Masking by Residue Pitch

Abstract

It is known that the pitch of the absent frequency in the input signals such as complex tones can be perceived, and it is called the phenomenon of the missing fundamental. It is thought that place and temporal information, which play an important role in pitch perception, are integrated at the central auditory system. However, the interaction between residue pitch which does not have place information and pure tone perception has not been reported.
To investigate the interaction between residue pitch and pure-tone perception, using the randomized maximum likelihood sequential procedure, we examined the threshold shifts of tone bursts by the masker of the filtered click train, which provides the phenomenon of the missing fundamental.
The results showed the narrow masking patterns by the filtered click train compared with those by the pure tone or the band noise. When the level of the masker was high, a broad threshold elevation was added. The masking effects decreased with the elevation of the high-pass cut-off frequency of the filtered click train.