Auditory deviance detection across time scales: Effects of local and global context
Matthew Blunt1, Stephanie Graceffo1, Nahaleh Fatemi1
1Laboratory for Computational Audio Perception, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
JASA Express Letters
|April 2, 2026
Summary
Listeners integrate auditory statistical information across different time scales. Both short-term (local) and long-term (global) context significantly impact auditory deviance detection performance.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Computational auditory neuroscience
Background:
- Auditory deviance detection involves identifying unexpected sounds in sequences.
- Performance is modulated by stimulus characteristics and listener expectations.
- Contextual information, both immediate and historical, plays a crucial role.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how different time scales of auditory context influence deviance detection.
- To differentiate the effects of local (short-term) versus global (long-term) contextual information.
- To model these effects using a predictive coding framework.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a priming paradigm with varying pitch distributions.
- Exposed listeners to different contextual statistics before deviant detection tasks.
- Employed computational modeling based on predictive coding principles.
Main Results:
- Listeners accumulate statistical information across both local and global contexts.
- Both local and global contextual information significantly influenced auditory deviance detection.
- Behavioral data aligned with predictions from the computational model.
Conclusions:
- Auditory deviance detection is a dynamic process integrating information across multiple temporal scales.
- Predictive coding frameworks effectively capture the influence of context on auditory perception.
- Understanding contextual integration is key to comprehending auditory processing in complex environments.
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