Discrimination of modulation depth of sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) noise

The detection of sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) provides a lower bound on the degree to which temporal information in the envelope of complex waveforms is encoded by the auditory system. The extent to which changes in the amount of modulation are discriminable provides additional information on the ability of the auditory system to utilize envelope fluctuations. Results from an experiment on the discrimination of modulation depth of broadband noise are presented. Discrimination thresholds, expressed as differences in modulation power, increase monotonically with the modulation depth of the standard, but do not obey Weber's law. The effects of carrier level and of modulation frequency are consistent with those observed in modulation detection: Changes in carrier level have little effect on modulation discrimination; changes in modulation frequency also have little effect except for standards near the modulation detection threshold. The discrimination of modulation depth is consistent with the leaky-integrator model of modulation detection for standards below--10 dB (20 log ms); for standards greater than--10 dB, the leaky integrator predicts better performance than that observed behaviorally.     

Modulation interference in detection and discrimination of amplitude modulation

Two experiments were conducted to assess the effect of the rate of sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) of a masker tone on detection of SAM of a probe tone (experiment 1) or on SAM-rate discrimination for the probe tone (experiment 2). When modulated at the same rate as the probe, the masker interfered with both the detection of probe modulation and the discrimination of the rate of probe modulation. The interference was obtained when the masker was either higher or lower in frequency than the probe (the probe and masker were separated by 2 oct). The amount of interference in detecting probe modulation (experiment 1) decreased as the common base rate of modulation was increased from 5 to 200 Hz. For rate discrimination (experiment 2), the amount of interference remained approximately the same for base rates of 2-40 Hz, the range over which rate discrimination was measured. In both experiments, the amount of interference was reduced when the masker was modulated at a different rate than the probe.     

Detection and rate discrimination of amplitude modulation in electrical hearing

Three experiments were designed to examine temporal envelope processing by cochlear implant (CI) listeners. In experiment 1, the hypothesis that listeners' modulation sensitivity would in part determine their ability to discriminate between temporal modulation rates was examined. Temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) obtained in an amplitude modulation detection (AMD) task were compared to threshold functions obtained in an amplitude modulation rate discrimination (AMRD) task. Statistically significant nonlinear correlations were observed between the two measures. In experiment 2, results of loudness-balancing showed small increases in the loudness of modulated over unmodulated stimuli beyond a modulation depth of 16%. Results of experiment 3 indicated small but statistically significant effects of level-roving on the overall gain of the TMTF, but no impact of level-roving on the average shape of the TMTF across subjects. This suggested that level-roving simply increased the task difficulty for most listeners, but did not indicate increased use of intensity cues under more challenging conditions. Data obtained with one subject, however, suggested that the most sensitive listeners may derive some benefit from intensity cues in these tasks. Overall, results indicated that intensity cues did not play an important role in temporal envelope processing by the average CI listener.     

Intensity discrimination and detection of amplitude modulation in electric hearing

Wojtczak and Viemeister [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 1917-1924 (1999)] demonstrated a close relationship between intensity difference limens (DLs) and 4-Hz amplitude modulation (AM) detection thresholds in normal-hearing acoustic listeners. The present study demonstrates a similar relationship between intensity DLs and AM detection thresholds in cochlear-implant listeners, for gated stimuli. This suggests that acoustic and cochlear-implant listeners make use of a similar decision variable to perform intensity discrimination and modulation detection tasks. It can be shown that the absence of compression in electric hearing does not preclude this possibility.     

Achievement of longitudinally polarized focusing with long focal depth by amplitude modulation

The longitudinal component of a focused beam is split into two parts along the optical axis to obtain a longitudinally polarized long focal depth using amplitude filtering based on Euler transformation and a radially polarized Bessel-Gaussian beam. Numerical results indicate that long focal depth and FWHM can be easily achieved with 9λ and 0.8λ, respectively. A radially polarized beam can be converted into a longitudinally polarized beam with a conversion efficiency of 51.0%. It can therefore be believed that the proposed scheme can be widely used to generate a longitudinally polarized beam for particle acceleration, laser cutting, and optical trapping.     

Discrimination of depth of sinusoidal amplitude modulation with and without roved carrier levels

Thresholds for the discrimination of the depth of sinusoidal amplitude modulation with a broadband noise carrier were measured for three listeners in a two-alternative, forced-choice task for modulation frequencies of 8, 32, and 128 Hz. Thresholds were measured with the spectrum level of the carrier fixed at 20 dB across all trials and, separately, with the carrier spectrum level roved randomly over a 20-dB range (10-30 dB) in each interval. Mean thresholds were equal or slightly lower (but not significantly so) for the fixed conditions relative to the roved conditions, and the differences between thresholds were too small to be explained by assuming that listeners compared instantaneous intensity at corresponding phases of the modulation cycle (for example, in the troughs). Rather, it appears that listeners discriminated modulation depth by extracting an estimate of the modulation depth within each interval that was independent of the overall level. Consequently, models of envelope extraction must include normalization of the envelope fluctuations to the envelope dc.     

Extension of depth of field using amplitude and phase modulation of the pupil function

We analyze the extension of depth of field using both amplitude and phase modulation of the pupil function. In particular, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and establish the range of applicability of each method based on the range of spatial frequencies of interest in the imaging system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such report on the range of applicability of amplitude and phase modulation to extend the depth of field.     

Contribution of resonance medium amplitude and phase modulation to the effectiveness of phase conjugation by degenerate four-wave mixing

The contribution of amplitude and phase modulation to the energetic efficiency of wavefront conjugation (WFC) under degenerate four-wave mixing is studied in resonant media simulated by a two- or a three-level scheme. It is shown that a WFC-mirror of reflectivityR higher than unity may be achieved only in the presence of the medium phase modulation. Optimum conditions for obtaining high-efficiency (R>1) WFC are defined.     

Effects of the use of personal music players on amplitude modulation detection and frequency discrimination

Measures of auditory performance were compared for an experimental group who listened regularly to music via personal music players (PMP) and a control group who did not. Absolute thresholds were similar for the two groups for frequencies up to 2 kHz, but the experimental group had slightly but significantly higher thresholds at higher frequencies. Thresholds for the frequency discrimination of pure tones were measured for a sensation level (SL) of 20 dB and center frequencies of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 kHz. Thresholds were significantly higher (worse) for the experimental than for the control group for frequencies from 3 to 8 kHz, but not for lower frequencies. Thresholds for detecting sinusoidal amplitude modulation (AM) were measured for SLs of 10 and 20 dB, using four carrier frequencies 0.5, 3, 4, and 6 kHz, and three modulation frequencies 4, 16, and 50 Hz. Thresholds were significantly lower (better) for the experimental than for the control group for the 4- and 6-kHz carriers, but not for the other carriers. It is concluded that listening to music via PMP can have subtle effects on frequency discrimination and AM detection.     

Contribution to the theory of single-mode laser modulation

The problem of dielectric modulation of the single mode laser by acoustic wave is considered. The basic equations for creation and annihilation operators are solved. Expectation values for the number of quanta in the mode obtained from given solution are calculated and discussed.Technická 2, Praha 6, Czechoslovakia.     

Contribution to the theory of single-mode laser modulation II. Conduction modulation

The problem of conduction modulation of laser radiation is considered. It is shown that acoustic wave interacting with photon field in active medium causes a periodic modulation of the number of quanta in the single-mode gas laser. The problem of modulation is solved quantum mechanically and it is shown that dielectric and conduction modulation give similar results.     

不同宽带脉冲在钕玻璃放大器中的幅频效应

宽带脉冲在钕玻璃放大器中传输时,由于受到增益窄化和增益饱和效应的影响,脉冲频谱将受到调制,从而产生边带丢失或者频谱两侧失衡,进而导致脉冲时间波形产生调制。针对不同的宽带光源模型,数值模拟了放大器输出波形的幅度调制,分析了增益带宽、输入脉冲带宽及增益曲线中心波长相对输入脉冲中心波长的偏差等因素对输出脉冲调制度的影响。结果表明：不同的宽带光源脉冲经过钕玻璃放大器后,均会产生不同程度的幅度调制;啁啾堆积脉冲比正弦相位调制脉冲产生的幅度调制小。     

Contribution of original dislocations to the amplitude characteristic of internal friction

The amplitude characteristic of internal friction is calculated here, with two kinds of internal barriers taken into account. The initial stage of this curve has a peak whose profile is determined by the density of dislocations as well as by their movement and retardation. The factors are analyzed which contribute to a transition to the second stage of the characteristic, and its trend is considered in the case when the displacement of original dislocations increases jumpwise but the number of dislocations remains the same.     

Contribution of frequency modulation to speech recognition in noise

Cochlear implants allow most patients with profound deafness to successfully communicate under optimal listening conditions. However, the amplitude modulation (AM) information provided by most implants is not sufficient for speech recognition in realistic settings where noise is typically present. This study added slowly varying frequency modulation (FM) to the existing algorithm of an implant simulation and used competing sentences to evaluate FM contributions to speech recognition in noise. Potential FM advantage was evaluated as a function of the number of spectral bands, FM depth, FM rate, and FM band distribution. Barring floor and ceiling effects, significant improvement was observed for all bands from 1 to 32 with the additional FM cue both in quiet and noise. Performance also improved with greater FM depth and rate, which might reflect resolved sidebands under the FM condition. Having FM present in low-frequency bands was more beneficial than in high-frequency bands, and only half of the bands required the presence of FM, regardless of position, to achieve performance similar to when all bands had the FM cue. These results provide insight into the relative contributions of AM and FM to speech communication and the potential advantage of incorporating FM for cochlear implant signal processing.