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Published on: October 16, 2012
Low-frequency interaural time differences are resistant to across-frequency binaural interference across a range of
Anhelina Bilokon1, Allison Choi1, Matthew J Goupell1
1Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
None:
Low-frequency interaural time differences (ITDs) are the primary human horizontal-plane localization cue. Across-frequency binaural interference tasks, which assess changes in ITD sensitivity in the presence of a remote interferer, reveal how listeners weigh binaural information across frequency regions. Low-frequency (0.5-kHz) targets experience less interference from high-frequency (4-kHz) interferers compared to the reverse, but the role of relative signal level across frequencies remains relatively underexplored. This study measured ITD discrimination thresholds in ten young normal-hearing listeners using target and interferer frequencies of 0.5, 4, and 8 kHz and levels of 35, 55, and 75 dB-A. Binaural interference magnitude depended on both stimulus level and frequency. For a 4-kHz target and 0.5-kHz interferer, interference significantly increased with increasing interferer and decreasing target levels. For a 0.5-kHz target and 4-kHz interferer, interference significantly increased with increasing interferer level when the target level was 35 dB-A, but was unchanged when the target level was 55 or 75 dB-A. The resistance to binaural interference for the low-frequency target at higher target levels confirms the robustness of low-frequency ITD processing and highlights the level-dependent vulnerability of high-frequency targets to interference. This helps advance understanding of spatial hearing for complex stimuli in more realistic auditory scenes.
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