Fundamental frequency (F0) discrimination of one complex tone in the presence of another: The role of excitation pattern and temporal fine structure cues

Abstract

The perceptual segregation of simultaneous harmonic complex tones depends partly on differences in the fundamental frequency (F0) between those tones. Human listeners have some ability to group together harmonics of a given F0 and segregate them from harmonics of a different F0. This paper reviews studies of the ability to detect changes in F0 of one complex tone in the presence of another complex tone with the same or a different mean F0. The studies include conditions where the harmonics in the complex tones would have been resolved, partially resolved, or completely unresolved. Modeling using excitation patterns and “summary autocorrelation” and “stabilized auditory image” models suggests that while excitation-pattern cues are useful for complex tones with resolved harmonics, the use of temporal fine structure (phase locking) information is required to account for the small F0DLs obtained when harmonics are barely, if at all, resolved.