title: Effect of flanking sounds on the auditory continuity illusion.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The auditory continuity illusion or the perceptual restoration of a target sound briefly interrupted by an extraneous sound has been shown to depend on masking. However, little is known about factors other than masking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We examined whether a sequence of flanking transient sounds affects the apparent continuity of a target tone alternated with a bandpass noise at regular intervals. The flanking sounds significantly increased the limit of perceiving apparent continuity in terms of the maximum target level at a fixed noise level, irrespective of the frequency separation between the target and flanking sounds: the flanking sounds enhanced the continuity illusion. This effect was dependent on the temporal relationship between the flanking sounds and noise bursts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The spectrotemporal characteristics of the enhancement effect suggest that a mechanism to compensate for exogenous attentional distraction may contribute to the continuity illusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technology, Meiji University, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. te11001@meiji.ac.jp
authors.forename: Maori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Makio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kashino
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D009622:Noise; D013016:Sound; D055815:Young Adult