Investigation of mechanism of active and selective listening

为了研究听觉注意是否能有效地提高频率选择性，我们利用陷波掩蔽法进行了一些听觉实验，并估计了听觉滤波器的形状。结果表明，如果在目标信号之前给出目标信号的提示，则很容易检测出存在噪声的目标信号。此外，根据听觉实验结果估计的听觉过滤器的形状随着听觉注意而变得尖锐。这些结果表明，听觉注意可以提高频率选择性，这种提高必须由听觉外周系统的主动控制引起。

To investigate whether frequency selectivity is actively improved by auditory attention, we conducted to some hearing experiments using the notch masking procedure and estimated shapes of auditory filter. The results showed that a target signal presented with noise was easily detected if a cue of the target signal was presented before the target signal. Moreover, the shapes of auditory filter estimated from the results of the hearing experiments were sharpened with auditory attention. These results indicate that auditory attention can enhance the frequency selectivity and the enhancement must be caused by active control of the auditory periphery system.