# Neural Correlates of Streaming of Complex Sounds

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2021 · $570,183

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The goal of this research is to explain how the auditory system analyzes complex
acoustic scenes, in which multiple sound “streams” (e.g., concurrent voices) interact
and compete for attention. Synergy is created by combining 1) simultaneous behavioral
and neurophysiological measures from primary and secondary auditory cortex in ferrets
with 2) comparable behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures in
humans within 3) the theoretical and computational framework of the temporal
coherence hypothesis. Specific Aim 1 involves recordings of single-unit cortical
responses while ferrets segregate speech mixtures and detect the presence of a target
word spoken by the target talker. The experiments will be paralleled by tests of human
streaming of speech sounds that are comprised of natural mixtures of voiced (harmonic)
and unvoiced (noise-like) sounds. Specific Aim 2 explores the role of coherence and
attention in stream binding and segregation using stimuli with simpler spectral
characteristics, e.g., pure-tones and noise sequences. The goal is to test strong
predictions of the temporal coherence hypothesis with respect to the effects of
temporally synchronous, alternating, or overlapping sound sequences. Specific Aim 3
extends this approach to higher-level attributes of more complex stimuli, such as pitch
and timbre, which are more ecologically relevant. Here we examine the role of pitch and
timbre in characterizing the continuity of a stream, and binding the elements of the
stream in both ferrets and humans. This research has direct and significant health
implications, because one of the most common complaints of hearing-impaired
individuals (including wearers of hearing aids or cochlear implants) is that they find it
difficult to separate concurrent streams of sounds, and to attend selectively to one of
these streams (such as someone's voice) among other streams. A clearer
understanding of the mechanisms underlying the perceptual ability to separate, and
attend to, auditory streams will likely lead to a clearer understanding of the origin of
these selective-listening difficulties, and it may inspire the design of more effective
sound-separation algorithms for use in hearing aids, cochlear implants, and automatic
speech recognition devices.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10134314
- **Project number:** 5R01DC016119-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** Shihab A Shamma
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $570,183
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10134314

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10134314, Neural Correlates of Streaming of Complex Sounds (5R01DC016119-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10134314. Licensed CC0.

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