Neural representation of interaural correlation in human auditory brainstem: Comparisons between temporal-fine structure and envelope.

Neural representation of interaural correlation in human auditory brainstem: Comparisons between temporal-fine structure and envelope.
Hear Res. 2018 May 23;:
Authors: Wang Q, Lu H, Wu Z, Li L
Abstract
Central processing of interaural correlation (IAC), which depends on the precise representation of acoustic signals from the two ears, is essential for both localization and recognition of auditory objects. A complex soundwave is initially filtered by the peripheral auditory system into multiple narrowband waves, which are further decomposed into two functionally distinctive components: the quickly-varying temporal-fine structure (TFS) and the slowly-varying envelope. In rats, a narrowband noise can evoke auditory-midbrain frequency-following responses (FFRs) that contain both the TFS component (FFRTFS) and the envelope component (FFREnv), which represent the TFS and envelope of the narrowband noise, respectively. These two components are different in sensitivity to the interaural time disparity. In human listeners, the present study investigated whether the FFRTFS and FFREnv components of brainstem FFRs to a narrowband noise are different in sensitivity to IAC and whether there are potential brainstem mechanisms underlying the integration of the two components. The results showed that although both the amplitude of FFRTFS and that of FFREnv were significantly affected by shifts of IAC between 1 and 0, the stimulus-to-response correlat...

Source: Hearing Research - May 23, 2018 Category: Audiology Authors: Wang Q, Lu H, Wu Z, Li L Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research