1.

BASIC TERMS
There is an importnat distinction between terms used to describe physical properties and those
used to describe psychological properties. Psychological properties are usually influenced by
many physical ones.
Physical Psychological
Intensity Level Loudness
Frequency Pitch
Spectrum Timbre
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1.1. Absolute threshold
Human listeners are most sensitive to sounds around 2-3kHz. Absolute threshold at these
frequencies for normal young adults is around 0 dB Sound Pressure Level (SPL - level relative to
0.0002 dyne/cm2). Thresholds increase to about 50 dB SPL at 100 Hz and 10 dB SPL at 10 kHz.
A normal young adult's absolute threshold for a pure tone defines 0 dB Hearing Level (HL) at
that frequency. An audiogram measures an individual's threshold at different frequencies relative
to 0dB HL. Normal ageing progressively increases thresholds at high frequencies (presbyacusis).
A noisy environment will lead to a more rapid hearing loss (40 dB loss at 4kHz for a factory
worker at age 35, compared with 20 dB for an office worker). The term Sensation Level (SL)
gives the number of dB that a sound is above its absolute threshold for a particular individual.

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2. FREQUENCY RESOLUTION AND MASKING
Ohm's Acoustic Law states that we can perceive the individual Fourier components of a complex
sound. It is only partly true since the ear has a limited ability to resolve different frequencies.
Our ability to separate different frequencies in the ear depends on the sharpness of our auditory
filters. The physiology underlying auditory filters is described in the previous Notes. The
bandwidth of human auditory filters at different frequencies can be measured psychoacoustically
in masking experiments (see below). The older literature refers to the width of an auditory filter
at a particular frequency as theCritical Band . Sounds can be separated by the ear when they fall
into different Critical Bands, but they mix together when they fall into the same Critical Band.
For example, only harmonics that are separated by more than a critical band can be heard out
from a mixture; only noise that is within a critical band contributes to the masking of a tone. A
simple demonstration of the bandwidth of noise that contributes to the masking of a tone is in the
following band-limiting demonstration which is Demonstration 2 in the ASA "Auditory
Demonstrations" CD.

* In silence, you can hear all ten 5dB steps of the 2000Hz tone.

* In wide-band noise you can only hear about five because of masking.

* As the bandwidth of the noise is decreased to 1000 Hz and then to 250 Hz there is no change,
because your auditory bandwidth is narrower than these values.

* When the bandwidth of the noise is decreased to 10 Hz, you hear more tone steps because the
noise bandwidth is now narrower than the auditory filter and so less noise gets into the auditory
filter to mask the tone.

The masked threshold of a tone is its level when it is just detectable in the presence of some
other sound. It will of course vary with the masking sound. The amount of masking is the
difference between the masked threshold and the abolute threshold. Generally, individuals with
broader auditory filters (as a result of SNHL) show more masking. In Simultaneous masking the
two sounds are presented at the same time. In Forward masking the masking sound is presented
just before the test tone. It gives slightly different results from simultaneous masking because of
non-linearities in the auditory system.
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2.1.Psychophysical Tuning Curves
A psychophysical method can be used to generate an analogy to the physiological frequency
threshold curve for a single auditory fiber. A narrowband noise of variable center frequency is
the masker, and a fixed frequency and fixed level pure tone at about 20 dB HL is the target. The
level of masker is found that just masks the tone for different masker frequencies. Compare the
following diagram with the FTC in the previous Notes.
Using these techniques (and other similar ones) we can estimate the shape and bandwidth of
human auditory filters at different (target) frequencies. The bandwidth values are shown in the
next diagram. At 1kHz the bandwidth is about 130; at 5kHz about 650 Hz.

Psychophysical tuning curves measured in people with SNHL often show increased auditory
bandwidths at those frequencies where they have a hearing loss.
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2.2. Excitation pattern
Using the filter shapes and bandwidths derived from masking experiments we can produce the
excitation pattern produced by a sound. The excitation pattern shows how much energy comes
through each filter in a bank of auditory filters. It is analogous to the pattern of vibration on the
basilar membrane. For a 1000 Hz pure tone the excitation pattern for a normal and for a SNHL
listener look like this:

The excitation pattern to a complex tone is simply the sum of the patterns to the sine waves that
make up the complex tone (since the model is a linear one). We can hear out a tone at a
particular frequency in a mixture if there is a clear peak in the excitation pattern at that
frequency.

Since people suffering from SNHL have broader auditory filters their excitation patterns do not
have such clear peaks. Sounds mask each other more, and so they have difficulty hearing sounds
(such as speech) in noise.

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3. NON-LINEARITIES
To a first approximation the cochlea acts like a row of linear overlapping band-pass filters. But
there is clear evidence that the cochlea is in fact inherently non-linear (ie its non-linearity is not
just a result of over-loading it at high signal levels). In a non-linear system the output to (a+b) is
not the same as the output to (a) plus the output to (b).
3.1. Combination tones
If two tones at frequencies f1 and f2 are played to the same ear simultaneously, a third tone is
heard at a frequency (2f1 -f2 ) provided that f1 and f2 are close in frequency (f2 /f1 < 1.2) and at
similar levels. Combination tones are often absent in Sensori-Neural Hearing Loss.
First listen to a 1000 Hz pure tone

Now listen to a tone that changes in frequency between about 1100 and 1700 Hz

Now listen to the two added together when the moving tone is near the bottom of its range
you should be able to hear another, lower tone come in which is in fact moving in the opposite
direction. This is the 2f1 - f2 combination tone (also known as the Cubic Difference Tone).
You can only hear it when the higher tone is sufficently close to the steady 1000-Hz tone,
because the excitation patterns produced on the basilar membrane from the two tones have to
overlap in order for the combination tone to be generated.
3.2. Two-tone suppression

In single auditory nerve recordings, the response to a just supra threshold tone at CF can be
reduced by a second tone, even though the tone would - itself have increased the nerve's firing
rate. A similar effect is found in forward masking. The forward masking of tone a on tone c can
be reduced if a is accompanied by a third tone b with a different frequency, even though b has no
effect on c on its own. Two-tone suppression is often absent in SNHL
Amplitude modulation is a type of modulation where the amplitude of the carrier signal is varied in
accordance with the information bearing signal.

The envelope, or boundary, of the amplitude modulated signal embeds the information bearing signal.

The total power of the transmitted signal varies with the modulating signal, whereas the carrier power
remains constant.

A nonlinear device is used to combine the carrier and the modulating signal to generate an amplitude
modulated signal. The output of the nonlinear device consists of discrete upper and lower sidebands.