About the Authors

Carol Q. Pham

carol.pham@uci.edu

Affiliations Center for Hearing Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Peter Bremen

Current address: Department of Biophysics, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Affiliations Center for Hearing Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Weidong Shen

Affiliation Institute of Otolaryngology, Chinese PLA Genera Hospital, Beijing, China

Shi-Ming Yang

Affiliation Institute of Otolaryngology, Chinese PLA Genera Hospital, Beijing, China

John C. Middlebrooks

Affiliations Center for Hearing Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Fan-Gang Zeng

Affiliations Center for Hearing Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Myles Mc Laughlin

Current address: Department of Neurosciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Affiliations Center for Hearing Research, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America, Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors confirm that co-author, Fan-Gang Zeng, is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member but this does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE Editorial policies and criteria.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CQP PB MML. Performed the experiments: CQP WS SY. Analyzed the data: CQP PB MML. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CQP PB JCM FGZ MML. Wrote the paper: CQP PB WS SY JCM FGZ MML. Designed the software used for psychophysical testing: MML. Subject recruiting for research: CQP.