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RE : [AUDITORY] sex differences in perception of environmental sounds
Dear All,
I also think that the discussion about the operational definitions of environmental sounds is important. As for the neuroimaging literature on the issue of sound category processing, P. Belin indeed did a great job, and you should have a look at the last paper from our group on this issue, in which we used the term "environmental sound" as defined by Brian Gygi.
The role of actions in auditory object discrimination.
De Lucia M, Camen C, Clarke S, Murray MM.
Neuroimage. 2009 Nov 1;48(2):475-85..
PMID: 19559091
Rapid brain discrimination of sounds of objects.
Murray MM, Camen C, Gonzalez Andino SL, Bovet P, Clarke S.
J Neurosci. 2006 Jan 25;26(4):1293-302.
PMID: 1643661
Concerning the initial question of gender effects, if I remember well, this issue is discussed in the fMRI paper by P. Maeder et al., 2001, Neuroimage on what/where pathways.
regards,
Lucas
Lucas SPIERER, PhD
Faculty of Biology and Medicine - UNIL
Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service - CHUV
av. Pierre-Decker 5 1011
Lausanne, Switzerland
Ph.: +41'21'314'13'17
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web: http://lucas.spierer.ch
________________________________________
De : AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] de la part de Milena Droumeva [mvdroume@xxxxxx]
Date d'envoi : mardi, 18. mai 2010 19:30
À : AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Objet : Re: [AUDITORY] sex differences in perception of environmental sounds
Dear all,
rather than having some hard evidence to offer, I see this important discussion as a way to keep the conversation going and wanted to just express an opinion on the definition of "environmental sounds" and other confounding factors about the perception of environmental sounds that I believe defy a bit direct comparisons of basic human differences such as sex, even age, etc.
My familiarity and work with environmental sounds comes from some years of work as a sound designer and auditory display designer where I've taken "environmental sounds" and used them as basis for designing informational displays, as well as continuous feedback. I also have a background in acoustic ecology of the R.M. Schafer kind (if any of you are familiar)
I have to admit I am surprised to learn that in the psychology area there is an established definition of environmental sounds, given - and here is my "opinion" point - the highly culturally defined and specific nature of environmental sound perception. The example of baby crying is just too easy to pick on, but I will anyway - it could be argued that this is a highly particular sound, laden with cultural meaning and habituation. Before it can be reduced to sex differences, must we not recognize that not only parents vs. non-parents would naturally have an elevated sensitivity to it, as it is meaningful, but also women, even non-parents - get socialized in almost every culture - to think of themselves as potential mothers, and thus might, again, be more sensitive to a sound of baby crying. To me, this does not imply biology and primary psychology (that is, sex differences in perception) - it implies cultural habituation.
This can be said for many, seemingly "innocent" and everyday/familiar environmental sounds - and I am curios, based on this discussion - are any of these other confounding factors (pesky cultural ones) being taken into account in any way in the psychoacoustic field?
Further - is any difference being made in the definition of environmental sounds between human, mechanical, electronic, electroacoustic and digital sound?
Thank you for entertaining my concerns - I just think this is a really important discussion to have here!
Milena
On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 11:11 PM, Brian Gygi <bgygi@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:bgygi@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
David,
Although no formal body has ruled on the topic, in the past several years the term "environmental sounds" has acquired a relatively stable definition - namely familiar, naturally occurring sounds that refer to physical sources in the environment. There is of course some ambiguity regarding precisely what fits into this category, i.e., do musical instruments count, whose primary function is acoustic conveyance of aesthetic attributes rather than sound source specification? In any case,tThis is the definition I and others have taken in our work and what I assume Joanna meant. If not I hope she will let us know.
Brian Gygi, Ph.D.
Speech and Hearing Research
Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System
150 Muir Road
Martinez, CA 94553
(925) 372-2000 x5653
-----Original Message-----
From: David Mountain [mailto:dcm@xxxxxx<mailto:dcm@xxxxxx>]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 08:06 PM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: sex differences in perception of environmental sounds
I think that before we can address this question, we need to define what we mean by "environmental sounds."
On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:47 AM, valeriy shafiro <firosha@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:firosha@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Dear Joanna,
As far as I know across the studies of environmental sound perception
in the last 20-30 years none was designed specifically to examine
male/female differences. Results from studies that looked at
identification of large collections of different types of
environmental sounds also did not find any differences, although in a
recent study on environmental sound identification within contextually
congruent and incongruent auditory scenes, Brian Gygi and I, saw an
overall identification difference between males and females, but it
was small (3-4 points) and non significant. It is conceivable that
given a large variety of familiar environmental sounds tested in these
studies, whatever differences there may be between males and females
are obscured, and that for a set of specific sounds there are may be
sex differeces in behavioral of physiologic measures (e.g. baby
crying). While not specifically targeting environmental sounds, John
Neuhoff did find some interesting sex differences in the perception of
looming motion, which might relevant to your question.
Best regards,
Valeriy
On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Joanna Kantor-Martynuska
<joanna.kantor@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:joanna.kantor@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> Dear Auditory List,
>
> I would very much appreciate your suggestions about the literature regarding
> sex differences in perception of environmental sounds. I’m intrested in
> physiological indices of auditory predispositions for perception of
> different sounds we encounter in our natural environment.
>
> Looking forward to any interesting suggestions or links.
>
> Best,
> Joanna Kantor
--
David C. Mountain, Ph.D.
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Boston University
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