title: Constraints on Sensitivity to Auditory Modulation in the Perceptual Organization of Speech.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The perception of speech requires the integration of sensory details from a rapidly fading trace of a time-varying spectrum. This effortful cognitive function has been difficult to assess. New tests measuring intelligibility of sine-wave replicas of speech provided an assay of this critical function in normal-hearing young adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four time-varying sinusoids replicated the frequency and amplitude variation of the natural resonances of spoken sentences. The temporal tolerance of perceptual integration of speech was measured by determining the effect on intelligibility of desynchronizing a single sine-wave component in each sentence. This method was applied in tests in which the sentences were temporally compressed or expanded over a 40% range.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Desynchrony was harmful to perceptual integration over a narrow temporal range, indicating that modulation sensitivity is keyed to a rate of 20 Hz. No effect of variation in speech rate was observed on the intelligibility measure, whether rate was accelerated or decelerated relative to the natural rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Performance measures of desynchrony tolerance did not vary when speech rate was accelerated or decelerated, revealing constraints on integration that are arguably primitive, sensory, auditory, and fixed. Because these are not adaptable, they limit the potential for perceptual learning in this aspect of perceptual organization. Implications for describing the elderly listener are noted.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Remez
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Emily F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Andrea M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wycoff
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Giglio
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Aislinn T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Crank
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Chloe B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Cheimets
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience & Behavior , Barnard College, Columbia University , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Stavroula M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Koinis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult