Measurement of a binaural temporal transfer function

Abstract

In order to derive a kind of “binaural temporal transfer function” for the auditory system, observers detected a stable target (a binaural click presented with an interaural time difference of +500 μsec) imbedded in a “moving” masker (a noise presented with an interaural delay sinusoidally varied from +500 to −500 μsec). Detectability of the click was measured as a function of the “position” of the noise at the time the click was presented and the rate at which the noise “moved”. As was expected, when the noise moved very slowly, less than 1 Hz, or not at all, detectability was best when the click appeared at one ear and the noise appeared at the other, and poorest when they both appeared at the same ear. At high rates (5 Hz) detectability was independent of the relative positions of the click and the noise. [This work was supported in part by NIH Grant NS12045.]