1,949 research outputs found
Neurophysiological Influence of Musical Training on Speech Perception
Does musical training affect our perception of speech? For example, does learning to play a musical instrument modify the neural circuitry for auditory processing in a way that improves one's ability to perceive speech more clearly in noisy environments? If so, can speech perception in individuals with hearing loss (HL), who struggle in noisy situations, benefit from musical training? While music and speech exhibit some specialization in neural processing, there is evidence suggesting that skills acquired through musical training for specific acoustical processes may transfer to, and thereby improve, speech perception. The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the influence of musical training on speech processing and the extent of this influence remains a rich area to be explored. A prerequisite for such transfer is the facilitation of greater neurophysiological overlap between speech and music processing following musical training. This review first establishes a neurophysiological link between musical training and speech perception, and subsequently provides further hypotheses on the neurophysiological implications of musical training on speech perception in adverse acoustical environments and in individuals with HL
Prediction of long and short time rheological behavior in soft glassy materials
We present an effective time approach to predict long and short time
rheological behavior of soft glassy materials from experiments carried out over
practical time scales. Effective time approach takes advantage of relaxation
time dependence on aging time that allows time-aging time superposition even
when aging occurs over the experimental timescales. Interestingly experiments
on variety of soft materials demonstrate that the effective time approach
successfully predicts superposition for diverse aging regimes ranging from
sub-aging to hyper-aging behaviors. This approach can also be used to predict
behavior of any response function in molecular as well as spin glasses.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Walking dynamics are symmetric (enough)
Many biological phenomena such as locomotion, circadian cycles, and breathing
are rhythmic in nature and can be modeled as rhythmic dynamical systems.
Dynamical systems modeling often involves neglecting certain characteristics of
a physical system as a modeling convenience. For example, human locomotion is
frequently treated as symmetric about the sagittal plane. In this work, we test
this assumption by examining human walking dynamics around the steady-state
(limit-cycle). Here we adapt statistical cross validation in order to examine
whether there are statistically significant asymmetries, and even if so, test
the consequences of assuming bilateral symmetry anyway. Indeed, we identify
significant asymmetries in the dynamics of human walking, but nevertheless show
that ignoring these asymmetries results in a more consistent and predictive
model. In general, neglecting evident characteristics of a system can be more
than a modeling convenience---it can produce a better model.Comment: Draft submitted to Journal of the Royal Society Interfac
High clarity speech separation using synchro extracting transform
Degenerate unmixing estimation technique (DUET) is the most ideal blind source separation (BSS) method for underdetermined conditions with number of sources exceeds number of mixtures. Estimation of mixing parameters which is the most critical step in the DUET algorithm, is developed based on the characteristic feature of sparseness of speech signals in time frequency (TF) domain. Hence, DUET relies on the clarity of time frequency representation (TFR) and even the slightest interference in the TF plane will be detrimental to the unmixing performance. In conventional DUET algorithm, short time Fourier transform (STFT) is utilized for extracting the TFR of speech signals. However, STFT can provide on limited sharpness to the TFR due to its inherent conceptual limitations, which worsens under noise contamination. This paper presents the application of post-processing techniques like synchro squeezed transform (SST) and synchro extracting transform (SET) to the DUET algorithm, to improve the TF resolution. The performance enhancement is evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively by visual inspection, Renyi entropy of TFR and objective measures of speech signals. The results show enhancement in TF resolution and high clarity signal reconstruction. The method also provides adequate robustness to noise contamination
The running coupling method with next-to-leading order accuracy and pion, kaon elm form factors
The pion and kaon electromagnetic form factors are calculated at
the leading order of pQCD using the running coupling constant method. In
calculations the leading and next-to-leading order terms in
expansion in terms of are taken into
account. The resummed expression for is found. Results of numerical
calculations for the pion (asymptotic distribution amplitude) are presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
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