A revisitation of Bill Yost's revisitation of how internal noise affects binaural detection

Abstract

Bill Yost's contributions to knowledge concerning auditory processing comprise several areas of study including binaural masking and discrimination, localizations of sounds (with both static and rotating listeners), binaural and monaural versions of repetition pitch, and mathematical approaches to understanding of each. Perhaps less well-known is his historical and analytical paper concerning estimation and measurement of “internal noise.” In our view, that paper is also a fundamental contribution. Here, we report our related efforts to characterize and to measure types of internal noise that, on the one hand, limit monaural and/or binaural information processing and, on the other hand, help to explain why some listeners with slight, but clinically negligible, elevations in audiometric thresholds exhibit reliable and meaningful deficits in both binaural detection and binaural discrimination tasks. [Work supported by Office of Naval Research (N00014-15-1-2140; N00014-18-1-2473)]