Related Concept Videos
Interference: Path Lengths
Two special sources may be considered when they are in phase. This can be easily achieved by feeding the two sources from the same source. An example would be synchronizing the two speakers by feeding them with the same source, such as the sound waves produced by a tuning fork. This setup ensures that the two sources have the same frequency and are...
Aliasing
If the sampling frequency is below the Nyquist rate, these replicas overlap, preventing the original...
Sampling Theorem
Properties of Fourier Transform II
The Frequency Shifting property of Fourier Transforms highlights that a shift in the frequency domain corresponds to a phase shift in the time domain. Mathematically, if x(t) has...
Time and frequency -Domain Interpretation of Phase-lag Control
Phase-lag controllers do not place a pole at zero, but instead influence the steady-state error by amplifying any...
Downsampling
The Fourier transform of the decimated sequence reveals a combination of scaled and shifted versions of the original spectrum. This...
You might also read
Related Articles
Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.
Reducing computational complexity in adaptive sound zones with online room impulse response estimation.
Small-sample unbiased linear coherence estimators for a complex Gaussian random process.
Automated detection and annotation of toothed-whale whistles using transformer-based instance segmentation.
Effect of temperature and concentration on the thermo-acoustic behavior of vitamin B5 (d-Panthenol) solutions in the presence of glycol additives.
The visome: Using cognitive networks to examine lip-reading errors in English words.
Resident subjective annoyance responses to combined road traffic and train-induced structure-borne noise: Effects of sound environment.
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Measurement & Analysis of the Temporal Discrimination Threshold Applied to Cervical Dystonia
Published on: January 27, 2018
Temporal quantization deteriorates the discrimination of interaural time differences.
Benjamin Dieudonné1, Mira Van Wilderode1, Tom Francart1
1Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven-University of Leuven, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.
Cochlear implant (CI) pulse timing can degrade interaural time difference (ITD) perception by introducing temporal jitter. This effect was significant at 900 pulses per second, impacting binaural hearing in CI users.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Psychoacoustics
Background:
- Cochlear implants (CIs) often replace acoustic temporal fine structure with fixed-rate pulse trains.
- This temporal quantization can introduce jitter, potentially affecting interaural time difference (ITD) perception, especially in bilateral or bimodal CI users.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of temporal quantization in cochlear implant signal processing on the perception of interaural time differences (ITDs).
- To determine if temporal jitter introduced by CI stimulation strategies affects binaural hearing, particularly ITD discrimination.
Main Methods:
- 16 normal-hearing listeners participated in a psychophysical experiment.
- The study measured the just-noticeable difference (JND) in ITD with and without temporal quantization corresponding to a 900 pulses per second (pps) stimulation rate.
- Different quantization step sizes were tested to assess their impact on ITD perception.
Main Results:
- Temporal quantization at 900 pps significantly deteriorated ITD perception, increasing the ITD JND from 129 μs to 177 μs.
- No significant deterioration in ITD perception was observed for smaller temporal quantization step sizes.
- The binaural system demonstrates a limited ability to average out the effects of temporal quantization.
Conclusions:
- Pulse timing in cochlear implant processing is a critical factor that should be carefully considered to preserve binaural hearing.
- Temporal quantization, particularly at higher stimulation rates, can negatively impact the perception of interaural time differences.
- Further research into CI signal processing strategies is needed to optimize auditory perception for users.

