LMA - Laboratoire de Mécanique et d’Acoustique

Sophie SAVEL

Chargé de Recherche, CNRS

My research activities focus on spatial hearing and detection-in-noise abilities in normal-hearing adults for non-speech sounds.

RESEARCH TOPICS

Spatial hearing

Main goals

  • Determine the acoustical, physiological, perceptual and cognitive factors that contribute to (age-related and non-aged-related) individual differences in various spatial hearing abilities
  • Assess the plasticity of auditory localization abilities with active training and passive exposure to normal and abnormal cues

Spatial hearing abilities under study

  • in a quiet background :
    • Resolution of binaural cues over headphones
    • Localization of real sound sources
    • Localization of virtual sound sources using individual cues
    • Localization of virtual sound sources using non-individual cues
    • Localization using adversely distorted cues
    • Directional loudness sensitivity
  • in a noise background

Auditory masking

  • Masking with a long-duration masker : Contribution of cochlear compression (and its olivocochlear-mediated decrease over time) to the overshoot effect
  • Masking with a brief masker : Time-frequency masking
  • Masking with multiple brief maskers : Additivity in the time and frequency domains

PUBLICATION LIST

** = publications not associated with the LMA

Papers in international journals

  • Necciari, T, Laback, B, Savel, S, Ystad, S, Balazs, P, Meunier, S, Kronland-Martinet, R (2016). "Auditory time-frequency masking for spectrally and temporally maximally-compact stimuli", PlosOne 11(11) : e0166937.
  • Andéol, G, Savel, S, Guillaume, A (2016). "Corrigendum : Perceptual factors contribute more than acoustic factors to sound localization abilities with virtual sources", Frontiers in Neuroscience 10 : 363.
  • Andéol, G, Savel, S, Guillaume, A (2015). "Perceptual factors contribute more than acoustic factors to sound localization abilities with virtual sources", Frontiers in Neuroscience 8 : 451. DOI : 10.3389/fnins.2014.00451. hal-01128015v1
  • Savel, S, Drake, C (2014). "Auditory azimuthal localization performance in water as a function of prior exposure", Human Factors 56, 772–783. DOI : 10.1177/0018720813503366. hal-01128085v1
  • Laback, B, Necciari, T, Balazs, P, Savel, S, Ystad, S (2013). "Simultaneous masking additivity for short gaussian-shaped tones : Spectral effects", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 134, 1160–1171. DOI : 10.1121/1.4812773. hal-00866068v1
  • Andéol, G, Guillaume, A, Micheyl, C, Savel, S, Pellieux, L, Moulin, A (2011). "Auditory efferents facilitate sound localization in noise in humans", Journal of Neuroscience 31, 6759–6753. DOI : 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0248-11.2011. hal-01128093v1
  • Laback, B, Balazs, P, Necciari, T, Savel, S, Ystad, S, Meunier, S, Kronland-Martinet, R (2011). "Additivity of nonsimultaneous masking for short gaussian-shaped sinusoids", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 129, 888–897. DOI : 10.1121/1.3518781. hal-00541832v1
  • Savel, S (2009). "Individual differences and left/right asymmetries in auditory space perception. I. Localization of low-frequency sounds in free field", Hearing Research 255, 142–154. DOI : 10.1016/j.heares.2009.06.013. hal-00460006v1
  • Savel, S, Drake, C, Rabau, G (2009). "Human auditory localisation in a distorted environment : water", Acta Acustica united with Acustica 95, 128–141. DOI : 10.3813/AAA.918134. hal-00460005v1
  • **Bacon, S.P, Savel, S. (2004). "Temporal effects in simultaneous masking with on- and off-frequency noise maskers : effects of signal frequency and masker level", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 115, 1674–1683. DOI : 10.1121/1.1689344. hal-00463550v1
  • **Savel, S, Bacon, S.P (2003b). "Effect of contralateral precursor type on the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with tone and noise maskers (L)", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 114, 580–582. DOI : 10.1121/1.1592162. hal-00463553v1
  • **Savel, S, Bacon, S.P (2003a). "Effectiveness of narrow-band versus tonal off-frequency maskers", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 114, 380–385. DOI : 10.1121/1.1582442. hal-00463556v1
  • **Belin, P, McAdams, S, Thivard, L, Smith, B, Savel, S, Zilbovicius, M, Samson, S, Samson, Y (2002). "The neuroanatomical substrate of sound duration discrimination", Neuropsychologia 40, 1956–1964. DOI : 10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00062-3. hal-1105792v1
  • **Belin, P, McAdams, S, Smith, B, Savel, S, Thivard, L, Samson, S, Samson, Y (1998). "The functional anatomy of sound intensity discrimination", Journal of Neuroscience 18, 6388–6394. hal-01105669v1

Book chapters

  • Necciari, T, Balazs, P, Kronland-Martinet, R, Ystad, S, Laback, B, Savel, S, Meunier, S (2012). "Auditory Time-Frequency Masking : Psychoacoustical Data and Application to Audio Representations", S. Ystad, M. Aramaki, R. Kronland-Martinet, K. Jensen, S. Mohanty. In Speech, Sound and Music Processing : embracing research in India, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 146-171. hal-00727563v1

Conference Proceedings

  • Necciari, T, Balazs, P, Kronland-Martinet, R, Ystad, S, Laback, B, Savel, S, Meunier, S (2012). "Perceptual optimization of Audio Representations Based on Time-Frequency Masking Data for Maximally-Compact Stimuli", in Proceedings of the 45th conference of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) on Applications of Time-Frequency Processing in Audio (Helsinki, Finland), proceedings #3-1. hal-00911746v1
  • Necciari, T, Laback, B, Balazs P, Kronland-Martinet, R, Savel, S, Meunier, S, Ystad, S (2011). "Exploiting auditory time-frequency masking of sounds : From data to model", in Proceedings of the International Symposium "Frontier of research on speech and music Computer modeling and retrieval" (Orissa, India). hal-00727563v1
  • Andéol, G, Guillaume, A, Pellieux, L, Savel, S, Sabin, A (2010). "Localisation sonore et capacité d’analyse spectrale de l’auditeur", In Actes du 10ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Lyon, France), acte 000194, 4 pages. hal-00463536v1
  • Andéol, G, Guillaume, A, Pellieux, L, Savel, S, Moulin, A (2010). "Localisation sonore dans le bruit : pourquoi une variabilité inter-individuelle ?", In Actes du 10ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Lyon, France), acte 000188, 4 pages. hal-00463542v1
  • Necciari, T, Savel, S, Meunier, S, Kronland-Martinet, R, Ystad, S (2010). "Masquage auditif temps-fréquence avec des stimuli de forme Gaussienne", In Actes du 10ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Lyon, France), acte 000345, 6 pages. hal-00542863v1
  • Savel, S (2010). "Différences inter-individuelles en latéralisation de sons basse fréquence", In Actes du 10ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Lyon, France), acte 000486, 6 pages. hal-00463509v1
  • Laback, B, Balazs, P, Toupin, G, Necciari, T, Savel, S, Meunier, S, Ystad, S, Kronland-Martinet, R (2008). "Additivity of auditory masking using gaussian-shaped tones", In Proceedings of Acoustics’08 (Paris, France), pp. 3889-3894. hal-00460259v1
  • Savel, S, Meunier, S, Rabau, G (2006). "Différences individuelles et erreurs systématiques dans la performance de localisation auditive de sources virtuelles", In Actes du 8ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Tours, France), pp. 953-956. hal-00093777v1
  • Savel, S, Bacon, S.P (2004). "Effect of aspirin on the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with on- and off-frequency maskers", In Proceedings of the 7th French Congress on Acoustics joint with the 30th German Congress on Acoustics (Strasbourg, France), pp. 393-394. hal-01128124v1
  • **Bernaschina, F, Bovet, P, Savel, S, Drake, C (2002). "Investigation of auditory cues involved in human underwater sound localization", In Actes du 5ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique (Lausanne, Switzerland), Journal de Physique pp. 413–416. hal-01128127v1
  • **Savel, S, Drake, C (2000). "Psychoacoustic investigation of auditory cues involved in human underwater sound localization", In Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on underwater acoustics (Villeurbane, France), pp. 587-592. hal-01128128v1

Other conference presentations

  • Savel, S, Meunier, S, Chatron, J, Rabau, G (2016). "Différences inter-individuelles dans la sensibilité directionnelle de la sonie binaurale", 13ème Congrès Français d’Acoustique joint avec le 20ème colloque Vibrations, SHocks and Noise (Le Mans, France) [Talk].
  • Savel, S (2012). "Performances de localisation auditive", Séminaire de Psychoacoustique de Thales Underwater Systems (Sophia-Antipolis) [Invited talk].
  • Necciari, T, Balazs, P, Laback, B, Soendergaard, P, Kronland-Martinet, R, Meunier, S, Savel, S, Ystad, S (2012). "The ERBlet transform, time-frequency masking and perceptual sparsity", 2nd Workshop of the Signal Processing Lab (SPLab) of Brno University of Technology (Brno, Czech republic). [Talk]
  • Savel, S (2011). "Orientations actuelles des recherches psychoacoustiques sur l’audition spatialisée", Journées thématiques de l’Equipe Sons du LMA (Marseille). [Talk]
  • Andéol, G, Sabin, A, Pellieux, L, Savel, S, Guillaume, A (2009). "Can assessment of cochlear sensitivity predict sound localization ability in normal-hearing subjects ?", International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research (Elsinor, Danemark). [Poster]
  • Savel, S (2008). "Individual differences in auditory localization of real sources in the horizontal plane (A)", Acoustics’08 (Paris, France), abstract published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 123, 3568. [Talk]
  • Necciari, T, Savel, S, Meunier, S, Ystad, S, Kronland-Martinet, R, Laback, B, Balazs, P (2008). "Auditory masking using gaussian-windowed stimuli (A)", Acoustics’08 (Paris, France), abstract published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 123, 3563. [Talk]
  • Andéol, G, Moulin, A, Pellieux, L, Savel, S, Guillaume, A (2008). "Sound localization in noise : Why do people perform differently ? ", 7th annual Auditory, Perception, Cognition and Action meeting (Chicago, USA). [Poster]
  • Savel, S (2008). "Evaluations psychoacoustiques des performances humaines de localisation auditive en environnements réels et virtuels", 2èmes Journées d’Etudes sur la Spatialisation sonore "Ears Wide Open" (Rennes) [Invited talk].
  • Savel, S (2007). "Localisation auditive : Evaluation de la perception de l’espace sonore et de ses variations individuelles. Application à l’écoute en 3 dimensions", Journées fondatrices du Groupe Perception Sonore de la Société Française d’Acoustique (Lyon) [Invited talk].
  • Savel, S (2007). "La psychoacoustique", Journées fondatrices du Groupe Perception Sonore de la Société Française d’Acoustique (Lyon) [Invited talk].
  • Savel, S, Meunier S (2006). "Auditory masking", Journées de rencontres du projet ANR "SenSons : vers le sens des sons" (Marseille). [Talk]
  • Savel, S (2004). "Localisation et détection auditives en milieu aquatique", Séminaire de l’IMASSA (Brétigny-sur-Orge) [Invited talk].
  • Savel, S (2003). "Propriétés temporelles du système auditif : Plasticité des mécanismes de localisation auditive. Aspects temporels du masquage auditif", Séminaire du LMA (Marseille) [Invited talk].
  • **Bovet, P, Drake, C, Bernaschina, F, Savel, S (1998). "Underwater sound localization : Role of interaural time and intensity differences (A)", 16th International Congress on Acoustics joint with the 135th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (Seattle, USA), abstract published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 103, 2844. [Poster]
  • **Belin, P, Smith, B, Thivard, L, Savel, S, Samson, S, Samson, Y (1997). "The functional anatomy of sound intensity discrimination", 27th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (New Orleans, USA). [Talk]

Scientific popularization

  • **Savel, S, Drake, C (1999). "Recherches sur l’audition subaquatique : Mesure et optimisation des performances auditives des plongeurs", Bulletin d’information du Comité Technique Régional (CTR-info) Ile-de-France-Picardie de la Fédération Française d’Etudes et de Sports Sous-Marins 10, 4–9.

PhD Thesis

  • **Savel, S. "Localisation auditive subaquatique : De l’identification des mécanismes impliqués à la demonstration de la plasticité du système auditif et à l’application sur les plongeurs" ("Underwater sound localization : Identification of underlying mechanisms, demonstration of auditory plasticity and application to scuba divers"). Université René Descartes, Paris. 240 pages.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Academic Education

  • PhD in Psychology (Oct. 1997-June 2001). Laboratoire de Psychologie Experimentale (LPE), Université René Descartes, Paris.
  • DEA (Masters degree) in Cognitive Psychology (1996-1997). LPE, Université René Descartes, Paris. Specialization : Psychoacoustics.
  • Maitrise (Bachelors degree) in Psychology (1995-1996). Université René Descartes, Paris. Specializations : Experimental psychology and bioacoustics

Career

  • Research Scientist
    • CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l’Ingénierie et des Systèmes (INSIS), Section 09 « Ingénierie des matériaux et des structures, mécanique des solides, biomécanique, acoustique », LMA, Marseille (since Oct. 2005)
  • Post-Doc
    • Psychoacoustics Lab, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA (Jan. 2002–May 2003)
    • LMA, Marseille (Sept. 2003–Aug. 2005)
  • Research Assistant
    • Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) and Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale (LPE), Paris (12 months between 1996 and 2001)
    • LMA, Marseille (May-June 2003 and Sept. 2005)

University Teaching

  • Sound perception and production (2006, 2011-present ; 8 hours/year). Audience : Students from Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) and Ecole Centrale Marseille involved in the Masters degree “Mechanics, Physics and Engineering ; Specialization in Acoustics”
    • Sound perception : Anatomy and physiology of the auditory system ; Concepts and methods in psychoacoustics ; Reproduction and perception of spatialized sounds
  • Psychology (1998-1999 ; total = 200 hours). Audience : Students in 1st-3rd year at Université René Descartes, Paris
    • Experimental cognitive psychology : Concepts and methods in psychophysics of vision and hearing ; Gestalt theory ; Psycholinguistics ; Memory ; Mental imagery
    • Neuropsychology : Neuroanatomy ; Brain imaging techniques ; Physiology of the visual system ; Hemispatial neglects ; Neural correlates of sleeping disorders, eating behaviors, mental illness and amnesia ; Structural and functional brain differences between genders

PhD supervision

  • Guillaume Andéol (2007-2012). Co-supervisor : Anne Guillaume (Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, IRBA, Brétigny-sur-Orge). "Localisation de sources sonores virtuelles : Caractérisation des différences inter-individuelles et effet de l’entraînement"
  • Thibaud Necciari (2006-2010). Co-supervisor : Richard Kronland-Martinet (LMA). "Masquage auditif temps-fréquence : Mesures psychoacoustiques et application à l’analyse-synthèse des sons"

Organization of Scientific Meetings

  • 1st international Workshop on Current Topics on Loudness. 15–16 September 2014, Lyon, France. 50 participants, 9 invited talks, 2 sessions of group discussions
  • 6th international Workshop on Speech in Noise : Intelligibility and quality “SPIN 2014”. 10–14 January 2014, Marseille, France. 70 participants, 13 invited talks, 27 posters
  • 2nd Meeting of the Sound Perception Group of the SFA / 2èmes journées du Groupe Perception Sonore de la SFA. 10–11 December 2012, Marseille, France. 72 participants, 10 invited talks, 31 posters
  • 3rd Meeting on Sound Spatialization / 3èmes journées d’études sur la spatialisation sonore “Ears wide open”. 11–13 March 2008, Rennes, France. 100 participants, 11 invited talks, 2 sessions of group discussions, 5 sound listening studios
  • 9th international Workshop on Rhythm, Perception and Production. 21–25 June 2003, Ile de Tatihou, France. 50 participants, 35 conferences

Organization/chairing of scientific sessions

  • 13th French Congress on Acoustics. 11–15 April 2016, Le Mans, France. Session organized and chaired : Perception and reproduction of spatialized sound / Perception et restitution sonore spatialisée
  • 12th French Congress on Acoustics. 22–25 April 2014, Poitiers, France. Session organized and chaired : Spatial hearing / Perception audio spatialisée
  • Acoustics’08. 30 June–4 July 2008, Paris, France. Session chaired : Psychophysics General topics PP00

Reviewing

  • International journals (Acta Acustica united with Acustica, Journal of Theoretical Biology)
  • Masters degree theses

Publications

Articles à comité de lecture (7)

Simultaneous masking additivity for short Gaussian-shaped tones: spectral effects.
Laback Bernhard ,Necciari Thibaud ,Balazs Peter ,Savel Sophie ,Ystad Solvi
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2013, vol. 134, issue 2, pp. 1160-1171

Additivity of nonsimultaneous masking for short Gaussian-shaped sinusoids
Laback Bernhard ,Balazs Peter ,Necciari Thibaud ,Savel Sophie ,Ystad Solvi ,Meunier Sabine ,Kronland-Martinet Richard
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2011, vol. 129, issue 2, pp. 888-897

Individual differences and left/right asymmetries in auditory space perception I: localization of low-frequency sounds in free field
Savel Sophie
Hearing Research 2009, vol. 255, issue 1-2, pp. 142-154

Human auditory localisation in adistorted environment: water
Savel Sophie ,Drake Carolyn ,Rabau Guy
Acta Acustica united with Acustica 2009, vol. 95, issue 1, pp. 128-141

Temporal effects in simultaneous masking with on- and off-frequency noise maskers: effects of signal frequency and masker level.
Bacon Sid ,Savel Sophie
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2004, vol. 155, pp. 1674-1683

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Communications avec actes (10)

Communications sans actes (8)

Chapitres d'ouvrages scientifiques (1)