title: Human cortical sensitivity to interaural level differences in low- and high-frequency sounds.
abstract: Interaural level difference (ILD) is used as a cue in horizontal sound source localization. In free field, the magnitude of ILD depends on frequency: it is more prominent at high than low frequencies. Here, a magnetoencephalography experiment was conducted to test whether the sensitivity of the human auditory cortex to ILD is also frequency-dependent. Robust cortical sensitivity to ILD was found that could not be explained by monaural level effects, but this sensitivity did not differ between low- and high-frequency stimuli. This is consistent with previous psychoacoustical investigations showing that performance in ILD discrimination is not dependent on frequency.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science and MEG Core, Aalto NeuroImaging, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland nelli.salminen@aalto.fi.
authors.forename: Nelli H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Salminen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D004585:Electrooculography; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D011312:Pressure; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013016:Sound; D013017:Sound Localization; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult