ArticleAttention, perception & psychophysics2022
Harmonicity aids hearing in noise.
Article in Attention, perception & psychophysics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Divergent processing strategies for auditory sequence recognition in humans and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).Communications biology · 2026Article
- Role of harmonicity in counting and hearing out voices in polyphonic music: Effects of hearing loss.Hearing research · 2026Article
- Optimized feature gains explain and predict successes and failures of human selective listening.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Modulation statistics allow robust prediction of speech recognition accuracy across many words, voices, and natural background sounds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prediction from Statistical Learning Aids Auditory Scene Analysis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Review
- From sound to source: Human and model recognition of environmental sounds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Non-linear relationships between auditory mismatch responses and the inharmonicity of complex sounds.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Task-optimized models of sensory uncertainty reproduce human confidence judgments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Inharmonicity enhances brain signals of attentional capture and auditory stream segregation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Association between hearing loss but not age and mistuning perception in music.Hearing research · 2025Article
- A deep learning framework for understanding cochlear implants.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The role of harmonicity on listeners' ability to hear out voices in polyphonic music.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Reduced Neural Responses to Natural Foreground versus Background Sounds in the Auditory Cortex.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Predicting speech-in-noise ability with static and dynamic auditory figure-ground analysis using structural equation modelling.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Noise schemas aid hearing in noise.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Effects of Memantine on the Auditory Steady-State and Harmonic Responses to 40 Hz Stimulation Across Species.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2024Article
- What is a Rhythm for the Brain? The Impact of Contextual Temporal Variability on Auditory Perception.Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- Benefits of Harmonicity for Hearing in Noise Are Limited to Detection and Pitch-Related Discrimination Tasks.Biology · 2023Article
- Model metamers reveal divergent invariances between biological and artificial neural networks.Nature neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Hearing in noise is a core problem in audition, and a challenge for hearing-impaired listeners, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We explored whether harmonic frequency relations, a signature property of many communication sounds, aid hearing in noise for normal hearing listeners. We measured detection thresholds in noise for tones and speech synthesized to have harmonic or inharmonic spectra. Harmonic signals were consistently easier to detect than otherwise identical inharmonic signals. Harmonicity also improved discrimination of sounds in noise. The largest benefits were observed for two-note up-down "pitch" discrimination and melodic contour discrimination, both of which could be performed equally well with harmonic and inharmonic tones in quiet, but which showed large harmonic advantages in noise. The results show that harmonicity facilitates hearing in noise, plausibly by providing a noise-robust pitch cue that aids detection and discrimination.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.