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The role of temporal fine structure in harmonic segregation through mistuning
Brian C J Moore1, Brian R Glasberg
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England. bcjm@cam.ac.uk
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|January 12, 2010
Summary
This study investigated fundamental frequency (F0) discrimination using complex tones. Results suggest temporal fine structure cues, not previously considered, may explain performance improvements with harmonic mistuning.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Acoustic signal processing
- Psychoacoustics
Background:
- Bernstein and Oxenham (2008) studied fundamental frequency (F0) discrimination of complex tones filtered by a bandpass.
- Performance degraded when low-frequency harmonics were removed, but improved with odd harmonic mistuning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-evaluate Bernstein and Oxenham's findings regarding F0 discrimination.
- To explore the role of temporal fine structure (TFS) cues in explaining performance improvements with harmonic mistuning.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing data from Bernstein and Oxenham (2008).
- Theoretical consideration of auditory filter output and TFS information.
- Comparison of TFS cue predictions with observed performance changes.
Main Results:
- Bernstein and Oxenham's results showed worsened F0 discrimination with low-pass filtering but improved performance with 3% odd harmonic mistuning.
- The original study concluded TFS cues were inconsistent with their findings.
- This analysis argues that TFS cues *could* explain the observed improvement from mistuning.
Conclusions:
- Temporal fine structure information at the auditory filter output may play a significant role in F0 discrimination.
- The improvement in performance due to harmonic mistuning can be explained by TFS cues.
- Revisiting existing psychoacoustic data with alternative theoretical frameworks can yield new insights.
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