Neurophysiological Correlate of Binaural Auditory Filter Bandwidth and Localization Performance Studied by Auditory Evoked Fields

Binaural hearing is specifically useful for our ability to separate a speech from a background noise and localize sounds. Binaural hearing performances are influenced by binaural auditory filter, inteaural time delay (ITD), interaural correlation (IAC), and so on. Some psychological experiments have clarified binaural auditor filter bandwidths (Kollmeier & Holube, 1989; Holube et al., 1998) and performance of sound localization related to ITD and IAC (Mills, 1958; Jeffress et al., 1962). However, little is known about the neural correlates, which makes an important contribution to our understanding of the auditory system. Therefore, we tried to estimate binaural auditory filter bandwidth and localization performance by the response in human auditory cortex. Frequency selectivity has an important role in many aspects of auditory perception. For example, one sound may be obscured or rendered inaudible in the presence of other sounds. Frequency selectivity represents the ability of the auditory system to separate out or resolve the frequency components of a complex sound and can be characterized by the auditory filter bandwidths. Auditor filter bandwidths have been used to identify a fundamental perceptual unit that defines the frequency resolution of the auditory system – the critical bandwidth (CBW). The critical band (CB) concept has been used to explain a wide range of perceptual phenomena involving complex sounds. Physiological correlates of the CBW have been described in several studies examining the auditory evoked potential (AEP) or auditory evoked field (AEF) in humans. Zerlin (1986) reported an abrupt increase in the amplitude of wave V of the brainstem AEP responses when the bandwidth of a two-tone complex approximated the CBW. Burrows & Barry (1990) reported that the amplitude of Na of the AEP rapidly increased when the frequency separation of a two-tone complex increased beyond the CBW. Soeta et al. (2005) and Soeta & Nakagawa (2006a) found that the amplitude of the N1m of AEFs increased with increasing the bandwidth of a bandpass noise or the frequency separation of a two-tone complex increased beyond the CBW. These studies have focused on physiological correlates of the monaural auditory filter in human auditory cortex; however, relatively little is known about the physiological correlates of the binaural auditory filter in the human auditory cortex. In natural listening environments, both the monaural and binaural auditory filters contribute

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