In a test sound consisting of a burst of pink noise, an arbitrarily selected target frequency band can be “enhanced” by the previous presentation of a similar noise with a spectral notch in the target frequency region. As a result of the enhancement, the test sound evokes a pitch sensation corresponding to the pitch of the target band. Here, a pitch comparison task was used to assess enhancement. In the first experiment, a stronger enhancement effect was found when the test sound and its precursor had the same interaural time difference (ITD) than when they had opposite ITDs. Two subsequent experiments were concerned with the audibility of an instance of dichotic pitch in binaural test sounds preceded by precursors. They showed that it is possible to enhance a frequency region on the sole basis of ITD manipulations, using spectrally identical test sounds and precursors. However, the observed effects were small. A major goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that enhancement originates at least in part from neural adaptation processes taking place at a central level of the auditory system. The data failed to provide strong support for this hypothesis.

1.
Akeroyd
,
M. A.
, and
Summerfield
,
Q.
(
2000
). “
The lateralization of simple dichotic pitches
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
108
,
316
334
.
2.
Bernstein
,
L. R.
,
Trahiotis
,
C.
, and
Freyman
,
R. 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
2993
.
3.
Best
,
V.
,
Gallun
,
F. J.
,
Carlile
,
S.
, and
Shinn-Cunningham
,
B. G.
(
2007
). “
Binaural interference and auditory grouping
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
121
,
1070
1076
.
4.
Carlyon
,
R. P.
(
1989
). “
Changes in the masked thresholds of brief tones produced by prior bursts of noise
,”
Hear. Res.
41
,
223
236
.
5.
Carlyon
,
R. P.
,
Deeks
,
J. M.
,
Grahn
,
J.
,
Shtykov
,
Y.
,
Hauk
,
F.
, and
Pulvermuller
,
F.
(
2005
). “
The mysterious case of elephant noise: A retrospective continuity illusion?
,”
Poster presented at the Meeting of the Bristish Society of Audiology, Cardiff, UK.
6.
Cramer
,
E. M.
, and
Huggins
,
W. H.
(
1958
). “
Creation of pitch through binaural interaction
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
30
,
413
417
.
7.
Culling
,
J. F.
(
2000
). “
Auditory motion segregation: A limited analogy with vision
,”
J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
26
,
1760
1769
.
8.
Darwin
,
C. J.
, and
Hukin
,
R. W.
(
1999
). “
Auditory objects of attention: The role of interaural time-differences in attention to speech
,”
J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
25
,
617
629
.
9.
Demany
,
L.
, and
Semal
,
C.
(
2008
). “
The role of memory in auditory perception
,” in
Auditory Perception of Sound Sources
, edited by
W. A.
Yost
,
A. N.
Popper
, and
R. R.
Fay
(
Springer
, New York), pp.
77
113
.
10.
Dougherty
,
R. F.
,
Cynader
,
M. S.
,
Bjornson
,
B. H.
,
Edgell
,
D.
, and
Giaschi
,
D. E.
(
1998
). “
Dichotic pitch: A new stimulus distinguishes normal and dyslexic auditory function
,”
NeuroReport
9
,
3001
3005
.
11.
Furukawa
,
S.
,
Maki
,
K.
,
Kashino
,
M.
, and
Riquimaroux
,
H.
(
2005
). “
Dependency of the interaural phase difference sensitivities of inferior collicular neurons on a preceding tone and its implications in neural population coding
,”
J. Neurophysiol.
93
,
3313
3326
.
12.
Getzmann
,
S.
(
2004
). “
Spatial discrimination of sound sources in the horizontal plane following an adapter sound
,”
Hear. Res.
191
,
14
20
.
13.
Grantham
,
D. W.
, and
Wightman
,
F. L.
(
1978
). “
Detectability of varying interaural temporal differences
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
63
,
511
523
.
14.
Hafter
,
E. R.
,
Buell
,
T. N.
, and
Richards
,
V. M.
(
1988
). “
Onset-coding in lateralization: its form, site and function
,” in
Auditory Function: Neurological Basis of Hearing
, edited by
G.
Edelman
,
M.
Cohen
, and
E.
Gall
(
Wiley
, New York), pp.
647
676
.
15.
Hartmann
,
W. M.
, and
Goupell
,
M. J.
(
2006
). “
Enhancing and unmasking the harmonics of a complex tone
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
120
,
2142
2157
.
16.
Hartmann
,
W. M.
, and
Zhang
,
P. X.
(
2003
). “
Binaural models and the strength of dichotic pitches
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
114
,
3317
3326
.
17.
Hicks
,
M. L.
, and
Bacon
,
S. P.
(
1992
). “
Factors influencing temporal effects with notched-noise maskers
,”
Hear. Res.
64
,
123
132
.
18.
Kashino
,
M.
(
1998
). “
Adaptation in sound localization revealed by auditory after-effects
,” in
Psychophysical and Physiological Advances in Hearing
, edited by
A. R.
Palmer
,
A.
Rees
,
A. Q.
Summerfield
, and
R.
Meddis
(
Whurr
, London), pp.
322
328
.
19.
Kashino
,
M.
, and
Nishida
,
S.
(
1998
). “
Adaptation in sound localization revealed by auditory after effects
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
103
,
3597
3604
.
20.
Kidd
,
G.
 Jr.
, and
Wright
,
B. A.
(
1994
). “
Improving the detectability of a brief tone in noise using forward and backward masker fringes: Monotic and dichotic presentations
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
,
962
967
.
21.
Kubovy
,
M.
, and
Howard
,
F. P.
(
1976
). “
Persistence of a pitch-segregating echoic memory
,”
J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
2
,
531
537
.
22.
Malone
,
B. J.
,
Scott
,
B. H.
, and
Semple
,
M. N.
(
2002
). “
Context-dependent adaptive coding of interaural phase disparity in the auditory cortex of awake macaques
,”
J. Neurosci.
22
,
4625
4638
.
23.
McAlpine
,
D.
,
Jiang
,
D.
,
Shackleton
,
T. M.
, and
Palmer
,
A. R.
(
2000
). “
Responses of neurons in the inferior colliculus to dynamic interaural phase cues: Evidence for a mechanism of binaural adaptation
,”
J. Nondestruct. Eval.
83
,
1356
1365
.
24.
McFadden
,
D.
(
1966
). “
Masking-level differences with continuous and with burst masking noise
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
40
,
1414
1419
.
25.
Palmer
,
A. R.
,
Summerfield
,
Q.
, and
Fantini
,
D. A.
(
1995
). “
Responses of auditory nerve fibres to stimuli producing psychophysical enhancement
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
97
,
1786
1799
.
26.
Phillips
,
D. P.
, and
Hall
,
S. E.
(
2005
). “
Psychophysical evidence for adaptation of central auditory processors for interaural differences in time and level
,”
Hear. Res.
202
,
188
199
.
27.
Robinson
,
D. E.
, and
Trahiotis
,
C.
(
1972
). “
Effects of signal duration and masker duration on detectability under diotic and dichotic listening conditions
,”
Percept. Psychophys.
12
,
333
334
.
28.
Semal
,
C.
, and
Demany
,
L.
(
2006
). “
Individual differences in the sensitivity to pitch direction
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
120
,
3907
3915
.
29.
Summerfield
,
A. Q.
,
Haggard
,
M. P.
,
Foster
,
J. R.
, and
Gray
,
S.
(
1984
). “
Perceiving vowels from uniform spectra: Phonetic exploration of an auditory after effect
,”
Percept. Psychophys.
35
,
203
213
.
30.
Summerfield
,
A. Q.
,
Sidwell
,
A.
, and
Nelson
,
T.
(
1987
). “
Auditory enhancement of changes in spectral amplitude
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
81
,
700
708
.
31.
Thurlow
,
W. R.
, and
Jack
,
C. E.
(
1973
). “
Some determinants of localization-adaptation effects for successive auditory stimuli
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
53
,
1573
1577
.
32.
Ulanovsky
,
N.
,
Las
,
L.
, and
Nelken
,
I.
(
2003
). “
Processing of low-probability sounds by cortical neurons
,”
Nat. Neurosci.
6
,
391
398
.
33.
Ulanovsky
,
N.
,
Las
,
L.
,
Farkas
,
D.
, and
Nelken
,
I.
(
2004
). “
Multiple time scales of adaptation in auditory cortex neurons
,”
J. Neurosci.
17
,
10440
10453
.
34.
Viemeister
,
N. F.
(
1980
). “
Adaptation of masking
,” in
Psychophysical, Physiological and Behavioural Studies in Hearing
, edited by
G.
van den Brink
and
F. A.
Bilsen
(
Delft University Press
, Delft, The Netherlands), pp.
190
199
.
35.
Viemeister
,
N. F.
, and
Bacon
,
S. P.
(
1982
). “
Forward masking by enhanced components in harmonic complexes
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
71
,
1502
1507
.
36.
Vigneault-MacLean
,
B. K.
,
Hall
,
S. E.
, and
Phillips
,
D. P.
(
2007
). “
The effects of lateralized adaptors on lateral position judgements of tones within and across frequency channels
,”
Hear. Res.
224
,
93
100
.
37.
Wilson
,
J. P.
(
1970
). “
An auditory afterimage
,” in
Frequency Analysis and Periodicity Detection in Hearing
, edited by
R.
Plomp
and
G. F.
Smoorenburg
(
Sijthoff
, Leiden, The Netherlands), pp.
303
318
.
38.
Wright
,
B. A.
,
McFadden
,
D.
, and
Champlin
,
C. A.
(
1993
). “
Adaptation of suppression as an explanation of enhancement effects
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
94
,
72
82
.
39.
Yost
,
W. A.
(
1985
). “
Prior stimulation and the masking-level difference
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
78
,
901
907
.
You do not currently have access to this content.