Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study stems from reports in the experimental literature that selective destruction of portions of the ventral acoustic system of the medulla produced differential effects on sound-based behavior. It has been shown that destruction of the nucleus of the trapezoid body or its afferent fibers resulted in a decrement in the strength of responding which terminated an intense noise signal. whereas auditory threshold to noise was not significantly affected. Bxtensive destruction of all the nuclear and fiber components of the ventral acoustic system raised the threshold substantially and produced a reduction in responding on the noise-termination task. The two problems approached in this thesis were to discover other aspects of audition which would be differentially affected by destruction of selected portions of the ventral acoustic system. and to define precisely the neural damage required to produce substantial shifts in auditory threshold. The subjects were albino rats. The experimental chamber was a wire mesh cage which contained a lever and food cup. A loudspeaker and light source were mounted on the roof of the cage. This apparatus and a pellet dispenser were enclosed in a sound-resistant, light-proof bax. [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01

Recognizing that two sounds are the same is a part of accurate vocal imitation, and the teaching of vocal imitation is an important part of language training for persons with developmental disabilities (DD) and children with autism. Researchers have developed an Auditory-Auditory Identity Matching Prototype Task (AAIM PT) to assess whether persons with DD can identify whether two sounds are the same (Harapiak, Martin, & Yu, 1999). Thus far, the one study (Sewell, 2005) that attempted to teach AAIM tasks to persons with DD who failed the AAIM PT had little success in doing so. The purpose of this research was to evaluate several procedures for teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism. In Experiment 1, the trainer said a word, a matching word was played out of one computer speaker, and a non-matching word was played out of another. The participant was required to point to the speaker that played the matching word. In a single-subject alternating-treatments design, volume fading of the non-matching word (from zero to full volume) was compared to the fading out of a pointing prompt to the speaker that played the matching word. Only one of five participants learned an AAIM task, and that participant did not pass the AAIM PT. Three pilot studies were then conducted to explore various prompting and fading strategies for teaching AAIM tasks, and all were unsuccessful. In Experiment 2, I examined a procedure for teaching AAIM in which the participant was actively involved in producing the sample sound and the matching and non-matching comparison sounds. This procedure also incorporated visual cues and sounds from the operation of a toy airplane as a possible natural, built-in reinforcer. In a single-subject AB design with replication within and across three participants (one person with DD and two children with autism), all three participants learned two AAIM tasks, two participants generalized to a third AAIM task, and one participant passed the AAIM PT. The encouraging results from Experiment 2 provide a promising starting point for future research on teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism.

Recognizing that two sounds are the same is a part of accurate vocal imitation, and the teaching of vocal imitation is an important part of language training for persons with developmental disabilities (DD) and children with autism. Researchers have developed an Auditory-Auditory Identity Matching Prototype Task (AAIM PT) to assess whether persons with DD can identify whether two sounds are the same (Harapiak, Martin, & Yu, 1999). Thus far, the one study (Sewell, 2005) that attempted to teach AAIM tasks to persons with DD who failed the AAIM PT had little success in doing so. The purpose of this research was to evaluate several procedures for teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism. In Experiment 1, the trainer said a word, a matching word was played out of one computer speaker, and a non-matching word was played out of another. The participant was required to point to the speaker that played the matching word. In a single-subject alternating-treatments design, volume fading of the non-matching word (from zero to full volume) was compared to the fading out of a pointing prompt to the speaker that played the matching word. Only one of five participants learned an AAIM task, and that participant did not pass the AAIM PT. Three pilot studies were then conducted to explore various prompting and fading strategies for teaching AAIM tasks, and all were unsuccessful. In Experiment 2, I examined a procedure for teaching AAIM in which the participant was actively involved in producing the sample sound and the matching and non-matching comparison sounds. This procedure also incorporated visual cues and sounds from the operation of a toy airplane as a possible natural, built-in reinforcer. In a single-subject AB design with replication within and across three participants (one person with DD and two children with autism), all three participants learned two AAIM tasks, two participants generalized to a third AAIM task, and one participant passed the AAIM PT. The encouraging results from Experiment 2 provide a promising starting point for future research on teaching AAIM tasks to persons with DD and children with autism.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / PROBLEM: The purpose of the research was to examine the relationships of auditory discrimination to articulatory proficiency as observed in kindergarten children; and secondarily, to examine the relationships of these variables to those of intelligence, selected personality factors, and speech muscular coordination. SCOPE: The sample population of 132 kindergarten children was selected from eight elementary schools in one city, with a ninth school for pilot testing. A four-point socioeconomic level instrument devised for the study and the Short Form. of the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation were used to select the sample. PROCEDURE: From the articulation score and socioeconomic designation determined for every kindergarten child in the elementary schools available for study, 132 children were randomly selected and randomly assigned to either a pretest or experimental group. The pretest group was first administered the Auditory Discrimination Test. Results were then analyzed, and the test was revised and administered to the experimental group. Data on the other variables of intelligence, speech muscular coordination, and selected personality factors were obtained through a single administration to each child of the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test, the Averell Speech Muscular Coordination Test, the Children's Apperception Test, and the Long Form of the Templin-Darley Tests of Articulation. As a final step, correlations of the variables were computed, studied, and interpreted. MAJOR FINDINGS: Auditory discrimination and articulatory proficiency are not significantly related. Also, the auditory discrimination scores are not related to the change in the articulation performance of the kindergarten children after they entered the first grade of school. Auditory discrimination did not correlate significantly with selected personality factors. The correlations of auditory discrimination and speech muscular coordination are positive and significant at the .01 level of confidence. Auditory discrimination and intelligence correlated significantly. This is an indication that the two variables are closely related for this age group. Articulatory proficiency did not correlate significantly with intelligence, selected personality factors, or speech muscular coordination. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that the variables studied are not significantly related, even though clinical impressions of individual children and some past studies suggest positive relationships. In general, the findings indicate that kindergarten children as a group who have numerous misarticulations in their speech, as compared with kindergarten children with few or no misarticulations, will not display (1) more difficulty with auditory discrimination tasks, or (2) more incoordination in the performance of movements considered to be basic for successful production of speech sounds; nor will the kindergarten children as a group (3) display abnormal degrees of feelings, or (4) have lower intelligence quotients. It is felt that the data do not preclude the possibility that these variables are significantly related for individual children, since there seems to be a disparity between clinical impressions and the research instruments used for this study. It is possible that the research instruments are invalid or that the clinical impressions are misleading. The means of assessing these variables must be studied further, both experimentally and clinically. In particular, experimentation with the auditory discrimination measure has suggested modifications that can be made in the test. Since it is known that this type of test has been effective with kindergarten children, future research should be devoted to studying pre-kindergarten children with the same or similar model. For example, individual children should be studied longitudinally over an extended period of time, sampling their performance for auditory discrimination tasks, as well as sampling changes in verbalizations of feelings, and their speech muscular coordination growth. Both experimental and clinical approaches will be desirable. / 2999-01-01

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

A l’heure actuelle, il reste largement à étudier comment le codage sensoriel des signaux vocaux de communication contribue à leur détection et à leur reconnaissance. Peu d’études se sont, en effet, penchées sur le codage des vocalisations au niveau des régions auditives en fonction de l’individu qui les produit et du degré de familiarité avec cet individu. Dans ce cadre, les oiseaux chanteurs sont un bon modèle parce qu’ils utilisent des vocalisations pour interagir et reconnaître leurs congénères et qu’ils possèdent, de plus, un ensemble de régions auditives. Parmi ces régions, le nidopallium caudomedian (NCM), une aire auditive analogue du cortex auditif secondaire chez les mammifères, est actuellement considérée comme une région spécialisée dans le traitement des vocalisations (chants et cris) de l’espèce : les neurones du NCM répondent plus fortement aux vocalisations de l’espèce qu’à celles d’une autre espèce. À partir de là, parce que chez le diamant mandarin, le cri de distance permet aux individus, mâles ou femelles, de reconnaître leur partenaire sexuel, nous avons cherché à savoir si, chez les femelles comme chez les mâles, les neurones du NCM montraient une discrimination dans leurs réponses auditives entre le cri d’individus connus (parmi lesquels figurait le partenaire sexuel) et ceux d’individus inconnus et si ces réponses reflétaient le degré de familiarité de ces vocalisations. Les enregistrements de l’activité des neurones du NCM, chez des diamants mandarins vigiles (grâce à un système de télémétrie) ou anesthésiés, lors de la présentation de cris de distance, ont révélé, chez les femelles vivant en couple et ayant été familiarisées avec un autre couple de diamants mandarins, une plus forte augmentation de l’activité lors de la diffusion des cris d’individus connus, mâles ou femelles, qu’aux cris d’individus inconnus. Une telle augmentation n’a pas été, en outre, observée chez des femelles contrôles qui n’avaient jamais entendu ces mêmes cris auparavant. De plus, ils ont indiqué que le nombre de neurones montrant un fort degré de sélectivité ainsi que la quantité d’information portée par les trains de potentiels d’action étaient plus importants chez les femelles vivant en couple que chez les femelles contrôles. En revanche, chez les mâles, bien que la plupart des neurones montrait des réponses lors de la diffusion des cris, aucune différence n’a été mise en évidence entre les cris d’individus connus et ceux d’inconnus. Nous avons alors cherché à savoir comment, d’un point de vue acoustique, les cris de distance étaient représentés au sein du NCM. En se basant sur une étude comportementale ayant déterminé quelles étaient les caractéristiques acoustiques qui contribuaient à la reconnaissance de ces cris, nous avons cherché à savoir si les neurones du NCM étaient sensibles à ces mêmes caractéristiques acoustiques. Les résultats ont montré que, chez les femelles, la suppression de la fréquence fondamentale et la modification du timbre du cri du partenaire sexuel ou du propre cri de l’oiseau provoquaient une forte diminution des réponses au sein du NCM alors que, chez les mâles, les réponses variaient selon le paramètre modifié et le type de cri présenté. Nos résultats suggèrent donc que, chez le diamant mandarin, le NCM est impliqué dans le codage du cri de distance. Cependant, ils mettent en évidence des différences dans ce codage entre les mâles et les femelles. Chez les femelles, ce codage permet de discriminer entre les cris d’individus connus et ceux d’individus inconnus alors que chez les mâles, son rôle reste à être déterminé. Chez les femelles, l’expérience sociale au travers de la mémorisation des signaux de communication des individus peut donc façonner les propriétés fonctionnelles des neurones d’une aire auditive secondaire. Ces propriétés pourraient donc continuellement subir des changements pour s'adapter à l’environnement social de l’individu. / How sensory signals are encoded in the brain and whether their behavioural relevance affects their encoding are central questions in sensory neuroscience. Studies have consistently shown that behavioural relevance can change the neural representation of sounds in the auditory system, but what occurs in the context of natural acoustic communication where significance could be acquired through social interaction remains to be explored. The zebra finch, a highly social songbird species that forms lifelong pair bonds and uses a vocalization, the distance call, to identify its mate offers an opportunity to address this issue. One auditory area in the songbird telencephalon, the caudo-medial nidopallium (NCM) that is considered as being analogous to the secondary mammalian auditory cortex, has recently emerged as part of the neural substrate for sensory representation of species-specific vocalizations: the activation of NCM neurons is greatest when birds are exposed to conspecific song, as compared to heterospecific song or artificial stimuli. This led us to investigate whether, in the zebra finch, NCM neurons could contribute to the discrimination among vocalizations that differ in their degree of familiarity: calls produced by the mate, by familiar individuals (males or females), or by unfamiliar individuals (males or females). In females, behaviourally relevant calls, i.e. the mate’s call and familiar calls, evoked responses of greater magnitude than unfamiliar calls. This distinction between responses was seen both in multiunit recordings from awake freely moving mated females (using a telemetric system) and in single unit recordings from anesthetized mated females. In contrast, control females that had not heard them previously displayed response of similar magnitude to call stimuli. In addition, more cells showed highly selective responses in mated than in control females suggesting that experience-dependent plasticity in call-evoked responses resulted in enhanced discrimination of auditory stimuli. In males, as in females, call playback evoked robust auditory responses. However, neurons in males did not appear capable of categorizing the calls of individuals (males or females) as ‘‘familiar’’ or ‘‘unfamiliar’’. Then, we investigated how calls are represented in the NCM of zebra finches by assessing whether certain call-specific acoustic cues drove NCM neurons to a greater degree than others. Behavioural studies had previously identified call-specific acoustic cues that are necessary to elicit a vocal response from male and female zebra finches. Single-unit recordings indicated that NCM neurons in females were particularly sensitive to call modifications in the spectral domain: suppressing the fundamental frequency of call stimuli or modifying the relative energy levels of harmonics in call caused a marked decrease in response magnitude of NCM neurons. In males, NCM neurons also appear to be sensitive to call modifications in the spectral domain, however changes in magnitude of responses (increase or decrease) depended on the acoustic cue that had been modified.Our results provide evidence that the NCM is a telencephalic auditory region that contributes to the processing of the distance call, in females as well in males. However, how the distance call is processed and represented in the NCM appears to differ between males and females. In females, the NCM could be involved in dicrimination between call stimuli whereas, in males, its functional role in call-processing remains to be determined. Our results also suggest that, in females, social experience with the call of individuals, by affecting the degree to which neurons discriminated between these calls, may shape the functional properties of neurons in a telencephalic auditory area. The functional properties of auditory neurons may therefore change continuously to adapt to the social environment.

This study aimed to test the effectiveness of classroom translations of some laboratory procedures for teaching simple auditory discriminations to learners with developmental disabilities. Three participants with autism and mental retardation were trained to make topographically distinct responses in the presence of two different stimuli, either a pure tone and silence, or two tones. A portable electronic piano keyboard was used to produce tones. Delayed prompt and differential reinforcement procedures were used to teach the responses. None of the participants performed the discriminations accurately without prompting despite numerous revisions to the procedures.

This study concerns audiometric evaluation and prediction of hearing loss in the autistic child based on information derived from acoustic reflex thresholds. Two groups (autistic males and normal children) of five subjects each were utilized. Results indicated that the acoustic reflex method consistently predicted significantly higher hearing thresholds for autistic subjects than operant pure-tone audiometric procedures. Furthermore, the acoustic reflex thresholds were significantly less sensitive in the autistic group than in the normal group, suggesting that the acoustic reflex response is somehow altered in autistic individuals. These findings are consistent with earlier work which hypothesized that autistics, manifest an organic brain lesion which interferes with the propagation of auditory information.

O uso de estímulos olfativos em estudos de discriminação simples e complexa em ratos tem fornecido dados relevantes à área de controle de estímulos porque esta modalidade de estímulo é mais saliente à espécie do que as comumente utilizadas. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o efeito da combinação entre as modalidades de estímulo olfativa e auditiva sobre o responder discriminado em um procedimento de bloqueio de estímulos em ratos. Quatro ratos machos Wistar (Rattus norvegicus) foram treinados em três tarefas de discriminação de acordo com o delineamento de bloqueio de estímulos. Na Fase I discriminação prévia, dois ratos foram treinados usando estímulos auditivos (A+/A-) e outros dois usando estímulos olfativos (B+/B-) como S+/S-. Na Fase II discriminação de estímulo composto, um estímulo composto (A+B+/A-B-) foi usado como S+/S- e na Fase III discriminação pós-composto, os estímulos usados na Fase I foram removidos do composto e o treino continuou com os estímulos restantes. Em seguida, foram treinados em fases adicionais: IV - (mesmo treino da Fase II), V (mesmo treino da Fase III) e Fase VI em duas etapas primeira, treino com A+/A- e B+/B- na mesma sessão sem configuração de estímulo composto e segunda, treino de competição de dicas A+B- e B+A-. Todas as fases foram realizadas a partir de um procedimento Go/No-Go. Respostas em esquema de razão fixa três na condição S+ (A+, A+B+ e B+) foram consequenciadas com acesso à solução de sacarose e resposta na condição S- (A-, A-B- e B-) resultou em timeout de 2s após o final da tentativa. Não foi programada consequência específica para o não responder. Para todas as fases o critério de aquisição foi 90% ou mais de índice discriminativo. Na Fase I os resultados mostraram uma aquisição mais rápida do responder discriminado com estímulos olfativos. Os dados das Fases II e III indicaram que houve ocorrência de bloqueio de estímulos para todos os sujeitos, independente da ordem de treino com as modalidades de estímulos. As Fases IV e V indicaram uma replicação do fenômeno de bloqueio apesar do treino realizado na Fase III. A Fase VI sugeriu que o responder discriminado se diferenciou segundo o tipo de configuração de estímulo e que a repetição de bloqueio foi produzida pela discriminação prévia. Os resultados do estudo indicaram que a modalidade de estímulo foi determinante na aquisição de discriminação, mas não para bloqueio de estímulos, discordando da ideia de que odores não são bloqueados quando usados em estímulo composto em ratos e mostrando também que a saliência dos estímulos olfativos foi modulada pela discriminação prévia com outra modalidade / Use of olfactory stimuli in simple and complex discrimination studies with rats has produced important data to stimuli controls area because this stimulus modality is more salient than others usually used. The objective of this study was to investigate combinations effects between olfactory and auditory stimuli modalities on discriminative responding to stimuli blocking design. Four male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) were trained in three discriminative tasks according to the stimuli blocking design. In Phase I prior discrimination, two rats were trained using auditory stimuli (A+/A-) and two rats using olfactory stimuli (B+/B-) as S+/S-. On Phase II compound stimulus discrimination, a compound stimuli (A+B+/A-B-) were used as S+/S- and in Phase III post-compound stimulus discrimination, the stimuli used on Phase I were remove from the compound. After discriminative training, subjects were trained on additional phases: Phase IV (same training Phase II), Phase V (same training Phase III) and Phase VI with two stages: first - A+/A- and B+/B- training presented in the same session without stimulus compound configuration, second - cue competition training (A+B- and B+A-).Discriminative training was carried under a Go/No-Go procedure. Responses on a fixed-ratio three schedule was reinforced by access to a sucrose solution when S+ (A+, A+B+ and B+) was presented and responding in S- (A-, A-B- and B-) resulted in 2s-timeout after trials ending. No consequence was programmed to non-responding. The acquisition criterion was a 90% or more discriminative index. Phase I data showed a discriminative responding acquisition faster with olfactory stimuli compared to auditory stimuli. Phases II and III data revealed stimuli blocking for all subjects regardless of training order with stimulus modalities. Phases IV and V showed a replication of stimuli blocking despite the training occurred on Phase III. Phase VI indicated that discriminative responding differed by type stimulus configuration presented and that stimulus blocking replication was produced by prior discrimination. Thus, results indicated that stimuli sensory modality was relevant for discriminative responding but not for blocking, disagreeing from the idea that odors are not blocked when it are used in compound stimulus in rat and showing also that olfactory stimulus saliency can be changed by prior discrimination training by other modality

O uso de estímulos olfativos em estudos de discriminação simples e complexa em ratos tem fornecido dados relevantes à área de controle de estímulos porque esta modalidade de estímulo é mais saliente à espécie do que as comumente utilizadas. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o efeito da combinação entre as modalidades de estímulo olfativa e auditiva sobre o responder discriminado em um procedimento de bloqueio de estímulos em ratos. Quatro ratos machos Wistar (Rattus norvegicus) foram treinados em três tarefas de discriminação de acordo com o delineamento de bloqueio de estímulos. Na Fase I discriminação prévia, dois ratos foram treinados usando estímulos auditivos (A+/A-) e outros dois usando estímulos olfativos (B+/B-) como S+/S-. Na Fase II discriminação de estímulo composto, um estímulo composto (A+B+/A-B-) foi usado como S+/S- e na Fase III discriminação pós-composto, os estímulos usados na Fase I foram removidos do composto e o treino continuou com os estímulos restantes. Em seguida, foram treinados em fases adicionais: IV - (mesmo treino da Fase II), V (mesmo treino da Fase III) e Fase VI em duas etapas primeira, treino com A+/A- e B+/B- na mesma sessão sem configuração de estímulo composto e segunda, treino de competição de dicas A+B- e B+A-. Todas as fases foram realizadas a partir de um procedimento Go/No-Go. Respostas em esquema de razão fixa três na condição S+ (A+, A+B+ e B+) foram consequenciadas com acesso à solução de sacarose e resposta na condição S- (A-, A-B- e B-) resultou em timeout de 2s após o final da tentativa. Não foi programada consequência específica para o não responder. Para todas as fases o critério de aquisição foi 90% ou mais de índice discriminativo. Na Fase I os resultados mostraram uma aquisição mais rápida do responder discriminado com estímulos olfativos. Os dados das Fases II e III indicaram que houve ocorrência de bloqueio de estímulos para todos os sujeitos, independente da ordem de treino com as modalidades de estímulos. As Fases IV e V indicaram uma replicação do fenômeno de bloqueio apesar do treino realizado na Fase III. A Fase VI sugeriu que o responder discriminado se diferenciou segundo o tipo de configuração de estímulo e que a repetição de bloqueio foi produzida pela discriminação prévia. Os resultados do estudo indicaram que a modalidade de estímulo foi determinante na aquisição de discriminação, mas não para bloqueio de estímulos, discordando da ideia de que odores não são bloqueados quando usados em estímulo composto em ratos e mostrando também que a saliência dos estímulos olfativos foi modulada pela discriminação prévia com outra modalidade / Use of olfactory stimuli in simple and complex discrimination studies with rats has produced important data to stimuli controls area because this stimulus modality is more salient than others usually used. The objective of this study was to investigate combinations effects between olfactory and auditory stimuli modalities on discriminative responding to stimuli blocking design. Four male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) were trained in three discriminative tasks according to the stimuli blocking design. In Phase I prior discrimination, two rats were trained using auditory stimuli (A+/A-) and two rats using olfactory stimuli (B+/B-) as S+/S-. On Phase II compound stimulus discrimination, a compound stimuli (A+B+/A-B-) were used as S+/S- and in Phase III post-compound stimulus discrimination, the stimuli used on Phase I were remove from the compound. After discriminative training, subjects were trained on additional phases: Phase IV (same training Phase II), Phase V (same training Phase III) and Phase VI with two stages: first - A+/A- and B+/B- training presented in the same session without stimulus compound configuration, second - cue competition training (A+B- and B+A-).Discriminative training was carried under a Go/No-Go procedure. Responses on a fixed-ratio three schedule was reinforced by access to a sucrose solution when S+ (A+, A+B+ and B+) was presented and responding in S- (A-, A-B- and B-) resulted in 2s-timeout after trials ending. No consequence was programmed to non-responding. The acquisition criterion was a 90% or more discriminative index. Phase I data showed a discriminative responding acquisition faster with olfactory stimuli compared to auditory stimuli. Phases II and III data revealed stimuli blocking for all subjects regardless of training order with stimulus modalities. Phases IV and V showed a replication of stimuli blocking despite the training occurred on Phase III. Phase VI indicated that discriminative responding differed by type stimulus configuration presented and that stimulus blocking replication was produced by prior discrimination. Thus, results indicated that stimuli sensory modality was relevant for discriminative responding but not for blocking, disagreeing from the idea that odors are not blocked when it are used in compound stimulus in rat and showing also that olfactory stimulus saliency can be changed by prior discrimination training by other modality