Click stimuli achieve neural timing precision of about twenty microseconds

Evidence

By comparing the timing and intensity of a sound at each ear, listeners can locate its source on the horizontal plane, and exploit these differences to hear out signals in background noise—an important component of ‘cocktail party listening’. Sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITDs) in particular has received much attention, due in part to the exquisite temporal performance observed; for sound frequencies lower than about 1.3 kHz, ITDs of just a few tens of microseconds are discriminable, observed both at the neural and behavioural levels. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2949 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Microsecond ITD precision arises from phase-delay matching, not absolute latency — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2848; Humans can detect interaural timing differences as small as ten to twenty microseconds — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2949; Neural signals encode auditory information through spike timing patterns

Related

• Humans can detect interaural timing differences as small as ten to twenty microseconds (similarity 0.87)
• The ear detects binaural delays finer than individual neuron timing supports (similarity 0.87)
• Microsecond ITD precision arises from phase-delay matching, not absolute latency (similarity 0.85)
• Just-noticeable interaural delay is about 50 microseconds below 1.5 kHz (similarity 0.82)
• Group delay audibility threshold is 1.6 to 2 milliseconds (similarity 0.82)
• Visual cues were deliberately jittered to prevent timing information leakage (similarity 0.81)
• Neural ITD maps require precise phase delays, not stable absolute latency (similarity 0.81)
• Systematic conduction delay changes along the nucleus laminaris axis encode interaural time difference maps (similarity 0.81)
• Listeners can discriminate interaural time differences of just tens of microseconds below 1.3 kHz. (similarity 0.81)
• The auditory system uses coarse physical delay lines plus fine phase-based matching for ITD (similarity 0.80)
• Clicks evoke oscillatory multi-peaked neural responses even for temporally precise stimulation (similarity 0.80)
• Jittering visual feedback prevented timing cues in click-detection experiments (similarity 0.79)
• Click pairs separated by small intervals are perceived as a distinct pitch (similarity 0.79)
• Interaural time difference maps derive from precise phase delays, not absolute latencies (similarity 0.79)
• Click-evoked response latencies reliably measure axonal conduction delays (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Humans can detect interaural timing differences as small as ten to twenty microseconds #expands (0.75) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2949
• Neural signals encode auditory information through spike timing patterns #expands (0.75)