The contralateral efferent reflex strengthens gradually over tens of milliseconds

Evidence

Figure 2b shows that the compression parameter, c , in channel #6 of the MOC processors was dynamically varying, hence the IOD was relatively smaller at the stimulus onset and increased gradually in time until it reached a plateau effect. The figure also illustrates the time course of this effect. Note that at time = 0 s, compression was identical for the right-ear and the left-ear MOC processors, and equal to the compression in the STD processors (c = 1000). Then, as the output amplitude from the left-ear processor increased, compression in the right-ear processor decreased (i.e., Eq. (1) became more linear). This decreased the output amplitude from the right-ear processor even further, which in turn reduced the inhibitory effect of the right-ear processor on the left-ear processor. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1969

Categorization

• XREF: The slow build-up and positive-feedback loop resembles the reader’s broader knowledge of efferent reflex time constants and suggests temporal dynamics matter for real-world sound processing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1969