Search results for "Audit"
showing 10 items of 1421 documents
The role of animacy in the real time comprehension of Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from auditory event-related brain potentials.
2007
Two auditory ERP studies examined the role of animacy in sentence comprehension in Mandarin Chinese by comparing active and passive sentences in simple verb-final (Experiment 1) and relative clause constructions (Experiment 2). In addition to the voice manipulation (which modulated the assignment of actor and undergoer roles to the arguments), both arguments were either animate or inanimate. This allowed us to examine the interplay of animacy with thematic interpretation. In Experiment 1, we observed no effect of animacy at NP1, but N400 effects for inanimate actor arguments in second position. This result mirrors previous findings in German, thus suggesting that an initial undergoer univer…
Tapping doesn't help: Synchronized self-motion and judgments of musical tempo.
2019
For both musicians and music psychologists, beat rate (BPM) has often been regarded as a transparent measure of musical speed or tempo, yet recent research has shown that tempo is more than just BPM. In a previous study, London, Burger, Thompson, and Toiviainen (Acta Psychologica, 164, 70–80, 2016) presented participants with original as well as “time-stretched” versions of classic R&B songs; time stretching slows down or speeds up a recording without changing its pitch or timbre. In that study we discovered a tempo anchoring effect (TAE): Although relative tempo judgments (original vs. time-stretched versions of the same song) were correct, they were at odds with BPM rates of each stimulus…
Differences in sensory processing of German vowels and physically matched non-speech sounds as revealed by the mismatch negativity (MMN) of the human…
2014
We compared processing of speech and non-speech by means of the mismatch negativity (MMN). For this purpose, the MMN elicited by vowels was compared to those elicited by two non-speech stimulus types: spectrally rotated vowels, having the same stimulus complexity as the speech stimuli, and sounds based on the bands of formants of the vowels, representing non-speech stimuli of lower complexity as compared to the other stimulus types. This design allows controlling for effects of stimulus complexity when comparing neural correlates of processing speech to non-speech. Deviants within a modified multi-feature design differed either in duration or spectral property. Moreover, the difficulty to d…
Separate and Combined Effects of a Benzodiazepine (Alprazolam) and Noise on Auditory Brainstem Responses in Man
1999
Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were recorded in 60 male or female, anxious or anxiety-free university students, before and after separated or simultaneous intake of alprazolam and exposure to noise. A significant increase of the latencies of the ABRs was found when subjects took alprazolam. This effect is consistent with the presence of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), one of the neurotransmitters at terminals of cochlear efferent fibres A significant increase of the latencies was observed after noise alone. In subjects taking alprazolam when they are exposed to noise, the effect of noise on the ABR latencies is reduced, but not abolished. The effects of alprazolam on the ABR are consis…
Corpus callosum function in verbal dichotic listening: inferences from a longitudinal follow-up of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients.
2009
This study conducted a follow-up of 13 early-onset slightly disabled Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients within an year, evaluating both CC area measurements in a midsagittal Magnetic Resonance (MR) image, and Dichotic Listening (DL) testing with stop consonant vowel (C-V) syllables. Patients showed a significant progressive loss of posterior CC areas (isthmus and splenium) related to increasing EDSS scores and an enhancing right ear advantage (REA) over time. A significant correlation between posterior CC areas and DL scores emerged in both evaluations, being negative for the right and positive for the left ear. The pattern of correlations suggests that the CC can serve …
A method for determining precise electrical hearing thresholds in cochlear implant users
2018
A psychoacoustic procedure designed for the precise assessment of perceptional threshold (T-level) in cochlear implant (CI) users is presented. The impact of this procedure on speech perception was investigated.Individual T-level measurements were obtained with the proposed procedure and three different speech processor fitting conditions were applied: (1) fitting familiar to the subject, T-levels unchanged, (2) T-level set to thresholds determined with the new procedure, (3) T-level set to thresholds determined with the new procedure, but T-level is decreased by 10 clinical units (CU). The impact of the different fitting conditions was measured by means of categorical loudness scaling (CLS…
Lifetime cumulative risk factors predict cardiovascular disease mortality in a 50-year follow-up study in Finland.
2015
Summary. Background. Systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and smoking are known predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Less is known about the effect of lifetime accumulation and changes of risk factors over time as predictors of CVD mortality, especially in very long follow-up studies. Methods. Data from the Finnish cohorts of the Seven Countries Study were used. The baseline examination was in 1959 and seven re-examinations were carried out approximately in five-year intervals. Cohorts were followed up for mortality until the end of 2011. Time-dependent Cox models with regular time-updated risk factors, time-dependent averages of risk factors and latest changes in ris…
Alcohol and Cannabis Intake in Nursing Students
2019
Background and objectives: Drug misuse among young people has become a major worldwide health concern. The present study analyzes substance misuse and its social and personal consequences in young university students. Materials and Methods: Screening of alcohol misuse was based on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), while screening of substance-related risks and problems was performed with the Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble (CRAFFT) score. Results: The population was composed of nursing students at the University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain) (n = 185). More than 50% of the surveyed students reported alcohol intake based on the CRAFFT scale
Binaural release from masking in forward-masked intensity discrimination: Evidence for effects of selective attention
2012
In a forward-masked intensity discrimination task, we manipulated the perceived lateralization of the masker via variation of the interaural time difference (ITD). The maskers and targets were 500 Hz pure tones with a duration of 30 ms. Standards of 30 and 60 dB SPL were combined with 60 or 90 dB SPL maskers. As expected, the presentation of a forward masker perceived as lateralized to the other side of the head as the target resulted in a significantly smaller elevation of the intensity difference limen than a masker lateralized ipsilaterally. This binaural release from masking in forward-masked intensity discrimination cannot be explained by peripheral mechanisms because varying the ITD l…
Sequential grouping modulates the effect of non-simultaneous masking on auditory intensity resolution.
2012
The presence of non-simultaneous maskers can result in strong impairment in auditory intensity resolution relative to a condition without maskers, and causes a complex pattern of effects that is difficult to explain on the basis of peripheral processing. We suggest that the failure of selective attention to the target tones is a useful framework for understanding these effects. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the sequential grouping of the targets and the maskers into separate auditory objects facilitates selective attention and therefore reduces the masker-induced impairment in intensity resolution. In Experiment 1, a condition favoring the processing of the maskers and the targ…