Masking,psychophysical tuning curve,using

simultaneous and simultaneous

 Introduction:-
Masking means interference of one stimulus by the another
stimulus.
Masking is the name given to the pyschoacoustic
phenomenon where the threshold of audibility is raised by
the presence of an another auditory stimulus.
Clinical masking is avoiding the participation of the better
ear by giving noise in the better ear & getting the threshold
from the poorer ear.
The process by which the threshold of audibility of one sound
(maskee) is raised in the presence of another sound
(masker).
- (American standards association 1960, Moore 1982).
 MASKER : the noise which we present to the better ear.
 MASKEE : the test stimulus which we present to the poorer ear .
 In laboratory studies of masking, the amount of masking is
expressed as the difference between the threshold of detecting
a test-stimulus in the presence of a masking stimulus and the
threshold for detecting the test stimulus when presented alone.
 Example:-
Suppose that the threshold for a sound A is
found to be 10 dB SPL. A second sound B is
then presented and the threshold of A is
measured again, but this time in the
presence of sound B. we now find that
sound A must be presented at 26db. This
increase in the threshold or threshold shift
for one sound in presence of another is
called masking.
The amount of masking due to the
presence of B is equal to 26-10 db or 16 db.
 In this case 10db is the unmasked
threshold of sound A, 26db is the masked
threshold, and 16 db is amount of masking.
Masking also gives information about
the:
Frequency resolving capacity of the ear
Excitation pattern of masking along the basilar
membrane
Frequency resolving capacity of the ear

As early as1894,Mayer had reported that, while low-

frequency tones effectively mask higher frequencies, higher
frequencies are not good maskers of lower frequencies.
Figure shows a series of masking patterns (sometimes
called masking audiograms)obtained by Ehmer(1959a).Each
panel shows the amount of masking produced by a given
pure tone masker presented at different intensities.
 Masker frequency is indicated in each frame and masker
level is shown near reach curve.
Several observations may be made from these
masking patterns:-
 First, the strongest masking occurs in the immediate
vicinity of the masker frequency; the amount of
masking tapers with distance from this “center”
frequency.
Second, masking increases as the intensity of the
masker is raised.
 The third observation deals with how the masking
pattern depends upon the intensity and frequency of
the masker.
 Excitation pattern of masking along
the basilar membrane
These masking patterns reflect the activity along the basilar
membrane, as illustrated in Fig.
 The traveling wave envelope has a gradually increasing
amplitude along its basal (high-frequency) slope, reaches a
peak, and then decays rapidly with a steep apical (low-
frequency)slope.
 It is thus expected that higher (more basal) frequencies
would be most affected by the displacement pattern caused
by lower-frequency stimuli.
 In addition, the high-frequency traveling wave peaks and
“decays away” fairly close to the basal turn, so that its
masking effect would be more restricted.
FACTORS AFFECTING MASKING:
Interaural attenuation: the amount of energy lost during
the transmission of sound by A/C or B/C across or through
the skull to the contralateral ear. It is measured as a level
difference in the signal between ears. Its values are
significantly different for A/C and B/C stimuli.
Interaural attenuation during A/C testing varies according to
3 factors:
Subject variability, Frequency spectrum of the test signal
and Earphone transducer type.
 Masking dilemma: It occurs when both ears have large
air-bone gaps and masking can only be introduced at a level
that results in over masking.
Effective masking: ANSI defines the EM level of a
masking signal as the intensity of the masking
required to shift the threshold of a test signal during
simultaneous presentation with 50% probability of
detection.
Overmasking: results when the intensity level of
masking in the nontest ear is sufficient to cross over
to the test ear, thereby elevating the threshold in the
test ear.
 Undermasking: Any masking less than minimum
necessary masking is considered undermasking
 TYPES OF MASKING :
 Masking effects can be measured not only when the masker and the test
tone are presented together but also when they are temporarily separated.
Based on this divided into:
Masking

Non-
Simultaneous
simultaneous
masking
masking

Contra lateral/ Forward Backward

Ipsi lateral
central masking masking

Remote Upward spread

masking of masking
 SIMULTANEOUS MASKING:

Simultaneous masking means Masker is present for the

whole time duration of the signal
•Scharf (1970)- Perceptual masking of one sound by another
is influenced by the auditory filter centered at that signal
frequency.
•Also called as frequency masking or spectral masking since,
it is often observed when sound share a frequency band e.g.,
two sine tones at 440 and 450 can be perceived clearly when
presented separately. But cannot be perceived clearly when
presented simultaneously.
 Ipsilateral Masking :
Presenting both masker and the test-stimulus to the
same ear.
Masking produced depends on the type of stimulus
and intensity used.
Masking increases as intensity increases, becomes
asymmetric with increase in intensity.
Masking patterns are wide for low-frequency maskers
and restricted to high frequency.
 Effective masking occurs at center frequency.
Fig : Masking patterns (masked audiograms) obtained by Ehmer (1959).
 Remote Masking :
This phenomenon occurs at high-stimulus level, for e.g, at
spectrum level of about 60-80dB. Spectrum level refers to
the power in a cycle wide band i.e, level per cycle.
High-frequency masker presented at an intense level can
produce masking at low-frequencies.
This is called remote masking because shift occurs at
frequencies below and remote from the masker.
Bilger (1958)- Amount of remote masking increases as band-
width of masking noise is widened.
Acoustic reflex can cause a shift at low frequency; is the
cause of remote masking.
Remote masking occurs in the absence of acoustic
reflex.

Spieth, Deatherage et al.(1975) - Remote masking

occurs due to the envelope detection of the distortion
products generated within the cochlea at high masker
intensities.
 Upward Spread of Masking:

Mayer (1984) -“Low-frequency are effective maskers of

higher-frequencies”, high frequencies are not good
masker of low frequency, therefore masking is not
symmetrical phenomenon.
This spread of masking to frequencies higher than the
masker is reportedly demonstrated for the tonal masker
(Wegel and Lane, 1924, Fink, 1961).
Strongest masking occurs near the masker frequency.
Amount of masking tapers with distance from the center
frequency.
 The masking patterns become asymmetrically wider with
increasing masker intensity with the greatest masking
occurring for tones higher than the masker frequency, but
with very little masking at lower frequencies.
Thus, as masker intensity is raised, there is considerable
spread of the masking effect upward in frequency but only a
minimal effect downward in frequency.
This phenomenon is aptly called upward spread of
masking.
 Contralateral Masking

Masker to one ear and the test signal to the other ear.
Raising the intensity of the masker will eventually
cause the masker to become audible in the other ear
[Chocolle et al. (1957)].
Masker presented to one ear can cause a threshold shift
for a signal at the other ear even when the masker level
is too low for it to cross over to the signal ear and mask
the test stimulus ( cross hearing ).
NON- SIMULTANEOUS MASKING /
TEMPORAL MASKING :

Masking occurs when the signal is presented just

before or after the masker.
When the test signal and masker do not overlap in
time, referred to as temporal or nonsimultaneous
masking.
Three basic types of non-simultaneous masking can
be distinguished:
 Backward masking
 Forward masking
 Combined masking
 Backward masking :
One in which the probe precedes the masker (also known as
pre-stimulatory masking or pre-masking or precedent
masking).
The signal is presented and terminated, and then the masker
is presented after a brief time-delay following signal offset.
 Masking occurs in spite of the fact that the signal and
masker are not presented together.
This arrangement is called backward masking or pre-masking
because the masker is preceded by the signal,that is, the
masking effect occurs backward in time (as shown by the
arrow in the figure)
The amount of backward masking obtained depends
strongly on how much practice the subjects have
received, and practiced subjects often show little or no
backward masking (Moore et al, 1994).
 proposed 2 distinct mechanisms that explain the
incidence of the backward masking.
1. Intense signals are processed more rapidly than weak
signals, within the inner ear
2. Backward masking results from the reduced temporal
resolution of the ear.
The larger masking effects found for unpracticed subjects
may reflect some sort of confusion of the signal with the
masker.

Backward masking has received considerably less
attention in psychophysics research compared to other
type of masking.
It has been shown that backward masking only begin
29msec prior to masker onset, some experiments have
shown that short tone ending 1msec before the
beginning of a noise burst can experience up to 60dB
of masking.
 Forward masking :
 Forward masking is the one in which the probe follows the
masker (also known as post-stimulatory masking or post-
masking or residual masking).
 The masker is presented first, and then the signal is turned on
after an interval following masker offset.
 It occurs for maskers, which are relatively short in duration
(typically a few milliseconds), and it is limited to signals, which
occur within about 200ms after cessation of the masker.
Forward masking might occur via different mechanisms :-
1. Reduction in sensitivity of recently stimulate neurons (short-term
adaptation)
In forward masking/ Post stimulatory masking, the masker is
precedes the stimulus.
The neurons get excited due to the masker.
Now when the stimulus is presented after the masker, the neurons
undergo fatigue as they have been firing already.

This reduces their response, rather sensitivity to the stimulus,

thereby increasing the threshold
(Meddis and O’Mard,2005)
2. Persistence in the pattern of neural activity evoked by the masker at some level
above the auditory nerve- (model of temporal resolution based on this)

When the neurons get excited due to the masker (first), this responses may take
some time to decay.
If the stimulus is presented within this time, where the masker responses have
not yet faded then this will mask the response to the stimulus

(Plomp, 1946b)
3. Central inhibition evoked by the masker

When the masker is presented causes a neural response. This in

turn causes an inhibition of the system (resting time) for some
time.
If the stimulus is presented within this time frame, the auditory
system does not respond to it as it is in a state of inhibition

(Brosch and Schreiner, 1997

4. The time lag of the Basilar Membrane response (Ringing)

The response of the BM to the masker continues for sometime

after the end of the masker.
If the ringing overlaps with the response of the stimulus, then this
may contribute to the masking of the signal.
The duration of the ringing is less at places tuned to high
frequencies, whose bandwidth is larger than low frequencies.
Thus the effect is seen mostly in low frequencies
(Duifhuis, 1971, 1973; Plack and Moore, 1990
Combined Forward And Backward
Masking
 Signal is placed between the two masker.
 Pollack(1964)- More masking occurs when backward and
forward masking is combined.
 Applications of Masking

1. Frequency resolving: Frequency selectivity refers to the

ability of the auditory system to separate or resolve (to a
limited extent) the spectral components in a complex sound.
In other words it refers to the ability to resolve the sinusoidal
components in a complex sound and it plays a role in many
aspects of auditory perception. This ability is also known as
Frequency analysis or Frequency resolution.
Frequency selectivity can be measured in normally hearing
subjects using Masking. Typically the subject is required to
detect a signal such as a sinusoid in the presence of a
background sound (Masking).
2. Most of our knowledge about the Loudness,
Pitch ,& Timbre of the sound comes from studies of
masking.
3. For estimating the shape of an auditory filter
4. Masking is also used in the clinical assessment of
hearing
5. Use of masking to diagnose Dead regions using
‘The Threshold- Equalizing Noise (TEN) Test’.
6. Another application of auditory masking in everyday
situations is the cocktail party effect.
 PSYCHOPHYSICAL TUNING CURVE
(PTC)

It is the graphical representation of frequency selectivity of

hearing. It is the expression of the ability to detect one sound
in the presence of another (Scharf, 1978 ).
 Curve that shows the minimum masking noise required to
mask a pure-tone of a fixed frequency. At a fixed frequency,
what is the minimum noise required to mask a tone
As the masker gets closer and closer to the frequency of the
test signal, less and less level will be required to mask it, and
hence the function of masker level needed to just mask the
tone provides a picture of the filter.
Psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) are usually measured by
determining the level of a narrowband noise required just to
mask a fixed, low-level tone, for several masker centre
frequencies.
To determine a PTC, the signal is fixed in level, usually at a
very low level, say, 10 dB SL. The masker can be either a
sinusoid or a narrow band of noise. When a sinusoid is used
beats occur between the signal and the masker and these
can provide a cue as ' to the presence of the signal.
This problem can be reduced by using a narrowband noise
masker, because such a masker has inherent fluctuations in
amplitude that make it harder to detect the beats (Dau et.
al., 1997a; Moore et. al., 1998). Thus, noise is generally
preferred (Kluk and Moore. 2004).
The PTCs are very similar in general form to the neural tuning
curves. In neural tuning curve only one tone is presented at a
time where as for the PTC, the masker & signal are presented
simultaneously.
The similarities in the procedures and the results encourage
the belief that the basic frequency selectivity of the auditory
system is established at the level of the auditory nerve and
that the shape of the human auditory filter (or PTC)
corresponds to the shape of the neural tuning curve.
The neural tuning curve is derived from a single neuron
where as the PTC involves activity over a group of neuron
with slightly different Cfs.
FIG: Psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) determined in simultaneous masking using
sinusoidal signals at 10 dB SL. For each curve, the solid circle below it indicates the
frequency and the level of the signal. The masker was a sinusoid that had a fixed starting
phase relationship to the 50-ms signal. The masker level required for threshold is plotted
as a function of masker frequency on a logarithmic scale. The dashed line shows the
absolute threshold for detecting the signal.
 The major difference between simultaneous and nonsimultaneous
masking is that the frequency selectivity revealed in nonsimuhaneous
masking is greater than that revealed in simultaneous masking.
 This difference arises because the internal representation of the masker
(its excitation pattern) is sharpened by a suppression process, with the
greatest sharpening occurring on the low-frequency side.
 In simultaneous masking, the effects of suppression are not seen,
because any reduction of the masker activity in the frequency region of
the signal is accompanied by a similar reduction in signal-evoked
activity. In other words, the signal-to-masker ratio in the frequency
region of the signal is unaffected by the suppression.
 In forward masking, on the other hand, the suppression does not affect
the signal. For maskers with frequencies above that of the signal, the
effect of suppression is to sharpen the excitation pattern of the masker,
resulting in an increase of the masker level required to mask the signal.
Thus the suppression is revealed as an increase in the slopes of the
PTC.
 Sharpness of the wave/peak
The wave’s peak is even further defined as a result of the
action of the outer hair cells. The stretching/shrinking
action of the outer hair cells temporarily alters the basilar
membrane on either side of the peak.
This mechanically forces the peak into a sharper point
that, in turn, increases our ability to distinguish between
frequencies that are close together.
In someone with outer hair cell damage, the traveling
wave peak is dull and rounded, and their ability to
distinguish frequencies that are close together is
diminished.
REFERENCE
1. Brian C. J. Moore (2012). An Introduction to the Psychology of
Hearing (6 th ed.). Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley,
UK.
2. StanleyA.Gelfand (2010). Hearing: An Introduction to
Psychological and Physiological Acoustics (5 th ed.). Informa
Healthcare, UK.
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