone was 0.172 +/- 0.021 mN//mg in the IAS from wild-type mice and significantly less (0.080 +/- 0.015 mN/mg) in the IAS from COX-1(-/-) mice (P < 0.05, n = 5). However, basal tone in COX-2(-/-) mice was not significantly different from that in wild-type mice. We conclude that COX-1-related products contribute significantly to IAS tone.

Open Rotor Tone Shielding Methods for System Noise Assessments Using Multiple Databases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bahr, Christopher J.; Thomas, Russell H.; Lopes, Leonard V.; Burley, Casey L.; Van Zante, Dale E.

2014-01-01

Advanced aircraft designs such as the hybrid wing body, in conjunction with open rotor engines, may allow for significant improvements in the environmental impact of aviation. System noise assessments allow for the prediction of the aircraft noise of such designs while they are still in the conceptual phase. Due to significant requirements of computational methods, these predictions still rely on experimental data to account for the interaction of the open rotor tones with the hybrid wing body airframe. Recently, multiple aircraft system noise assessments have been conducted for hybrid wing body designs with open rotor engines. These assessments utilized measured benchmark data from a Propulsion Airframe Aeroacoustic interaction effects test. The measured data demonstrated airframe shielding of open rotor tonal and broadband noise with legacy F7/A7 open rotor blades. Two methods are proposed for improving the use of these data on general open rotor designs in a system noise assessment. The first, direct difference, is a simple octave band subtraction which does not account for tone distribution within the rotor acoustic signal. The second, tone matching, is a higher-fidelity process incorporating additional physical aspects of the problem, where isolated rotor tones are matched by their directivity to determine tone-by-tone shielding. A case study is conducted with the two methods to assess how well each reproduces the measured data and identify the merits of each. Both methods perform similarly for system level results and successfully approach the experimental data for the case study. The tone matching method provides additional tools for assessing the quality of the match to the data set. Additionally, a potential path to improve the tone matching method is provided.

Brainstem encoding of speech and musical stimuli in congenital amusia: evidence from Cantonese speakers

PubMed Central

Liu, Fang; Maggu, Akshay R.; Lau, Joseph C. Y.; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2015-01-01

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing that also impacts subtle aspects of speech processing. It remains debated at what stage(s) of auditory processing deficits in amusia arise. In this study, we investigated whether amusia originates from impaired subcortical encoding of speech (in quiet and noise) and musical sounds in the brainstem. Fourteen Cantonese-speaking amusics and 14 matched controls passively listened to six Cantonese lexical tones in quiet, two Cantonese tones in noise (signal-to-noise ratios at 0 and 20 dB), and two cello tones in quiet while their frequency-following responses (FFRs) to these tones were recorded. All participants also completed a behavioral lexical tone identification task. The results indicated normal brainstem encoding of pitch in speech (in quiet and noise) and musical stimuli in amusics relative to controls, as measured by FFR pitch strength, pitch error, and stimulus-to-response correlation. There was also no group difference in neural conduction time or FFR amplitudes. Both groups demonstrated better FFRs to speech (in quiet and noise) than to musical stimuli. However, a significant group difference was observed for tone identification, with amusics showing significantly lower accuracy than controls. Analysis of the tone confusion matrices suggested that amusics were more likely than controls to confuse between tones that shared similar acoustic features. Interestingly, this deficit in lexical tone identification was not coupled with brainstem abnormality for either speech or musical stimuli. Together, our results suggest that the amusic brainstem is not functioning abnormally, although higher-order linguistic pitch processing is impaired in amusia. This finding has significant implications for theories of central auditory processing, requiring further investigations into how different stages of auditory processing interact in the human brain. PMID:25646077

Brainstem encoding of speech and musical stimuli in congenital amusia: evidence from Cantonese speakers.

PubMed

Liu, Fang; Maggu, Akshay R; Lau, Joseph C Y; Wong, Patrick C M

2014-01-01

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing that also impacts subtle aspects of speech processing. It remains debated at what stage(s) of auditory processing deficits in amusia arise. In this study, we investigated whether amusia originates from impaired subcortical encoding of speech (in quiet and noise) and musical sounds in the brainstem. Fourteen Cantonese-speaking amusics and 14 matched controls passively listened to six Cantonese lexical tones in quiet, two Cantonese tones in noise (signal-to-noise ratios at 0 and 20 dB), and two cello tones in quiet while their frequency-following responses (FFRs) to these tones were recorded. All participants also completed a behavioral lexical tone identification task. The results indicated normal brainstem encoding of pitch in speech (in quiet and noise) and musical stimuli in amusics relative to controls, as measured by FFR pitch strength, pitch error, and stimulus-to-response correlation. There was also no group difference in neural conduction time or FFR amplitudes. Both groups demonstrated better FFRs to speech (in quiet and noise) than to musical stimuli. However, a significant group difference was observed for tone identification, with amusics showing significantly lower accuracy than controls. Analysis of the tone confusion matrices suggested that amusics were more likely than controls to confuse between tones that shared similar acoustic features. Interestingly, this deficit in lexical tone identification was not coupled with brainstem abnormality for either speech or musical stimuli. Together, our results suggest that the amusic brainstem is not functioning abnormally, although higher-order linguistic pitch processing is impaired in amusia. This finding has significant implications for theories of central auditory processing, requiring further investigations into how different stages of auditory processing interact in the human brain.

"Loss of breath" as a cause of postoperative hypoxia and bradycardia in children submitted to tonsillectomy.

PubMed

Moro, Eduardo Toshiyuki; Goulart, Alexandre Palmeira

2015-01-01

the "shortness of breath" or "breathing interruption" crisis can be considered a cause of hypoxia in childhood. It is characterized by the presence of a triggering factor followed by weeping and apnea in expiration accompanied by cyanosis or pallor. The sequence of events may include bradycardia, loss of consciousness, abnormal postural tone and even asystole. A review of the literature revealed only two reports of postoperative apnea caused by "shortness of breath". this article describes the case of a child with a history of "shortness of breath" undiagnosed before the adenotonsillectomy, but that represented the cause of episodes of hypoxemia and bradycardia in the postoperative period. the "shortness of breath" crisis should be considered as a possible cause of perioperative hypoxia in children, especially when there is a history suggestive of this problem. As some events may be accompanied by bradycardia, loss of consciousness, abnormal postural tone and even asystole, observation in a hospital setting should be considered. Copyright © 2013 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Annoyance caused by advanced turboprop aircraft flyover noise: Single-rotating propeller configuration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, David A.

1988-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to quantify the annoyance of people to advanced turboprop (propfan) aircraft flyover noise. The objectives were to: (1) determine the effects on annoyance of various tonal characteristics; and (2) compare annoyance to advanced turboprops with annoyance to conventional turboprops and jets. A computer was used to produce realistic, time-varying simulations of advanced turboprop aircraft takeoff noise. In the first experiment, subjects judged the annoyance of 45 advanced turboprop noises in which the tonal content was systematically varied to represent the factorial combinations of five fundamental frequencies, three frequency envelope shapes, and three tone-to-broadband noise ratios. Each noise was presented at three sound levels. In the second experiment, 18 advanced turboprop takeoffs, 5 conventional turboprop takeoffs, and 5 conventional jet takeoffs were presented at three sound pressure levels to subjects. Analysis indicated that frequency envelope shape did not significantly affect annoyance. The interaction of fundamental frequency with tone-to-broadband noise ratio did have a large and complex effect on annoyance. The advanced turboprop stimuli were slightly less annoying than the conventional stimuli.

Comparison of advanced turboprop and conventional jet and propeller aircraft flyover noise annoyance: Preliminary results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, D. A.

1985-01-01

A laboratory experiment was conducted to compare the flyover noise annoyance of proposed advanced turboprop aircraft with that of conventional turboprop and jet aircraft. The effects of fundamental frequency and tone-to-broadband noise ratio on advanced turboprop annoyance were also examined. A computer synthesis system is used to generate 18 realistic, time varying simulations of propeller aircraft takeoff noise in which the harmonic content is systematically varied to represent the factorial combinations of six fundamental frequencies ranging from 67.5 Hz to 292.5 Hz and three tone-to-broadband noise ratios of 0, 15, and 30 dB. These advanced turboprop simulations along with recordings of five conventional turboprop takeoffs and five conventional jet takeoffs are presented at D-weighted sound pressure levels of 70, 80, and 90 dB to 32 subjects in an anechoic chamber. Analyses of the subjects' annoyance judgments compare the three categories of aircraft and examine the effects of the differences in harmonic content among the advanced turboprop noises. The annoyance prediction ability of various noise measurement procedures and corrections is also examined.

Responses of auditory-cortex neurons to structural features of natural sounds.

PubMed

Nelken, I; Rotman, Y; Bar Yosef, O

1999-01-14

Sound-processing strategies that use the highly non-random structure of natural sounds may confer evolutionary advantage to many species. Auditory processing of natural sounds has been studied almost exclusively in the context of species-specific vocalizations, although these form only a small part of the acoustic biotope. To study the relationships between properties of natural soundscapes and neuronal processing mechanisms in the auditory system, we analysed sound from a range of different environments. Here we show that for many non-animal sounds and background mixtures of animal sounds, energy in different frequency bands is coherently modulated. Co-modulation of different frequency bands in background noise facilitates the detection of tones in noise by humans, a phenomenon known as co-modulation masking release (CMR). We show that co-modulation also improves the ability of auditory-cortex neurons to detect tones in noise, and we propose that this property of auditory neurons may underlie behavioural CMR. This correspondence may represent an adaptation of the auditory system for the use of an attribute of natural sounds to facilitate real-world processing tasks.

Remote sensing of physiographic soil units of Bennett County, South Dakota

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frazee, C. J.; Gropper, J. L.; Westin, F. C.

1973-01-01

A study was conducted in Bennett County, South Dakota, to establish a rangeland test site for evaluating the usefulness of ERTS data for mapping soil resources in rangeland areas. Photographic imagery obtained in October, 1970, was analyzed to determine which type of imagery is best for mapping drainage and land use patterns. Imagery of scales ranging from 1:1,000,000 to 1.20,000 was used to delineate soil-vegetative physiographic units. The photo characteristics used to define physiographic units were texture, drainage pattern, tone pattern, land use pattern and tone. These units will be used as test data for evaluating ERTS data. The physiographic units were categorized into a land classification system. The various categories which were delineated at the different scales of imagery were designed to be useful for different levels of land use planning. The land systems are adequate only for planning of large areas for general uses. The lowest category separated was the facet. The facets have a definite soil composition and represent different soil landscapes. These units are thought to be useful for providing natural resource information needed for local planning.

Comparison of advanced turboprop and conventional jet and propeller aircraft flyover noise annoyance - Preliminary results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccurdy, D. A.

1985-01-01

A laboratory experiment was conducted to compare the flyover noise annoyance of proposed advanced turboprop aircraft with that of conventional turboprop and jet aircraft. The effects of fundamental frequency and tone-to-broadband noise ratio on advanced turboprop annoyance were also examined. A computer synthesis system was used to generate 18 realistic, time varyring simulations of propeller aircraft takeoff noise in which the harmonic content was systematically varied to represent the factorial combinations of six fundamental frequencies ranging from 67.5 Hz to 292.5 Hz and three tone-to-broadband noise ratios of 0, 15, and 30 dB. These advanced turboprop simulations along with recordings of five conventional turboprop takeoffs and five conventional jet takeoffs were presented at D-weighted sound pressure levels of 70, 80, and 90 dB to 32 subjects in an anechoic chamber. Analyses of the subjects' annoyance judgments compare the three categories of aircraft and examine the effects of the differences in harmonic content among the advanced turboprop noises. The annoyance prediction ability of various noise measurement procedures and corrections is also examined.

Optimum detection of tones transmitted by a spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, M. K.; Shihabi, M. M.; Moon, T.

1995-01-01

The performance of a scheme proposed for automated routine monitoring of deep-space missions is presented. The scheme uses four different tones (sinusoids) transmitted from the spacecraft (S/C) to a ground station with the positive identification of each of them used to indicate different states of the S/C. Performance is measured in terms of detection probability versus false alarm probability with detection signal-to-noise ratio as a parameter. The cases where the phase of the received tone is unknown and where both the phase and frequency of the received tone are unknown are treated separately. The decision rules proposed for detecting the tones are formulated from average-likelihood ratio and maximum-likelihood ratio tests, the former resulting in optimum receiver structures.

A laryngographic and laryngoscopic study of Northern Vietnamese tones.

PubMed

Brunelle, Marc; Nguyên, Duy Duong; Nguyên, Khac Hùng

2010-01-01

A laryngographic and laryngoscopic study of tone production in Northern Vietnamese, a language whose tones combine both fundamental frequency (f0) modulations and voice qualities (phonation types), was conducted with 5 male and 5 female speakers. Results show that the f0 contours of Northern Vietnamese tones are not only attributable to changes in vocal fold length and tension (partly through changes in larynx height), but that f0 drops are also largely caused by the glottal configurations responsible for the contrastive voice qualities associated with some of the tones. We also find that voice quality contrasts are mostly due to glottal constriction: they occasionally involve additional ventricular fold incursion and epiglottal constriction, but these articulations are usually absent. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Barium toxicosis in a dog.

PubMed

Adam, Fiona H; Noble, Peter J M; Swift, Simon T; Higgins, Brent M; Sieniawska, Christine E

2010-09-01

A 2-year-old 14.9-kg (32.8-lb) neutered female Shetland Sheepdog was admitted to the University of Liverpool Small Animal Teaching Hospital for evaluation of acute collapse. At admission, the dog was tachypneic and had reduced limb reflexes and muscle tone in all limbs consistent with diffuse lower motor neuron dysfunction. The dog was severely hypokalemic (1.7 mEq/L; reference range, 3.5 to 5.8 mEq/L). Clinical status of the dog deteriorated; there was muscle twitching, flaccid paralysis, and respiratory failure, which was considered a result of respiratory muscle weakness. Ventricular arrhythmias and severe acidemia (pH, 7.18; reference range, 7.35 to 7.45) developed. Intoxication was suspected, and plasma and urine samples submitted for barium analysis had barium concentrations comparable with those reported in humans with barium toxicosis. Analysis of barium concentrations in 5 control dogs supported the diagnosis of barium toxicosis in the dog. Fluids and potassium supplementation were administered IV. The dog recovered rapidly. Electrolyte concentrations measured after recovery were consistently unremarkable. Quantification of plasma barium concentration 56 days after the presumed episode of intoxication revealed a large decrease; however, the plasma barium concentration remained elevated, compared with that in control dogs. To our knowledge, this case represented the first description of barium toxicosis in the veterinary literature. Barium toxicosis can cause life-threatening hypokalemia; however, prompt supportive treatment can yield excellent outcomes. Barium toxicosis is a rare but important differential diagnosis in animals with hypokalemia and appropriate clinical signs.

Glutamatergic modulation of hyperactivity in mice lacking the dopamine transporter

PubMed Central

Gainetdinov, Raul R.; Mohn, Amy R.; Bohn, Laura M.; Caron, Marc G.

2001-01-01

In the brain, dopamine exerts an important modulatory influence over behaviors such as emotion, cognition, and affect as well as mechanisms of reward and the control of locomotion. The dopamine transporter (DAT), which reuptakes the released neurotransmitter into presynaptic terminals, is a major determinant of the intensity and duration of the dopaminergic signal. Knockout mice lacking the dopamine transporter (DAT-KO mice) display marked changes in dopamine homeostasis that result in elevated dopaminergic tone and pronounced locomotor hyperactivity. A feature of DAT-KO mice is that their hyperactivity can be inhibited by psychostimulants and serotonergic drugs. The pharmacological effect of these drugs occurs without any observable changes in dopaminergic parameters, suggesting that other neurotransmitter systems in addition to dopamine might contribute to the control of locomotion in these mice. We report here that the hyperactivity of DAT-KO mice can be markedly further enhanced when N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission is blocked. Conversely, drugs that enhance glutamatergic transmission, such as positive modulators of l-α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate glutamate receptors, suppress the hyperactivity of DAT-KO mice. Interestingly, blockade of N- methyl-d-aspartate receptors prevented the inhibitory effects of both psychostimulant and serotonergic drugs on hyperactivity. These findings support the concept of a reciprocal functional interaction between dopamine and glutamate in the basal ganglia and suggest that agents modulating glutamatergic transmission may represent an approach to manage conditions associated with dopaminergic dysfunction. PMID:11572967

Aeolian bedforms, yardangs, and indurated surfaces in the Tharsis Montes as seen by the HiRISE Camera: Evidence for dust aggregates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bridges, N.T.; Banks, M.E.; Beyer, R.A.; Chuang, F.C.; Noe Dobrea, E.Z.; Herkenhoff, K. E.; Keszthelyi, L.P.; Fishbaugh, K.E.; McEwen, A.S.; Michaels, T.I.; Thomson, B.J.; Wray, J.J.

2010-01-01

HiRISE images of Mars with ground sampling down to 25 cm/pixel show that the dust-rich mantle covering the surfaces of the Tharsis Montes is organized into ridges whose form and distribution are consistent with formation by aeolian saltation. Other dusty areas near the volcanoes and elsewhere on the planet exhibit a similar morphology. The material composing these "reticulate" bedforms is constrained by their remote sensing properties and the threshold curve combined with the saltation/suspension boundary, both of which vary as a function of elevation (atmospheric pressure), particle size, and particle composition. Considering all of these factors, dust aggregates are the most likely material composing these bedforms. We propose that airfall dust on and near the volcanoes aggregates in situ over time, maybe due to electrostatic charging followed by cementation by salts. The aggregates eventually reach a particle size at which saltation is possible. Aggregates on the flanks are transported downslope by katabatic winds and form linear and "accordion" morphologies. Materials within the calderas and other depressions remain trapped and are subjected to multidirectional winds, forming an interlinked "honeycomb" texture. In many places on and near the volcanoes, light-toned, low thermal inertia yardangs and indurated surfaces are present. These may represent "duststone" formed when aggregates reach a particle size below the threshold curve, such that they become stabilized and subsequently undergo cementation. ?? 2009 Elsevier Inc.

47 CFR 64.1514 - Generation of signalling tones.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Generation of signalling tones. 64.1514 Section 64.1514 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES... Services § 64.1514 Generation of signalling tones. No common carrier shall assign a telephone number for...

47 CFR 64.1514 - Generation of signalling tones.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Generation of signalling tones. 64.1514 Section 64.1514 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES... Services § 64.1514 Generation of signalling tones. No common carrier shall assign a telephone number for...

47 CFR 64.1514 - Generation of signalling tones.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Generation of signalling tones. 64.1514 Section 64.1514 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES... Services § 64.1514 Generation of signalling tones. No common carrier shall assign a telephone number for...

47 CFR 64.1514 - Generation of signalling tones.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Generation of signalling tones. 64.1514 Section 64.1514 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES... Services § 64.1514 Generation of signalling tones. No common carrier shall assign a telephone number for...

Skin Tone Dissatisfaction, Sun Exposure, and Sun Protection in Australian Adolescents.

PubMed

Hutchinson, Amanda D; Prichard, Ivanka; Ettridge, Kerry; Wilson, Carlene

2015-08-01

This study aimed to assess the adoption of sun protection and sun exposure behaviors, the extent to which these behaviors group together, and the relationship between skin tone dissatisfaction and sun-related behaviors in South Australian adolescents (aged 12-17). A total of 2,875 secondary school students (1,461 male and 1,414 female) completed a questionnaire including questions about sun protection and sun exposure behaviors and skin tone dissatisfaction. Regular adoption of sun protection behaviors was low and ranged from 20% (wearing protective clothing) to 44% (sunscreen use). A principal components analysis identified four subgroups of sun-related behaviors: sun protection, appearance enhancement, sun avoidance, and sun exposure. Females had significantly higher skin tone dissatisfaction than males. Skin tone dissatisfaction was associated with decreased sun protection and avoidance and increased appearance enhancement and sun exposure in both males and females. Skin tone dissatisfaction plays an important role in Australian adolescents' sun-related behavior. Appearance-based interventions may be effective in reducing skin cancer risk through reduced sun exposure.

Current versus ideal skin tones and tanning behaviors in Caucasian college women.

PubMed

Hemrich, Ashley; Pawlow, Laura; Pomerantz, Andrew; Segrist, Dan

2014-01-01

To explore tanning behaviors and whether a discrepancy between current and ideal skin tones exists. The sample included 78 Caucasian women from a mid-sized midwestern university. Data were collected in spring 2012 via a paper questionnaire. Sixty-two percent of the sample regularly engaged in salon tanning at least once per week, with an average frequency of 2.5 visits per week. Thirteen percent endorsed regularly tanning 4 or more times per week, and 26% reported visiting a tanning bed more than once in a 24-hour period. Ninety-four percent wished their current skin tone was darker, and ideal tone was significantly darker than current tone. The data suggest that the young Caucasian women in this sample tend to be dissatisfied with their current skin tone to an extent that leads the majority of them to engage in risky, potentially cancer-causing behavior by either salon tanning or considering tanning in the future as time and finances become available.

Current and ideal skin tone: Associations with tanning behavior among sexual minority men.

PubMed

Klimek, Patrycja; Lamb, Kalina M; Nogg, Kelsey A; Rooney, Benjamin M; Blashill, Aaron J

2018-06-01

Sexual minority men have high rates of skin cancer, yet little is known about skin cancer risk behaviors in this population. It was hypothesized that current skin tone would moderate the association between darker ideals and tanning behaviors. Data were collected online from 231 sexual minority men in San Diego, United States of America, with a mean age of 24.66 (SD = 5.44). Ideal and current skin tone ratings and indoor and outdoor tanning behaviors were assessed. Darker ideals were significantly associated with increased indoor and outdoor tanning. The effect of darker ideals on tanning was strongest among individuals with lighter current skin tone, indicating a significant interaction. Sexual minority men whose perceived skin tone did not match their ideal were more likely to engage in skin cancer risk behaviors. Future skin cancer prevention programs aimed at sexual minority men may consider techniques that modify ideal skin tone internalization. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Co-Variation of Tonality in the Music and Speech of Different Cultures

PubMed Central

Han, Shui' er; Sundararajan, Janani; Bowling, Daniel Liu; Lake, Jessica; Purves, Dale

2011-01-01

Whereas the use of discrete pitch intervals is characteristic of most musical traditions, the size of the intervals and the way in which they are used is culturally specific. Here we examine the hypothesis that these differences arise because of a link between the tonal characteristics of a culture's music and its speech. We tested this idea by comparing pitch intervals in the traditional music of three tone language cultures (Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese) and three non-tone language cultures (American, French and German) with pitch intervals between voiced speech segments. Changes in pitch direction occur more frequently and pitch intervals are larger in the music of tone compared to non-tone language cultures. More frequent changes in pitch direction and larger pitch intervals are also apparent in the speech of tone compared to non-tone language cultures. These observations suggest that the different tonal preferences apparent in music across cultures are closely related to the differences in the tonal characteristics of voiced speech. PMID:21637716

Comparing pure-tone audiometry and auditory steady state response for the measurement of hearing loss.

PubMed

Ahn, Joong Ho; Lee, Hyo-Sook; Kim, Young-Jin; Yoon, Tae Hyun; Chung, Jong Woo

2007-06-01

To compare pure-tone audiometry and auditory steady state response (ASSR) to measure hearing loss based on the severity of hearing loss in frequencies. A total of 105 subjects (168 ears, 64 male and 41 female) were enrolled in this study. We determined hearing level by measurement of pure-tone audiometry and ASSR on the same day for each subject. Pure-tone audiometry and ASSR were highly correlated (r=0.96). The relationship is described by the equation PTA=1.05 x mean ASSR - 7.6. When analyzed according to the frequencies, the correlation coefficients were 0.94, 0.95, 0.94, and 0.92 for 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz, respectively. From this study, authors could conclude that pure-tone audiometry and ASSR showed very similar results and indicated that ASSR may be a good alternative method for the measurement of hearing level in infants and children, for whom pure-tone audiometry is not appropriate.

Sustained conditioned responses in prelimbic prefrontal neurons are correlated with fear expression and extinction failure.

PubMed

Burgos-Robles, Anthony; Vidal-Gonzalez, Ivan; Quirk, Gregory J

2009-07-01

During auditory fear conditioning, it is well established that lateral amygdala (LA) neurons potentiate their response to the tone conditioned stimulus, and that this potentiation is required for conditioned fear behavior. Conditioned tone responses in LA, however, last only a few hundred milliseconds and cannot be responsible for sustained fear responses to a tone lasting tens of seconds. Recent evidence from inactivation and stimulation studies suggests that the prelimbic (PL) prefrontal cortex is necessary for expression of learned fears, but the timing of PL tone responses and correlations with fear behavior have not been studied. Using multichannel unit recording techniques in behaving rats, we observed sustained conditioned tone responses in PL that were correlated with freezing behavior on a second-to-second basis during the presentation of a 30 s tone. PL tone responses were also correlated with conditioned freezing across different experimental phases (habituation, conditioning, extinction). Moreover, the persistence of PL responses after extinction training was associated with failure to express extinction memory. Together with previous inactivation findings, the present results suggest that PL transforms transient amygdala inputs to a sustained output that drives conditioned fear responses and gates the expression of extinction. Given the relatively long latency of conditioned responses we observed in PL (approximately 100 ms after tone onset), we propose that PL integrates inputs from the amygdala, hippocampus, and other cortical sources to regulate the expression of fear memories.

Improving Measurement Efficiency of the Inner EAR Scale with Item Response Theory.

PubMed

Jessen, Annika; Ho, Andrew D; Corrales, C Eduardo; Yueh, Bevan; Shin, Jennifer J

2018-02-01

Objectives (1) To assess the 11-item Inner Effectiveness of Auditory Rehabilitation (Inner EAR) instrument with item response theory (IRT). (2) To determine whether the underlying latent ability could also be accurately represented by a subset of the items for use in high-volume clinical scenarios. (3) To determine whether the Inner EAR instrument correlates with pure tone thresholds and word recognition scores. Design IRT evaluation of prospective cohort data. Setting Tertiary care academic ambulatory otolaryngology clinic. Subjects and Methods Modern psychometric methods, including factor analysis and IRT, were used to assess unidimensionality and item properties. Regression methods were used to assess prediction of word recognition and pure tone audiometry scores. Results The Inner EAR scale is unidimensional, and items varied in their location and information. Information parameter estimates ranged from 1.63 to 4.52, with higher values indicating more useful items. The IRT model provided a basis for identifying 2 sets of items with relatively lower information parameters. Item information functions demonstrated which items added insubstantial value over and above other items and were removed in stages, creating a 8- and 3-item Inner EAR scale for more efficient assessment. The 8-item version accurately reflected the underlying construct. All versions correlated moderately with word recognition scores and pure tone averages. Conclusion The 11-, 8-, and 3-item versions of the Inner EAR scale have strong psychometric properties, and there is correlational validity evidence for the observed scores. Modern psychometric methods can help streamline care delivery by maximizing relevant information per item administered.

[Correlation of pure tone thresholds and hearing loss for numbers. Comparison of three calculation variations for plausibility checking in expertise].

PubMed

Braun, T; Dochtermann, S; Krause, E; Schmidt, M; Schorn, K; Hempel, J M

2011-09-01

The present study analyzes the best combination of frequencies for the calculation of mean hearing loss in pure tone threshold audiometry for correlation with hearing loss for numbers in speech audiometry, since the literature describes different calculation variations for plausibility checking in expertise. Three calculation variations, A (250, 500 and 1000 Hz), B (500 and 1000 Hz) and C (500, 1000 and 2000 Hz), were compared. Audiograms in 80 patients with normal hearing, 106 patients with hearing loss and 135 expertise patients were analyzed in a retrospective manner. Differences between mean pure tone audiometry thresholds and hearing loss for numbers were calculated and statistically compared separately for the right and the left ear in the three patient collectives. We found the calculation variation A to be the best combination of frequencies, since it yielded the smallest standard deviations while being statistically different to calculation variations B and C. The 1- and 2.58-fold standard deviation (representing 68.3% and 99.0% of all values) was ±4.6 and ±11.8 dB for calculation variation A in patients with hearing loss, respectively. For plausibility checking in expertise, the mean threshold from the frequencies 250, 500 and 1000 Hz should be compared to the hearing loss for numbers. The common recommendation reported by the literature to doubt plausibility when the difference of these values exceeds ±5 dB is too strict as shown by this study.

Acute retinal ischemia inhibits endothelium-dependent nitric oxide-mediated dilation of retinal arterioles via enhanced superoxide production.

PubMed

Hein, Travis W; Ren, Yi; Potts, Luke B; Yuan, Zhaoxu; Kuo, Enoch; Rosa, Robert H; Kuo, Lih

2012-01-03

Because retinal vascular disease is associated with ischemia and increased oxidative stress, the vasodilator function of retinal arterioles was examined after retinal ischemia induced by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). The role of superoxide anions in the development of vascular dysfunction was assessed. IOP was increased and maintained at 80 to 90 mm Hg for 30, 60, or 90 minutes by infusing saline into the anterior chamber of a porcine eye. The fellow eye with normal IOP (10-20 mm Hg) served as control. In some pigs, superoxide dismutase mimetic TEMPOL (1 mM) or vehicle (saline) was injected intravitreally before IOP elevation. After enucleation, retinal arterioles were isolated and pressurized without flow for functional analysis by recording diameter changes using videomicroscopic techniques. Dihydroethidium (DHE) was used to detect superoxide production in isolated retinal arterioles. Isolated retinal arterioles developed stable basal tone and the vasodilations to endothelium-dependent nitric oxide (NO)-mediated agonists bradykinin and L-lactate were significantly reduced only by 90 minutes of ischemia. However, vasodilation to endothelium-independent NO donor sodium nitroprusside was unaffected after all time periods of ischemia. DHE staining showed that 90 minutes of ischemia significantly increased superoxide levels in retinal arterioles. Intravitreal injection of membrane-permeable radical scavenger but not vehicle before ischemia prevented elevation of vascular superoxide and preserved bradykinin-induced dilation. Endothelium-dependent NO-mediated dilation of retinal arterioles is impaired by 90 minutes of ischemia induced by elevated IOP. The inhibitory effect appears to be mediated by the alteration of NO signaling via vascular superoxide.

Moderate Baseline Vagal Tone Predicts Greater Prosociality in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Jonas G.; Kahle, Sarah; Hastings, Paul D.

2017-01-01

Vagal tone is widely believed to be an important physiological aspect of emotion regulation and associated positive behaviors. However, there is inconsistent evidence for relations between children's baseline vagal tone and their helpful or prosocial responses to others (Hastings & Miller, 2014). Recent work in adults suggests a quadratic…

Strategies for Analyzing Tone Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coupe, Alexander R.

2014-01-01

This paper outlines a method of auditory and acoustic analysis for determining the tonemes of a language starting from scratch, drawing on the author's experience of recording and analyzing tone languages of north-east India. The methodology is applied to a preliminary analysis of tone in the Thang dialect of Khiamniungan, a virtually undocumented…

Comparison of Infant and Adult P300 from Auditory Stimuli.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIsaac, Heather; Polich, John

1992-01-01

Recorded electroencephalographic activity of infants and adults who heard 1 unique tone in a series of 10 tones. The amplitude of event-related brain potentials in response to the unique tone was smaller, and its latency longer, for infants than for adults. Evoked potentials remained stable across trials. (BC)

Influences of Tone on Vowel Articulation in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaw, Jason A.; Chen, Wei-rong; Proctor, Michael I.; Derrick, Donald

2016-01-01

Purpose: Models of speech production often abstract away from shared physiology in pitch control and lingual articulation, positing independent control of tone and vowel units. We assess the validity of this assumption in Mandarin Chinese by evaluating the stability of lingual articulation for vowels across variation in tone. Method:…

Internal Clock Processes and the Filled-Duration Illusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wearden, John H.; Norton, Roger; Martin, Simon; Montford-Bebb, Oliver

2007-01-01

In 3 experiments, the authors compared duration judgments of filled stimuli (tones) with unfilled ones (intervals defined by clicks or gaps in tones). Temporal generalization procedures (Experiment 1) and verbal estimation procedures (Experiments 2 and 3) all showed that subjective durations of the tones were considerably longer than those of…

Tone Gestures and Constraint Interaction in Sierra Juarez Zapotec

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tejada, Laura

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines floating tones and tone gesture deactivation in Sierra Juarez Zapotec (SJZ), and provides an Optimality Theoretic account of tonal spreading and placement using insights from Articulatory Phonology. While the data portion of the dissertation is drawn from SJZ, the approach has broader implications for theories of tonal…

John Curwen: Teaching the Tonic Sol-Fa Method 1816-1880.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zinar, Ruth

1983-01-01

John Curwen made many contributions to music education. He taught singing through the sound of tones before students learned notation, originated a widely used system of hand signals for the tones of the scale, and emphasized a feeling for the basic beat underlying the durations of tones. (CS)

Using Online Tone Generators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lincoln, James

2017-01-01

Online tone generators are free, user friendly, and can make for engaging and meaningful study of many topics in the areas of interference, waves, and the physics of music. By using a website such as OnlineToneGenerator.com, and through opening multiple windows simultaneously, students can immediately perform several experiments. In this article,…

Multiple pure tone noise generated by fans at supersonic tip speeds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sofrin, T. G.; Pickett, G. F.

1974-01-01

The existence of clusters of pure tones at integral multiples of shaft speed has been noted for supersonic-tip-speed operation of fans and compressors. A continuing program to explore this phenomenon, often called combination-tone noise, has been in effect for several years. This paper reviews the research program, which involves a wide range of engines, compressor rigs, and special apparatus. Elements of the aerodynamics of the blade-associated shock waves are outlined and causes of blade-to-blade shock inequalities, responsible for the multiple tones, are described.

Vagal tone as an index of mental state

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Porges, Stephen W.

1988-01-01

The utility of monitoring oscillations in the heart rate pattern as a window to the brain is discussed as an index of general central nervous system status. Quantification of the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia provides an accurate index of cardiac vagal tone. A number of studies have demonstrated the validity of this measure; the relationship between flight performance and vagal tone has also been studied. In general, the vagal tone index appears to monitor global states of the central nervous system and may be useful in screening the general state of pilots.

17 Ways to Say Yes: Toward Nuanced Tone of Voice in AAC and Speech Technology

PubMed Central

Pullin, Graham; Hennig, Shannon

2015-01-01

Abstract People with complex communication needs who use speech-generating devices have very little expressive control over their tone of voice. Despite its importance in human interaction, the issue of tone of voice remains all but absent from AAC research and development however. In this paper, we describe three interdisciplinary projects, past, present and future: The critical design collection Six Speaking Chairs has provoked deeper discussion and inspired a social model of tone of voice; the speculative concept Speech Hedge illustrates challenges and opportunities in designing more expressive user interfaces; the pilot project Tonetable could enable participatory research and seed a research network around tone of voice. We speculate that more radical interactions might expand frontiers of AAC and disrupt speech technology as a whole. PMID:25965913

Active and passive characteristics of muscle tone and their relationship to models of subluxation/joint dysfunction

PubMed Central

Knutson, Gary A.; Owens, Edward F.

2003-01-01

The relationship of muscles to the causes and effects of the pathophysiologic entity referred to as chiropractic subluxation or joint dysfunction is critical. Part I of this paper reviewed the complexities of skeletal muscle in regards to anatomy, active and passive tone, detection of muscle tone, neurophysiology, and how muscle function fits into a variety of subluxation/joint dysfunction models. The concluding part of the review culminates in a hypothesis to describe and explain varying degrees of muscle tone that may be encountered clinically. It is hoped that knowledge of the differing levels of muscle tone and their causes will help the clinician to better determine the underlying cause of a neuromusculoskeletal problem allowing application of necessary and proper intervention.

Tone and prosodic organization in Cherokee nouns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Keith; Haag, Marcia

2005-04-01

Preliminary observations in the speech of one speaker of Cherokee led us to postulate three factors affecting tone in Cherokee. (1) Tone may be lexically specified with distinctive low, low fall, low rise, and high tones. (2) There is a metrically determined high fall pattern which may be distributed over not more than 2 syllables from the right edge of a prosodic domain. (3) Intonational domains may be associated with discourse functions, marked by high fall, or by pitch range upstep. This paper tests these observations in recordings of word lists and sentences produced by five additional speakers. The analysis we give, positing both lexical tone and metrical prosodic accent, is not unique in descriptions of language, but is different from the usual description of Cherokee. [Work supported by NSF.

Exploring the impact of skin tone on family dynamics and race-related outcomes.

PubMed

Landor, Antoinette M; Simons, Leslie Gordon; Simons, Ronald L; Brody, Gene H; Bryant, Chalandra M; Gibbons, Frederick X; Granberg, Ellen M; Melby, Janet N

2013-10-01

Racism has historically been a primary source of discrimination against African Americans, but there has been little research on the role that skin tone plays in explaining experiences with racism. Similarly, colorism within African American families and the ways in which skin tone influences family processes is an understudied area of research. Using data from a longitudinal sample of African American families (n = 767), we assessed whether skin tone impacted experiences with discrimination or was related to differences in quality of parenting and racial socialization within families. Findings indicated no link between skin tone and racial discrimination, which suggests that lightness or darkness of skin does not either protect African Americans from or exacerbate the experiences of discrimination. On the other hand, families displayed preferential treatment toward offspring based on skin tone, and these differences varied by gender of child. Specifically, darker skin sons received higher quality parenting and more racial socialization promoting mistrust compared to their counterparts with lighter skin. Lighter skin daughters received higher quality parenting compared with those with darker skin. In addition, gender of child moderated the association between primary caregiver skin tone and racial socialization promoting mistrust. These results suggest that colorism remains a salient issue within African American families. Implications for future research, prevention, and intervention are discussed.

Vagal tone during infant contingency learning and its disruption.

PubMed

Sullivan, Margaret Wolan

2016-04-01

This study used contingency learning to examine changes in infants' vagal tone during learning and its disruption. The heart rate of 160 five-month-old infants was recorded continuously during the first of two training sessions as they experienced an audiovisual event contingent on their pulling. Maternal reports of infant temperament were also collected. Baseline vagal tone, a measure of parasympathetic regulation of the heart, was related to vagal levels during the infants' contingency learning session, but not to their learner status. Vagal tone levels did not vary significantly over session minutes. Instead, vagal tone levels were a function of both individual differences in learner status and infant soothability. Vagal levels of infants who learned in the initial session were similar regardless of their soothability; however, vagal levels of infants who learned in a subsequent session differed as a function of soothability. Additionally, vagal levels during contingency disruption were significantly higher among infants in this group who were more soothable as opposed to those who were less soothable. The results suggest that contingency learning and disruption is associated with stable vagal tone in the majority of infants, but that individual differences in attention processes and state associated with vagal tone may be most readily observed during the disruption phase. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Exploring the Impact of Skin Tone on Family Dynamics and Race-Related Outcomes

PubMed Central

Simons, Leslie Gordon; Simons, Ronald L.; Brody, Gene H.; Bryant, Chalandra M.; Gibbons, Frederick X.; Granberg, Ellen M.; Melby, Janet N.

2014-01-01

Racism has historically been a primary source of discrimination against African Americans but there has been little research on the role that skin tone plays in explaining experiences with racism. Similarly, colorism within African American families and the ways in which skin tone influences family processes is an understudied area of research. Utilizing data from a longitudinal sample of African American families (N= 767), we assessed whether skin tone impacted experiences with discrimination or was related to differences in quality of parenting and racial socialization within families. Findings indicated no link between skin tone and racial discrimination, which suggests that lightness or darkness of skin does not either protect African Americans from or exacerbate the experiences of discrimination. On the other hand, families displayed preferential treatment toward offspring based on skin tone and these differences varied by gender of child. Specifically, darker skin sons received higher quality parenting and more racial socialization promoting mistrust compared to their counterparts with lighter skin. Lighter skin daughters received higher quality parenting compared to those with darker skin. In addition, gender of child moderated the association between primary caregiver skin tone and racial socialization promoting mistrust. These results suggest that colorism remains a salient issue within African American families. Implications for future research, prevention and intervention are discussed. PMID:24040901

Tone series and the nature of working memory capacity development.

PubMed

Clark, Katherine M; Hardman, Kyle O; Schachtman, Todd R; Saults, J Scott; Glass, Bret A; Cowan, Nelson

2018-04-01

Recent advances in understanding visual working memory, the limited information held in mind for use in ongoing processing, are extended here to examine auditory working memory development. Research with arrays of visual objects has shown how to distinguish the capacity, in terms of the number of objects retained, from the precision of the object representations. We adapt the technique to sequences of nonmusical tones, in an investigation including children (6-13 years, N = 84) and adults (26-50 years, N = 31). For each series of 1 to 4 tones, the participant responded by using an 80-choice scale to try to reproduce the tone at a queried serial position. Despite the much longer-lasting usefulness of sensory memory for tones compared with visual objects, the observed tone capacity was similar to previous findings for visual capacity. The results also constrain theories of childhood working memory development, indicating increases with age in both the capacity and the precision of the tone representations, similar to the visual studies, rather than age differences in time-based memory decay. The findings, including patterns of correlations between capacity, precision, and some auxiliary tasks and questionnaires, establish capacity and precision as dissociable processes and place important constraints on various hypotheses of working memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Congenital amusia in speakers of a tone language: association with lexical tone agnosia.

PubMed

Nan, Yun; Sun, Yanan; Peretz, Isabelle

2010-09-01

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder that affects the processing of musical pitch in speakers of non-tonal languages like English and French. We assessed whether this musical disorder exists among speakers of Mandarin Chinese who use pitch to alter the meaning of words. Using the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, we tested 117 healthy young Mandarin speakers with no self-declared musical problems and 22 individuals who reported musical difficulties and scored two standard deviations below the mean obtained by the Mandarin speakers without amusia. These 22 amusic individuals showed a similar pattern of musical impairment as did amusic speakers of non-tonal languages, by exhibiting a more pronounced deficit in melody than in rhythm processing. Furthermore, nearly half the tested amusics had impairments in the discrimination and identification of Mandarin lexical tones. Six showed marked impairments, displaying what could be called lexical tone agnosia, but had normal tone production. Our results show that speakers of tone languages such as Mandarin may experience musical pitch disorder despite early exposure to speech-relevant pitch contrasts. The observed association between the musical disorder and lexical tone difficulty indicates that the pitch disorder as defining congenital amusia is not specific to music or culture but is rather general in nature.

Continuous tone printing in silicone from CNC milled matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoskins, S.; McCallion, P.

2014-02-01

Current research at the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) at the University of the West of England, Bristol, is exploring the potential of creating coloured pictorial imagery from a continuous tone relief surface. To create the printing matrices the research team have been using CNC milled images where the height of the relief image is dictated by creating a tone curve and then milling this curve into a series of relief blocks from which the image is cast in a silicone ink. A translucent image is cast from each of the colour matrices and each colour is assembled - one on top of another - resulting is a colour continuous tone print, where colour tone is created by physical depth of colour. This process is a contemporary method of continuous tone colour printing based upon the Nineteenth Century black and white printing process of Woodburytype as developed by Walter Bentley Woodbury in 1865. Woodburytype is the only true continuous tone printing process invented, and although its delicate and subtle surfaces surpassed all other printing methods at the time. The process died out in the late nineteenth century as more expedient and cost effective methods of printing prevailed. New research at CFPR builds upon previous research that combines 19th Century Photomechanical techniques with digital technology to reappraise the potential of these processes.

Radio science receiver support of the Mars Exploration Rover Landings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, Douglas; Asmar, Sami; Chang, Christine; Estabrook, Polly; Finely, Sue; Pham, Timothy; Satorius, Edgar

2004-01-01

The low power levels of the communication signals during the Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) sequences of the Mars rovers prevented the transmission of telemetry at X-band signal to inform the mission operations center of the health and progress of the spacecraft. As an altemative, a series of tones were sent to indicate basic spacecraft conditions and execution of critical events. An open-loop receiver designed for Radio Science experiments was used to acquire the signal during this time. The receiver recorded over a 100 Khz bandwidth to identify the presence of the carrier and tones. The data were fed in real-time to a processing unit which detected the carrier and the frequency separation of the tones from the carrier, in order to determine which event has occurred. Up to 256 different tones were possible. During the actual events, all tones were identified, and the carrier was tracked down to the surface, and for the second rover, through the bouncing which followed, and finally, while stopped on the surface, found the carrier and tones which indicated the spacecraft was alive. In order to identify the tones, the ground receivers had to be able to respond to the bevy of events occurring in the relatively short timespan of EDL.

Synthesis of Polysyllabic Sequences of Thai Tones Using a Generative Model of Fundamental Frequency Contours

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seresangtakul, Pusadee; Takara, Tomio

In this paper, the distinctive tones of Thai in running speech are studied. We present rules to synthesize F0 contours of Thai tones in running speech by using the generative model of F0 contours. Along with our method, the pitch contours of Thai polysyllabic words, both disyllabic and trisyllabic words, were analyzed. The coarticulation effect of Thai tones in running speech were found. Based on the analysis of the polysyllabic words using this model, rules are derived and applied to synthesize Thai polysyllabic tone sequences. We performed listening tests to evaluate intelligibility of the rules for Thai tones generation. The average intelligibility scores became 98.8%, and 96.6% for disyllabic and trisyllabic words, respectively. From these result, the rule of the tones' generation was shown to be effective. Furthermore, we constructed the connecting rules to synthesize suprasegmental F0 contours using the trisyllable training rules' parameters. The parameters of the first, the third, and the second syllables were selected and assigned to the initial, the ending, and the remaining syllables in a sentence, respectively. Even such a simple rule, the synthesized phrases/senetences were completely identified in listening tests. The MOSs (Mean Opinion Score) was 3.50 while the original and analysis/synthesis samples were 4.82 and 3.59, respectively.

The mechanical waveform of the basilar membrane. IV. Tone and noise stimuli

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Boer, Egbert; Nuttall, Alfred L.

2002-02-01

Analysis of mechanical cochlear responses to wide bands of random noise clarifies many effects of cochlear nonlinearity. The previous paper [de Boer and Nuttall, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 1497-1507 (2000)] illustrates how closely results of computations in a nonlinear cochlear model agree with responses from physiological experiments. In the present paper results for tone stimuli are reported. It was found that the measured frequency response for pure tones differs little from the frequency response associated with a noise signal. For strong stimuli, well into the nonlinear region, tones have to be presented at a specific level with respect to the noise for this to be true. In this report the nonlinear cochlear model originally developed for noise analysis was modified to accommodate pure tones. For this purpose the efficiency with which outer hair cells modify the basilar-membrane response was made into a function of cochlear location based on local excitation. For each experiment, the modified model is able to account for the experimental findings, within 1 or 2 dB. Therefore, the model explains why the type of filtering that tones undergo in the cochlea is essentially the same as that for noise signals (provided the tones are presented at the appropriate level).

Effects of temporal primary-tone arrangement on DPOAE properties in humans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zelle, Dennis; Krokenberger, Michael; Gummer, Anthony W.; Dalhoff, Ernst

2018-05-01

Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) emerge as a by-product of the nonlinear amplification of sound waves in the cochlea when presenting two tones of frequencies f1 and f2. According to a widely accepted model, DPOAEs comprise two main components, which can be separated in the time domain using short stimulus pulses. The present study utilized two acquisition paradigms with different primary-tone arrangements, denoted as SP-f1 and SP-f2, to investigate the nonlinear-distortion component arising near the f2-tonotopic site on the basilar membrane. In SP-f2, a conventional paradigm, the f1 tone was presented for 25 ms, whereas the f2 tone was switched on 5 ms after f1 onset for frequency-dependent durations between 3 and 11 ms to elicit the DPOAE. SP-f1 interchanged the temporal arrangement and durations of the primary tones. DPOAEs were recorded at eight frequencies (f2 = 1 - 8 kHz; f2/f1 = 1.2) and five primary-tone levels L2 = 30 - 70 dB SPL in 56 normal-hearing ears from 33 subjects. Comparison between the corresponding DPOAE responses revealed significantly larger amplitudes and shorter latencies of the nonlinear-distortion component for SP-f1, i.e. when the f1 short pulse triggers DPOAE generation.

The coordination of boundary tones and its interaction with prominence.

PubMed

Katsika, Argyro; Krivokapić, Jelena; Mooshammer, Christine; Tiede, Mark; Goldstein, Louis

2014-05-01

This study investigates the coordination of boundary tones as a function of stress and pitch accent. Boundary tone coordination has not been experimentally investigated previously, and the effect of prominence on this coordination, and whether it is lexical (stress-driven) or phrasal (pitch accent-driven) in nature is unclear. We assess these issues using a variety of syntactic constructions to elicit different boundary tones in an Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) study of Greek. The results indicate that the onset of boundary tones co-occurs with the articulatory target of the final vowel. This timing is further modified by stress, but not by pitch accent: boundary tones are initiated earlier in words with non-final stress than in words with final stress regardless of accentual status. Visual data inspection reveals that phrase-final words are followed by acoustic pauses during which specific articulatory postures occur. Additional analyses show that these postures reach their achievement point at a stable temporal distance from boundary tone onsets regardless of stress position. Based on these results and parallel findings on boundary lengthening reported elsewhere, a novel approach to prosody is proposed within the context of Articulatory Phonology: rather than seeing prosodic (lexical and phrasal) events as independent entities, a set of coordination relations between them is suggested. The implications of this account for prosodic architecture are discussed.

Vagal Tone During Infant Contingency Learning and Its Disruption

PubMed Central

Sullivan, Margaret Wolan

2015-01-01

This study used contingency learning to examine changes in infants’ vagal tone during learning and its disruption. The heart rate of 160 five-month-old infants was recorded continuously during the first of two training sessions as they experienced an audiovisual event contingent on their pulling. Maternal reports of infant temperament were also collected. Baseline vagal tone, a measure of parasympathetic regulation of the heart, was related to vagal levels during the infants’ contingency learning session, but not to their learner status. Vagal tone levels did not vary significantly over session minutes. Instead, vagal tone levels were a function of both individual differences in learner status and infant soothability. Vagal levels of infants who learned in the initial session were similar regardless of their soothability; however, vagal levels of infants who learned in a subsequent session differed as a function of soothability. Additionally, vagal levels during contingency disruption were significantly higher among infants in this group who were more soothable as opposed to those who were less soothable. The results suggest that contingency learning and disruption is associated with stable vagal tone in the majority of infants, but that individual differences in attention processes and state associated with vagal tone may be most readily observed during the disruption phase. PMID:26517573

Repetition Suppression in the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus Predicts Tone Learning Performance.

PubMed

Asaridou, Salomi S; Takashima, Atsuko; Dediu, Dan; Hagoort, Peter; McQueen, James M

2016-06-01

Do individuals differ in how efficiently they process non-native sounds? To what extent do these differences relate to individual variability in sound-learning aptitude? We addressed these questions by assessing the sound-learning abilities of Dutch native speakers as they were trained on non-native tone contrasts. We used fMRI repetition suppression to the non-native tones to measure participants' neuronal processing efficiency before and after training. Although all participants improved in tone identification with training, there was large individual variability in learning performance. A repetition suppression effect to tone was found in the bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFGs) before training. No whole-brain effect was found after training; a region-of-interest analysis, however, showed that, after training, repetition suppression to tone in the left IFG correlated positively with learning. That is, individuals who were better in learning the non-native tones showed larger repetition suppression in this area. Crucially, this was true even before training. These findings add to existing evidence that the left IFG plays an important role in sound learning and indicate that individual differences in learning aptitude stem from differences in the neuronal efficiency with which non-native sounds are processed. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music.

PubMed

Marin, Manuela M; Lampatz, Allegra; Wandl, Michaela; Leder, Helmut

2016-01-01

In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all r s > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all r s > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty ( r s = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness ( r s = -0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all r s > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative ( r s = -0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive ( r s = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne's theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms.

A prediction of templates in the auditory cortex system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghanbeigi, Kimia

In this study variation of human auditory evoked mismatch field amplitudes in response to complex tones as a function of the removal in single partials in the onset period was investigated. It was determined: 1-A single frequency elimination in a sound stimulus plays a significant role in human brain sound recognition. 2-By comparing the mismatches of the brain response due to a single frequency elimination in the "Starting Transient" and "Sustain Part" of the sound stimulus, it is found that the brain is more sensitive to frequency elimination in the Starting Transient. This study involves 4 healthy subjects with normal hearing. Neural activity was recorded with stimulus whole-head MEG. Verification of spatial location in the auditory cortex was determined by comparing with MRI images. In the first set of stimuli, repetitive ('standard') tones with five selected onset frequencies were randomly embedded in the string of rare ('deviant') tones with randomly varying inter stimulus intervals. In the deviant tones one of the frequency components was omitted relative to the deviant tones during the onset period. The frequency of the test partial of the complex tone was intentionally selected to preclude its reinsertion by generation of harmonics or combination tones due to either the nonlinearity of the ear, the electronic equipment or the brain processing. In the second set of stimuli, time structured as above, repetitive ('standard') tones with five selected sustained frequency components were embedded in the string of rare '(deviant') tones for which one of these selected frequencies was omitted in the sustained tone. In both measurements, the carefully frequency selection precluded their reinsertion by generation of harmonics or combination tones due to the nonlinearity of the ear, the electronic equipment and brain processing. The same considerations for selecting the test frequency partial were applied. Results. By comparing MMN of the two data sets, the relative contribution to sound recognition of the omitted partial frequency components in the onset and sustained regions has been determined. Conclusion. The presence of significant mismatch negativity, due to neural activity of auditory cortex, emphasizes that the brain recognizes the elimination of a single frequency of carefully chosen anharmonic frequencies. It was shown this mismatch is more significant if the single frequency elimination occurs in the onset period.

Relationship between Vagal Tone, Cortisol, TNF-Alpha, Epinephrine and Negative Affects in Crohn’s Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

PubMed Central

Pellissier, Sonia; Dantzer, Cécile; Mondillon, Laurie; Trocme, Candice; Gauchez, Anne-Sophie; Ducros, Véronique; Mathieu, Nicolas; Toussaint, Bertrand; Fournier, Alicia; Canini, Frédéric; Bonaz, Bruno

2014-01-01

Crohn’s disease (CD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) involve brain-gut dysfunctions where vagus nerve is an important component. The aim of this work was to study the association between vagal tone and markers of stress and inflammation in patients with CD or IBS compared to healthy subjects (controls). The study was performed in 73 subjects (26 controls, 21 CD in remission and 26 IBS patients). The day prior to the experiment, salivary cortisol was measured at 8∶00 AM and 10∶00 PM. The day of the experiment, subjects completed questionnaires for anxiety (STAI) and depressive symptoms (CES-D). After 30 min of rest, ECG was recorded for heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. Plasma cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, TNF-alpha and IL-6 were measured in blood samples taken at the end of ECG recording. Compared with controls, CD and IBS patients had higher scores of state-anxiety and depressive symptomatology. A subgroup classification based on HRV-normalized high frequency band (HFnu) as a marker of vagal tone, showed that control subjects with high vagal tone had significantly lower evening salivary cortisol levels than subjects with low vagal tone. Such an effect was not observed in CD and IBS patients. Moreover, an inverse association (r = −0.48; p<0.05) was observed between the vagal tone and TNF-alpha level in CD patients exclusively. In contrast, in IBS patients, vagal tone was inversely correlated with plasma epinephrine (r = −0.39; p<0.05). No relationship was observed between vagal tone and IL-6, norepinephrine or negative affects (anxiety and depressive symptomatology) in any group. In conclusion, these data argue for an imbalance between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the vagal tone in CD and IBS patients. Furthermore, they highlight the specific homeostatic link between vagal tone and TNF-alpha in CD and epinephrine in IBS and argue for the relevance of vagus nerve reinforcement interventions in those diseases. PMID:25207649

Influence of the frequency of laser toning for melasma on occurrence of leukoderma and its early detection by ultraviolet imaging.

PubMed

Sugawara, Jun; Kou, Seiko; Kou, Sousei; Yasumura, Kazunori; Satake, Toshihiko; Maegawa, Jiro

2015-02-01

Laser "toning" with a Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser has recently been described to be effective for the treatment of melasma. Leukoderma is a refractory complication of laser toning for melasma, but it can be detected early with ultraviolet (UV) imaging. We assessed the relationship between leukoderma and the frequency or total number of laser toning sessions, as well as the effectiveness of UV imaging for detecting leukoderma. The subjects included 147 patients who received at least five laser toning sessions. Subjects were classified into three groups according to the frequency of treatment (weekly for Group A1, fortnightly for Group A2, and monthly for Group B), and the incidence of leukoderma was compared among the three groups. In patients who developed leukoderma, the interval between clinical diagnosis and leukoderma detection on UV images (obtained with a Visia Evolution during every laser toning session) was determined to evaluate the effectiveness of UV imaging for the early detection of leukoderma. The overall incidence of leukoderma was 2% (3/147 patients): 3.8% (1/26 patients) in Group A1, 4% (2/49 patients) in Group A2, and 0% (0/72 patients) in Group B. There were no significant differences in the incidence of leukoderma relative to the frequency of laser toning. In two of the three patients who developed leukoderma, it was diagnosed clinically at the 20th and 21st laser toning session, whereas it was diagnosed by UV imaging at the 12th and 13th session. In the remaining 1 patient, leukoderma was detected clinically and by UV imaging at the 7th session. There was no significant difference in the incidence of leukoderma related to the frequency of laser toning. This study showed that there are two types of leukoderma associated with laser toning. UV imaging was effective for the early detection of type 1 leukoderma, which seems to be related to the cumulative laser energy delivered, but not for detecting type 2 leukoderma, which may be due to direct phototoxicity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Context, Contrast, and Tone of Voice in Auditory Sarcasm Perception.

PubMed

Voyer, Daniel; Thibodeau, Sophie-Hélène; Delong, Breanna J

2016-02-01

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the interplay between context and tone of voice in the perception of sarcasm. These experiments emphasized the role of contrast effects in sarcasm perception exclusively by means of auditory stimuli whereas most past research has relied on written material. In all experiments, a positive or negative computer-generated context spoken in a flat emotional tone was followed by a literally positive statement spoken in a sincere or sarcastic tone of voice. Participants indicated for each statement whether the intonation was sincere or sarcastic. In Experiment 1, a congruent context/tone of voice pairing (negative/sarcastic, positive/sincere) produced fast response times and proportions of sarcastic responses in the direction predicted by the tone of voice. Incongruent pairings produced mid-range proportions and slower response times. Experiment 2 introduced ambiguous contexts to determine whether a lower context/statements contrast would affect the proportion of sarcastic responses and response time. Results showed the expected findings for proportions (values between those obtained for congruent and incongruent pairings in the direction predicted by the tone of voice). However, response time failed to produce the predicted pattern, suggesting potential issues with the choice of stimuli. Experiments 3 and 4 extended the results of Experiments 1 and 2, respectively, to auditory stimuli based on written vignettes used in neuropsychological assessment. Results were exactly as predicted by contrast effects in both experiments. Taken together, the findings suggest that both context and tone influence how sarcasm is perceived while supporting the importance of contrast effects in sarcasm perception.

Tone-Inhibiting Insoles Enhance the Reciprocal Inhibition of Ankle Plantarflexors of Subjects With Hemiparesis After Stroke: An Electromyographic Study.

PubMed

Takahashi, Nobushige; Takahashi, Hidetoshi; Takahashi, Osamu; Ushijima, Ryosuke; Umebayashi, Rie; Nishikawa, Junji; Okajima, Yasutomo

2018-02-01

Spasticity is a common sequela of upper motor neuron pathology, such as cerebrovascular diseases and cerebral palsy. Intervention for spasticity of the ankle plantarflexors in physical therapy may include tone-inhibiting casting and/or orthoses for the ankle and foot. However, the physiological mechanism of tone reduction by such orthoses remains unclarified. To investigate the electrophysiologic effects of tone-inhibiting insoles in stroke subjects with hemiparesis by measuring changes in reciprocal Ia inhibition (RI) in the ankle plantarflexor. An interventional before-after study. Acute stroke unit or ambulatory rehabilitation clinic of a university hospital in Japan. Ten subjects (47-84 years) with hemiparesis and 10 healthy male control subjects (31-59 years) were recruited. RI of the spastic soleus in response to the electrical stimulation of the deep peroneal nerve was evaluated by stimulus-locked averaging of rectified electromyography (EMG) of the soleus while subjects were standing. The magnitude of RI, defined as the ratio of the lowest to the baseline amplitude of the rectified EMG at approximately 40 milliseconds after stimulation, was measured while subjects were standing with and without the tone-inhibiting insole on the hemiparesis side. Enhancement of EMG reduction with the tone-inhibiting insole was significant (P < .05) in the subjects with hemiparesis, whereas no significant changes were found in controls. Tone-inhibiting insoles enhanced RI of the soleus in subjects after stroke, which might enhance standing stability by reducing unfavorable ankle plantarflexion tone. III. Copyright © 2018 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Binaural pitch fusion: Pitch averaging and dominance in hearing-impaired listeners with broad fusion.

PubMed

Oh, Yonghee; Reiss, Lina A J

2017-08-01

Both bimodal cochlear implant and bilateral hearing aid users can exhibit broad binaural pitch fusion, the fusion of dichotically presented tones over a broad range of pitch differences between ears [Reiss, Ito, Eggleston, and Wozny. (2014). J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 15(2), 235-248; Reiss, Eggleston, Walker, and Oh. (2016). J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol. 17(4), 341-356; Reiss, Shayman, Walker, Bennett, Fowler, Hartling, Glickman, Lasarev, and Oh. (2017). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 143(3), 1909-1920]. Further, the fused binaural pitch is often a weighted average of the different pitches perceived in the two ears. The current study was designed to systematically measure these pitch averaging phenomena in bilateral hearing aid users with broad fusion. The fused binaural pitch of the reference-pair tone combination was initially measured by pitch-matching to monaural comparison tones presented to the pair tone ear. The averaged results for all subjects showed two distinct trends: (1) The fused binaural pitch was dominated by the lower-pitch component when the pair tone was either 0.14 octaves below or 0.78 octaves above the reference tone; (2) pitch averaging occurred when the pair tone was between the two boundaries above, with the most equal weighting at 0.38 octaves above the reference tone. Findings from two subjects suggest that randomization or alternation of the comparison ear can eliminate this asymmetry in the pitch averaging range. Overall, these pitch averaging phenomena suggest that spectral distortions and thus binaural interference may arise during binaural stimulation in hearing-impaired listeners with broad fusion.

Age differences in fear retention and extinction in male Sprague-Dawley rats: Effects of ethanol challenge during conditioning

PubMed Central

Broadwater, Margaret; Spear, Linda P.

2013-01-01

Pavlovian fear conditioning is an ideal model to investigate how learning and memory are influenced by alcohol use during adolescence because the neural mechanisms involved have been studied extensively. In Exp 1, adolescent and adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were non-injected or injected with saline, 1 or 1.5 g/kg ethanol intraperitoneally 10 minutes prior to tone or context conditioning. Twenty-four hours later, animals were tested for tone or context retention and extinction, with examination of extinction retention conducted 24 hours thereafter. In Exp 2, a context extinction session was inserted between the tone conditioning and the tone fear retention/extinction days to reduce pre-CS baseline freezing levels at test. Basal levels of acquisition, fear retention, extinction, and extinction retention after tone conditioning were similar between adolescent and adult rats. In contrast adolescents showed faster context extinction than adults, while again not differing from adults during context acquisition, retention or extinction retention. In terms of ethanol effects, adolescents were less sensitive to ethanol-induced context retention deficits than adults. No age differences emerged in terms of tone fear retention, with ethanol disrupting tone fear retention at both ages in Exp1, but at neither age in Exp 2, a difference seemingly due to group differences in pre-CS freezing during tone testing in Exp 1, but not Exp 2. These results suggest that age differences in the acute effects of ethanol on cognitive function are task-specific, and provide further evidence for age differences cognitive functioning in a task thought to be hippocampally-related. PMID:23810415

Musically Tone-Deaf Individuals Have Difficulty Discriminating Intonation Contours Extracted from Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patel, Aniruddh D.; Foxton, Jessica M.; Griffiths, Timothy D.

2005-01-01

Musically tone-deaf individuals have psychophysical deficits in detecting pitch changes, yet their discrimination of intonation contours in speech appears to be normal. One hypothesis for this dissociation is that intonation contours use coarse pitch contrasts which exceed the pitch-change detection thresholds of tone-deaf individuals (Peretz &…

Activating without Inhibiting: Left-Edge Boundary Tones and Syntactic Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roll, Mikael; Horne, Merle; Lindgren, Magnus

2011-01-01

Right-edge boundary tones have earlier been found to restrict syntactic processing by closing a clause for further integration of incoming words. The role of left-edge intonation, however, has received little attention to date. We show that Swedish left-edge boundary tones selectively facilitate the on-line processing of main clauses, the…

Dissimilation in the Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hang

2016-01-01

This article extends Optimality Theoretic studies to the research on second language tone phonology. Specifically, this work analyses the acquisition of identical tone sequences in Mandarin Chinese by adult speakers of three non-tonal languages: English, Japanese and Korean. This study finds that the learners prefer not to use identical lexical…

The Utility of Chinese Tone Processing Skill in Detecting Children with English Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Alida; Wang, Min

2012-01-01

The utility of Chinese tone processing skill in detecting children with English reading difficulties was examined through differences in a Chinese tone experimental task between a group of native English-speaking children with reading disabilities (RD) and a comparison group of children with normal reading development (NRD). General auditory…

Skin-Tone Preferences and Self-Representation in Hispanic Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaufman, Erin A.; Wiese, Deborah L.

2012-01-01

Skin-tone preferences and colourism within Hispanic children have been largely unexamined in the psychological literature. The objectives of the current study were to investigate Hispanic children's skin-tone preferences and the effect of assessor race and ethnicity on those preferences. To carry out the study, Clark and Clark's colouring task was…

Processing of Acoustic Cues in Lexical-Tone Identification by Pediatric Cochlear-Implant Recipients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peng, Shu-Chen; Lu, Hui-Ping; Lu, Nelson; Lin, Yung-Song; Deroche, Mickael L. D.; Chatterjee, Monita

2017-01-01

Purpose: The objective was to investigate acoustic cue processing in lexical-tone recognition by pediatric cochlear-implant (CI) recipients who are native Mandarin speakers. Method: Lexical-tone recognition was assessed in pediatric CI recipients and listeners with normal hearing (NH) in 2 tasks. In Task 1, participants identified naturally…

Pinyin Invented Spelling in Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Children with and without Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine; Zhang, Dake

2015-01-01

This study examined analytical pinyin (a phonological coding system for teaching pronunciation and lexical tones of Chinese characters) skills in 54 Mandarin-speaking fourth graders by using an invented spelling instrument that tapped into syllable awareness, phoneme awareness, lexical tones, and tone sandhi in Chinese. Pinyin invented spelling…

Auditory Stream Segregation and the Perception of Across-Frequency Synchrony

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Micheyl, Christophe; Hunter, Cynthia; Oxenham, Andrew J.

2010-01-01

This study explored the extent to which sequential auditory grouping affects the perception of temporal synchrony. In Experiment 1, listeners discriminated between 2 pairs of asynchronous "target" tones at different frequencies, A and B, in which the B tone either led or lagged. Thresholds were markedly higher when the target tones were temporally…

Improving Tone Recognition with Nucleus Modeling and Sequential Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Siwei

2010-01-01

Mandarin Chinese and many other tonal languages use tones that are defined as specific pitch patterns to distinguish syllables otherwise ambiguous. It had been shown that tones carry at least as much information as vowels in Mandarin Chinese [Surendran et al., 2005]. Surprisingly, though, many speech recognition systems for Mandarin Chinese have…

The Intragroup Stigmatization of Skin Tone Among Black Americans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Richard D.; LaBeach, Nicole; Pridgen, Ellie; Gocial, Tammy M.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which racial contexts moderate the importance and function of intragroup skin-tone stigma among Black Americans. One hundred and thirty-two Black students were recruited from both a predominantly Black university and a predominantly White university and completed measures on skin tone,…

Perception of Tone and Aspiration Contrasts in Chinese Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Him; Chung, Kevin K. H.; Wong, Simpson W. L.; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Penney, Trevor B.; Ho, Connie S. H.

2009-01-01

Background: Previous research has shown a relationship between speech perception and dyslexia in alphabetic writing. In these studies speech perception was measured using phonemes, a prominent feature of alphabetic languages. Given the primary importance of lexical tone in Chinese language processing, we tested the extent to which lexical tone and…

Selective attention and the auditory vertex potential. I - Effects of stimulus delivery rate. II - Effects of signal intensity and masking noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwent, V. L.; Hillyard, S. A.; Galambos, R.

1976-01-01

The effects of varying the rate of delivery of dichotic tone pip stimuli on selective attention measured by evoked-potential amplitudes and signal detectability scores were studied. The subjects attended to one channel (ear) of tones, ignored the other, and pressed a button whenever occasional targets - tones of a slightly higher pitch were detected in the attended ear. Under separate conditions, randomized interstimulus intervals were short, medium, and long. Another study compared the effects of attention on the N1 component of the auditory evoked potential for tone pips presented alone and when white noise was added to make the tones barely above detectability threshold in a three-channel listening task. Major conclusions are that (1) N1 is enlarged to stimuli in an attended channel only in the short interstimulus interval condition (averaging 350 msec), (2) N1 and P3 are related to different modes of selective attention, and (3) attention selectivity in multichannel listening task is greater when tones are faint and/or difficult to detect.

Beyond Auditory Sensory Processing Deficits: Lexical Tone Perception Deficits in Chinese Children With Developmental Dyslexia.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuhong; Tong, Xiuli; King Yiu, Fung

Increasing evidence suggests that children with developmental dyslexia exhibit a deficit not only at the segmental level of phonological processing but also, by extension, at the suprasegmental level. However, it remains unclear whether such a suprasegmental phonological processing deficit is due to a difficulty in processing acoustic cues of speech rhythm, such as rise time and intensity. This study set out to investigate to what extent suprasegmental phonological processing (i.e., Cantonese lexical tone perception) and rise time sensitivity could distinguish Chinese children with dyslexia from typically developing children. Sixteen children with dyslexia and 44 age-matched controls were administered a Cantonese lexical tone perception task, psychoacoustic tasks, a nonverbal reasoning ability task, and word reading and dictation tasks. Children with dyslexia performed worse than controls on Cantonese lexical tone perception, rise time, and intensity. Furthermore, Cantonese lexical tone perception appeared to be a stable indicator that distinguishes children with dyslexia from controls, even after controlling for basic auditory processing skills. These findings suggest that suprasegmental phonological processing (i.e., lexical tone perception) is a potential factor that accounts for reading difficulty in Chinese.

Objective quality assessment of tone-mapped images.

PubMed

Yeganeh, Hojatollah; Wang, Zhou

2013-02-01

Tone-mapping operators (TMOs) that convert high dynamic range (HDR) to low dynamic range (LDR) images provide practically useful tools for the visualization of HDR images on standard LDR displays. Different TMOs create different tone-mapped images, and a natural question is which one has the best quality. Without an appropriate quality measure, different TMOs cannot be compared, and further improvement is directionless. Subjective rating may be a reliable evaluation method, but it is expensive and time consuming, and more importantly, is difficult to be embedded into optimization frameworks. Here we propose an objective quality assessment algorithm for tone-mapped images by combining: 1) a multiscale signal fidelity measure on the basis of a modified structural similarity index and 2) a naturalness measure on the basis of intensity statistics of natural images. Validations using independent subject-rated image databases show good correlations between subjective ranking score and the proposed tone-mapped image quality index (TMQI). Furthermore, we demonstrate the extended applications of TMQI using two examples-parameter tuning for TMOs and adaptive fusion of multiple tone-mapped images.

Cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating vascular tone. Part 1: basic mechanisms controlling cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and the Ca2+-dependent regulation of vascular tone.

PubMed

Akata, Takashi

2007-01-01

General anesthetics cause hemodynamic instability and alter blood flow to various organs. There is mounting evidence that most general anesthetics, at clinical concentrations, influence a wide variety of cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating the contractile state of vascular smooth muscle cells (i.e., vascular tone). In addition, in current anesthetic practice, various types of vasoactive agents are often used to control vascular reactivity and to sustain tissue blood flow in high-risk surgical patients with impaired vital organ function and/or hemodynamic instability. Understanding the physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of vascular tone thus would be beneficial for anesthesiologists. This review, in two parts, provides an overview of current knowledge about the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating vascular tone-i.e., targets for general anesthetics, as well as for vasoactive drugs that are used in intraoperative circulatory management. This first part of the two-part review focuses on basic mechanisms regulating cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and the Ca2+-dependent regulation of vascular tone.

Transonic Resonance Demonstrated To Be a Source of Internal Noise From Mixer-Ejector Nozzles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaman, Khairul B.

2002-01-01

During noise field studies with mixer-ejector nozzles in NASA's High-Speed Research program, tones were often encountered. The tones would persist in the simulated "cutback" condition (shortly after takeoff). Unfortunately, we did not understand their origin and, thus, could not develop a logical approach for suppressing them. We naturally questioned whether or not some of those tones were due to the transonic resonance. This was studied with a 1/13th scale model of the High-Speed Civil Transport nozzle. The first objective was to determine if indeed tones could be detected in the radiated noise. The next objective was to diagnose if those tones were due to the transonic resonance. Agreement of the frequencies with the correlation equation and the effect of boundary layer tripping were to be used in the diagnosis.

Explaining the Railsback stretch in terms of the inharmonicity of piano tones and sensory dissonance.

PubMed

Giordano, N

2015-10-01

The perceptual results of Plomp and Levelt [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 38, 548-560 (1965)] for the sensory dissonance of a pair of pure tones are used to estimate the dissonance of pairs of piano tones. By using the spectra of tones measured for a real piano, the effect of the inharmonicity of the tones is included. This leads to a prediction for how the tuning of this piano should deviate from an ideal equal tempered scale so as to give the smallest sensory dissonance and hence give the most pleasing tuning. The results agree with the well known "Railsback stretch," the average tuning curve produced by skilled piano technicians. The authors' analysis thus gives a quantitative explanation of the magnitude of the Railsback stretch in terms of the human perception of dissonance.

Musical duplex perception: perception of figurally good chords with subliminal distinguishing tones.

PubMed

Hall, M D; Pastore, R E

1992-08-01

In a variant of duplex perception with speech, phoneme perception is maintained when distinguishing components are presented below intensities required for separate detection, forming the basis for the claim that a phonetic module takes precedence over nonspeech processing. This finding is replicated with music chords (C major and minor) created by mixing a piano fifth with a sinusoidal distinguishing tone (E or E flat). Individual threshold intensities for detecting E or E flat in the context of the fixed piano tones are established. Chord discrimination thresholds defined by distinguishing tone intensity were determined. Experiment 2 verified masked detection thresholds and subliminal chord identification for experienced musicians. Accurate chord perception was maintained at distinguishing tone intensities nearly 20 dB below the threshold for separate detection. Speech and music findings are argued to demonstrate general perceptual principles.

The integration of habits maintained by food and water reinforcement through stimulus compounding.

PubMed Central

Weiss, S J; Schindler, C W; Eason, R

1988-01-01

In Experiment 1, a light and a tone were correlated independently with water reinforcement of bar pressing by rats. With different naive subjects in Experiment 2, one of these stimuli was correlated with food and the other with water reinforcement (counterbalanced). In both experiments the absence of tone and light signaled extinction. Tests of stimulus-reinforcer independence in Experiment 2 indicated that tone and light controlled behavior whose rate was specifically affected by deprivation state. In the stimulus-compounding tests of both experiments, response rates were higher to tone-plus-light than to tone or light presented alone (additive summation). This is the first report of additive summation produced through compounding stimuli paired with different reinforcers. The results are discussed in the context of the effects of incentive motivation on operant performance. PMID:3193056

Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) hearing threshold for brief broadband signals.

PubMed

Au, Whitlow W L; Lemonds, David W; Vlachos, Stephanie; Nachtigall, Paul E; Roitblat, Herbert L

2002-06-01

The hearing sensitivity of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) to both pure tones and broadband signals simulating echoes from a 7.62-cm water-filled sphere was measured. Pure tones with frequencies between 40 and 140 kHz in increments of 20 kHz were measured along with broadband thresholds using a stimulus with a center frequency of 97.3 kHz and 88.2 kHz. The pure-tone thresholds were compared with the broadband thresholds by converting the pure-tone threshold intensity to energy flux density. The results indicated that dolphins can detect broadband signals slightly better than a pure-tone signal. The broadband results suggest that an echolocating bottlenose dolphin should be able to detect a 7.62-cm diameter water-filled sphere out to a range of 178 m in a quiet environment.

Cementation and Aqueous Alteration of a Sandstone Unit Under Acidic Conditions in Gale Crater, Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yen, A. S.; Blake, D. F.; Ming, D. W.; Morris, R. V.; Gellert, R.; Clark, B.; Vaniman, D. T.; Chipera, S. J.; Thompson, L. M.; Bristow, T. F.;

Infant muscle tone and childhood autistic traits: A longitudinal study in the general population.

PubMed

Serdarevic, Fadila; Ghassabian, Akhgar; van Batenburg-Eddes, Tamara; White, Tonya; Blanken, Laura M E; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning

2017-05-01

In a longitudinal population-based study of 2,905 children, we investigated if infants' neuromotor development was associated with autistic traits in childhood. Overall motor development and muscle tone were examined by trained research assistants with an adapted version of Touwen's Neurodevelopmental Examination between ages 2 and 5 months. Tone was assessed in several positions and items were scored as normal, low, or high tone. Parents rated their children's autistic traits with the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Pervasive Developmental Problems (PDP) subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist at 6 years. We defined clinical PDP if scores were >98th percentile of the norm population. Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was clinically confirmed in 30 children. We observed a modest association between overall neuromotor development in infants and autistic traits. Low muscle tone in infancy predicted autistic traits measured by SRS (adjusted beta = 0.05, 95% CI for B: 0.00-0.02, P = 0.01), and PDP (adjusted beta = 0.08, 95% CI for B: 0.04-0.10, P < 0.001). Similar results emerged for the association of low muscle tone and clinical PDP (adjusted OR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.08-1.72, P = 0.01) at age 6 years. Results remained unchanged if adjusted for child intelligence. There was no association between high muscle tone and SRS or PDP. Exclusion of children with ASD diagnosis did not change the association. This large study showed a prospective association of infant muscle tone with autistic traits in childhood. Our findings suggest that early detection of low muscle tone might be a gateway to improve early diagnosis of ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 757-768. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Altered active but not passive properties of mesenteric resistance arteries from the vitamin E-deprived rat

PubMed Central

Davidge, Sandra T; Gandley, Robin E; McLaughlin, Margaret K

1998-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that lowering antioxidant protection through dietary vitamin E deprivation would alter active and passive mechanical properties in resistance arteries of the rat. Specifically, we hypothesized that vascular tone in isolated mesenteric arteries of the vitamin E-deprived rats would be altered due to impaired endothelial influences of nitric oxide and/or prostaglandins.Lumen diameter and wall thickness were measured in pressurized arteries (≈amp;250 μm diameter) from control (n=9) and vitamin E deprived (n=9) Sprague-Dawley female rats by use of a dimension analysing system.Treatment with a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor (meclofenamate) did not affect the basal vascular tone in either group. Treatment with a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor (NG-methyl-L-arginine) caused a significant increase in basal tone only in the vitamin E-deprived rats (% tone: 6.2±1.1 vs 1.2±0.3%; P<0.05). When tone was induced to 25% of the initial diameter with phenylephrine, treatment with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor resulted in a greater potentiated tone in the vitamin E-deprived rats compared to the controls (26.5±2.7 vs 16.4±3.4%; P<0.05); suggesting a greater nitric oxide affect in the vessels from the vitamin E-deprived rats. Meclofenamate treatment in the induced tone arteries significantly relaxed (−17.4±4.0%; P<0.05) only the arteries from the vitamin E-deprived rats, indicating that a vasoconstrictor was modifying tone. The passive characteristics of distensibility and stress-strain relationship were not different between the two groups of rats.In summary, vitamin E deprivation in the rat enhanced the modulation of vascular tone by both the nitric oxide and cyclo-oxygenase pathways but did not alter passive characteristics of mesenteric arteries. PMID:9489616

Pressure injuries in people with darker skin tones: A literature review.

PubMed

Oozageer Gunowa, Neesha; Hutchinson, Marie; Brooke, Joanne; Jackson, Debra

2017-09-08

In this article, we aimed to explore the literature to ascertain what research evidence exists in relation to the identification of pressure injuries in people with dark skin tones. Pressure injuries development has been widely researched and documented; however, much of this work does not address ethnicity or race and assumes Caucasian-ness. Thus, the perceptions of people with dark skin tones and the influence of skin pigmentation on identification and management of pressure injuries is under examined. Literature review. A comprehensive electronic database search was undertaken of PubMed, Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane and British Nursing Index (BNI) between 1990-July 2016. Alongside the electronic data, journals, books, papers from conferences, relevant national and international organisations and reference lists were also used to help source key studies. A search of the literature revealed 11 relevant articles. The foci of studies included the following: risk of sustaining a pressure injuries based on skin tones, identification of pressure injuries amongst people with dark skin tones, pressure injuries and place of care and socio-economic impact on pressure injuries development. Overall, findings indicate that people with darker skin tones are more likely to develop higher stage pressure injuries. Reasons for this are not fully elucidated; however, it may be associated with current skin assessment protocols being less effective for people who have darker skin tones resulting in early damage arising from pressure not being recognised. From the literature reviewed, it can be seen that there is a lack of guidance and evidence, and people with darker skin tones are more likely in comparison with people presenting as Caucasian to develop higher stage pressure injuries. The current literature suggests a need for researchers and clinicians to consider skin tone variances rather than ethnicity when exploring comprehensive skin assessment. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluating HDR photos using Web 2.0 technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiu, Guoping; Mei, Yujie; Duan, Jiang

2011-01-01

High dynamic range (HDR) photography is an emerging technology that has the potential to dramatically enhance the visual quality and realism of digital photos. One of the key technical challenges of HDR photography is displaying HDR photos on conventional devices through tone mapping or dynamic range compression. Although many different tone mapping techniques have been developed in recent years, evaluating tone mapping operators prove to be extremely difficult. Web2.0, social media and crowd-sourcing are emerging Internet technologies which can be harnessed to harvest the brain power of the mass to solve difficult problems in science, engineering and businesses. Paired comparison is used in the scientific study of preferences and attitudes and has been shown to be capable of obtaining an interval-scale ordering of items along a psychometric dimension such as preference or importance. In this paper, we exploit these technologies for evaluating HDR tone mapping algorithms. We have developed a Web2.0 style system that enables Internet users from anywhere to evaluate tone mapped HDR photos at any time. We adopt a simple paired comparison protocol, Internet users are presented a pair of tone mapped images and are simply asked to select the one that they think is better or click a "no difference" button. These user inputs are collected in the web server and analyzed by a rank aggregation algorithm which ranks the tone mapped photos according to the votes they received. We present experimental results which demonstrate that the emerging Internet technologies can be exploited as a new paradigm for evaluating HDR tone mapping algorithms. The advantages of this approach include the potential of collecting large user inputs under a variety of viewing environments rather than limited user participation under controlled laboratory environments thus enabling more robust and reliable quality assessment. We also present data analysis to correlate user generated qualitative indices with quantitative image statistics which may provide useful guidance for developing better tone mapping operators.

The Navy Medical Department’s Workload Management System for Nursing (Patient Classification and Staffing Allocation). Self-Instructional Workbook

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-01-01

minal area, assess fetal heart tones with stethoscope , record FHTs, and remove equipment from area. or . Fetal Heart Tones, Doppler: Includes time to...activity to total 4 points. 5. Femoral OR pedal pulses OR fetal heart tones must be taken q 4 h . before you count the 2 points, but once again, since the... fetal heart tones OR tilt tests will count 2 points each if doneq 4 h or more frequently. If you had a patient with pedal pulses q 4 h AND fetal heart

77 FR 15664 - Proposed Flood Elevation Determinations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-16

... table provided here represents the flooding sources, location of referenced elevations, and effective and modified elevations for the City of Cadiz, Kentucky. Specifically, it addresses the flooding... Cadiz, Kentucky'' addressed the flooding sources Little River (backwater effects from Lake Barkley) and...