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Dichotic beats of mistuned consonances
1School of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Ohio University, Athens 45701, USA.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|February 12, 1998
Summary
Beats of mistuned consonances (BMCs) are not solely explained by binaural critical band interactions. New evidence suggests a between-channel phase effect, challenging previous theories on auditory perception.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Signal Processing
Background:
- Beats of mistuned consonances (BMCs) arise from two slightly mistuned sinusoidal frequencies.
- Previous theories attributed dichotic BMCs to binaural critical band interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the underlying mechanism of dichotic BMC detection.
- To test the hypothesis that binaural interaction within a critical band explains dichotic BMCs.
Main Methods:
- Examined dichotic BMC detection for octave and fifth intervals.
- Used narrow-band noise to mask binaural critical bands around the higher frequency (f2).
Main Results:
- Dichotic BMCs were detected even when binaural critical band interactions were prevented.
- Localization effects were observed for phase reversals of tuned dichotic octave stimuli under masking.
Conclusions:
- Binaural interaction within a critical band does not fully explain dichotic BMCs.
- Findings support a new theory of dichotic BMCs as a between-channel phase effect.
- The modified weighted-image model explains the observed between-channel mechanism.
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