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Perceptual Sensitivity to High-Frequency Interaural Time Differences Created by Rustling Sounds.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22124890     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Interaural time differences (ITDs) can be used to localize sounds in the horizontal plane. ITDs can be extracted from either the fine structure of low-frequency sounds or from the envelopes of high-frequency sounds. Studies of the latter have included stimuli with periodic envelopes like amplitude-modulated tones or transposed stimuli, and high-pass filtered Gaussian noises. Here, four experiments are presented investigating the perceptual relevance of ITD cues in synthetic and recorded "rustling" sounds. Both share the broad long-term power spectrum with Gaussian noise but provide more pronounced envelope fluctuations than Gaussian noise, quantified by an increased waveform fourth moment, W. The current data show that the JNDs in ITD for band-pass rustling sounds tended to improve with increasing W and with increasing bandwidth when the sounds were band limited. In contrast, no influence of W on JND was observed for broadband sounds, apparently because of listeners' sensitivity to ITD in low-frequency fine structure, present in the broadband sounds. Second, it is shown that for high-frequency rustling sounds ITD JNDs can be as low as 30 μs. The third result was that the amount of dominance for ITD extraction of low frequencies decreases systematically with increasing amount of envelope fluctuations. Finally, it is shown that despite the exceptionally good envelope ITD sensitivity evident with high-frequency rustling sounds, minimum audible angles of both synthetic and recorded high-frequency rustling sounds in virtual acoustic space are still best when the angular information is mediated by interaural level differences.
Authors:
Stephan D Ewert; Katharina Kaiser; Lavinia Kernschmidt; Lutz Wiegrebe
Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE     Date:  2011-11-29
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO     Volume:  -     ISSN:  1438-7573     ISO Abbreviation:  -     Publication Date:  2011 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-11-29     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  100892857     Medline TA:  J Assoc Res Otolaryngol     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  -     Citation Subset:  -    
Affiliation:
Medizinische Physik, Fakultät V, Universität Oldenburg, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
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