Psychophysical and modeling approaches towards determining the cochlear phase response based on interaural time differences.

The cochlear phase response is often estimated by measuring masking of a tonal target by harmonic complexes with various phase curvatures. Maskers yielding most modulated internal envelope representations after passing the cochlear filter are thought to produce minimum masking, with fast-acting cochlear compression as the main contributor to that effect. Thus, in hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, reduced cochlear compression hampers estimation of the phase response using the masking method. This study proposes an alternative approach, based on the effect of the envelope modulation strength on the sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITDs). To evaluate the general approach, ITD thresholds were measured in seven normal-hearing listeners using 300-ms Schroeder-phase harmonic complexes with nine different phase curvatures. ITD thresholds tended to be lowest for phase curvatures roughly similar to those previously shown to produce minimum masking. However, an unexpected ITD threshold peak was consistently observed for a particular negative phase curvature. An auditory-nerve based ITD model predicted the general pattern of ITD thresholds except for the threshold peak, as well as published envelope ITD data. Model predictions simulating outer hair cell loss support the feasibility of the ITD-based approach to estimate the phase response in HI listeners.