Psychophysical two-tone suppression as a function of input level for f2/f1 greater than 1.0.
Psychophysical two-tone suppression was measured in three normal-hearing young adults using the pulsation-threshold technique. The primary objective was to study the effect of L1 on psychophysical two-tone suppression for f2/f1 greater than 1.0. Measurements were obtained at low and mid frequencies and for input levels ranging from 40 through 85 dB SPL. For f1 = 1000 or 2000 Hz, suppression increased initially with L1 and then decreased for L1 greater than or equal to 55 to 70 dB SPL. For f1 = 500 Hz, however, suppression increased monotonically throughout the range of L1 values examined. These findings are explained by assuming that for f1 greater than or equal to 1000 Hz the nonlinear mechanism responsible for two-tone suppression is very susceptible to reversible dysfunction produced by the presentation of high-intensity stimuli.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D006801:Humans; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D011571:Psychoacoustics