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Mapping unpleasantness of sounds to their auditory representation
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Mapping unpleasantness of sounds to their auditory representation

Sukhbinder Kumar, Helen M Forster, Peter Bailey and Timothy D Griffiths
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.124(6), pp.3810-3817
12/2008
DOI: 10.1121/1.3006380
PMID: 19206807

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Abstract

Certain sounds, for example, the squeal of chalk on a blackboard, are typically perceived as highly unpleasant. This study addressed the question of what aspects of the auditory representation of such sounds are associated with judgments of unpleasantness. Participants rated the perceived unpleasantness of a large number of sounds that included "griding" and other unpleasant sounds. A multivariate partial least-squares (PLS) model was then built to relate the ratings of unpleasantness with an auditory representation derived from a model of processing in the auditory pathway. The "existence region" of unpleasantness in the auditory space of frequency-temporal modulation was determined after the PLS model had been validated by predicting the unpleasantness of novel sounds from the auditory representation. It was observed that the existence region corresponded to spectral frequencies between 2500 and 5500 Hz, and temporal modulations in the range 1-16 Hz.
 Acoustic Stimulation Adult Animals Auditory Cortex - physiology Auditory Perception Emotions Female Humans Least-Squares Analysis Male Models, Neurological Music Noise, Transportation Reproducibility of Results Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted Sound Sound Spectrography Time Factors Vocalization, Animal Young Adult

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