Responses to dichotic tone-in-noise stimuli in the inferior colliculus

Human listeners are more sensitive to tones embedded in diotic noise when the tones are out-of-phase at the two ears (N S ) than when they are in-phase (N S ). The difference between the tone-detection thresholds for these two conditions is referred to as the binaural masking level difference (BMLD)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in neuroscience 2022-12, Vol.16, p.997656-997656
Main Authors: Fan, Langchen, Henry, Kenneth S, Carney, Laurel H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
binaural cues
binaural detection
binaural masking level difference
interaural correlation
midbrain
Neuroscience
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Summary:Human listeners are more sensitive to tones embedded in diotic noise when the tones are out-of-phase at the two ears (N S ) than when they are in-phase (N S ). The difference between the tone-detection thresholds for these two conditions is referred to as the binaural masking level difference (BMLD) and reflects a benefit of binaural processing. Detection in the N S condition has been explained in modeling studies by changes in interaural correlation (IAC), but this model has only been directly tested physiologically for low frequencies. Here, the IAC-based hypothesis for binaural detection was examined across a wide range of frequencies and masker levels using recordings in the awake rabbit inferior colliculus (IC). IAC-based cues were strongly correlated with neural responses to N S stimuli. Additionally, average rate-based thresholds were calculated for both N S and N S conditions. The rate-based neural BMLD at 500 Hz matched rabbit behavioral data, but the trend of neural BMLDs across frequency differed from that of humans.
ISSN:1662-4548
1662-453X
1662-453X
DOI:10.3389/fnins.2022.997656