Apparatus and methods for mitigating impairments due to central auditory nervous system binaural phase-time asynchrony

A method for developing a binaural phase time delay profile (BPTD) of an individual comprising the steps of:

• separating spoken words into high frequency and low frequency bands;
• delaying one of the bands relative to the other band;
• presenting the delayed band to one ear and the undelayed band to the other ear;
• measuring the individual's comprehension of the words at a variety of delays;
• determining the overall phase delay at which comprehension is optimal;
• providing a pure tone;
• dividing the pure tone into two channels;
• applying a phase shift to one of the channels;
• presenting the phase shifted channel to one ear, and the non-phase shifted channel to the other ear;
• varying the amplitude and the frequency of the tone;
• finding a threshold (lowest amplitude at which the tone is heard) for various frequency tones at various phase shifts;
• and
• assigning an optimal phase shift at the various frequency tones according to the lowest amplitude at which each tone is heard.

An apparatus to develop a binaural phase time delay profile of an individual comprising:

• a high frequency and low frequency bands separation element;
• a frequency band delay element;
• a presentation element adapted to present a delayed band to one ear and an undelayed band to another ear;
• a comprehension measurement element responsive to a variety of delays;
• an optimal overall phase delay determination element;
• a pure tone element;
• a two channel divider responsive to said pure tone element;
• a phase shift element responsive to one of the channels of said two channel divider;
• a presentation element adapted to present a phase shifted channel to one ear;
• a non-phase shifted channel to another ear;
• a tone amplitude and frequency variation element;
• a threshold determination element responsive to said tone amplitude and frequency variation element;
• and
• an optimal phase shift assignment element responsive to the lowest amplitude at which each tone is heard.