Prediction of tone detection thresholds in interaurally delayed noise based on interaural phase difference fluctuations
This work addresses auditory perception challenges for hearing research, offering incremental insights into binaural processing without new paradigms.
The study tackled the problem of predicting tone detection thresholds in noise with interaural delays by investigating how noise bandwidth affects masking release, finding that reducing bandwidth from 100 to 25 Hz increased masking release at 8 ms delay as expected, while thresholds for bandwidths of 100 to 1000 Hz were fully described by auditory filter coherence.
Differences between the interaural phase of a noise and a target tone improve detection thresholds. The maximum masking release is obtained for detecting an antiphasic tone (S$π$) in diotic noise (N0). It has been shown in several studies that this benefit gradually declines as an interaural delay is applied to the N0S$π$ complex. This decline has been attributed to the reduced interaural coherence of the noise. Here, we report detection thresholds for a 500 Hz tone in masking noise with up to 8 ms interaural delay and bandwidths from 25 to 1000 Hz. When reducing the noise bandwidth from 100 to 50 and 25 Hz, the masking release at 8 ms delay increases, as expected for increasing temporal coherence with decreasing bandwidth. For bandwidths of 100 to 1000 Hz, no significant difference was observed and detection thresholds with these noises have a delay dependence that is fully described by the temporal coherence imposed by the typical monaurally determined auditory filter bandwidth. A minimalistic binaural model is suggested based on interaural phase difference fluctuations without the assumption of delay lines.