The objective of the proposed research is an evaluation of how and how well the binaural auditory system processes certain interaural temporal disparities (ITDs) and certain interaural intensitive disparities (IIDs). The experiments proposed are focused on two general topics: 1) the ability of the binaural auditory system to utilize dynamically- varying interaural information, a topic sometimes referred to in the literature as 'binaural sluggishness' (Aim1); 2) an investigation of how binaural interference is affected by details concerning the temporal properties of interferers and targets (Aim 2). The overall goal is to extend greatly the knowledge of how the human's ability to detect and to discriminate interaural disparities is affected by the spectral region and spectral compositions of sounds that are processed via binaural interactions. One large subset of experiments will focus on how sensitive listeners are to abrupt changes in the magnitude of interaural cues. The experiments have been designed to yield a quantitative assessment of the listeners' behavior including the derivation of time-constants that describe performance. A second set of experiments concerns the measurement of 'binaural interference' produced by spectrally remote stimuli in detection and lateralization paradigms. The experiments can be characterized as a systematic and parametric investigation of how binaural interference is affected by details concerning the temporal properties of interferers and targets. Beyond providing fundamental data concerning binaural processing of high-frequency signals in the presence of potentially conflicting low-frequency information, the parametric experiments should yield substantial insight into the mechanism or mechanisms that underlie interference phenomena. The potential health benefits are a better understanding of how the ear and brain process information and the potential for 'better' diagnostic procedures that may, eventually, have clinical significance.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01DC004073-01
Application #
2840441
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-6 (01))
Project Start
1999-05-01
Project End
2002-04-30
Budget Start
1999-05-01
Budget End
2000-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Connecticut
Department
Surgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Farmington
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06030
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2009) How sensitivity to ongoing interaural temporal disparities is affected by manipulations of temporal features of the envelopes of high-frequency stimuli. J Acoust Soc Am 125:3234-42
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2008) Binaural signal detection, overall masking level, and masker interaural correlation: revisiting the internal noise hypothesis. J Acoust Soc Am 124:3850-60
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2008) Discrimination of interaural temporal disparities conveyed by high-frequency sinusoidally amplitude-modulated tones and high-frequency transposed tones: effects of spectrally flanking noises. J Acoust Soc Am 124:3088-94
Buell, Thomas N; Griffin, Sarah J; Bernstein, Leslie R (2008) Listeners'sensitivity to ""onset/offset"" and ""ongoing"" interaural delays in high-frequency, sinusoidally amplitude-modulated tones. J Acoust Soc Am 123:279-94
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2007) Why do transposed stimuli enhance binaural processing?: Interaural envelope correlation vs envelope normalized fourth moment. J Acoust Soc Am 121:EL23-8
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine; Freyman, Richard L (2006) Binaural detection of 500-Hz tones in broadband and in narrowband masking noise: effects of signal/masker duration and forward masking fringes. J Acoust Soc Am 119:2981-93
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2005) Measures of extents of laterality for high-frequency ""transposed"" stimuli under conditions of binaural interference. J Acoust Soc Am 118:1626-35
Bernstein, Leslie R (2004) Sensitivity to interaural intensitive disparities: listeners' use of potential cues. J Acoust Soc Am 115:3156-60
Bernstein, Leslie R; Trahiotis, Constantine (2004) The apparent immunity of high-frequency ""transposed"" stimuli to low-frequency binaural interference. J Acoust Soc Am 116:3062-9
Akeroyd, Michael A (2003) Threshold differences for interaural time delays carried by double vowels. J Acoust Soc Am 114:2167-77

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