How learning to abstract shapes neural sound representations

The transformation of acoustic signals into abstract perceptual representations is the essence of the efficient and goal-directed neural processing of sounds in complex natural environments. While the human and animal auditory system is perfectly equipped to process the spectrotemporal sound features, adequate sound identification and categorization require neural sound representations that are invariant to irrelevant stimulus parameters. Crucially, what is relevant and irrelevant is not necessarily intrinsic to the physical stimulus structure but needs to be learned over time, often through integration of information from other senses. This review discusses the main principles underlying categorical sound perception with a special focus on the role of learning and neural plasticity. We examine the role of different neural structures along the auditory processing pathway in the formation of abstract sound representations with respect to hierarchical as well as dynamic and distributed processing models. Whereas most fMRI studies on categorical sound processing employed speech sounds, the emphasis of the current review lies on the contribution of empirical studies using natural or artificial sounds that enable separating acoustic and perceptual processing levels and avoid interference with existing category representations. Finally, we discuss the opportunities of modern analyses techniques such as multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) in studying categorical sound representations. With their increased sensitivity to distributed activation changes—even in absence of changes in overall signal level—these analyses techniques provide a promising tool to reveal the neural underpinnings of perceptually invariant sound representations

Estimation of corrosion resistance of curing mixtures based on coal-bearing rocks from Western Donbass

Purpose. Substantiation of possible use of coal-bearing rocks as a replacement for a part of the filler in the preparation of shotcrete for lining of mine workings in the conditions of mineralized mine water. Methods. The research is based on carrying out corrosion testing of concrete specimens by dipping them into mine water. Chemical analysis of mine waters composition has been completed. A scanning microscope was used to study the state of concrete specimens microstructure. Findings. A comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate of the cement rock resistance to mineralized water, depending on the composition of the starting components for the grouting and shotcrete mixtures is carried out. The change in the chemical composition of mine water after soaking concrete specimens in it is defined. Photographs of concrete specimens microstructure after soaking in ordinary and mineralized water for 6 and 8 months are shown. Originality. Curing mixtures based on coal-bearing rocks from Western Donbass are mineralized water resistant and can act as a quality protection from aggressive water filtrationdue to the properties of rocks used as a filler. Practical implications. The results can be used for the rational choice of the composition of the concrete mixture with the replacement of filler part with mine rock. That will enhance the long-term stability of the mine working lined by these compositions.Мета. Обґрунтування можливості використання вуглевміщуючих порід у якості заміни частини заповнювача в процесі приготування бетону для кріплення гірничих виробок в умовах мінералізованих шахтних вод. Методика. Робота базується на проведенні корозійних випробувань бетонних зразків шляхом занурення їх у шахтну воду. Виконано хімічний аналіз складу шахтних вод. Використаний растровий мікроскоп для дослідження стану мікроструктури бетонних зразків. Результати. Виконано порівняльний аналіз оцінки стійкості цементного каменю до впливу мінералізованої води залежно від складу вихідних компонентів для тампонажних, торкрет-бетонних і набризкбетонних сумішей. Визначено зміну хімічного складу шахтної води після витримки у ній бетонних зразків. Наведено фотографії мікроструктури бетонних зразків після витримки у нормальних умовах та мінералізованої води протягом 6 і 8 місяців. Наукова новизна. Твердіючі суміші на основі вуглевміщуючих порід Західного Донбасу достатньо стійкі до впливу мінералізованих вод та є якісною протифільтраційною завісою завдяки властивостям порід, використаних у якості заповнювача. Практична значимість. Отримані результати можуть бути використані для раціонального підбору складу бетонної суміші із заміною частини заповнювача шахтної породою, що дозволить підвищити тривалу стійкість гірничої виробки, закріпленої з використанням даних складів.Цель. Обоснование возможности использование углевмещающих пород в качестве замены части заполнителя в процессе приготовления бетона для крепления горных выработок в условиях минерализованных шахтных вод. Методика. Работа базируется на проведении коррозионных испытаний бетонных образцов путем погружения их в шахтную воду. Выполнен химический анализ состава шахтных вод. Использован растровый микроскоп для исследования состояния микроструктуры бетонных образцов. Результаты. Выполнен сравнительный анализ оценки устойчивости цементного камня к воздействию минерализованной воды в зависимости от состава исходных компонентов для тампонажных, торкрет-бетонных и набрызгбетонных смесей. Определено изменение химического состава шахтной воды после выдержки в ней бетонных образцов. Представлены фотографии микроструктуры бетонных образцов после выдержки в нормальных условиях и минерализованной воде в течение 6 и 8 месяцев. Научная новизна. Твердеющие смеси на основе углевмещающих пород Западного Донбасса устойчивы к влиянию минерализованных вод и являются качественной противофильтрационной завесой благодаря свойствам пород, использованных в качестве заполнителя. Практическая значимость. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы для рационального подбора состава бетонной смеси с заменой части заполнителя шахтной породой, что позволит повысить длительную устойчивость горной выработки, закрепленной с использованием данных составов.The authors express their gratitude to the administration of the Department of Construction, Geotechnics and Geomechanics of the National Mining University (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), represented by O. Shashenko and A. Solodiankin, as well as to all those who helped in carrying out works related to preparation of this paper

Fluidity in the perception of auditory speech: Cross-modal recalibration of voice gender and vowel identity by a talking face

Article first published online: January 13, 2020Humans quickly adapt to variations in the speech signal. Adaptation may surface as recalibration, a learning effect driven by error-minimisation between a visual face and an ambiguous auditory speech signal, or as selective adaptation, a contrastive aftereffect driven by the acoustic clarity of the sound. Here, we examined whether these aftereffects occur for vowel identity and voice gender. Participants were exposed to male, female, or androgynous tokens of speakers pronouncing /e/, /ø/, (embedded in words with a consonant-vowel-consonant structure), or an ambiguous vowel halfway between /e/ and /ø/ dubbed onto the video of a male or female speaker pronouncing /e/ or /ø/. For both voice gender and vowel identity, we found assimilative aftereffects after exposure to auditory ambiguous adapter sounds, and contrastive aftereffects after exposure to auditory clear adapter sounds. This demonstrates that similar principles for adaptation in these dimensions are at play.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by Gravitation Grant 024.001.006 of the Language in Interaction Consortium from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. The third author was supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO: VENI Grant 275-89-027)

Adaptation to motor-visual and motor-auditory temporal lags transfer across modalities

Previous research has shown that the timing of a sensor-motor event is recalibrated after a brief exposure to a delayed feedback of a voluntary action (Stetson et al. 2006). Here, we examined whether it is the sensory or motor event that is shifted in time. We compared lag adaption for action-feedback in visuo-motor pairs and audio-motor pairs using an adaptation-test paradigm. Participants were exposed to a constant lag (50 or 150 ms) between their voluntary action (finger tap) and its sensory feedback (flash or tone pip) during an adaptation period (~3 min). Immediately after that, they performed a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task about the tap-feedback test stimulus pairings. The modality of the feedback stimulus was either the same as the adapted one (within-modal) or different (cross-modal). The results showed that the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) was uniformly shifted in the direction of the exposed lag within and across modalities (motor-visual, motor-auditory). This suggests that the TRE of sensor-motor events is mainly caused by a shift in the motor component

Interaction of perceptual grouping and crossmodal temporal capture in tactile apparent-motion

Previous studies have shown that in tasks requiring participants to report the direction of apparent motion, task-irrelevant mono-beeps can "capture'' visual motion perception when the beeps occur temporally close to the visual stimuli. However, the contributions of the relative timing of multimodal events and the event structure, modulating uni- and/or crossmodal perceptual grouping, remain unclear. To examine this question and extend the investigation to the tactile modality, the current experiments presented tactile two-tap apparent-motion streams, with an SOA of 400 ms between successive, left-/right-hand middle-finger taps, accompanied by task-irrelevant, non-spatial auditory stimuli. The streams were shown for 90 seconds, and participants' task was to continuously report the perceived (left-or rightward) direction of tactile motion. In Experiment 1, each tactile stimulus was paired with an auditory beep, though odd-numbered taps were paired with an asynchronous beep, with audiotactile SOAs ranging from -75 ms to 75 ms. Perceived direction of tactile motion varied systematically with audiotactile SOA, indicative of a temporal-capture effect. In Experiment 2, two audiotactile SOAs-one short (75 ms), one long (325 ms)-were compared. The long-SOA condition preserved the crossmodal event structure (so the temporal-capture dynamics should have been similar to that in Experiment 1), but both beeps now occurred temporally close to the taps on one side (even-numbered taps). The two SOAs were found to produce opposite modulations of apparent motion, indicative of an influence of crossmodal grouping. In Experiment 3, only odd-numbered, but not even-numbered, taps were paired with auditory beeps. This abolished the temporal-capture effect and, instead, a dominant percept of apparent motion from the audiotactile side to the tactile-only side was observed independently of the SOA variation. These findings suggest that asymmetric crossmodal grouping leads to an attentional modulation of apparent motion, which inhibits crossmodal temporal-capture effects

No effect of synesthetic congruency on temporal ventriloquism

A sound presented in temporal proximity to a light can alter the perceived temporal occurrence of that light (temporal ventriloquism). Recent studies have suggested that pitch–size synesthetic congruency (i.e., a natural association between the relative pitch of a sound and the relative size of a visual stimulus) might affect this phenomenon. To reexamine this, participants made temporal order judgements about small- and large-sized visual stimuli while high- or low-pitched tones were presented before the first and after the second light. We replicated a previous study showing that, at large sound–light intervals, sensitivity for visual temporal order was better for synesthetically congruent than for incongruent pairs. However, this congruency effect could not be attributed to temporal ventriloquism, since it disappeared at short sound–light intervals, if compared with a synchronous audiovisual baseline condition that excluded response biases. In addition, synesthetic congruency did not affect temporal ventriloquism even if participants were made explicitly aware of congruency before testing. Our results thus challenge the view that synesthetic congruency affects temporal ventriloquism

Boskoop en Bollenstreek. Hoe innig is de samenwerking

In het kader van de streekplanherziening Zuid-Holland Oost is in opdracht van de provincie Zuid-Holland onderzoek gedaan naar de autonome ontwikkeling van het boomteeltcomplex Boskoop en de interacties met het bloembollencomplex 'De Bollenstreek'. Om het belang van het boomteeltcomplex binnen het sierteeltcomplex Zuid-Holland te duiden zijn ook de interacties met de bloemisterij in kaart gebracht. De interacties tussen Boskoop en de Bollenstreek blijven beperkt tot een gecombineerde afzet van bloembollen en een beperkt assortiment boomteeltproducten, met name vaste planten. Mede door het groeiende belang van de bloemenveilingen in de afzet van boomteeltproducten en de toenemende vraag naar visueel aantrekkelijke boomteeltproducten is de interactie tussen Boskoop en het bloemisterijcomplex Zuid-Holland veel sterker. Vanwege de aanwezigheid van een groot assortiment aan boomteeltproducten, de beschikbaarheid van veel kennis en vakmanschap, korte transportlijnen naar de veilingen en de centrale ligging heeft Boskoop een belangrijke meerwaarde binnen het sierteeltcomplex Zuid-Holland

Timing of surgery for sciatica: subgroup analysis alongside a randomized trial

Surgery speeds up recovery for sciatica. Prolonged conservative care with surgery for those patients with persistent sciatica however, yields similar results at 1 year. To investigate whether baseline variables modify the difference in recovery rates between these treatment strategies, baseline data of 283 patients enrolled in a randomized trial, comparing early surgery with prolonged conservative care, were used to analyse effect modification of the allotted treatment strategy. For predictors shown to modify the effect of the treatment strategy, repeated measurement analyses with the Roland Disability Questionnaire and visual analogue scale pain as continuous outcomes were performed for every level of that predictor. Presumed predictive variables did not have any interaction with treatment, while “sciatica provoked by sitting” showed to be a significant effect modifier (P = 0.07). In a Cox model we estimated a hazard ratio (HR, surgery versus conservative) of 2.2 (95% CI 1.7–3.0) in favour of surgery when sciatica was provoked by sitting, while the HR was 1.3 (95% CI 0.8–2.2) when this sign was absent. The interaction effect is marginally significant (interactions are usually tested at the 10% level) but the patterns generated by the repeated measurement analyses of all primary outcomes are completely consistent with the inferred pattern from the survival analysis. Classical signs did not show any contribution as decision support tools in deciding when to operate for sciatica, whereas treatment effects of early surgery are emphasized when sciatica is provoked by sitting and negligible when this symptom is absent

Optimizing cutoff scores for the Barthel Index and the modified Rankin Scale for defining outcome in acute stroke trials

Background and Purpose - There is little agreement on how to assess outcome in acute stroke trials. Cutoff scores for the Barthel Index (BI) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) are frequently arbitrarily chosen to dichotomize favorable and unfavorable outcome. We investigated sensitivity and specificity of BI cutoff scores in relation to the mRS to obtain the optimal corresponding BI and mRS scores. Methods - BI and mRS scores were collected from 1034 ischemic stroke patients. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for BI cutoff scores from 45 to 100 in mRS score 1, 2, and 3 and were plotted in receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. Results - The cutoff scores for the BI with the highest sum of sensitivity and specificity were 95 (sensitivity 85.6%; specificity 91.7%), 90 (sensitivity 90.7%; specificity 88.1%), and 75 ( sensitivity 95.7%; specificity, 88.5%) for, respectively, mRS 1, 2, and 3. The area under the ROC curve was 0.933 in mRS 1, 0.960 in mRS 2, and 0.979 in mRS 3. Conclusions - The optimal cutoff scores for the BI were 95 for mRS 1, 90 for mRS 2, and 75 for mRS 3. For future acute stroke trials that assess stroke outcome with the BI and mRS, we recommend the use of these BI cutoff score(s) with the corresponding mRS cutoff score(s), to ensure the use of consistent and uniform end points

Bolbloemen, doorkoelen of buitenkuilen : economische aspecten van twee teeltmethoden bij de produktie van bolbloemen

Deze publikatie is een verkorte versie van het onderzoekverslag dat onder dezelfde titel wordt uitgegeven. Teeltplannen en de daarmee samenhangende kosten en opbrengsten worden vergeleken van twee methoden van het broeien van bolbloemen op bloembollenbedrijven op zandgrond in de wintermaande