The pattern of auditory masking derived from Gaussian noise is often cited and used to predict the detrimental effects of masking noise on marine mammals. However, environmental noise (both anthropogenic and natural) may not always be Gaussian distributed. Some noise sources are highly structured with complex amplitude fluctuations that extend across frequency regions, which are often termed comodulated noise. Recent evidence with bottlenose dolphins using comodulated noise demonstrated a significant release from masking compared to Gaussian maskers of the same bandwidth and pressure spectral density level, a result known as comodulation masking release. The present study demonstrates a pattern of masking where both temporally fluctuating comodulated noise and environmental noise produce lower masked thresholds compared to Gaussian noise of the same spectral density level and bandwidth. Furthermore, a threshold reduction or “masking release” occurred when the environmental noise bandwidth increased beyond a critical band. These results provide further evidence that conventional models of auditory masking using Gaussian maskers (i.e., the power spectrum model) do not fully describe the masking effects that occur in realistic environments.
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December 2010
December 01 2010
Auditory masking of a 10 kHz tone with environmental, comodulated, and Gaussian noise in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Jennifer S. Trickey;
Jennifer S. Trickey
a)
G2 Software Systems Inc.
, 4250 Pacific Highway, Suite 125, San Diego, California 92110
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Brian K. Branstetter;
Brian K. Branstetter
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, No. 200, San Diego, California 92106
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James J. Finneran
James J. Finneran
U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program,
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific
, Code 71510, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: trickey@g2ss.com
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128, 3799–3804 (2010)
Article history
Received:
July 13 2010
Accepted:
October 06 2010
Citation
Jennifer S. Trickey, Brian K. Branstetter, James J. Finneran; Auditory masking of a 10 kHz tone with environmental, comodulated, and Gaussian noise in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 December 2010; 128 (6): 3799–3804. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3506367
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