Temporal auditory acuity in blind and sighted subjects: a signal detection analysis.

Temporal auditory sensitivity was compared in five adventitiously blind and five normally sighted subjects in a signal-detection paradigm. Following determination of individual auditory flutter fusion (AFF) thresholds the subjects were required to make forced-choice responses between a fluttering and fused white noise under stimulus probabilities of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75. From these data indices of sensory sensitivity (d') and response bias (Beta) were computed and compared. Analysis indicated no significant differences in auditory sensitivity between the two groups. These findings further weaken the traditional hypothesis of sensory compensation.