title: A model of top-down gain control in the auditory system.
abstract: To evaluate a model of top-down gain control in the auditory system, 6 participants were asked to identify 1-kHz pure tones differing only in intensity. There were three 20-session conditions: (1) four soft tones (25, 30, 35, and 40 dB SPL) in the set; (2) those four soft tones plus a 50-dB SPL tone; and (3) the four soft tones plus an 80-dB SPL tone. The results were well described by a top-down, nonlinear gain-control system in which the amplifier's gain depended on the highest intensity in the stimulus set. Individual participants' identification judgments were generally compatible with an equal-variance signal-detection model in which the mean locations of the distribution of effects along the decision axis were determined by the operation of this nonlinear amplification system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada. bruce.schneider@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D055815:Young Adult