Effects of Frequency on Free-Field Masking

Gilkey, Robert H.; Good, Michael

doi:10.1518/001872095778995580

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…One reason for the advantage due to directional separation in vertical median plane might be the ability of the subjects to utilize direction-dependent peaks and troughs in the power spectrum resulting from the interactions of the stimulus from the convolutions of the pinna. Gilkey and Good [25] also measured the MLD in the vertical median plane using a filtered pulse train as the signal. A signal train of 20 ms pulses was filtered by a low, middle, or high frequency band pass filter, and the band width of the masker was set wide enough so that it sufficiently covered signal band width.…”

Section: Release From Masking Due To Separation Of the Sound Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial unmasking and attention related to the cocktail party problem

Ebata

2003

Acoust. Sci. & Tech.

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Although there are several factors causing ''cocktail party effect'' after more than half a century of research, the major one is considered to be the spatial separation of the target signal and the interferer. This paper will overview developments of the improvement of performance resulting from the directional separation of the target signal from interferers when listening in a field or through headphones. The basic assumption concerning the cocktail party effect is that there are one or more interfering sound sources in addition to the target signal source. In this situation it is important to remember the selective attention effect, which attenuates the interfering sound by concentrating the attention on a specific signal. Pitch of sound is the simplest cue for selective attention; however, spatial information can also be one. The latter half of this review discusses the effect of spatial filtering and an attention filter on the frequency domain.

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Section: Release From Masking Due To Separation Of the Sound Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial unmasking and attention related to the cocktail party problem

Ebata

2003

Acoust. Sci. & Tech.

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“…In humans and various other animal taxa, SRM has usually been studied with psychophysical methods, and the values measured for the increase in hearing performance obtained when spatially separating the signal from noise varied widely between 0 and 30 dB (Bee, 2007;Dent et al, 1997Dent et al, , 2009Gilkey and Good, 1995;Holt and Schustermann, 2007;Litovsky, 2005;Nityananda and Bee, 2012;Santon, 1987;Schwartz and Gerhardt, 1989). Some of these differences may be attributed to the different behavioral tasks (signal detection or discrimination), while other differences may be related to the different amount of directionality inherent in the system under study, or the spectral and temporal features of signals and noise.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The amount of unmasking, i.e. the reduction in the masked threshold for signal detection obtained in either behavioral or neurophysiological approaches, varies from 0 to 12 dB in humans (Gilkey and Good, 1995;Litovsky, 2005;Santon, 1987), 9 to 30 dB in birds (Dent et al, 1997(Dent et al, , 2009), 12 to 19 dB in pinnipeds (Holt and Schustermann, 2007) and 3 to 6 dB in treefrogs (Bee, 2007;Nityananda and Bee, 2012;Schwartz and Gerhardt, 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial release from masking in insects: contribution of peripheral directionality and central inhibition

Brunnhofer

Hirtenlehner

Römer

2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The detection, identification and discrimination of sound signals in a large and noisy group of signalers are problems shared by many animals equipped with ears. While the signaling behavior of the sender may present several solutions, various properties of the sensory system in receivers may also reduce the amount of signal masking. We studied the effect of spatial release from masking, which refers to the fact that the spatial separation between the signaler and the masker can contribute to signal detection and discrimination. Except in a limited number of cases, the contribution of peripheral directionality or central nervous processing for spatial unmasking is not clear. We report the results of a study using a neurophysiological approach in two species of acoustic insects, whereby the activity of identified interneurons that either receive contralateral inhibitory input (crickets) or inhibit one another reciprocally in a bilateral pair (katydids) was examined. The analysis of the responses of a pair of omega neurons in katydids with reciprocal inhibition revealed that spatial separation of the masker from the signal facilitated signal detection by 19-20 dB with intact binaural hearing, but only by 2.5-7 dB in the monaural system, depending on the kind of analysis performed. The corresponding values for a behaviorally important interneuron of a field cricket (ascending neuron 1) were only 7.5 and 2.5 dB, respectively. We compare these values with those reported for hearing in vertebrates, and discuss the contribution of spatial release from masking to signal detection under real-world chorus conditions.

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“…The target stimuli in these studies ranged widely, including click trains ͑Saberi et al, 1991;Gilkey and Good, 1995;Good et al, 1997͒, chirp trains ͑Lane et al, 2004, and pulsed 1 / 3-octave bands of noise ͑Zurek et al, 2004͒. However, none of these studies looked at how modulation influences SRM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of modulation and spatial separation on detection of a masked broadband target

Kopčo

Shinn‐Cunningham

2008

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Experiments explored the influence of amplitude modulation and spatial separation on detectability of a broadband noise target masked by an independent broadband noise. Thresholds were measured for all combinations of six spatial configurations of target and masker and five modulation conditions. Masker level was either fixed ͑Experiment 1͒ or roved between intervals within a trial to reduce the utility of overall intensity as a cue ͑Experiment 2͒. After accounting for acoustic changes, thresholds depended on whether a target and a masker were colocated or spatially separated, but not on the exact spatial configuration. Moreover, spatial unmasking exceeded that predicted by better-ear acoustics only when modulation cues for detection were weak. Roving increased the colocated but not the spatially separated thresholds, resulting in an increase in spatial release from masking. Differences in both how performance changed over time and the influence of spatial separation support the idea that the cues underlying performance depend on the modulation characteristics of the target and masker. Analysis suggests that detection is based on overall intensity when target and masker modulation and spatial cues are the same, on spatial attributes when sources are separated and modulation provides no target glimpses, and on modulation discrimination in the remaining conditions.

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Effects of Frequency on Free-Field Masking

Cited by 24 publications

References 19 publications

Spatial unmasking and attention related to the cocktail party problem

Spatial unmasking and attention related to the cocktail party problem

Spatial release from masking in insects: contribution of peripheral directionality and central inhibition

Influences of modulation and spatial separation on detection of a masked broadband target

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