Effects of aging on absolute pitch perception: Psychophysical experiments and computational models

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24243070
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Kyoto City University of Arts
• Principal Investigator: Tsuzaki Minoru 京都市立芸術大学, 音楽学部, 教授 (60155356)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 入野 俊夫 和歌山大学, システム工学部, 教授 (20346331) ; 堀川 順生 豊橋技術科学大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (50114781) ; 宮崎 謙一 新潟大学, 人文社会・教育科学系, 教授 (90133579) ; 牧 勝弘 愛知淑徳大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 准教授 (50447033) ; 竹島 千尋 桜美林大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 助手 (80583450)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OHGUSHI Kengo 京都市立芸術大学, 音楽学部, 名誉教授 (00203745) ; KATO Hiroaki 独立行政法人情報通信研究機構, 研究員 (20374093) ; KENJI Kurakata 早稲田大学, 人間科学学術院, 教授 (90356931) ; MATSUI Toshie 和歌山大学, システム工学部, 助教 (10510034)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-05-31 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 聴覚 / ピッチ / 聴覚計算モデル / 加齢 / 絶対音感 / 時間微細構造情報 / トノトピー / 非線形応答

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of the current study was phenomenal, psychophysical and physiological observations for effects of aging on hearing. The focus of the research was the age-induced pitch shift, which had not been investigated systematically. Experimental data have been collected sufficiently large number of listeners whose age ranged from 20s to 50s. The correlation analyses between the pitch shifts, the hearing level, the level of otoacoustic emissions, and the frequency following responses of EEGs were performed. With several basic experiments on the reduction of the compressive characteristics of the peripheral auditory mechanism, and on the deterioration of the phase locking of the neural activities, it was concluded that the pitch shift was difficult to be explained by these well-known factors, and a new computational model for pitch coding was proposed.

Free Research Field

知覚心理学