Reversing a tone’s phase in one ear lowers its detection threshold in noise

Evidence

These BMLDs describe the difference in thresholds for tone-in-noise detection when both the target tone and masking noise are presented interaurally in phase, in contrast to a reversed phase of the tone in one ear. In the latter case thresholds are significantly lower. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1621

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines binaural masking level difference (BMLD) concretely for the reader’s physiology/cognition focus.

Related

• Binaural phase disparities improve tone detection by up to 25 dB. (similarity 0.88)
• Inverting signal phase at one ear vastly releases speech from masking. (similarity 0.87)
• Binaural masking-level difference measures hearing improvement from interaural stimulus asymmetries (similarity 0.87)
• Interaural phase disparities lower masked thresholds by up to 25 dB for overlapping targets (similarity 0.85)
• Opposite-phase binaural signals stay louder than in-phase ones up to 40 dB above threshold (similarity 0.85)
• The BMLD arises from subjects using channels where the masker’s interaural effect is reduced (similarity 0.83)
• Out-of-phase binaural tones can double perceived loudness (similarity 0.83)
• Adding a matched noise to the opposite ear can lower masking. (similarity 0.83)
• Anti-phase signals vs diotic noise yield 18 dB binaural detection advantage around 200-300 Hz (similarity 0.83)
• Binaural masking level differences reach 25 dB only for overlapping masker and target (similarity 0.82)
• Binaural hearing yields up to 18 dB detection advantage for low-frequency signals (similarity 0.82)
• BMLD magnitude drops sharply when masker and signal share no frequency components (similarity 0.82)
• Binaural detection benefits are modeled as noise-floor reduction in each frequency band. (similarity 0.82)
• Binaural advantage is modeled as a within-band noise-floor reduction improving SNR (similarity 0.81)
• The ear cannot sense a tone’s absolute phase but does sense phase differences. (similarity 0.81)