Temporal Masking

Temporal masking is a psychoacoustic phenomenon where the perception of a sound is affected by sounds that occur just before or after it in time. Specifically, a loud sound can make a neighboring sound, either immediately preceding or following it, harder to hear or completely inaudible. This effect occurs because our auditory system temporarily "dampens" the sensitivity to sounds around the loud one, reducing the chances of perceiving certain sounds when they occur close together in time. Temporal masking is important in audio compression and noise reduction, helping to prioritize important sounds while efficiently removing inaudible or masked noise.