40 ms·
For higher frequencies your auditory system doesn't retain the waveform information, so this doesn't happen.
by mdturnerphys 13y ago
For higher frequencies your auditory system doesn't retain the waveform information, so this doesn't happen.
- bigiain 13y agoI wonder if that's an evolutionary thing – somehow we evolved out the ability to retain phase difference information outside the frequencies where it's useful for stereo angular location? The "~1000Hz" upper limit is pretty close to a 1/4 wavelength for a "phased array" of two ears ~100mm apart. That'd make it pretty ideal for angular discrimination based on phase difference.
- apl 13y agoYou're pretty spot on here -- up to approximately 1500Hz, the auditory brain can make use of so-called inter-aural time differences which allow estimation of a given source's azimuth. After that, phase differences become ambiguous and the brain relies more heavily on inter-aural volume differences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaural_time_difference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaural_time_difference