Hearing the same tone at a different pitch in each ear is called diplacusis
Evidence
Because hearing loss influences the perception of pitch, it can lead to diplacusis, or the perception of hearing the same tone at a different pitch in each ear. Another way to think of diplacusis is that a single tone is heard as two tones with different pitches, one in each ear. Diplacusis can be measured by asking a listener to adjust the frequency of a tone in one ear so that its pitch matches a tone in the other ear. Normalhearing listeners have also been demonstrated to have diplacusis, with pitch discrepancies of about 1% to 2% across the ears (e.g., Albers & Wilson, 1968). Yet, the magnitude and prevalence of diplacusis is higher in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1327
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Clear operational definition of diplacusis plus its measurement method and prevalence numbers.
- SHARE: For an audiologist or ENT resident: even normal-hearing listeners show 1-2% interaural pitch discrepancies.
Related
- Sensorineural hearing loss worsens diplacusis, which even normal hearers have mildly (similarity 0.93)
- Diplacusis affects normal-hearing listeners too, at 1-2% pitch discrepancy (similarity 0.93)
- Hearing loss disrupts pitch perception through multiple independent coding failures (similarity 0.87)
- Sloping or rising hearing loss can create contradictory pitch codes across frequency regions (similarity 0.82)
- Hearing loss disrupts pitch via place, temporal, and interaural mechanisms. (similarity 0.82)
- Tinnitus pitch spans the entire region of hearing loss, not a single frequency (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- About 1,400 audibly distinct pitches exist within the human hearing range
#expands(0.75) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 872 - Reversing a tone’s phase in one ear lowers its detection threshold in noise
#exemplifies(0.72) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1621