title: Temporal predictability enhances auditory detection.
abstract: Periodic stimuli are common in natural environments and are ecologically relevant, for example, footsteps and vocalizations. This study reports a detectability enhancement for temporally cued, periodic sequences. Target noise bursts (embedded in background noise) arriving at the time points which followed on from an introductory, periodic "cue" sequence were more easily detected (by ∼1.5 dB SNR) than identical noise bursts which randomly deviated from the cued temporal pattern. Temporal predictability and corresponding neuronal "entrainment" have been widely theorized to underlie important processes in auditory scene analysis and to confer perceptual advantage. This is the first study in the auditory domain to clearly demonstrate a perceptual enhancement of temporally predictable, near-threshold stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Sherrington Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom emma.lawrance@univ.ox.ac.uk, nicol.harper@dpag.ox.ac.uk, james.cooke@dpag.ox.ac.uk, jan.schnupp@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Emma L A
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Lawrance
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Sherrington Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom emma.lawrance@univ.ox.ac.uk, nicol.harper@dpag.ox.ac.uk, james.cooke@dpag.ox.ac.uk, jan.schnupp@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nicol S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Sherrington Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom emma.lawrance@univ.ox.ac.uk, nicol.harper@dpag.ox.ac.uk, james.cooke@dpag.ox.ac.uk, jan.schnupp@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Sherrington Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom emma.lawrance@univ.ox.ac.uk, nicol.harper@dpag.ox.ac.uk, james.cooke@dpag.ox.ac.uk, jan.schnupp@dpag.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jan W H
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Schnupp
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013016:Sound; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult