Neural Correlates Of Quality Perception For Complex Speech Signals

This book interconnects two essential disciplines to study the perception of speech: Neuroscience and Quality of Experience, which to date have rarely been used together for the purposes of research on speech quality perception. In five key experiments, the book demonstrates the application of standard clinical methods in neurophysiology on the one hand and of methods used in fields of research concerned with speech quality perception on the other. Using this combination, the book shows that speech stimuli with different lengths and different quality impairments are accompanied by physiological reactions related to quality variations, e.g., a positive peak in an event-related potential. Furthermore, it demonstrates that – in most cases – quality impairment intensity has an impact on the intensity of physiological reactions.

This book presents a new approach to examining the perceived quality of audiovisual sequences. It uses electroencephalography (EEG) to explain in detail how user quality judgments are formed within a test participant, and what the physiological implications might be when subjects are exposed to lower quality media. The book redefines the experimental paradigms of using EEG in the area of quality assessment so that they better suit the requirements of standard subjective quality testing, and presents experimental protocols and stimuli that have been adjusted accordingly.

This book provides a new multi-method, process-oriented approach towards speech quality assessment, which allows readers to examine the influence of speech transmission quality on a variety of perceptual and cognitive processes in human listeners. Fundamental concepts and methodologies surrounding the topic of process-oriented quality assessment are introduced and discussed. The book further describes a functional process model of human quality perception, which theoretically integrates results obtained in three experimental studies. This book’s conceptual ideas, empirical findings, and theoretical interpretations should be of particular interest to researchers working in the fields of Quality and Usability Engineering, Audio Engineering, Psychoacoustics, Audiology, and Psychophysiology.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the First International Workshop on Future and Emergent Trends in Language Technology, FETLT 2015, held in Seville, Spain, in November 2015. The 10 full papers presented together with 3 position papers and 7 invited keynote abstracts were selected from numerous submissions. The structure of the Workshop will feature a significant number of experts in language technologies and convergent areas. One objective will be the organization of forum sessions in order to review some of the current-trend research projects that are already addressing new methodological approaches and proposing solutions and innovative applications. A second major objective will be brainstorming sessions where representatives of the most innovative industrial sector in this area can present and describe the challenges and socio-economic needs of the present and immediate future. All researchers are invited to submit proposals that incorporate solid research and innovation ideas in the field of language technology and in connection with other convergent areas.

Sensory Evaluation of Sound provides a detailed review of the latest sensory evaluation techniques, specifically applied to the evaluation of sound and audio. This three-part book commences with an introduction to the fundamental role of sound and hearing, which is followed by an overview of sensory evaluation methods and associated univariate and multivariate statistical analysis techniques. The final part of the book provides several chapters with concrete real-world applications of sensory evaluation ranging from telecommunications, hearing aids design and binaural sound, via the latest research in concert hall acoustics through to audio-visual interaction. Aimed at the engineer, researcher, university student or manager the book gives insight into the advanced methods for the sensory evaluation with many application examples. Introduces the fundamental of hearing and the value of sound Provides a firm theoretical basis for advanced techniques in sensory evaluation of sound that are then illustrated with concrete examples from university research through to industrial product development Includes chapters on sensory evaluation practices and methods as well as univariate and multivariate statistical analysis Six application chapters covering a wide range of concrete sensory evaluation study examples including insight into audio-visual assessment Includes data analysis with several associated downloadable datasets Provides extensive references to the existing research literature, text books and standards

Hearing and communication present a variety of challenges to the nervous system. To be heard and understood, a communication signal must be transformed from a time-varying acoustic waveform to a perceptual representation to an even more abstract representation that integrates memory stores with semantic/referential information. Finally, this complex, abstract representation must be interpreted to form categorical decisions that guide behavior. Did I hear the stimulus? From where and whom did it come? What does it tell me? How can I use this information to plan an action? All of these issues and questions underlie auditory cognition. Since the early 1990s, there has been a re-birth of studies that test the neural correlates of auditory cognition with a unique emphasis on the use of awake, behaving animals as model. Continuing today, how and where in the brain neural correlates of auditory cognition are formed is an intensive and active area of research. Importantly, our understanding of the role that the cortex plays in hearing has the potential to impact the next generation of cochlear- and brainstem-auditory implants and consequently help those with hearing impairments. Thus, it is timely to produce a volume that brings together this exciting literature on the neural correlates of auditory cognition. This volume compliments and extends many recent SHAR volumes such as Sound Source Localization (2005) Auditory Perception of Sound Sources (2007), and Human Auditory Cortex (2010). For example, in many of these volumes, similar issues are discussed such as auditory-object identification and perception with different emphases: in Auditory Perception of Sound Sources, authors discuss the underlying psychophysics/behavior, whereas in the Human Auditory Cortex, fMRI data are presented. The unique contribution of the proposed volume is that the authors will integrate both of these factors to highlight the neural correlates of cognition/behavior. Moreover, unlike other these other volumes, the neurophysiological data will emphasize the exquisite spatial and temporal resolution of single-neuron [as opposed to more coarse fMRI or MEG data] responses in order to reveal the elegant representations and computations used by the nervous system.

In this thesis spoken language comprehension models are evaluated based on different analysis methods for an auditory fMRI study. It aimed to distinguish between neural correlates of spoken language comprehension and the perception of speech-like signals, holding the acoustic properties of speech but without any meaningful content. The results are based on a novel approach for the evaluation of searchlight classification results. With multivariate pattern analyses, specific local brain activation patterns for spoken language comprehension could be identified in structures of the temporal, frontal, and parietal cortex as well as the cingulate cortex. A further network analysis based on the model of psycho-physiological interactions has shown a network between frontal- and parietal lobe areas and the cingulate cortex for the processing of valid speech and a network between temporo-parietal structures and the cingulate cortex for the processing of invalid speech.

This book presents a new approach to examining the perceived quality of audiovisual sequences. It uses electroencephalography (EEG) to explain in detail how user quality judgments are formed within a test participant, and what the physiological implications might be when subjects are exposed to lower quality media. The book redefines the experimental paradigms of using EEG in the area of quality assessment so that they better suit the requirements of standard subjective quality testing, and presents experimental protocols and stimuli that have been adjusted accordingly.