Factors Influencing Stream Segregation Based on Interaural Phase Difference Cues

Abstract

Interaural time differences are often considered a weak cue for stream segregation. We investigated this claim with headphone-presented pure tones differing in a related form of interaural configuration—interaural phase differences (ΔIPD)—or/and in frequency (ΔF). In experiment 1, sequences comprised 5 × ABA– repetitions (A and B = 80-ms tones, “–” = 160-ms silence), and listeners reported whether integration or segregation was heard. Envelope shape was varied but remained constant across all tones within a trial. Envelopes were either quasi-trapezoidal or had a fast attack and slow release (FA-SR) or vice versa (SA-FR). The FA-SR envelope caused more segregation than SA-FR in a task where only ΔIPD cues were present, but not in a corresponding ΔF-only task. In experiment 2, interstimulus interval (ISI) was varied (0–60 ms) between FA-SR tones. ΔF-based segregation decreased with increasing ISI, whereas ΔIPD-based segregation increased. This suggests that binaural temporal integration may limit segregation at short ISIs. In another task, ΔF and ΔIPD cues were presented alone or in combination. Here, ΔIPD-based segregation was greatly reduced, suggesting ΔIPD-based segregation is highly sensitive to experimental context. Experiments 1–2 demonstrate that ΔIPD can promote segregation in optimized stimuli/tasks. Experiment 3 employed a task requiring integration for good performance. Listeners detected a delay on the final four B tones of an 8 × ABA– sequence. Although performance worsened with increasing ΔF, increasing ΔIPD had only a marginal impact. This suggests that, even in stimuli optimized for ΔIPD-based segregation, listeners remained mostly able to disregard ΔIPD when segregation was detrimental to performance.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165241293787
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
Funding Information: This study was supported by an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship (FL160100108) awarded to David McAlpine, a Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship (MR/S002537/1) and National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grant for Applie
Additional Information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Uncontrolled Keywords: binaural hearing,auditory scene analysis,interaural phase differences,binaural integration,stream segregation
Publication ISSN: 2331-2165
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2025 07:11
Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2024 12:57
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://journal ... 312165241293787 (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2024-12-10
Published Online Date: 2024-12-10
Accepted Date: 2024-10-07
Authors: Haywood, Nicholas R.
McAlpine, David
Vickers, Deborah
Roberts, Brian (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-4232-9459)

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