Binaural phase disparities improve tone detection by up to 25 dB.

Evidence

In complex acoustical environments, the auditory system makes use of various cues to group sound components from one particular sound source. These cues, sometimes referred to as object binding cues, are often associated with characteristics of the sound such as coherent level fluctuations in different frequency regions (as, e.g., observed in speech), or the location of the sources in space. Differences in location result, among others, in interaural differences. Psychoacousticians developed experiments to study how the human auditory system makes use of the information. For example, the ability to use interaural disparities is shown in experiments on binaural masking level differences (BMLD). The BMLD is a well investigated phenomenon that signifies the reduction in masked thresholds when a tonal signal and masker have disparate interaural cues. For a diotic narrowband masker, a tonal target can be detected at a 25 dB lower level when the interaural target phase is changed from 0 to ∏ (e.g. van de Par and Kohlrausch 1999 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3465

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• DEFINE: Defines BMLD (binaural masking level difference) and the ‘object binding cue’ concept in one passage.

Related

• Interaural phase disparities lower masked thresholds by up to 25 dB for overlapping targets (similarity 0.93)
• Binaural hearing yields up to 18 dB detection advantage for low-frequency signals (similarity 0.93)
• Binaural listening improves source audibility by 0–8 dB in multi-source scenes (similarity 0.92)
• Loudspeaker level differences become inter-ear phase differences via cross talk (similarity 0.90)
• Reversing a tone’s phase in one ear lowers its detection threshold in noise (similarity 0.88)
• The BMLD arises from subjects using channels where the masker’s interaural effect is reduced (similarity 0.88)
• Binaural masking level differences reach 25 dB only for overlapping masker and target (similarity 0.87)
• Out-of-phase binaural tones can double perceived loudness (similarity 0.86)
• Binaural masking-level difference measures hearing improvement from interaural stimulus asymmetries (similarity 0.85)
• Anti-phase signals vs diotic noise yield 18 dB binaural detection advantage around 200-300 Hz (similarity 0.83)
• Interaural noise correlation inversely drives the magnitude of binaural release from masking. (similarity 0.83)
• Opposite-phase binaural signals stay louder than in-phase ones up to 40 dB above threshold (similarity 0.83)
• Binaural listening yields only 5–7 dB advantage over monaural spatially-separated sources (similarity 0.82)
• The ear resolves low-frequency direction by measuring phase shift (similarity 0.82)
• Adding correlated noise across ears can improve rather than worsen monaural detection (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Reversing a tone’s phase in one ear lowers its detection threshold in noise #corroborates (0.85)
• Signal subtraction after equalization can cancel masking noise in binaural detection #expands (0.80)
• Diotic phase-shift controls rule out monaural sources of interaural-phase responses #expands (0.75)
• High-frequency interaural phase differences are ambiguous about azimuth location #qualifies (0.75)
• Even small asymmetries between ears reduce binaural summation #complicates (0.70)