Human auditory temporal summation in the presence of ipsilateral or contralateral continuous tones

Abstract

The auditory temporal summation function was measured in 16 normal hearing human subjects using a set of five single‐burst and seven multiple‐burst tones of 2.0 kHz. In each of two experiments, thresholds were obtained: in the presence of a 60 dB SPL continuous tone one‐third octave above or below the stimulus frequency of 2.0 kHz, and in the quiet condition. In experiment I, the continuous tone was presented ipsilaterally and in experiment II, the tone was presented contralateral to the stimulus. It was shown that the ipsilateral tone conditions significantly reduced the slope of the temporal summation functions, whereas the contralateral continuous tone conditions had no influence. Second, it was concluded that a common mechanism processed both single‐ and multiple‐burst stimuli. Finally, it was concluded that a power function was a simple and adequate way of describing the temporal summation process.