Intensity discrimination and detection of amplitude modulation in electrichearing

Wojtczak and Viemeister [J. Acoust. Sec. Am. 106, 1917-1924 (1999)] demonst rated a close relationship between intensity difference limens (DLs) and 4- Hz amplitude modulation (AM) detection thresholds in normal-hearing acousti c listeners. The present study demonstrates a similar relationship between intensity DLs and AM detection thresholds in cochlear-implant listeners, fo r gated stimuli. This suggests that acoustic and cochlear-implant listeners make use of a similar decision variable to perform intensity discriminatio n and modulation detection tasks. It can be shown that the absence of compr ession in electric hearing does not preclude this possibility. (C) 2000 Aco ustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(00)04508-2].