Spectro-temporal receptive fields can be decomposed into separate excitatory and suppressive tuning maps.

Evidence

In cases of hearing impairment that include a loss of frequency selectivity, the hearing aid should include a device that extracts the most important spectral features. Such features are, for example, the formants of vowels that cannot be detected easily if the frequency selectivity of the hearing system is markedly reduced. This can be achieved by using multi-channel devices with additional networks that inhibit activity in channels of lower and unimportant levels, so that only the spectral peaks remain. An example of an IS-tone complex with spectral maxima is shown in Fig. 16.43. Part (a) shows the spectral composition of the input to the system. Part (b) shows the spectral composition remaining as a consequence of the activity of the inhibition matrix. The level differences among the tones lead the inhibition matrix to produce a reduction of the level of the softer tones on both sides of the peak-level tones at 0.7 and at 3 kHz. Speech processed this way sounds very pronounced and sharp to normally hearing subjects. For hard-of-hearing listeners with strongly reduced frequency selectivity, speech preprocessed this way may be more easily understood. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2013 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Inhibitory networks that sharpen spectral peaks can aid listeners with reduced frequency selectivity — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2013

Related

• Inhibitory networks that sharpen spectral peaks can aid listeners with reduced frequency selectivity (similarity 0.94)
• Impaired frequency selectivity and lost suppression increase masking and reduce spectral contrasts (similarity 0.82)
• Auditory spectrum computation begins with FFT then emulates hearing sensitivity via filtering and weighting. (similarity 0.81)
• Reduced frequency selectivity hurts speech perception less than reduced audibility does (similarity 0.80)
• Impaired frequency selectivity, suppression, and fluctuation use jointly degrade hearing (similarity 0.80)
• Impaired frequency selectivity directly causes poor speech discrimination (similarity 0.80)
• Complex QMF resolution must be supplemented to match auditory frequency selectivity (similarity 0.79)
• Frequency importance functions weight speech audibility by band significance (similarity 0.79)
• Hearing sensitivity to frequency can be emulated by filtering and weighting short-time power spectra (similarity 0.79)
• Suppressor tones reveal tuning curves matching neural frequency selectivity (similarity 0.79)
• Suppressor tones that reduce SOAEs map the ear’s fine frequency selectivity (similarity 0.79)
• Single-channel noise reduction exploits speech’s temporal, spectral, and statistical properties (similarity 0.79)
• Masking experiments revealed the auditory filter underlying frequency selectivity (similarity 0.78)
• Hearing’s salient spectral features can be matched by adjustable Fourier analysis (similarity 0.78)
• The ear’s frequency selectivity is imperfect and worsens at higher frequencies (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Inhibitory networks that sharpen spectral peaks can aid listeners with reduced frequency selectivity #expands (0.78) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2013