Spatial auditory masking between sound objects vertically located on the median plane of the listener is examined. The masking threshold is known to have symmetric properties about the frontal plane of the listener, which means signals at the front center mask signals at the back center as well as those at the front center. In the present study, however, we found that, at certain frequencies of masker signals, a masker signal at the front center of the subject does not mask signals at the top center (zenith) with the same level as signals at the front center or back center of the listener even though their interaural time differences (ITDs) are almost identical. Conversely, stronger masking occurs when the masker signal is located at the top center than when it is located in other directions, irrespective of the maskee direction. We found that this strong masking is partially due to the difference in loudness of the source signals depending on the elevations.
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