AUDL GS08/GAV1 Autumn 2015
Signals, systems, acoustics and the ear
UCL Speech, Hearing & Phonetic Sciences
Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL
Chandler House
2 Wakefield Street
London WC1N 1PF
The aim of this module is to give the students a basic understanding of acoustics, the physical principles of operation of the auditory system, the science behind the measurement of hearing function, and the technical aspects of auditory prostheses (including cochlear implants) and audiometric instrumentation. A dual approach is taken, sometimes stressing the biophysical principles, and sometimes taking a more abstract approach in how to characterise the signals and systems so prevalent in hearing science.
Also integrated into the course is basic information about psychoacoustics in normal and impaired hearing.
Course Structure:
The course runs over 1-1/2 terms, on Monday afternoons, starting on 5 October 2015.
The first term will consist of 10 three-hour sessions, each comprising a varying mix of lecture,
demonstrations, lab sessions and tutorials.
Venue and scheduling: The session starts at 14:00 in Room B07 in the basement of
Chandler House.
Some of the teaching will also take place in other rooms of the same building, typically moving to Room G10 for the lecture.
Timetable
UCL Week
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Date
Monday
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Lecture topic
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Laboratory/other
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CW (for following week)
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6
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5 Oct
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Waveforms, signals, sinusoids, frequency, logarithms,
dB, digital signals
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Pure tone audiometry & decibels
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Set I
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7
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12 Oct
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More about waves and dB; Properties of LTI systems (i/o
functions, linearity, time-invariance); The BIG idea
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Frequency response of an acoustic resonator: two
different sizes
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Set II
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8
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19 Oct
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Frequency responses & Spectra
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Harmonic synthesis (Esynth)
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Set III
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9
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26 Oct
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Signals through systems; Filter banks
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Signals through systems: analogue & digital (Esystem)
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Set IV
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10
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2 Nov
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The ear as a signal processor
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Cochlear simulation
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11
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9 Nov
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Reading week: no meeting
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12
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16 Nov
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Frequency selectivity in the
periphery and in perception
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Adaptive techniques
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13
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23 Nov
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Envelope & temporal fine structure
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Notched-noise masking
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Choose an appropriate paper and email it to me
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14
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30 Nov
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Binaural hearing; Pitch perception
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Measuring F0 in various sounds
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Journal article approved
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15
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7 Dec
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Intensity & Loudness; Temporal
resolution
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Critique journalistic essays
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Bring in first draft of essay
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16
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14 Dec
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Psychoacoustics of hearing impairment; perceiving speech-in-noise
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Speech-in-noise
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Hand in final essay: 18 Dec
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Staff
| Stuart Rosen |
020 7679 4077 |
stuart@phon.ucl.ac.uk |
course organiser & lecturer |
| Torsten Marquardt |
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t.marquardt@ucl.ac.uk |
course lecturer (term 2) |
| Andrew Clark |
020 7679 4014 |
a.a.clark@ucl.ac.uk |
experimental officer |
| Dave Cushing |
020 7679 4016 |
d.cushing@ucl.ac.uk |
laboratory technician |
| Kurt Steinmetzgerf |
|
kurt.steinmetzger.12@ucl.ac.uk |
teaching assistant |
Required text:
Rosen, S., and Howell, P. (2010).
Signals and Systems for Speech and Hearing, 2nd edition:
Brill, Leiden. Chapters 11-14 in this new edition are significantly different from the earlier one.
The syllabus for the first half of the first term for this unit is based on this book, with
exercises and assigned reading for you to complete in it. It is more or
less essential for you to own your own copy, and will also prove useful
in other parts of your training.
Supplementary Reading
- Speaks, C. E. (1999). Introduction to Sound. 3rd edition. Chapman and Hall. ISBN: 1565939794.
This book is very readable and is aimed at students with little
background knowledge of mathematics and physics.
Each concept is introduced in non-mathematical terms before the
corresponding mathematics is introduced. The explanations of exponents,
logarithms and decibels are particularly good but more advanced topics
are covered very sketchily with, at least in the 2nd edition, some
serious misconceptions. See here for a review.
- Mullin,W.J et al. (2003). Fundamentals of sound with applications to speech and hearing.
Pearson Education, Inc., ISBN 0205-03707-X.
A good introduction for students with little math and physics background. It introduces the
topic with many examples and wordy explanations. It does, however, not cover
impedance in sufficient detail for audiologists. It is a text book designed for a course in
communication studies with focus on speech.
- Gelfand, A.G. Hearing: an introduction to psychological and physiological acoustics. 3rd
ed. Marcel Dekker. New York, 1998.
There are sections closely related to the content and at a level taught in this course,
especially chapters 1 and 3.
- Katz, J. (ed.) Handbook of Clinical Audiology. 6th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009.
The audiologist's bible. The chapter 8 about acoustic immitance and transfer is relevant
here.
- Pickles, J. O. : An introduction to the physiology of hearing. 4th edition: Brill, 2013.
ISBN 9789004243774.
The old edition will do. Generally a good book. Chapters 1 (physics of sound) and 2
(outer middle ear) are especially relevant here.
- Yost, W. A. (2013) Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction, 5th ed. (Brill). A more elementary exposition than the other books. Particularly good on the anatomy & physiology.
- Haughton, P.M. (2002). Acoustics For Audiologists. Brill. ISBN: 9780123329226.
A book more grounded in physics, which could also be of help in aspects
of Auditory Biophysics. Can be quite tough going, though.
Main text for psychoacoustics Plack C. (2014) The Sense of Hearing, 2nd edition. Erlbaum.
The first edition should be adequate if you can't obtain the newer one.
Supplementary Reading
- BCJ Moore (ed) (1986) Frequency Selectivity in Hearing. London:
Academic Press. Does what it says on the tin, with thorough accounts of the
psychoacoustics of frequency selectivity, plus more.
- S Gelfand (2004) Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and
Physiological Acoustics, Fourth Edition, Revised and Expanded. A nearly
complete resource for anatomy, physiology and psychoacoustics. Especially
good on the middle ear.
- R Plomp (2002) The Intelligent Ear, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah New
Jersey. A very accessible account of hearing.
- BCJ Moore (2003). An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing, 5th
ed. (Academic Press). A very complete guide to the literature, but at
an advanced level.
- WA Yost (2006) Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction, 5th ed.
(Academic Press). A more elementary exposition. Particularly good on the
anatomy & physiology.
- J Schnupp, E Nelken & A King (2010) Auditory Neuroscience: Making Sense of Sound
(MIT Press). A book with much more discussion of the neural
substrates of perception, and focus on a more limited range of topics.
Worth a look. There is also an extensive web
site containing animations and demonstrations.
- D Moore, P Fuchs, A Palmer, A Rees & C Plack (2010) Oxford
Handbook of Auditory Science: The Ear, The Auditory Brain, Hearing
Requisite background
We assume that you are already familiar with basic mathematical concepts like exponents, logarithms and the use of graphs.
The booklet
An Introduction to Acoustics with
answers may also prove useful.
You could also try the exercises in this
Diagnostic Worksheet for indicators about what concepts you need to revise.
Assessment
- A 2-hour written paper in the main exam period of Term III (80%). This will also cover aspects of auditory biophysics.
- 4 problem sets, distributed throughout the first half of the term (see
below), will be an important formative assessment, but which will not contribute to your mark.
However, the kinds of questions you will encounter there will be very similar to what is on the final exam, so should be take seriously.
These will mostly be marked during the teaching session at which they
are handed in so you must be present to receive appropriate feedback.
- 1 piece of coursework, worth 20% of the final mark (max 1000 words
each), based on doing the work of a science journalist by summarising
a chosen paper in a style suitable for a quality daily newspaper. You will
receive feedback on one version of this, and re-write.
You must pass the final exam to pass the course.
Journalistic essay
Write an articles for a lay audience summarizing the crucial results of a
journal article relevant to this course, in a style appropriate for a quality
daily newspaper The use of graphics and diagrams is more than welcome, but is
not required. Below you will find a few articles that would be appropriate, but
please choose your own. You must email the .pdf to me first so I can assess its
suitability. A good source of relevant papers can be found in the following
journals. You can gain access to these through
the UCL library page
- Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in the Psychological
Acoustics section. This is the pre-eminent journal in the field with a wide
variety of studies concerning both normal and impaired hearing.
- The Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research
- Ear & Hearing Oriented more towards clinically-relevant
issues.
- International Journal of Audiology
- JARO (Journal of the Association for Research in
Otolaryngology)
- Hearing Research
- Audiology & Neuro-otology
- Attention, Perception & Psychophysics (formerly known as
Perception & Psychophysics )
There are also often papers related to auditory perception in more general journals like
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Current Biology, Nature, etc.
The following are examples of articles that would be appropriate, but please do
not use these. Get an article from within last 3 years or so. Ensure that the
article you select is not a review article in which much of the work is done
for you already! It must be a primary research paper, although an appropriate
meta-analysis of a some clinical procedure might be OK. Read any article you
propose to use beforehand to ensure that it can be explained to a lay audience!
Note that you may need to read ahead of the syllabus for some topics. You may not choose a
a paper which is relevant for your project.
- Baker, R. J. & Rosen, S. (2002). Auditory filter
nonlinearity in mild/moderate hearing impairment. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 111, 1330-1339.
- Kong, Y. Y., Cruz, R., Jones, J. A., & Zeng, F. G. (2004).Music
perception with temporal cues in acoustic and electric hearing. Ear and Hearing, 25, 173-185.
- Musiek, F. E., Shinn, J.
B., Jirsa, R., Bamiou, D. E., Baran, J.
A., & Zaidan, E. (2005). GIN
(Gaps-In-Noise) test performance in subjects with confirmed central
auditory nervous system involvement. Ear and Hearing, 26, 608-618.
- Neuman, A. C., Haravon,
A., Sislian, N., & Waltzman, S. B. (2007). Sound-direction identification with bilateral cochlear
implants. Ear and Hearing,
28, 73-82.
- van Hoesel, R., Ramsden, R., & O'Driscoll, M. (2002). Sound-direction identification, interaural time delay
discrimination, and speech intelligibility advantages in noise for a
bilateral cochlear implant user. Ear and Hearing, 23, 137-149.
- Yasin, I. & Plack, C.
J. (2005). Psychophysical tuning curves at very high frequencies. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 118, 2498-2506.
Articles should be 1000 words or less. Your article should introduce the basic
topic and discuss the motivation of the author(s) in doing the study, as well
report the results and their implications. Ensure you use language any
reasonably well-educated person could understand. Do not simply paraphrase (or
outright plagiarise!) the author(s). Unlike an article in the popular press,
you should have a reference list. An appropriate style can be found in this example, this one or this one, all from Nature News. Again, use the library page
to access the ejournal and locate the full article by date.
You will submit your work through Moodle. Please also
submit a pdf of the article your essay was based on. The following
deadlines are crucial:
- 23 November: Choose a paper and email the title and the
pdf to stuart@phon.ucl.ac.uk for approval by 30 November. Use the subject header
AUDLGS08 coursework essay or it may get lost in my InBox!
- 7 December: Bring three hard copies (double-spaced) of your essay to the lab
session, where fellow students will read them and give you feedback. Also
please bring in one hard copy of the paper you are discussing.
- 18 December: Submit rewritten final version of essay to be marked
Most of the links below are to PDF files which can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't
have the Acrobat Reader got www.adobe.com and follow
the links to download the free software.
Course work
Due 12 October 2015
Due 19 October 2015
Due 26 October 2015
Due 2 November 2015
Week by Week
The reading and exercises assigned here are not to be handed in, but it is essential that you at least do the assigned reading.
Unless otherwise stated, all are to be found in
Signals & Systems for Speech & Hearing. Aim to complete
the assigned work by the week following the date the material is covered in lecture.
Week 1: Signals
Teaching Material:
Exercises: Read Chapters 1-3 and Chaper 14, pp. 308-323. If you have time, do the following exercises:
- Chapter 1: exercise 3
- Chapter 2: exercises 2, 3 & 5.
- Chapter 3: exercises 1, 3, 4, 10, 11.
- In the booklet
An Introduction to Acoustics,
ensure you are familiar with the material covered in pp. 1-19.
Other useful resources:
Week 2: Introduction to LTI systems
Teaching Material:
Exercises:
- Read Chapters 4 & 5, and do the following exercises if you have time:
- Ch 4, p 62: ex 2, 4-6 (no formula needed for ex 6)
- Ch 5, p 69-70: ex 4, 5
Answers to Exercises:
Week 3: Frequency responses and spectra
Teaching Material:
Exercises:
- Read chapters 6 & 7 (Don't worry too much about the phase response
of systems, but you do need to understand the concept of a cascade and
calculating the total response from the individual ones)
- Do the following exercises:
- Ch 6, pp 109-113: Exercises 1A, 1D, 1E. Do the conversion
from dB into volts only for 1D.(You may find it helpful to use a spreadsheet to do the appropriate
calculations.)
- Ch 6: Exercises 2, 3
- Ch 6: Exercise 4. Note that the microphone itself has a flat frequency
response, so that the total frequency response (microphone + probe) is that given in the top figure of p.
110. Don’t do any of the calculations concerning the phase response for this or exercise 7.
- Ch 6: Exercises 7 & 10
- Ch 7: Exercises 1, 3, 4, 7 and 10 (pp. 148-149)
Answers to Exercises:
Other useful resources:
Week 4: Signals through systems
Teaching Material:
Exercises:
- If you didn't get a chance to complete it in the lab class, do the tutorial in ESYSTEM concerning digital systems (available from the 'Help' menu) - section 5, parts a-d
- Read Chapter 8 and Chapter 11, pp. 203-207. If you have time, do the following exercises from Chapter 8 (pp. 163-165):
- Exercise 1: It will probably be easier for you if you draw the input spectrum of the sawtooth first.
- Exercise 2.
- Exercise 3. Remember, all these measurements relate to a single
LTI system.
- Exercise 4.
- Exercise 6. Assume that the fundamental component in both
the input and output spectra has a level of 1 V.
Answers to Exercises:
Other useful resources:
Weeks 5: The ear as a signal processor
Teaching Material:
Other Material:
Exercises:
- Read Chapter 12 and, if you have time, do Exercises 3, 5 and 6 at the end of the chapter (p 285). Also, read Chapters 9 & 10.
Weeks 6: Introduction to psychoacoustics & Frequency selectivity
Teaching Material:
Read Chapters 4 & 5 in Plack.
Week 7: Envelope and Temporal Fine Structure (TFS)
Suggested reading (available through the reading List on Moodle):
- Rosen, S. (1992) Temporal information in speech: Acoustic, auditory and
linguistic aspects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London, Series B, 336: 367-373.
Week 8: Pitch & Binaural phenomena
Read Chapters 7 & 9 in Plack. Chaptes 3 & 5 in Schnupp et al. could also be useful.
Week 9: Intensity & Loudness; Temporal resolution
Read Chapters 6 & 8 in Plack.
Week 10: Psychoacoustics of hearing impairment; Perceiving speech-in-noise
For more on the psychoacoustics of hearing impairment (available through the
reading List on Moodle), read:
- Moore, B. C. J. (1987). "Psychophysics of Normal and Impaired Hearing,"
British Medical Bulletin 43, 887-908.
- Moore, B. C. J. (1996). "Perceptual consequences of cochlear hearing loss
and their implications for the design of hearing," Ear and Hearing 17,
133-161.
- Moore, B. C. J. (2002). "Psychoacoustics of normal and impaired hearing,"
British Medical Bulletin 63, 121-134.
This is a really excellent summary about auditory compression and hearing loss and this short
article describes dead regions in a very informative way.
For speech-in-noise, read this excellent paper (available through the reading List on Moodle) about
energetic and informational masking:
- Shinn-Cunningham, B. G. (2008). "Object-based auditory and visual attention,"
Trends Cog. Sci. p 12, 182-186.
Other links to material concerning relevant topics
(will open in a new browser window)
Previous examinations with answers
Note that this exam contains one question that was only for the MSc AS students,
but is missing a psychoacoustics questions that was asked in GAV1.
Previous examinations from a different signals & systems course
Note that there may be questions in these examples that relate to material you will not be responsible for, but most of the questions are relevant.
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