Experimental Evidence for a Cochlear Source of the Precedence Effect

Abstract

The precedence effect (PE) refers to the dominance of directional information carried by a direct sound (lead) over the spatial information contained in its multiple reflections (lags) in sound localization. Although the processes underlying the PE have been largely investigated, the extent to which peripheral versus central auditory processes contribute to this perceptual phenomenon has remained unclear. The present study investigated the contribution of peripheral processing to the PE through a comparison of physiological and psychoacoustical data in the same human listeners. The psychoacoustical experiments, comprising a fusion task, an interaural time difference detection task and a lateralization task, demonstrated a time range from 1 to 4.6–5 ms, in which the PE operated (precedence window). Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs) were recorded in both ears to investigate the lead–lag interactions at the level of the basilar membrane (BM) in the cochlea. The CEOAE-derived peripheral and monaural lag suppression was largest for ICIs of 1–4 ms. Auditory-evoked brainstem responses (ABRs) were used to investigate monaural and binaural lag suppression at the brainstem level. The responses to monaural stimulation reflected the peripheral lag suppression observed in the CEOAE results, while the binaural brainstem responses did not show any substantial contribution of binaural processes to monaural lag suppression. The results demonstrated that the lag suppression occurring at the BM in a time range from 1 to 4 ms, as indicated by the suppression of the lag-CEOAE, was the source of the reduction in the lag-ABRs and a possible peripheral contributor to the PE for click stimuli.

Cochlear Contributions to the Precedence Effect

“…The ABR results in Fig. 32.3a furthermore showed binaural lag-suppression levels in between the lag-suppression levels obtained for each ear individually (Bianchi et al 2013 ) . Binaural ABR lag suppression thus seems to re fl ect monaural lag suppression, as demonstrated in Fig.…”

“…32.1d demonstrate that subjects were unable to detect the second click in a click pair (i.e., perceptual lag suppression) when the ICI was below 4.3 ms. For subject KE, this monaural echo-threshold occurred for an ICI of 4.8 ms. ABR and CEOAE lag suppression were always higher below than above this threshold for all subjects tested. This result was signi fi cant for all subjects for the CEOAE measure and for 3 out of 6 subjects for the ABR measure (Bianchi et al 2013 ) .…”

“…32.1b for procedure). The ABR wave-Vs were recorded as described in Bianchi et al ( 2013 ) (Fig. 32.1c ).…”

“…Thresholds were obtained as the average of three repeated experimental runs. Additional experiments investigating the laterization of the click pairs used here were performed in Bianchi et al ( 2013 ) for the same subjects.…”

“…Perceptual correlates of monaural BM IR interactions were investigated with a fusion test (Litovsky et al 1999 ;Bianchi et al 2013 ) , where subjects were asked to report whether 1 or 2 clicks were perceived when listening to The results in Fig. 32.1d demonstrate that subjects were unable to detect the second click in a click pair (i.e., perceptual lag suppression) when the ICI was below 4.3 ms. For subject KE, this monaural echo-threshold occurred for an ICI of 4.8 ms. ABR and CEOAE lag suppression were always higher below than above this threshold for all subjects tested.…”