The continuity illusion adapts to the auditory scene. 2009

Lars Riecke, and Daniel Mendelsohn, and Claudia Schreiner, and Elia Formisano
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.

The human auditory system is efficient at restoring sounds of interest. In noisy environments, for example, an interrupted target sound may be illusorily heard as continuing smoothly when a loud noise masks the interruptions. In quiet environments, however, sudden interruptions might signal important events. In that case, restoration of the target sound would be disadvantageous. Achieving useful perceptual stability may require the restoration mechanism to adapt its output to current perceptual demands, a hypothesis which has not yet been fully evaluated. In this study, we investigated whether auditory restoration depends on preceding auditory scenes, and we report evidence that restoration adapts to the perceived continuity of target sounds and to the loudness of interrupting sounds. In the first experiment, listeners adapted to illusory and non-illusory tone sweeps (targets) and interrupting noise, and we observed that the perceived continuity of the target and the loudness of the interrupting noise influenced the extent of subsequent restorations. A second experiment revealed that these adaptation effects were unrelated to the adapted spectra, indicating that non-sensory representations of the perceived auditory scene were involved. We argue that auditory restoration is a dynamic illusory phenomenon which recalibrates continuity hearing to different acoustic environments.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007088 Illusions The misinterpretation of a real external, sensory experience. Autokinetic Effect,Autokinetic Illusions,Effect, Autokinetic,Illusions, Auditory,Illusions, Kinesthetic,Illusions, Tactile,Illusions, Visual,Auditory Illusion,Auditory Illusions,Autokinetic Effects,Autokinetic Illusion,Effects, Autokinetic,Illusion,Illusion, Auditory,Illusion, Autokinetic,Illusion, Kinesthetic,Illusion, Tactile,Illusion, Visual,Illusions, Autokinetic,Kinesthetic Illusion,Kinesthetic Illusions,Tactile Illusion,Tactile Illusions,Visual Illusion,Visual Illusions
D009622 Noise Any sound which is unwanted or interferes with HEARING other sounds. Noise Pollution,Noises,Pollution, Noise
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000161 Acoustic Stimulation Use of sound to elicit a response in the nervous system. Auditory Stimulation,Stimulation, Acoustic,Stimulation, Auditory
D000222 Adaptation, Physiological The non-genetic biological changes of an organism in response to challenges in its ENVIRONMENT. Adaptation, Physiologic,Adaptations, Physiologic,Adaptations, Physiological,Adaptive Plasticity,Phenotypic Plasticity,Physiological Adaptation,Physiologic Adaptation,Physiologic Adaptations,Physiological Adaptations,Plasticity, Adaptive,Plasticity, Phenotypic
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D001306 Auditory Pathways NEURAL PATHWAYS and connections within the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, beginning at the hair cells of the ORGAN OF CORTI, continuing along the eighth cranial nerve, and terminating at the AUDITORY CORTEX. Auditory Pathway,Pathway, Auditory,Pathways, Auditory
D001307 Auditory Perception The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organized, and interpreted by the organism. Auditory Processing,Perception, Auditory,Processing, Auditory

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