Extension of a binaural cross-correlation model by contralateral inhibition. I. Simulation of lateralization for stationary signals.

Abstract

Running interaural cross correlation is a basic assumption to model the performance of the binaural auditory system. Although this concept is particularly suited to simulate psychoacoustic localization phenomena, there exist some localization effects which cannot be explained by pure cross correlation. In this paper a model of interaural cross correlation is extended by a "contralateral-inhibition mechanism" and by "monaural detectors" in order to simulate a wide range of psychoacoustic lateralization data. The extended model explains lateralization of pure tones with interaural time differences as well as with interaural level differences. Multiple images are predicted for tones with characteristic combinations of interaural signal parameters and for noise signals with different degrees of interaural cross correlation. The model is also capable of simulating dynamic lateralization phenomena, such as the "law of the first wave front" which is dealt with in a companion paper [Lindemann, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 80, 1623-1630 (1986)]. The present paper is restricted to a comparison of the model predictions for stationary signals with the results of dichotic listening experiments.