The role of auditory filters in comodulation masking release (CMR)

Comodulation masking release (CMR) is the detection advantage conferred by coherence of amplitude modulation across masker frequency. This phenomenon has typically been described in terms of across-frequency comparisons or in terms of cueing, where analysis of the output of an auditory filter in the region of the signal is aided by the outputs of independent auditory filters. An alternative approach is to assume a broad initial predetection filter, one which encompasses frequencies generally thought to fall into disparate auditory filters. These two basic approaches are compared. Stimuli consisted of comodulated maskers, spaced in frequency at one of three fixed intervals, with fine structure that either produced strong envelope beats in the summed waveform or did not. The signal was a pure tone of random starting phase. For the smallest masker frequency spacing detection of a high-frequency signal seemed to be improved in the presence of envelope beats, while detection of a low-frequency signal seemed to be degraded by envelope beats. These results are discussed in terms of the number of maskers assumed to sum in an auditory filter and the relative availability of within- and between-channel cues. This explanation is consistent with an initial stage of auditory filtering and is fundamentally inconsistent with a broad initial filter. Results for larger masker frequency spacings showed this trend less reliably, a finding that was further explored via data from a modulation discrimination task.