Compared with auditory nerve (AN) fibers, trapezoid body (TB) fibers of the cat show enhanced synchronization to low-frequency tones. This phenomenon probably contributes to the high temporal resolution of binaural processing. We examined whether enhanced synchronization also occurs to sustained broadband noise. We recorded responses to a reference Gaussian noise and its polarity-inverted versi...

The discrimination of interaural phase differences (IPDs) requires accurate binaural temporal processing and has been used as a measure of sensitivity to temporal envelope and temporal fine structure (TFS). Previous studies found that TFS-IPD discrimination declined with age and with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), but age and SNHL have often been confounded. The aim of this study was to det...

In a forward-masked intensity discrimination task, we manipulated the perceived lateralization of the masker via variation of the interaural time difference (ITD). The maskers and targets were 500 Hz pure tones with a duration of 30 ms. Standards of 30 and 60 dB SPL were combined with 60 or 90 dB SPL maskers. As expected, the presentation of a forward masker perceived as lateralized to the othe...

The ability to detect unexpected or deviant events in natural scenes is critical for survival. In the auditory system, neurons from the midbrain to cortex adapt quickly to repeated stimuli but this adaptation does not fully generalize to other rare stimuli, a phenomenon called stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). Most studies of SSA were conducted with pure tones of different frequencies, and it...

The aim of this study was to measure and quantify habituation phenomena within the auditory cortex of 18 healthy subjects by means of fMRI. Auditory stimulation was done by digitally generated pulsed (nu = 5 Hz) 800-Hz sine tones with three alternating ON (duration 2 min) and OFF (1 min) periods. Binaural stimulation resulted in symmetrical bihemispheric activation of the auditory cortex. Our d...

A mathematical model for objective assessment of perceived spatial quality was developed for comparison across the listening area of various sound reproduction systems: mono, two-channel stereo (TCS), 3/2 stereo (i.e., 5.0 surround sound), Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) and Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA). Models for mono, TCS and 3/2 stereo are based on conventional microphone techniques and loudspe...

The precedence effect (PE) allows us to locate sound sources correctly in rooms despite the presence of interfering reflections. It was shown to function at high frequencies with highly modulated stimuli even when lead and lag had simultaneous onsets, i.e. with information restricted to the ongoing sound part [1]. These studies were done in the free-field where interaural time (ITDs) and level ...

Event-related potentials to binaural complex tones were recorded from 40 depressed outpatients and 22 normal control participants at 30 electrode sites. Patients did not differ from control participants in N1 or P3 amplitude but showed greater N2. N2 was greater over right than over the left hemisphere at lateral sites in patients and control participants. A P3 asymmetry was found for control p...

The effect of signal duration on various binaural phase conditions, is currently a controversial topic in psychoacoustics, especially for durations less than 20 ms. The present study utilized the masking-level difference paradigm (SqNq , S^Ng, and SoN>r) to investigate the temporal integration of energy for 2to 100-ms, 500-Hz tones in 30.7 dB pressure-spectrum level, continuous broadband noise....