A “looming bias” in spatial hearing? Effects of acoustic intensity and spectrum on categorical sound source localization

McCarthy, Lisa; Olsen, Kirk N.

doi:10.3758/s13414-016-1201-9

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In contrast, increasing the salience (i.e., intensity) of static sounds increased the magnitude of their late crossmodal cue benefit, but not for looming sounds (Experiment 2). Therefore, an ecological saliency account does not apply to our current findings even though we do not dispute that looming stimuli might still be preferentially processed because they: induce larger skin conductance responses 20 , elicit faster detection 39,50,51 , preferentially activate limbic 21 as well as cortical 33 structures, and are subjectively rated as being highly arousing 20 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

The time course of auditory looming cues in redirecting visuo-spatial attention

Glatz

Chuang

2019

Sci Rep

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By orienting attention, auditory cues can improve the discrimination of spatially congruent visual targets. Looming sounds that increase in intensity are processed preferentially by the brain. Thus, we investigated whether auditory looming cues can orient visuo-spatial attention more effectively than static and receding sounds. Specifically, different auditory cues could redirect attention away from a continuous central visuo-motor tracking task to peripheral visual targets that appeared occasionally. To investigate the time course of crossmodal cuing, Experiment 1 presented visual targets at different time-points across a 500 ms auditory cue’s presentation. No benefits were found for simultaneous audio-visual cue-target presentation. The largest crossmodal benefit occurred at early cue-target asynchrony onsets (i.e., CTOA = 250 ms), regardless of auditory cue type, which diminished at CTOA = 500 ms for static and receding cues. However, auditory looming cues showed a late crossmodal cuing benefit at CTOA = 500 ms. Experiment 2 showed that this late auditory looming cue benefit was independent of the cue’s intensity when the visual target appeared. Thus, we conclude that the late crossmodal benefit throughout an auditory looming cue’s presentation is due to its increasing intensity profile. The neural basis for this benefit and its ecological implications are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

The time course of auditory looming cues in redirecting visuo-spatial attention

Glatz

Chuang

2019

Sci Rep

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“…Previous studies addressed this issue by comparing sounds of different spectral structure: complex tones elicited stronger behavioral looming bias (2,11) and larger neural differences (14-16) than did noise with equal intensity increase, indicating that intensity changes did not directly cause looming bias. However, studies with a different spatial task (17) or species (10) found the opposite effect (i.e., stronger looming bias for noise than tonal sounds), calling into question these results.…”

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confidence: 67%

Asymmetries in behavioral and neural responses to spectral cues demonstrate the generality of auditory looming bias

Baumgartner

Reed

Tóth

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Studies of auditory looming bias have shown that sources increasing in intensity are more salient than sources decreasing in intensity. Researchers have argued that listeners are more sensitive to approaching sounds compared with receding sounds, reflecting an evolutionary pressure. However, these studies only manipulated overall sound intensity; therefore, it is unclear whether looming bias is truly a perceptual bias for changes in source distance, or only in sound intensity. Here we demonstrate both behavioral and neural correlates of looming bias without manipulating overall sound intensity. In natural environments, the pinnae induce spectral cues that give rise to a sense of externalization; when spectral cues are unnatural, sounds are perceived as closer to the listener. We manipulated the contrast of individually tailored spectral cues to create sounds of similar intensity but different naturalness. We confirmed that sounds were perceived as approaching when spectral contrast decreased, and perceived as receding when spectral contrast increased. We measured behavior and electroencephalography while listeners judged motion direction. Behavioral responses showed a looming bias in that responses were more consistent for sounds perceived as approaching than for sounds perceived as receding. In a control experiment, looming bias disappeared when spectral contrast changes were discontinuous, suggesting that perceived motion in distance and not distance itself was driving the bias. Neurally, looming bias was reflected in an asymmetry of late eventrelated potentials associated with motion evaluation. Hence, both our behavioral and neural findings support a generalization of the auditory looming bias, representing a perceptual preference for approaching auditory objects.auditory looming bias | electroencephalography | distance motion perception | sound externalization | head-related transfer functions I magine yourself alone in the wilderness. Suddenly, a threatening sound permeates the darkness. Is it approaching? This is a critical question when it comes to your survival because approaching objects usually pose a greater threat than receding objects (1). The phenomenon that approaching sounds are more salient than receding sounds is commonly termed "auditory looming bias." Looming bias is reflected in a broad variety of psychophysical tasks related to salience and alertness: bias in loudness-change estimates (2-4) and judgments of duration (5), improved discriminability of motion speed (6), underestimated distances for egocentrically moving (4) or bypassing sounds (7,8), and reduced reaction time for auditory (3, 9) and visual (3) targets preceded by looming sounds. In animals, looming biases result in faster learning speed during associative conditioning (10) and longer duration of attention (11). This list shows that looming bias triggers a variety of percepts across a wide range of psychoacoustic tasks. Despite its broad behavioral significance, the mechanisms underlying auditory looming bias are still poorly ...

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“…For example, in real-life situations, sounds from a fountain or a car motor are usually located below our ears (negative elevation), whereas insect sounds generally come from the trees above or at the level of our heads (positive elevation). Human sound localization performances are known to be anisotropic, with listeners being for example more accurate when the source is presented in front of them, relative to the side (McCarthy and Olsen, 2017). But here, the sound sources were located at the same place during the whole experiment.…”

Section: Experiments 1: Building An Auditory Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Cues Provided by Sound Improve Postural Stabilization: Evidence of a Spatial Auditory Map?

et al. 2017

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It has long been suggested that sound plays a role in the postural control process. Few studies however have explored sound and posture interactions. The present paper focuses on the specific impact of audition on posture, seeking to determine the attributes of sound that may be useful for postural purposes. We investigated the postural sway of young, healthy blindfolded subjects in two experiments involving different static auditory environments. In the first experiment, we compared effect on sway in a simple environment built from three static sound sources in two different rooms: a normal vs. an anechoic room. In the second experiment, the same auditory environment was enriched in various ways, including the ambisonics synthesis of a immersive environment, and subjects stood on two different surfaces: a foam vs. a normal surface. The results of both experiments suggest that the spatial cues provided by sound can be used to improve postural stability. The richer the auditory environment, the better this stabilization. We interpret these results by invoking the “spatial hearing map” theory: listeners build their own mental representation of their surrounding environment, which provides them with spatial landmarks that help them to better stabilize.

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A “looming bias” in spatial hearing? Effects of acoustic intensity and spectrum on categorical sound source localization

Cited by 19 publications

References 38 publications

The time course of auditory looming cues in redirecting visuo-spatial attention

The time course of auditory looming cues in redirecting visuo-spatial attention

Asymmetries in behavioral and neural responses to spectral cues demonstrate the generality of auditory looming bias

Spatial Cues Provided by Sound Improve Postural Stabilization: Evidence of a Spatial Auditory Map?

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