The role of suppression in psychophysical tone-on-tone masking.
This study tested the hypothesis that suppression contributes to the difference between simultaneous masking (SM) and forward masking (FM). To obtain an alternative estimate of suppression, distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured in the presence of a suppressor tone. Psychophysical-masking and DPOAE-suppression measurements were made in 22 normal-hearing subjects for a 4000-Hz signal/f(2) and two masker/suppressor frequencies: 2141 and 4281 Hz. Differences between SM and FM at the same masker level were used to provide a psychophysical estimate of suppression. The increase in L(2) to maintain a constant output (L(d)) provided a DPOAE estimate of suppression for a range of suppressor levels. The similarity of the psychophysical and DPOAE estimates for the two masker/suppressor frequencies suggests that the difference in amount of masking between SM and FM is at least partially due to suppression.
Rodríguez
Joyce
J
Boys Town National Research Hospital, 555 North 30th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA. rodríguezj@boystown.org
Neely
Stephen T
ST
Patra
Harisadhan
H
Kopun
Judy
J
Jesteadt
Walt
W
Tan
Hongyang
H
Gorga
Michael P
MP
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D055815:Young Adult