Categorization and timbre perception of environmental sounds in schizophrenia

Authors: Micoulaud-Franchi J-A., Aramaki M., Merer A., Cermolacce M., Ystad S., Kronland-Martinet R., Vion-Dury J.
Publication Date: June 2011
Journal: Psychiatry Research (vol. 189, pp. 149–152, 2011)

Tags: Solid Sounds, Sounds and Pathologies, Timbre

Abstract

Perception of environmental sounds from impacted materials (Wood, Metal and Glass) was examined by conducting a categorization experiment. Stimuli consisted of sound continua evoking progressive transitions between material categories. Results highlighted shallower response curves in subjects with schizophrenia than healthy participants, and are discussed in the framework of Signal Detection Theory and in terms of impaired perception of specific timbre features in schizophrenia.

Sound continua designed for the study described here were used to investigate disturbances of sound categorization in patients with schizophrenia.

A same experimental protocol based on a categorization task of the perceived material was conducted.

To shorten the duration of the original experiment described here for patients, we reduced the previous sound corpus and selected the 3 following continua (one per transition):

1- Transition between wood and metal: Continuum #2