Abstract
Purpose
Infants have a good ability to detect brief silent gaps between 2 short identical sound markers (within-channel gap detection), with thresholds between 2 and 11 ms. The present experiment traces the development of temporal resolution for between-channel gaps (i.e., gaps delineated by spectrally disparate markers). This ability appears crucial for the perception of complex stimuli such as speech and is thought to reflect more central auditory processing.
Method
Infants age 6–7.5 months and adults were tested in a between-channel gap detection task using a conditioned head-turn procedure. Gaps were marked by 1- and 4-kHz Gaussian-enveloped sine-tone markers.
Results
Infant gap thresholds were between 30 and 40 ms under conditions in which adult thresholds were between 10 and 20 ms.
Conclusions
Unlike within-channel gap detection, the central temporal processing required for between-channel gap detection is still immature at 6 months of age.
References
-
Bargones, J. Y., & Werner, L. A. (1994). Adults listen selectively; infants do not.Psychological Science, 5, 170–174. -
Benasich, A. A., & Tallal, P. (2002). Infant discrimination of rapid auditory cues predicts later language impairment.Behavioural Brain Research, 136, 31–49. -
Berg, K. M., & Smith, M. C. (1983). Behavioral thresholds for tones during infancy.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 35, 409–425. -
Davis, S. M., & McCroskey, R. L. (1980). Auditory fusion in children.Child Development, 51, 75–80. -
Eggermont, J. J., Brown, D. K., Ponton, C. W., & Kimberley, B. P. (1996). Comparison of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) and auditory brain stem response (ABR) traveling wave delay measures suggests frequency-specific synapse maturation.Ear and Hearing, 17, 386–394. -
Farmer, M. E., & Klein, R. M. (1995). The evidence for a temporal processing deficit linked to dyslexia: A review.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2, 460–493. -
Fitzgibbons, P. J., Pollatsek, A., & Thomas, I. B. (1974). Detection of temporal gaps within and between perceptual tonal groups.Perception & Psychophysics, 16, 522–528. -
Fitzgibbons, P. J., & Wightman, F. L. (1982). Gap detection in normal and hearing impaired listeners.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 72, 761–765. -
Formby, C., Gerber, M. J., Sherlock, L. P., & Magder, L. S. (1998). Evidence for an across-frequency, between-channel process in asymptotic monaural temporal gap detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103, 3554–3560. -
Formby, C., Sherlock, L. P., & Li, S. (1998). Temporal gap detection measured with multiple sinusoidal markers: Effects of marker number, frequency, and temporal position.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 104, 984–998. -
Grose, J. H., Hall, J. W., Buss, E., & Hatch, D. (2001). Gap detection for similar and dissimilar gap markers.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 1587–1595. -
Grose, J. H., Hall, J. W., & Gibbs, C. (1993). Temporal analysis in children.Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 351–356. -
Hall, J. W., & Grose, J. H. (1994). Development of temporal resolution in children as measured by the temporal modulation transfer function.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96, 150–154. -
Hanekom, J. J., & Shannon, R. V. (1998). Gap detection as a measure of electrode interaction in cochlear implants.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 104, 2372–2384. -
Harris, D. M., & Dallos, P. (1979). Forward masking of auditory nerve fiber responses.Journal of Neurophysiology, 42, 1083–1107. -
Hill, P. R., Hartley, D. E. H., Glasberg, B. R., Moore, B. C. J., & Moore, D. R. (2004). Auditory processing efficiency and temporal resolution in children and adults.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 1022–1029. -
Irwin, R. J., Ball, A. K. R., Kay, N., Stillman, J. A., & Rosser, J. (1985). The development of auditory temporal acuity in children.Child Development, 56, 614–620. -
Moore, B. C. J., Peters, R. W., & Glasberg, B. R. (1993). Detection of temporal gaps in sinusoids: Effects of frequency and level.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 93, 1563–1570. -
Nozza, R. J., & Wilson, W. R. (1984). Masked and unmasked pure-tone thresholds of infants and adults: Development of auditory frequency selectivity and sensitivity.Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27, 613–622. -
Olsho, L. W., Koch, E. G., Carter, E. A., Halpin, C. F., & Spetner, N. B. (1988). Pure tone sensitivity of human infants.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 84, 1316–1324. -
Oxenham, A. J. (2000). Influence of spatial and temporal coding on auditory gap detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 2215–2223. -
Penner, M. J. (1977). Detection of temporal gaps in noise as a measure of the decay of auditory sensation.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 61, 552–557. -
Phillips, D. P. (1999). Auditory gap detection, perceptual channels and temporal resolution in speech perception.Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 10, 343–354. -
Phillips, D. P., & Hall, S. E. (2000). Independence of frequency channel in auditory temporal gap detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 108, 2957–2963. -
Phillips, D. P., & Smith, J. C. (2004). Correlation among within-channel and between-channel auditory gap-detection thresholds in normal listeners.Perception, 33, 371–378. -
Phillips, D. P., Taylor, T. L., Hall, S. E., Carr, M. M., & Mossop, J. E. (1997). Detection of silent intervals between noises activating different perceptual channels: Some properties of “central” auditory gap detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101, 3694–3705. -
Plomp, R. (1964). Rate of decay of auditory sensation.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36, 277–282. -
Ponton, C. W., Eggermont, J. J., Coupland, S. G., & Winkelaar, R. (1992). Frequency specific maturation of the eighth nerve and brainstem auditory pathway: Evidence from derived auditory brain-stem response (ABRs).Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 91, 1576–1586. -
Ponton, C. W., Eggermont, J. J., Kwong, B., & Don, M. (2000). Maturation of human central auditory system activity: Evidence from multi-channel evoked potentials.Clinical Neurophysiology, 111, 220–236. -
Robinson, D. W., & Dadson, R. S. (1956). A re-determination of the equal–loudness relations for pure tones.British Journal of Applied Physics, 7, 166–181. -
Schneider, B. A., Bull, D., & Trehub, S. E. (1988). Binaural unmasking in infants.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83, 1124–1132. -
Schneider, B. A., Pichora-Fuller, M. K., Kowalchuk, D., & Lamb, M. (1994). Gap detection and the precedence effect in young and old adults.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 95, 980–991. -
Schneider, B. A., Trehub, S. E., Morrongiello, B. A., & Thorpe, L. A. (1989). Developmental changes in masked thresholds.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 86, 1733–1742. -
Shahin, A., Roberts, L. E., & Trainor, L. J. (2004). Enhancement of auditory cortical development by musical experience in children.NeuroReport, 15, 1917–1921. -
Shailer, M. J., & Moore, B. C. J. (1983). Gap detection as a function of frequency, bandwidth, and level.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 74, 467–473. -
Shailer, M. J., & Moore, B. C. J. (1985). Detection of temporal gaps in bandlimited noise: Effects of variation in bandwidth and signal-to-masker ratio.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 77, 635–639. -
Shailer, M. J., & Moore, B. C. J. (1987). Gap detection and the auditory filter: Phase effects using sinusoidal stimuli.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 81, 1110–1117. -
Sinnott, J. M., & Aslin, R. N. (1985). Frequency and intensity discrimination in human infants and adults.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 78, 1986–1992. -
Sinnott, J. M., Pisoni, D. B., & Aslin, R. N. (1983). A comparison of pure tone auditory thresholds in human infants and adults.Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 3–17. -
Tallal, P., Stark, R., & Mellits, D. (1985). Identification of language impaired children on the basis of rapid perception and production skills.Brain and Language, 25, 314–322. -
Taylor, T. L., Hall, S. E., Boehnke, S. E., & Phillips, D. P. (1999). Additivity of perceptual channel-crossing effects in auditory gap detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 105, 563–566. -
Thorpe, L. A., Trehub, S. E., Morrongiello, B. A., & Bull, D. (1988). Perceptual grouping by infants and preschool children.Developmental Psychology, 24, 484–491. -
Trainor, L. J., Samuel, S. S., Desjardins, R. N., & Sonnadara, R. R. (2001). Measuring temporal resolution in infants using mismatch negativity.NeuroReport, 12, 2443–2448. -
Trehub, S. E., Bull, D., Schneider, B. A., & Morrongiello, B. A. (1986). PESTI: A procedure for estimating individual thresholds in infant listeners.Infant Behavior and Development, 9, 107–118. -
Trehub, S. E., & Henderson, J. L. (1996). Temporal resolution in infancy and subsequent language development.Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 1315–1320. -
Trehub, S. E., Schneider, B. A., & Endman, M. (1980). Developmental changes in infants' sensitivity to octave band noises.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 29, 282–293. -
Trehub, S. E., Schneider, B. A., & Henderson, J. L. (1995). Gap detection in infants, children and adults.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 98, 2532–2541. -
Warren, R. M. (1985). Criterion shift rule and perceptual homeostasis.Psychological Review, 92, 574–584. -
Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life.Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 49–63. -
Werner, L. A. (1999). Forward masking among infant and adult listeners.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 105, 2447–2453. -
Werner, L. A., & Bargones, J. Y. (1991). Sources of auditory masking in infants: Distraction effects.Perception & Psychophysics, 50, 405–412. -
Werner, L. A., Folsom, R. C., Mancl, L. R., & Syapin, C. L. (2001). Human auditory brainstem response to temporal gaps in noise.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 737–750. -
Werner, L. A., Marean, G. C., Halpin, C. F., Spetner, N. B., & Gillenwater, J. M. (1992). Infant auditory temporal acuity: Gap detection.Child Development, 63, 260–272. -
Westerman, L. A., & Smith, R. L. (1984). Rapid and short-term adaptation in auditory nerve responses.Hearing Research, 15, 249–260. -
Williams, K. N., & Perrot, D. R. (1972). Temporal resolution of tonal pulses.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 51, 644–647. -
Zhang, W., Salvi, R. J., & Saunders, S. S. (1990). Neural correlates of gap detection in auditory nerve fibers of the chinchilla.Hearing Research, 46, 181–200.