Frequency-specific, location-nonspecific adaptation of interaural time difference sensitivity
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Updated: May 21, 2026

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
Published on: October 29, 2018
Andrew D Brown1, Marina S Kuznetsova, William J Spain
1Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, 1417 NE 42nd St., Seattle, WA 98105, USA. andrewdb@uw.edu
Abstract:
Human listeners' sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITD) was assessed for 1000 Hz tone bursts (500 ms duration) preceded by trains of 500-ms "adapter" tone bursts (7 s total adapter duration, frequencies of 200, 665, 1000, or 1400 Hz) carrying random ITD, or by an equal-duration period of silence. Presentation of the adapter burst train reduced ITD sensitivity in a frequency-specific manner. The observed effect differs from previously described forms of location-specific psychophysical adaptation, as it was produced using a binaurally diffuse sequence of tone bursts (i.e., a location-nonspecific adapter stimulus). Results are discussed in the context of pre-binaural adaptation.
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