Fundamental-frequency discrimination based on temporal-envelope cues: Effects of bandwidth and interference.

Abstract

Both music and speech perception rely on hearing out one pitch in the presence of others. Pitch discrimination of narrowband sounds based only on temporal-envelope cues is rendered nearly impossible by introducing interferers in both normal-hearing listeners and cochlear-implant (CI) users. This study tested whether performance improves in normal-hearing listeners if the target is presented over a broad spectral region. The results indicate that performance is still strongly affected by spectrally remote interferers, despite increases in bandwidth, suggesting that envelope-based pitch is unlikely to allow CI users to perceive pitch when multiple harmonic sounds are presented at once.