Effects of the preceding and following tone on laterality threshold

Abstract

In this paper, the thresholds of detection and laterality are explored using a tone signal with interaural time difference (ITD) and a diotic tone masker in the three stimulus configurations: in simultaneous, forward and backward masking paradigms. The inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) between the signal and the masker are 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 ms. The results show that both of the thresholds decrease with increasing ISI. Characteristics of the laterality thresholds is similar to the well-known pattern of temporal masking, which means that we measured the temporal masking pattern on laterality. As the frequency difference between the tonal masker and the signal tone becomes smaller, the detection threshold increases due to masking. The laterality thresholds with an interferer, however, are higher than those without an interferer at a wider frequency range around the frequency of an interfering tone.