Distribution of auditory-filter bandwidths at 2 kHz in young normal listeners.

Auditory-filter shapes at 2 kHz were estimated for 95 young normally hearing subjects using a notched-noise masker with spectrum level of 45 dB. Excluding two subjects with a recent history of noise exposure, the equivalent rectangular bandwidths (ERBs) of the filters were approximately normally distributed but the distribution had a slight positive skew. The mean ERB was 308 Hz and the standard deviation was 32 Hz. The two noise-exposed subjects had ERBs of 404 and 497 Hz.