CRI: Cortical Representation of Acoustic Spectra

IBN：9634361 PI：巴拉斯音色是一种感觉，它允许人们区分演奏同一音符的乐器，或区分以相同音调发出的不同元音。只有由许多音调组成的复杂声音才具有不同的音色或音质。这种感知最重要的物理关联是这些音调中的能量分布。这种能量分布直观地类似于光在图像中的分布。这项研究解决的问题是如何在听觉系统中提取声学轮廓(或图像)，以及它在大脑中如何表示。具体地说，我们试图澄清这种声像的哪些特征在形成声音的音色方面是重要的，以及哪些特征是多余的和可以忽略的。从这样的研究中获得的结果可能有助于更好地理解语音和音乐声音是如何被预知的。这反过来又在开发有效的自动语音识别系统、语音和音乐合成、健壮的通信渠道和聋人假肢设备中立即得到应用。

IBN: 9634361 PI: Baras Timbre is the percept that allows one to distinguish between musical instruments playing the same note, or between different vowels spoken in the same voice pitch. Only complex sounds composed of many tones have distinct timbres or sound qualities. The most important physical correlate of this percept is the distribution of energy in these tones. This energy profile resembles intuitively the distribution of light in an image. The question addressed in this research is how the acoustic profile (or image) is extracted in the auditory system and how is it represented in the brain. Specifically, we seek to clarify what features of this acoustic image are important in forming the timbre of the sound, and which features are redundant and can be ignored.The results obtained from such a study can potentially lead to a better understanding of how speech and musical sounds are preceived. This in turn has immediate applications in the development of effective automatic speech recognition systems, in speech and music synthesis, in robust communication channels, and in prosthetic devices for the deaf.