In psychoacoustics, temporal masking is the phenomenon where the perception of a sound is affected by the presence of another sound that occurs before or after it. Specifically, temporal masking occurs when one sound, called the masker, makes it harder to hear another sound, called the target, that occurs shortly before or after it in time. This can happen because the masker causes neural activity in the auditory system that persists for a short time and interferes with the processing of subsequent sounds. ![[temporal-masking.png]] The temporal masking level is an asymmetrical function, where pre-masking lasts about 5 ms while post-making can last longer. For example, the masking level of ao 200ms pulse: ![[temporal-masking-200ms.png]] Source: [[Huang 2001]] (figure 2.16) In this example of backward masking, the 950 Hz signal precedes the 1100 Hz masker by 100 ms. The signal amplitude is reduced in every repetition and becomes inaudible after the 4th repetition. ![[bwd-time-masking-100ms.wav]] When the distance is reduced to 10ms the signal becomes inaudible at the 3rd repetition ![[bwd-time-masking-10ms.wav]] When the masking signal precedes the signal by 100ms, the signal is audible even when its intensity is reduced. ![[fwd-time-masking-100ms.wav]] When the distance is reduced to 10ms the signal becomes inaudible sooner (5th repetition). ![[fwd-time-masking-10ms.wav]]