Inhibitory influences on asynchrony as a cue for auditory segregation.
A harmonic that begins before the other harmonics contributes less than they do to vowel quality. This reduction can be partly reversed by accompanying the leading portion with a captor tone. This effect is usually interpreted as reflecting perceptual grouping of the captor with the leading portion. Instead, it has recently been proposed that the captor effect depends on broadband inhibition within the central auditory system. A test of psychophysical predictions based on this proposal showed that captor efficacy is (a) maintained for noise-band captors, (b) absent when a captor accompanies a harmonic that continues after the vowel, and (c) maintained for 80 ms or more over a gap between captor offset and vowel onset. These findings support and refine the inhibitory account.
Holmes
Stephen D
SD
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham-Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Roberts
Brian
B
D017626:Cochlear Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors