Binaural masking

Binaural masking occurs when the presence of sounds in one ear makes it harder to hear or distinguish sounds in the other ear. It's a phenomenon related to how our brain processes sounds from both ears simultaneously. When competing sounds are similar, they can interfere with each other, reducing our ability to pick out a specific sound. This effect influences our hearing in noisy environments, where multiple sounds are present, and our brain tries to focus on important signals like speech. Understanding binaural masking helps in developing better hearing aids and audio technology to improve sound clarity.