Binaural masking release is 2 to 4 dB smaller in older listeners

Evidence

The binaural masking level difference (BMLD) provides another measure of binaural sensitivity to TFS. The BMLD is the difference in the detection threshold between a condition where the masker and signal have the same interaural phase and level relationship, and a condition where the relationship is different. Although BMLDs can occur as a result of differences in ENVn for the two ears, it is generally believed that the largest BMLDs result from the use of TFSn . Because the BMLD represents a difference between two thresholds, it has the advantage that differences in processing efficiency across age groups at least partly cancel. Several researchers have compared BMLDs for young and older subjects with (near-) normal hearing (Pichora-Fuller and Schneider 1991 , 1992 ; Grose et al. 1994 ; Strouse et al. 1998 ). All showed that BMLDs (usually for a 500-Hz signal frequency) were smaller for older than for young subjects, typically by 2–4 dB. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 804

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines BMLD and why a difference-of-thresholds measure partly cancels processing-efficiency confounds across age.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 804
• XREF: connects to: Binaural hearing yields up to 18 dB detection advantage for low-frequency signals