Role of Interaural Time and Intensity Differences in the Lateralization of Low-Frequency Tones

Abstract

There has recently been a renewal of interest in the roles of intensity and time in the lateralization of sounds. The technique generally employed is to offset the effect of an interaural time difference in one direction with a difference of level in the opposite. In the present series of experiments a different method was used, that of having the subject adjust the interaural time relation for a noise until it appears to be in the same lateral position as the stimulus tone. Using this procedure, we have obtained results which support the findings of other recent workers that increasing the intensity of the stimulus to an ear will cause it to transmit earlier in time. We have found additional evidence, however, which shows that the central nervous system, too, responds to interaural intensity differences, and that its response is different from that of the peripheral system. When time and intensity are opposed, time has less effect on it than when time and intensity both favor the same side.