Spectral profile cues in comodulation masking release

Abstract

Previous work on spectral shape discrimination has shown that detection of a level increment in one tone of a tonal complex is dependent on spectral position, with thresholds forming a "bowl" pattern for components spanning 200 to 5000 Hz [Green, D. M., (1988). Profile Analysis: Auditory Intensity Discrimination (Oxford University Press, New York)]. The current study examined whether a similar bowl occurs for comodulation masking release, a paradigm in which dynamic spectral cues could be used to detect an added signal. Maskers were logarithmically spaced 15-Hz-wide bands of noise. The signal was a tone or a copy of the on-signal masker band. When the masker was composed of one or more random bands, thresholds were relatively consistent across frequency. When the masker was a set of comodulated bands, thresholds for both signal types formed a bowl, but the minimum threshold occurred at a higher signal frequency for the tonal than for the narrowband noise signal. Results for additional conditions indicate that spectral effects depend on both absolute frequency and relative frequency of the signal within the masker. Data collected with flanking maskers presented contralateral to the signal and on-signal masker indicate that peripheral effects may play a role in threshold elevation at high signal frequencies with narrowband noise signals.