2026-10-11T06:33:33Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33958229 2026-09-21T17:52:28Z category_15 category_24 category_39 category_734 category_106 portal_5 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<p>Human subject experiment data.</p> Richard McWalter (25084916) Christian Lorenzi (3155052) Neuroscience Evolutionary Biology Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy insect &# 160 around 8 individuals sounds often co averaged summary statistic mixtures may rely individual sound sources human auditory system human auditory perception different species based segregate mixtures common auditory system human perception sound sources segregate mixtures different sources summary statistics sounds produced scenes common human listeners different species wind noise urban environments systematically varying species beyond segregation mechanisms results suggest natural environments meaningful representations include speech diverse array avian biodiversity <div><p>Natural environments are filled with a diverse array of sound sources, from bird vocalizations and insect stridulations to waterfalls and wind noise. The sounds often co-occur, arriving at the ear of human listeners as a mixture of the different sources. The auditory system is tasked with segregating the individual sound sources of the mixture into meaningful representations. In contrast with human auditory perception in urban environments, which include speech and music, little is known about our capacity to segregate mixtures common in natural environments. Here, we report on the capacities of the human auditory system when presented with mixtures of bird vocalizations – that is, scenes common in natural environments – by systematically varying the number of vocalizations from the same species and from different species. We found that humans could discriminate mixtures but only up until around 8 individuals of the same species beyond which mixtures may rely on a time-averaged summary statistic. Furthermore, humans appear to segregate mixtures of different species based on the disparities in their summary statistics. The results suggest that humans analyse natural auditory scenes using the same segregation mechanisms as for sounds produced by humans and other geophysical sounds.</p></div> 2026-09-21T18:04:17Z Dataset Dataset 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014775.s007 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_p_Human_subject_experiment_data_p_/33958229 CC BY 4.0