Underwater equal-latency contours of a harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) for tonal signals between 0.5 and 125 kHz

• Main Authors: Wensveen, Paul Jacobus, Huijser, Léonie A E, Hoek, Lean, Kastelein, Ronald A.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2016
• Subjects: Auditory weighting; Loudness; Noise effects; Odontocetes; Reaction time; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/underwater-equallatency-contours-of-a-harbor-porpoise-phocoena-phocoena-for-tonal-signals-between-05-and-125-khz(12f6a17b-1c84-49bc-822e-88569b6ca45a).html; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_153; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84948783957&partnerID=8YFLogxK

Loudness perception can be studied based on the assumption that sounds of equal loudness elicit equal reaction time (RT; or “response latency”). We measured the underwater RTs of a harbor porpoise to narrowband frequency-modulated sounds and constructed six equal-latency contours. The contours paralleled the audiogram at low sensation levels (high RTs). At high-sensation levels, contours flattened between 0.5 and 31.5 kHz but dropped substantially (RTs shortened) beyond those frequencies. This study suggests that equal-latency-based frequency weighting can emulate noise perception in porpoises for low and middle frequencies but that the RT-loudness correlation is relatively weak for very high frequencies.