Temporal integration in amplitude modulation detection

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Abstract
Thresholds for detecting sinusoidal amplitude modulation (AM) of a wideband noise carrier were measured as a function of the duration of the modulating signal. The carrier was either: (a) gated with a duration that exceeded the duration of modulation by the combined stimulus rise and fall times; (b) presented with a fixed duration that included a 500‐ms carrier fringe preceding the onset of modulation; or (c) on continuously. In condition (a), the gated‐carrier temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) exhibited a bandpass characteristic. For AM frequencies above the individual subject’s TMTF high‐pass segment, the mean slope of the integration functions was −7.46 dB per log unit duration. For the fringe and continuous‐carrier conditions [(b) and (c)], the mean slopes of the integration functions were, respectively, −9.30 and −9.36 dB per log unit duration. Simulations based on integration of the output of an envelope detector approximate the results from the gated‐carrier conditions. The more rapid rates of integration obtained in the fringe and continuous‐carrier conditions may be due to ‘‘overintegration’’ where, at brief modulation durations, portions of the unmodulated carrier envelope are included in the integration of modulating signal energy.