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Isaar International Symposium On Auditory And Audiological Research
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Book Synopsis The effect of hearing loss on neural processing by : Jonathan E. Peelle
Download or read book The effect of hearing loss on neural processing written by Jonathan E. Peelle and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2015-06-03 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Efficient auditory processing requires the rapid integration of transient sensory inputs. This is exemplified in human speech perception, in which long stretches of a complex acoustic signal are typically processed accurately and essentially in real-time. Spoken language thus presents listeners’ auditory systems with a considerable challenge even when acoustic input is clear. However, auditory processing ability is frequently compromised due to congenital or acquired hearing loss, or altered through background noise or assistive devices such as cochlear implants. How does loss of sensory fidelity impact neural processing, efficiency, and health? How does this ultimately influence behavior? This Research Topic explores the neural consequences of hearing loss, including basic processing carried out in the auditory periphery, computations in subcortical nuclei and primary auditory cortex, and higher-level cognitive processes such as those involved in human speech perception. By pulling together data from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, we gain a more complete picture of the acute and chronic consequences of hearing loss for neural functioning.
Book Synopsis The Technology of Binaural Understanding by : Jens Blauert
Download or read book The Technology of Binaural Understanding written by Jens Blauert and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-12 with total page 815 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sound, devoid of meaning, would not matter to us. It is the information sound conveys that helps the brain to understand its environment. Sound and its underlying meaning are always associated with time and space. There is no sound without spatial properties, and the brain always organizes this information within a temporal–spatial framework. This book is devoted to understanding the importance of meaning for spatial and related further aspects of hearing, including cross-modal inference. People, when exposed to acoustic stimuli, do not react directly to what they hear but rather to what they hear means to them. This semiotic maxim may not always apply, for instance, when the reactions are reflexive. But, where it does apply, it poses a major challenge to the builders of models of the auditory system. Take, for example, an auditory model that is meant to be implemented on a robotic agent for autonomous search-&-rescue actions. Or think of a system that can perform judgments on the sound quality of multimedia-reproduction systems. It becomes immediately clear that such a system needs • Cognitive capabilities, including substantial inherent knowledge • The ability to integrate information across different sensory modalities To realize these functions, the auditory system provides a pair of sensory organs, the two ears, and the means to perform adequate preprocessing of the signals provided by the ears. This is realized in the subcortical parts of the auditory system. In the title of a prior book, the term Binaural Listening is used to indicate a focus on sub-cortical functions. Psychoacoustics and auditory signal processing contribute substantially to this area. The preprocessed signals are then forwarded to the cortical parts of the auditory system where, among other things, recognition, classification, localization, scene analysis, assignment of meaning, quality assessment, and action planning take place. Also, information from different sensory modalities is integrated at this level. Between sub-cortical and cortical regions of the auditory system, numerous feedback loops exist that ultimately support the high complexity and plasticity of the auditory system. The current book concentrates on these cognitive functions. Instead of processing signals, processing symbols is now the predominant modeling task. Substantial contributions to the field draw upon the knowledge acquired by cognitive psychology. The keyword Binaural Understanding in the book title characterizes this shift. Both books, The Technology of Binaural Listening and the current one, have been stimulated and supported by AABBA, an open research group devoted to the development and application of models of binaural hearing. The current book is dedicated to technologies that help explain, facilitate, apply, and support various aspects of binaural understanding. It is organized into five parts, each containing three to six chapters in order to provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging area. Each chapter was thoroughly reviewed by at least two anonymous, external experts. The first part deals with the psychophysical and physiological effects of Forming and Interpreting Aural Objects as well as the underlying models. The fundamental concepts of reflexive and reflective auditory feedback are introduced. Mechanisms of binaural attention and attention switching are covered—as well as how auditory Gestalt rules facilitate binaural understanding. A general blackboard architecture is introduced as an example of how machines can learn to form and interpret aural objects to simulate human cognitive listening. The second part, Configuring and Understanding Aural Space, focuses on the human understanding of complex three-dimensional environments—covering the psychological and biological fundamentals of auditory space formation. This part further addresses the human mechanisms used to process information and interact in complex reverberant environments, such as concert halls and forests, and additionally examines how the auditory system can learn to understand and adapt to these environments. The third part is dedicated to Processing Cross-Modal Inference and highlights the fundamental human mechanisms used to integrate auditory cues with cues from other modalities to localize and form perceptual objects. This part also provides a general framework for understanding how complex multimodal scenes can be simulated and rendered. The fourth part, Evaluating Aural-scene Quality and Speech Understanding, focuses on the object-forming aspects of binaural listening and understanding. It addresses cognitive mechanisms involved in both the understanding of speech and the processing of nonverbal information such as Sound Quality and Quality-of- Experience. The aesthetic judgment of rooms is also discussed in this context. Models that simulate underlying human processes and performance are covered in addition to techniques for rendering virtual environments that can then be used to test these models. The fifth part deals with the Application of Cognitive Mechanisms to Audio Technology. It highlights how cognitive mechanisms can be utilized to create spatial auditory illusions using binaural and other 3D-audio technologies. Further, it covers how cognitive binaural technologies can be applied to improve human performance in auditory displays and to develop new auditory technologies for interactive robots. The book concludes with the application of cognitive binaural technologies to the next generation of hearing aids.
Book Synopsis Speech and Computer by : S. R. Mahadeva Prasanna
Download or read book Speech and Computer written by S. R. Mahadeva Prasanna and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-11-12 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Speech and Computer, SPECOM 2022, held as a hybrid event in Gurugram, India, in November 2022. The 51 full and 9 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 99 submissions. The papers present current research in the area of computer speech processing including audio signal processing, automatic speech recognition, speaker recognition, computational paralinguistics, speech synthesis, sign language and multimodal processing, and speech and language resources.
Book Synopsis Perception and Cognition: Interactions in the Aging Brain by : Harriet A. Allen
Download or read book Perception and Cognition: Interactions in the Aging Brain written by Harriet A. Allen and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healthy ageing can lead to declines in both perceptual and cognitive functions. Impaired perception, such as that resulting from hearing loss or reduced visual or tactile resolution, increases demands on ‘higher-level’ cognitive functions to cope or compensate. It is possible, for example, to use focused attention to overcome perceptual limitations. Unfortunately, cognitive functions also decline in old age. This can mean that perceptual impairments are exacerbated by cognitive decline, and vice versa, but also means that interventions aimed at one type of decline can lead to improvements in the other. Just as improved cognition can ameliorate perceptual deficits, improving the stimulus can help offset cognitive deficits. For example, making directions and routes easy to follow can help compensate for declines in navigation abilities. In this Topic, we bring together papers from both auditory and visual researchers that address the interaction between perception and cognition in the ageing brain. Many of the studies demonstrate that a broadening of representations or increased reliance on gist underlie perceptual and cognitive age-related declines. There is also clear evidence that impaired perception is associated with poor cognition although, encouragingly, it can also be seen that good perception is associated with better cognition. Compensatory cognitive strategies were less successful in improving perception than might be expected. We also present papers which highlight important methodological considerations that are required when studying the older brain.
Book Synopsis Data-Centric Business and Applications by : Tamara Radivilova
Download or read book Data-Centric Business and Applications written by Tamara Radivilova and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-20 with total page 789 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the challenges and opportunities of information/data processing and management. It also covers a range of methods, techniques and strategies for making it more efficient, approaches to increasing its usage, and ways to minimize information/data loss while improving customer satisfaction. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Service Systems associated with them have had an enormous impact on businesses and our day-to-day lives over the past three decades, and continue to do so. This development has led to the emergence of new application areas and relevant disciplines, which in turn present new challenges and opportunities for service system usage. The book provides practical insights into various aspects of ICT technologies for service systems: Techniques for information/data processing and modeling in service systems Strategies for the provision of information/data processing and management Methods for collecting and analyzing information/data Applications, benefits, and challenges of service system implementation Solutions to increase the performance of various service systems using the latest ICT technologies
Book Synopsis Computational Models of the Auditory System by : Ray Meddis
Download or read book Computational Models of the Auditory System written by Ray Meddis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-06-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of comprehensive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modern auditory research. The v- umes are aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research including advanced graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and clinical investigators. The volumes are intended to introduce new investigators to important aspects of hearing science and to help established investigators to better understand the fundamental theories and data in fields of hearing that they may not normally follow closely. Each volume presents a particular topic comprehensively, and each serves as a synthetic overview and guide to the literature. As such, the chapters present neither exhaustive data reviews nor original research that has not yet appeared in pe- reviewed journals. The volumes focus on topics that have developed a solid data and conceptual foundation rather than on those for which a literature is only beg- ning to develop. New research areas will be covered on a timely basis in the series as they begin to mature.
Book Synopsis Speech masking speech in everyday communication by : Victoria Stenbäck
Download or read book Speech masking speech in everyday communication written by Victoria Stenbäck and published by Linköping University Electronic Press. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Age affects hearing and cognitive abilities. Older people, with and without hearing impairment (HI), exhibit difficulties in hearing speech in noise. Elderly individuals show greater difficulty in segregating target speech from distracting background noise, especially if the noise is competing speech with meaningful contents, so called informational maskers. Working memory capacity (WMC) has proven to be a crucial factor in comprehending speech in noise, especially for people with hearing loss. In auditory scenes where speech is disrupted by competing speech, high WMC has proven to facilitate the ability to segregate target speech and inhibit responses to irrelevant information. People with low WMC are more prone to be disrupted by competing speech and exhibit more difficulties in hearing target speech in complex listening environments. Furthermore, elderly individuals with a HI experience more difficulties in switching attention between wanted and irrelevant stimuli, and they employ more resources and time to attend to the stimuli than do normally - hearing (NH) younger adults. This thesis investigated the importance of inhibitory control and WMC for speech recognition in noise, and perceived listening effort. Four studies were conducted. In the first study, the aim was to develop a test of inhibitory control for verbal content, and to investigate the relation between inhibitory control and WMC, and how these two abilities related to speech recognition in noise, in young normally – hearing (YNH) individuals. In the second study we aimed to investigate the same relationship as in the first study to further strengthen the validity of the inhibitory test developed, as well as the importance of lexical access. It was also an aim to investigate the influence of age and hearing status on lexical access and WMC, and their respective roles for speech recognition in noise in both YNH and elderly HI (EHI) individuals. Study one and two showed that, for YNH, inhibitory control was related to speech recognition in noise, indicating that inhibitory control can help to predict speech recognition in noise performance. The relationship between WMC and speech recognition in noise in YNH shifted in the studies, suggesting that this relationship is multifaceted and varying. Lexical access was of little importance for YNH, although for EHI individuals, both WMC and lexical access was of importance for speech recognition in noise, suggesting that different cognitive abilities were of importance for the YNH and EHI individuals Study three investigated the relationship between inhibitory control, WMC, speech recognition in noise, and perceived listening effort, in YNH and elderly, for their age, NH, individuals (ENH). In study four the same relationships as in study three were investigated, albeit in EHI individuals. Two speech materials with different characteristics, masked with four background noises were used. The results in study three showed that less favourable SNRs were needed for informational maskers than for maskers without semantic content. ENH individuals were more susceptible to informational maskers than YNH individuals. In contrast, in study four, more favourable SNRs were needed for informational maskers. In both studies, results showed that speech recognition in noise performance differed depending on the characteristics of the speech material. The studies showed that high WMC, compared to low WMC, was beneficial for speech recognition in noise, especially for informational maskers, and resulted in lower ratings of perceived effort. Varying results were found in study three and four regarding perceived effort and inhibitory control. In study three good inhibitory control was associated with lower effort rating, while in study four, individuals with a HI and good inhibitory control rated effort as higher. The results suggest that hearing status, age, and cognitive abilities, contribute to the differences in performance between YNH, ENH, and EHI individuals in speech – recognition – in – noise - and cognitive tasks. This thesis has, for the first time, demonstrated that a measure of inhibitory control of verbal content, is related to speech recognition in noise performance in YNH, ENH and EHI individuals. Results presented in this thesis also show that both WMC and inhibitory control are related to an individuals’ perception of how effortful a listening task is. It also adds to the literature that WMC is related to speech recognition in noise performance for ENH and EHI individuals, but that this relationship is not as robust in YNH individuals.
Book Synopsis Human Auditory Evoked Potentials by : Terence W. Picton
Download or read book Human Auditory Evoked Potentials written by Terence W. Picton and published by Plural Publishing. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reviews how we can record the human brain's response to sounds, and how we can use these recordings to assess hearing. These recordings are used in many different clinical situations--the identification of hearing impairment in newborn infants, the detection of tumors on the auditory nerve, the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. As well they are used to investigate how the brain is able to hear--how we can attend to particular conversations at a cocktail party and ignore others, how we learn to understand the language we are exposed to, why we have difficulty hearing when we grow old. This book is written by a single author with wide experience in all aspects of these recordings. The content is complete in terms of the essentials. The style is clear; equations are absent and figures are multiple. The intent of the book is to make learning enjoyable and meaningful. Allusions are made to fields beyond the ear, and the clinical importance of the phenomena is always considered.
Book Synopsis Translational Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience by : Kelly L. Tremblay
Download or read book Translational Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience written by Kelly L. Tremblay and published by Plural Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis The Perceptual Structure of Sound by : Dik J. Hermes
Download or read book The Perceptual Structure of Sound written by Dik J. Hermes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-10 with total page 840 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a comprehensive review of how acoustic waves are processed by the auditory system into structured sounds such as musical melodies, speech utterances, or environmental sounds. After an introduction, an overview is given of how the ears distribute acoustic information over a large array of frequency channels that contain the auditory information used by the central nervous system to generate a mental image of what is happening around the listener. This process, called auditory scene analysis, consists of two stages. In the first stage, auditory units are formed such as musical tones and speech syllables. Each auditory unit is perceived at a well-defined moment in time, the beat location of that auditory unit. Moreover, from this process of auditory-unit formation, the auditory attributes of these auditory units emerge, such as their timbre, their pitch, their loudness, and their perceived location. Each of these attributes is discussed in the corresponding chapter. In the second stage of auditory scene analysis, auditory-stream formation, the successive auditory units are integrated into auditory streams, i.e., temporally structured sequences of auditory units that are perceived as emanating from one and the same sound source. Examples of such auditory streams are musical melodies and the utterances of one speaker. The temporal structure of an auditory stream, its rhythm, is determined by the beat locations of its auditory units. The role played by the auditory attributes of the consecutive auditory units is discussed. The melodies of musical streams and the intonation contours of spoken utterances emerge from this process. In music, the beats of parallel streams generally fit into a metric pattern, and, depending on harmony, simultaneous tones can be perceived as consonant or dissonant. Finally, the book contains many sound examples including the MATLAB scripts with which they are generated.
Book Synopsis Soft Computing Applications by : Valentina Emilia Balas
Download or read book Soft Computing Applications written by Valentina Emilia Balas and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These volumes constitute the Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Soft Computing Applications, or SOFA 2014, held on 24-26 July 2014 in Timisoara, Romania. This edition was organized by the University of Belgrade, Serbia in conjunction with Romanian Society of Control Engineering and Technical Informatics (SRAIT) - Arad Section, The General Association of Engineers in Romania - Arad Section, Institute of Computer Science, Iasi Branch of the Romanian Academy and IEEE Romanian Section. The Soft Computing concept was introduced by Lotfi Zadeh in 1991 and serves to highlight the emergence of computing methodologies in which the accent is on exploiting the tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty to achieve tractability, robustness and low solution cost. Soft computing facilitates the use of fuzzy logic, neurocomputing, evolutionary computing and probabilistic computing in combination, leading to the concept of hybrid intelligent systems. The combination of such intelligent systems tools and a large number of applications introduce a need for a synergy of scientific and technological disciplines in order to show the great potential of Soft Computing in all domains. The conference papers included in these proceedings, published post conference, were grouped into the following area of research: · Image, Text and Signal Processing Intelligent Transportation Modeling and Applications Biomedical Applications Neural Network and Applications Knowledge-Based Technologies for Web Applications, Cloud Computing, Security, Algorithms and Computer Networks Knowledge-Based Technologies Soft Computing Techniques for Time Series Analysis Soft Computing and Fuzzy Logic in Biometrics Fuzzy Applications Theory and Fuzzy Control Business Process Management Methods and Applications in Electrical Engineering The volumes provide useful information to professors, researchers and graduated students in area of soft computing techniques and applications, as they report new research work on challenging issues.
Book Synopsis The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception by : Enrique Lopez-Poveda
Download or read book The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception written by Enrique Lopez-Poveda and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-23 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains the papers presented at the 15th International Symposium on Hearing (ISH), which was held at the Hotel Regio, Santa Marta de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain, between 1st and 5th June 2009. Since its inception in 1969, this Symposium has been a forum of excellence for debating the neurophysiological basis of auditory perception, with computational models as tools to test and unify physiological and perceptual theories. Every paper in this symposium includes two of the following: auditory physiology, psychoph- ics or modeling. The topics range from cochlear physiology to auditory attention and learning. While the symposium is always hosted by European countries, p- ticipants come from all over the world and are among the leaders in their fields. The result is an outstanding symposium, which has been described by some as a “world summit of auditory research. ” The current volume has a bottom-up structure from “simpler” physiological to more “complex” perceptual phenomena and follows the order of presentations at the meeting. Parts I to III are dedicated to information processing in the peripheral au- tory system and its implications for auditory masking, spectral processing, and c- ing. Part IV focuses on the physiological bases of pitch and timbre perception. Part V is dedicated to binaural hearing. Parts VI and VII cover recent advances in und- standing speech processing and perception and auditory scene analysis. Part VIII focuses on the neurophysiological bases of novelty detection, attention, and learning.
Book Synopsis Understanding the Cochlea by : Geoffrey A. Manley
Download or read book Understanding the Cochlea written by Geoffrey A. Manley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This SHAR volume serves to expand, supplement, and update the original "Cochlea" volume in the series. The book aims to highlight the power of diverse modern approaches in cochlear research by focusing on advances in those fields over the last two decades. It also provides insights into where cochlear research is going, including new hearing prostheses for the deaf that will most likely soon enter the phase of clinical trials. The book will appeal to a broad, interdisciplinary readership, including neuroscientists and clinicians in addition to the more specific auditory community.
Book Synopsis Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications by : Eduardo Bayro-Corrochano
Download or read book Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications written by Eduardo Bayro-Corrochano and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 1071 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, CIARP 2014, held in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, in November 2014. The 115 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 160 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on image coding, processing and analysis; segmentation, analysis of shape and texture; analysis of signal, speech and language; document processing and recognition; feature extraction, clustering and classification; pattern recognition and machine learning; neural networks for pattern recognition; computer vision and robot vision; video segmentation and tracking.
Book Synopsis Digital Hearing Healthcare by : Qinglin Meng
Download or read book Digital Hearing Healthcare written by Qinglin Meng and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-12-05 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We would like to acknowledge VCCA2020-Organizer Jan-Willem Wasmann, who has acted as coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal for this Research Topic. Dr. Qinglin Meng is working on an audio project for Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Dr. Jing Chen is working on research projects with Sonova AG. Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng owns stock in Axonics, Nurotron, Syntiant, Velox and Xsense. Dr. Dennis Barbour founded and owns equity in Bonauria. All other Topic Editor declare no conflicts of interest.
Book Synopsis Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation, Third Edition by : Joseph J. Montano
Download or read book Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation, Third Edition written by Joseph J. Montano and published by Plural Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-20 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation, Third Edition is an advanced textbook for doctoral level audiology students that focuses solely on adults with a completely international perspective. It is the only advanced text to meet the need for the high level of preparation required for doctoral level training. It is also an essential resource for practicing clinicians looking for a complete reference on the latest techniques and technologies. With ever changing technology and new methodologies in client care, the third edition of Adult Audiologic Rehabilitation is a critical resource to audiology education. The book covers definitions of audiologic rehabilitation, an overview of the area, psychosocial impact of hearing loss, assessment strategies, current technologies, treatment methodologies, e-technologies, research needs, and special issues in audiologic rehabilitation. It has been deliberately structured to move the reader from introduction, to specific details of the specialty of audiologic rehabilitation, to providing insights into characteristics of this patient population, and thence to a framework for assessment and treatment of the impact of hearing loss. New to the Third Edition: Thoroughly updated, this edition includes eight new chapters and revisions to nineteen chapters that include updated content, references, figures and tables. New topics include: * Hearing Health-Seeking Behavior * Social Factors in Hearing Aids * Improving Patient Adherence * Multimedia Educational Resources * Family-Centered Care * Patient Narratives in Audiology * E-health and M-health for Audiologic Rehabilitation * Community Outreach This edition welcomes contributions from new authors including: Abbey L. Berg, Melanie Ferguson, Stefan Launer, Alessia Paglialonga, Gabrielle Saunders, Nerina Scarinci, Gurjit Singh, Nancy Tye- Murray, Barbra Timmer, Emilie Zaslow, and a foreword by Arthur Boothroyd. Disclaimer: Please note that ancillary content (such as documents, audio, and video, etc.) may not be included as published in the original print version of this book.
Book Synopsis Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition by : Kai Siedenburg
Download or read book Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition written by Kai Siedenburg and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roughly defined as any property other than pitch, duration, and loudness that allows two sounds to be distinguished, timbre is a foundational aspect of hearing. The remarkable ability of humans to recognize sound sources and events (e.g., glass breaking, a friend’s voice, a tone from a piano) stems primarily from a capacity to perceive and process differences in the timbre of sounds. Timbre raises many important issues in psychology and the cognitive sciences, musical acoustics, speech processing, medical engineering, and artificial intelligence. Current research on timbre perception unfolds along three main fronts: On the one hand, researchers explore the principal perceptual processes that orchestrate timbre processing, such as the structure of its perceptual representation, sound categorization and recognition, memory for timbre, and its ability to elicit rich semantic associations, as well as the underlying neural mechanisms. On the other hand, timbre is studied as part of specific scenarios, including the perception of the human voice, as a structuring force in music, as perceived with cochlear implants, and through its role in affecting sound quality and sound design. Finally, computational acoustic models are sought through prediction of psychophysical data, physiologically inspired representations, and audio analysis-synthesis techniques. Along these three scientific fronts, significant breakthroughs have been achieved during the last decade. This volume will be the first book dedicated to a comprehensive and authoritative presentation of timbre perception and cognition research and the acoustic modeling of timbre. The volume will serve as a natural complement to the SHAR volumes on the basic auditory parameters of Pitch edited by Plack, Oxenham, Popper, and Fay, and Loudness by Florentine, Popper, and Fay. Moreover, through the integration of complementary scientific methods ranging from signal processing to brain imaging, the book has the potential to leverage new interdisciplinary synergies in hearing science. For these reasons, the volume will be exceptionally valuable to various subfields of hearing science, including cognitive auditory neuroscience, psychoacoustics, music perception and cognition, but may even exert significant influence on fields such as musical acoustics, music information retrieval, and acoustic signal processing. It is expected that the volume will have broad appeal to psychologists, neuroscientists, and acousticians involved in research on auditory perception and cognition. Specifically, this book will have a strong impact on hearing researchers with interest in timbre and will serve as the key publication and up-to-date reference on timbre for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, as well as established scholars.
