AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF BASILAR-MEMBRANE NONLINEARITIES ON NOISESUPPRESSION

Computational models of the peripheral auditory system have largely mo deled basilar membrane (BM) mechanics as a linear filter-bank-like ent ity. Recent mathematical work on the nature of auditory system noise s uppression allows us to analyze and argue for the incorporation of BM nonlinearities into these models. This analysis shows that vowel perce ption improves with increasing presence of BM nonlinearities whereas c onsonant perception degrades with increasing influence of BM nonlinear ities. Experimental results on tones and real speech corrupted by nois e corroborate the analysis as well as suggest a novel approach to spee ch processing. (C) 1998 Acoustical Society of American.