On the dichotic pitch of simultaneously presented interaurally delayed white noises. Implications for binaural theory.

Abstract

A dichotic pitch known as Fourcin Pitch (FP) is perceived when two independent interaurally delayed white noises are presented simultaneously. Experiments in the past mainly dealt with stimulus situations where one interaural delay was smaller than 4 ms and the other was in the range 0-10 ms. Here, experiments are reported showing a novel pitch percept that occurs when one noise is interaurally delayed at the left ear and the other noise is about equally delayed at the right ear, for delays in the range of 4-10 ms. It is shown that, for both the previously reported FP and the novel pitch, the Central Spectrum (CS) theory [Raatgever and Bilsen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 80, 429-441 (1986)] provides a correct prediction of both the pitch value and the lateral position of the pitch image, where other current theories partly or completely fail. Further experiments indicate that the lateralized position of the pitch image is essentially not influenced by an interaural intensity difference (IID). This is also predicted by the CS model and leads to the generalized conclusion that interaural time and intensity differences are processed separately in the auditory system until, at least, the level where the dichotic pitch is generated.