Pre-Attentive Processing of Room Acoustic

Publication date
2017
Document type
PhD thesis (dissertation)
Author
Frey, Johannes Daniel
Advisor
Referee
Köhler, Thomas
Granting institution
Helmut-Schmidt-Universität / Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg
Exam date
2017-04-25
Organisational unit
DDC Class
150 Psychologie
Keyword
Event-Related Potentials
Mismatch Negativity
Pre-Attentive Auditory Processing
Auditory Space Perception
Virtual Acoustic
ERP
MMN
Abstract
Previous research has shown that the human auditory system continuously monitors its acoustic environment, detecting a variety of irregularities (e.g., deviance from prior stimulation regularity in pitch, loudness, duration, and (perceived) sound source location). Detection of irregularities can be inferred from a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), referred to as the mismatch negativity (MMN), even in conditions in which participants are instructed to ignore the auditory stimulation. This dissertation extends previous findings by demonstrating that auditory irregularities brought about by a change in room acoustics elicit a MMN in a passive oddball protocol (acoustic stimuli with differing room acoustics, that were otherwise identical, were employed as standard and deviant stimuli), in which participants watched a fiction movie (silent with subtitles). While the majority of participants reported no awareness for any changes in the auditory stimulation. Together, these findings suggest automatic monitoring of room acoustics.
Version
Not applicable (or unknown)
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Open access