Abstract: Schroeder-phase complexes are stimuli that contain multiple harmonic frequency components of equal amplitude but variable starting phase, summing to produce a series of periodic linear frequency sweeps. Classic psychoacoustic studies find that upwards swept Schroeder-phase maskers are more effective maskers of tonal signals than downwards swept Schroeder-phase maskers. The psychoacoustic literature on Schroeder-phase masking interprets the dependence on sweep direction as arising not primarily from suppression, but from cochlear dispersion (phase curvature), an interpretation supported by animal measurements and physiological models. The current study investigates the effects of sweep rate and direction in normal hearing humans, both behaviorally and physiologically. For the psychoacoustic experiments, detection thresholds for tonal signals masked by upward and downward sweeps are measured as a function of sweep rate and direction. In the same subjects, stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAEs) at the tone frequency are recorded using the sweep combinations from the psychoacoustic paradigm as suppressors. To the extent that the two phenomena share common generation mechanisms, we expect behavioral masking and OAE suppression to depend similarly on sweep characteristics.

This year’s SHRP schedule is available here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

Titles and abstracts of all SHRP talks are here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts

Zoom link: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/4326340458  MEETINGID:4326340458