Gain control in the auditory system: absolute identification of intensity within and across the two ears

A number of studies have suggested that the auditory system employs nonlinear gain control to modulate its response to a broad range of stimulus intensities (e.g., Parker, Murphy, & Schneider, 2002), but the precise location and nature of this mechanism remains uncertain. To address these issues, we investigated the extent to which gain control in one ear was influenced by auditory events in the other ear. Listeners were asked to identify which of four sounds, varying in intensity (25, 30, 35, and 40 dB [SPL]), had been presented to the left ear. Subsequent test sets included an 80-dB (SPL) stimulus presented to either the left (ipsilateral) or the right (contralateral) ear. Ipsilateral presentations of the 80-dB (SPL) stimulus produced a greater reduction in identification accuracy among the original four sounds than did contralateral presentations, but both presentations caused a reduction in gain. In a second experiment, the perceived laterality of a sound was manipulated by presenting the same sound to both ears with an interaural time delay. When the 80-dB (SPL) stimulus was added to the set of quiet sounds (which were presented to both ears but were perceived to be in the left ear because of the interaural time delay), identification accuracy was reduced by the same amount, independently of whether the 80-dB (SPL) stimulus was perceived only in the ipsilateral ear or only in the contralateral ear.