title: The influence of the envelope waveform on binaural tuning of neurons in the inferior colliculus and its relation to binaural perception.
abstract: Recently, Klein-Hennig et al. (J Acoust Soc Am 129:3856–3872, 2011) suggested a design for envelope waveforms that allows for independent setting of the duration of the four segments of an envelope cycle – pause, attack, sustain, and decay. These authors conducted psychoacoustic experiments to determine the threshold interaural time differences (ITDs) for different waveforms and revealed that a steep attack flank and at least 4 ms of pause duration prior to the attack are optimal for discrimination performance, whilst sustained and decay durations were of only minor influence. The current study tests the sharpness of rate-ITD-functions recorded in the inferior colliculus of guinea pigs in response to a similar set of waveforms, examining their relationship to the psychoacoustic data. Particular focus is applied to temporally asymmetric envelope waveforms: a long 15-ms attack and a short 1.5-ms decay envelope and the temporally inverted envelope with a short 1.5-ms attack and a long 15-ms decay.
authors.affiliation: Ear Institute, University College London, London, UK. mathias.dietz@uni-oldenburg.de
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Marquardt
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McAlpine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006801:Humans; D007245:Inferior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*