Auditory adaptation, post-masking and temporal resolution. Part 2

Phenomena of auditory adaptation can be divided into at least two groups: adaptation effects during the presentation of sounds and adaptation effects after the termination of sounds. To the latter group belongs an effect called post-masking or forward masking: after stimulation with sounds of some hundred milliseconds duration the ear needs about 200 ms to regain its full sensitivity. Post-masking plays an important part for speech perception since the durations involved compare well with the durations of vowels, consonants and silent periods. In hearing impaired patients, post-masking frequently is degraded in such a way that temporal resolution is reduced. Examples are given for amplitude-modulated noise and speech sounds.