Onset Importance in a Binaural Detection Task for Moving Stimuli (vor Ort)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
For localization, the onset information is known to be highly important, but for a binaural detection task of moving sources, it is unclear it trades with sluggishness. A 500 Hz sine tone, moving on an arc-shaped trajectory ranging from -50° to 50°, was auralized with 17th order Ambisonics and played via 36 horizontally arranged loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber along with noise from the front. The trajectory was split into 5 equally distributed segments. Each segment was passed in 20 or 40 ms. The movement was clockwise or counterclockwise to present the largest binaural cues in each segment either at the onset or at the offset. Detection thresholds were measured for each segment and both movement directions. First results show almost identical detection thresholds across onset conditions. For the most lateral segment, the measured thresholds correspond to the threshold for a static source located at ±50°, with the largest available binaural cues. It seems that the auditory system, despite the assumption of binaural sluggishness, can use the maximum available cues along a brief trajectory for detecting a moving source in noise regardless whether the maximum is at the onset or offset of the stimulus.
