William C. Stebbins

Bio: William C. Stebbins is an academic researcher from University of Michigan. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cochlea & Hearing loss. The author has an hindex of 29, co-authored 69 publications receiving 2884 citations.

Neural Lateralization of Species-Specific Vocalizations by Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata)

Abstract: Five Japanese macaques and five other Old World monkeys were trained to discriminate among field-recorded Japanese macaque vocalizations. One task required discrimination of a communicatively relevant acoustic feature ("peak"), and a second required discrimination of an orthogonal feature of the same vocalizations ("pitch"). The Japanese animals more proficiently discriminated the peak feature when stimuli were presented to the right ear (primarily left cerebral hemisphere), as opposed to the left ear (primarily right hemisphere). In discriminating the pitch feature, the Japanese animals either showed (i) a left-ear processing advantage or (ii) no ear advantage. The comparison animals, with one exception, showed no ear advantage in processing either feature of the vocalizations. The results suggest that Japanese macaques engage left-hemisphere processors for the analysis of communicatively significant sounds that are analogous to the lateralized mechanisms used by humans listening to speech.

Categorical perception of conspecific communication sounds by Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata

Abstract: Field studies indicate that Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) communication signals vary with the social situation in which they occur [S. Green, "Variation of vocal pattern with social situation in the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata): A field study," in Primate Behavior, edited by L. A. Rosenblum (Academic, New York, 1975), Vol. 4]. A significant acoustic property of the contact calls produced by these primates is the temporal position of a frequency peak within the vocalization, that is, an inflection from rising to falling frequency [May et al., "Significant features of Japanese macaque communication sounds: A psychophysical study," Anim. Behav. 36, 1432-1444 (1988)]. The experiments reported here are based on the hypothesis that Japanese macaques derive meaning from this temporally graded feature by parceling the acoustic variation inherent in natural contact calls into two functional categories, and thus exhibit behavior that is analogous to the categorical perception of speech sounds by humans. To test this hypothesis, Japanese macaques were trained to classify natural contact calls by performing operant responses that signified either an early or late frequency peak position. Then, the subjects were tested in a series of experiments that required them to generalize this behavior to synthetic calls representing a continuum of peak positions. Demonstration of the classical perceptual effects noted for human listeners suggests that categorical perception reflects a principle of auditory information processing that influences the perception of sounds in the communication systems not only of humans, but of animals as well.

Auditory reaction time and the derivation of equal loudness contours for the monkey.

Abstract: Monkeys were trained to release a telegraph key at the onset of a pure tone. Latency of the response was measured over a 70-db range of sound pressure (re 0.0002 dyn/cm2) at six frequencies (250 to 15,000 cps). Latency was found to be an inverse exponential function of intensity at all frequencies. Equal loudness was inferred from the equal latency contours which were constructed from the latency-intensity functions at each frequency. These data indicate peak auditory sensitivity for the monkey near 1000 cps. At the frequencies above and below 1000 cps consistently more sound energy was required for equal latency.

Neural lateralization of vocalizations by Japanese macaques: Communicative significance is more important than acoustic structure.

Abstract: The study was designed to determine whether the neural lateralization of vocal perception in Japanese macaques depends on the acoustic properties of the calls used or their communicative significance. Four monkeys--two Japanese macaques and two comparison macaques--were trained to discriminate among monaurally presented exemplars of two classes of vocalizations from the Japanese macaque's repertoire. Once the subjects mastered the discrimination, they performed at equivalent accuracy levels for 150 sessions. However, during this time the Japanese monkeys showed a right ear performance advantage, whereas the comparison monkeys showed no ear advantage. In order to assess whether the comparison and Japanese monkeys were attending to the same acoustic cue when performing the discrimination, a generalization test was conducted with 27 novel vocalizations. The individual monkeys' generalization gradients were highly similar and revealed that all subjects were in fact listening to the same feature of the calls. These findings, coupled with the fact that the calls were of biological significance to the Japanese monkeys alone, suggest that the laterality effect is related, in some fashion, to the communicative valence of the signals rather than their purely physical characteristics.

Perception of Conspecific Vocalizations by Japanese Macaques

Abstract: Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) and control species (vervet, pigtailed macaque, bonnet macaque) were trained for food to respond to one class of recorded fuscata vocalizations an

The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?

Abstract: We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB)and in the narrow sense (FLN) . FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).

Cerebral lateralization. Biological mechanisms, associations, and pathology: II. A hypothesis and a program for research.

Abstract: Part two of this three-part series commences with anomalous dominance and special talents. Part one appears in a previous issue of theArchives. 1 ANOMALOUS DOMINANCE AND SPECIAL TALENTS According to our hypothesis, slowed growth within certain zones of the left hemisphere is likely to result in enlargement of other cortical regions, in particular, the homologous contralateral area, but also adjacent unfaffected regions. The influences that favor anomalous dominance may thus favor talents associated with superior development of certain regions either in the right hemisphere or in adjacent parts of the left hemisphere. Even with excessive retardation of growth and the resultant migration abnormalities and learning disorders (LD), high talents may exist as a result of compensatory enlargement of other cortical regions. Several types of data are in concordance with these conclusions. Several studies have claimed that the average level of spatial talents is higher in male subiects. 2 Hier

Mechanics of the Mammalian Cochlea

Abstract: In mammals, environmental sounds stimulate the auditory receptor, the cochlea, via vibrations of the stapes, the innermost of the middle ear ossicles. These vibrations produce displacement waves that travel on the elongated and spirally wound basilar membrane (BM). As they travel, waves grow in amplitude, reaching a maximum and then dying out. The location of maximum BM motion is a function of stimulus frequency, with high-frequency waves being localized to the “base” of the cochlea (near the stapes) and low-frequency waves approaching the “apex” of the cochlea. Thus each cochlear site has a characteristic frequency (CF), to which it responds maximally. BM vibrations produce motion of hair cell stereocilia, which gates stereociliar transduction channels leading to the generation of hair cell receptor potentials and the excitation of afferent auditory nerve fibers. At the base of the cochlea, BM motion exhibits a CF-specific and level-dependent compressive nonlinearity such that responses to low-level, near-CF stimuli are sensitive and sharply frequency-tuned and responses to intense stimuli are insensitive and poorly tuned. The high sensitivity and sharp-frequency tuning, as well as compression and other nonlinearities (two-tone suppression and intermodulation distortion), are highly labile, indicating the presence in normal cochleae of a positive feedback from the organ of Corti, the “cochlear amplifier.” This mechanism involves forces generated by the outer hair cells and controlled, directly or indirectly, by their transduction currents. At the apex of the cochlea, nonlinearities appear to be less prominent than at the base, perhaps implying that the cochlear amplifier plays a lesser role in determining apical mechanical responses to sound. Whether at the base or the apex, the properties of BM vibration adequately account for most frequency-specific properties of the responses to sound of auditory nerve fibers.

Sex differences in human brain asymmetry: a critical survey

Abstract: Dual functional brain asymmetry refers to the notion that in most individuals the left cerebral hemisphere is specialized for language functions, whereas the right cerebral hemisphere is more important than the left for the perception, construction, and recall of stimuli that are difficult to verbalize. In the last twenty years there have been scattered reports of sex differences in degree of hemispheric specialization. This review provides a critical framework within which two related topics are discussed: Do meaningful sex differences in verbal or spatial cerebral lateralization exist? and, if so, Is the brain of one sex more symmetrically organized than the other? Data gathered on right-handed adults are examined from clinical studies of patients with unilateral brain lesions; from dichotic listening, tachistoscopic, and sensorimotor studies of functional asymmetries in non-brain-damaged subjects; from anatomical and electrophysiological investigations, as well as from the developmental literature. Retrospective and descriptive findings predominate over prospective and experimental methodologies. Nevertheless, there is an impressive accummulation of evidence suggesting that the male brain may be more asymmetrically organized than the female brain, both for verbal and nonverbal functions. These trends are rarely found in childhood but are often significant in the mature organism.