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PSYC 212 > Section 5 > Flashcards

Section 5 Flashcards

1
Q

How does sound come about?

A

From pressure fluctuations in the air

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2
Q

What determines the loudness of sound?

A

The amplitude of the sine waves that represent the air fluctuations

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3
Q

What is loudness?

A

The psychological aspect of sound related to perceived intensity or amplitude

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4
Q

How is amplitude measured?

A

Decibels

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5
Q

What does dB = 0 mean?

A

The pressure fluctuation corresponds to the minimal auditory sound for most people

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6
Q

TRUE/FALSE

dBs are more reflective of subjectively perceived sound than actual sound pressure

A

true

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7
Q

How does dB if sound pressure increases by x10?

A

Increases by +20

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8
Q

What is intensity of sound?

A

Corresponds to the energy of the sound wave when it hits a 2D surface, such as the eardrum

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9
Q

What is pitch?

A

The psychological aspect of sound related mainly to the fundamental frequency

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10
Q

What do we call sounds that only have one frequency?

A

Pure tones

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11
Q

Sounds that have a lower frequency have a _______ (lower/higher) pitch

A

lower

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12
Q

What is a spectrum of sound?

A

It’s an easy way of breaking down complex sounds using bars whose height represents the amplitude and the position on the X axis represents which frequency that sound is at

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13
Q

What is a harmonic spectrum?

A

The spectrum of a complex sound in which the energy is integer multiples of the fundamental frequency

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14
Q

What is a fundamental frequency?

A

The lowest-frequency component of a complex periodic sound

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15
Q

What does it mean if different spectra of complex sounds have the same fundamental frequency?

A

They will all have the same pitch

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16
Q

If several complex sounds have the same pitch, does that guarantee they will have the same loudness?

A

No, loudness will depend on the amplitude differences

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17
Q

What is timbre?

A

The psychological sensation by which a listener can determine that two sounds with the same loudness and pitch are dissimilar

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18
Q

If two sounds have different timbres, what does that tell us about their harmonic spectrum?

A

Their spectra are different

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19
Q

What is a missing-fundamental effect?

A

The fundamental frequency is missing in the harmonic spectrum, but the pitch listeners hear still corresponds to that fundamental frequency

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20
Q

How can we hear the fundamental frequency even if it is absent in the spectrum?

A

The superposition of the different harmonics will recreate a peak that has the frequency of the missing fundamental

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21
Q

Describe audibility of a sound

A

The combination of frequency and amplitude

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22
Q

What is an equal-loudness curve?

A

A graph plotting sound pressure level (dB) against the frequency for which a listener perceives constant loudness

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23
Q

List the three sections that make up the ear

A

Outer, middle, and inner

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24
Q

What structures make up the outer ear?

A

Auditory canal and pinna

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25
Q

What structure borders the outer and middle ear?

A

Tympanic membrane

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26
Q

What structure is at the border of the middle and inner ear?

A

Oval window

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27
Q

What are the three bones that transduce the sound signal to the oval window?

A

Malleus, incus and stapes

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28
Q

which ear structure amplifies sound signals?

A

The ossicles

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29
Q

There are two muscles part of the middle ear - what are they?

A

Tympani muscle and stapedius muscle

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30
Q

What is the role of the tympani and stapedius muscles?

A

Protect the ear from the sound being too loud by stopping the tympanic membrane and ossicles from vibrating

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31
Q

What two main structures make up the inner ear?

A

Vestibular organs and cochlea

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32
Q

What are the vestibular organs important for?

A

Sense of equilibrium

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33
Q

What is the cochlea important for?

A

Hearing

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34
Q

Inside the cochlea there is a fluid that is distributed across three main canals - list them

A

vestibular canal, middle canal, and tympanic canal

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35
Q

What two membranes separate the three canals?

A

Tectorial membrane and basilar membrane

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36
Q

Where is the organ of corti located? what does it do?

A

It is located on the basilar membrane and contains nerve cells that are responsible for hearing

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37
Q

What do we call the nerve cells located on the organ of corti?

A

Hair cells

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38
Q

How many hair cells are there?

A

4 in total - 1 inner and 3 outer

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39
Q

What do you call the tiny hairs on top of each hair cell?

A

Stereocilia

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40
Q

What part of the hair cells are attached to the tectorial membrane?

A

Stereocilia

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41
Q

What causes the basilar membrane to move up and down?

A

Movement of cochlear fluid

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42
Q

How does a change in air pressure transduce into an electrical signal?

A

The stereocilia on the hair cells have tip links that connect the stereocilia, and when they move back and forth it opens the link which allows K+ to enter the hair cell, causing the cell to depolarize and release neurotransmitter

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43
Q

What are the two main ways the auditory system can differentiate between different frequencies?

A
  1. Cochlear place code

2. Temporal encoding of frequency

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44
Q

Describe the structure of the basilar membrane

A

As the membrane extends from the base of the cochlea, it becomes wider and thinner, making the tip of the membrane more sensitive to lower frequencies and the base being more sensitive to higher frequencies

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45
Q

What is the cochlear place code?

A

The theory that because the sensitivity of the basilar membrane works via a gradient, specific frequencies will be related to movement of specific parts of the membrane

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46
Q

What is the role of characteristic frequency in the cochlear place code?

A

Auditory nerve fibers are selective for a given frequency, and these different fibers will be connected to different hair cells located at different points along the basilar membrane that corresponds to which frequency they are selective for

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47
Q

What are threshold tuning curves?

A

Describes the characteristic frequency for a specific auditory nerve neuron

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48
Q

Auditory nerve firing is phase-locked, meaning these neurons systematically fire at a given time point. When exactly will these neurons fire?

A

When the amplitude starts increasing because the liquid in the cochlea move upward which tilts the stereocilia and causes the hair cells to fire

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49
Q

What is the volley principle?

A

When the frequency is high the refractory period of the fibers does not allow the neurons to fire fast enough, but even if individual neurons cannot keep the pace, the whole population of neurons can still temporally encode the frequency

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50
Q

Which three nuclei in the brainstem will the auditory nerve from both ears project onto?

A

cochlear nucleus, superior olive, and inferior colliculus

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51
Q

The auditory nerve projects to the _______ (ipsilateral/contralateral) cochlear nucleus, but from the cochlear nucleus the information is sent to the ______ (ipsilateral/contralateral) and _______ (ipsilateral/contralateral) superior olive

A

contralateral, ipsilateral, contralateral

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52
Q

The inferior colliculus receives either ______ (direct/indirect) input from the cochlear nucleus or _______ (direct/indirect) input from the superior olive

A

direct, indirect

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53
Q

Once the information passes the inferior colliculus, what next brain structure does the information get sent to?

A

The medial geniculate nucleus in the thalamus

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54
Q

Where does the information travel after reaching the thalamus?

A

The auditory cortex

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55
Q

Where is the auditory cortex located? More specifically, where is the primary auditory cortex located?

A

Temporal lobe

lateral fissure

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56
Q

What structures surround the primary auditory cortex?

A

Belt and parabelt

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57
Q

TRUE/FALSE

the belt and parabelt does not respond to pure tones

A

true

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58
Q

Describe the tonotopic organization in the primary auditory pathway

A

Neurons that respond to different frequencies are organized anatomically in order of frequency

59
Q

Where does tonotopic organization begin?

A

in the cochlea

60
Q

List two causes of hearing loss

A
  1. loss of sound conduction to the cochlea (conductive hearing impairment)
  2. damage to the cochlea (sensorineural hearing impairment)
61
Q

How do cochlear implants work?

A

bypasses the damaged cochlea by installing electrodes which will be able to simulate the neural patterns of activity that would normally be associated with a typically functioning cochlea

62
Q

What is tinnitus?

A

The perception of a sound in the absence of sound waves

63
Q

Describe the leading hypothesis for the cause of tinnitus

A

following hearing loss, the brainstem increases the gain in the auditory pathway to compensate, which also amplifies neural noise

64
Q

What ear structures would likely lower their threshold and result in tinnitus?

A

Cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus, and auditory cortex

65
Q

What is an azimuth?

A

the angle of a sound wave relative to the center of the head

66
Q

What is the interaural time difference (ITD)?

A

The difference in time between a sound arriving at one ear vs the other

67
Q

Where are coincidence detector neurons located?

A

In the superior olive

68
Q

Explain how a coincidence detector neuron works

A

When a sound enters one ear it will travel to the contralateral superior olive. The sound will eventually reach the other each and that will also send a signal to the ipsilateral superior olive. When the two nerve impulses meet at a coincidence detector neuron it will cause that specific neuron to discharge which will encode the ITD for the sound delay

69
Q

What is the interaural level difference (ILD)?

A

The difference in the level between a sound at one ear vs the other

70
Q

What angle(s) is the ILD largest? Which angles is there no associated ILD?

A

(+/-) 90 degrees has the largest ILD, whereas 0 and 180 degrees has no ILD

71
Q

How does frequency affect ILD?

A

Higher frequencies have more ILD dependence because the sound is easier to block when traveling in space, but as you go to lower frequencies the ILD disappears because the sound waves are not being blocked anymore

72
Q

The superior olive receives _______ (excitatory/inhibitory) input from the ipsilateral ear, and _______ (excitatory/inhibitory) input from the contralateral ear

A

excitatory, inhibitory

73
Q

What is a limitation of ITDs and ILDs?

A

They cannot tell us how far away an object is on a given azimuth

74
Q

Define the inverse square law

A

The intensity of a sound decreases as a function of the inverse of the square of the distance

75
Q

Why does the intensity of higher frequencies decrease as a function of distance more rapidly than intensities coming from shorter frequencies?

A

The further the sound is the more obstacles it will encounter before reaching your ear, and shorter frequencies are more resistant to these obstacles so they are less affected

76
Q

Describe the change in spectral composition of sound as a function of distance

A

Sounds coming from a further distance tend to be composed of lower frequencies, whereas sounds that are closer to you are generally composed of higher frequencies

77
Q

What is a cone of confusion?

A

A cone-shaped set of points where a sound source produces identical phase delays and transient disparities

78
Q

What is a directional transfer function (DTF)?

A

A measure that describes how the pinna, ear canal, head, and torso change the intensity of sounds with different frequencies that arrive at each ear from different locations in space

79
Q

Is a DTF constant?

A

No, it is constantly adapting as you grow up or after you damage one of your key structures responsible for it

80
Q

What is auditory stream segregation?

A

The perceptual organization of a complex acoustic signal into separate auditory events for which each stream is heard as a separate event

81
Q

List 7 acoustic cues that can be used to segment audition

A
  1. location of sounds
  2. frequency (pitch) of sounds
  3. timing of sounds
  4. timbre of sounds
  5. onset of sounds
  6. rule of good continuation
  7. higher-order information (restoration effects)
82
Q

Describe grouping by frequency

A

Tones that have similar frequencies will tend to be grouped together

83
Q

Describe grouping by time

A

Tones that are close together in time will tend to be grouped together

84
Q

How is grouping by time influenced by grouping by frequency?

A

They are generally independent from one another, however sometimes they will complement each other and other times they may compete

85
Q

How are you most likely to group two sounds if their timing difference is very small vs very large?

A

If the difference in timing is very small grouping instead by frequency will likely give you the same result, however as the timing difference becomes larger you may start hearing as if there are multiple sources

86
Q

Describe grouping by timbre

A

Tones that have similar timbre will tend to be grouped together

87
Q

Describe grouping by onset

A

When sounds begin at different times, they appear to be coming from different sound sources

88
Q

How does the rise time of a set of tones affect how we perceive them?

A

When a set of tones gradually rise we perceive it as one cluster, however when the rise is abrupt it is easier to identify the different tones as solo events

89
Q

Describe the continuity effect

A

Even if there is a gap in the sound, as long as the gap is filled with noise you will still hear the sound as if it were continuous

90
Q

What happens if there is a sound gap but is not filled with noise?

A

The sound will be perceived as separate chunks

91
Q

Describe the restoration effect

A

In spite of interruptions, one can still hear a sentence if the gaps are filled with noise

92
Q

Explain why we can still hear a proper sentence even if there is a noise gap in it

A

Higher-order semantic and syntax knowledge is used to fill the blanks

93
Q

What is a phoneme?

A

A unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another in a particular language

94
Q

Why was the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) developed?

A

To avoid confusing differences between sound and spelling

95
Q

Describe the process of phonation

A

Process through which vocal folds are made to vibrate when air pushes out of the lungs

96
Q

At which point in respiration does air reach the vocal cords?

A

Once air reaches the larynx

97
Q

How does size of your vocal folds affect the sounds you make?

A

Smaller vocal folds = higher pitched sounds

98
Q

What kind of pattern does the spectrum of sound passing through the vocal folds produce?

A

A harmonic spectrum

99
Q

What information does phonation provide?

A

The pitch of the sound we are producing

100
Q

What is articulation?

A

The act or manner or producing a speech sound using the vocal tract

101
Q

What structures compose the vocal tract?

A

Oral + nasal tract

102
Q

how can humans change the shape of their vocal tract?

A

By manipulating their jaws, lips, tongue, body, tongue tip, and velum

103
Q

How do you create resonance characteristics of speech?

A

By changing the size and shape of the vocal tracts to affect sound frequency distribution

104
Q

What do we call peaks in the speech spectrum?

A

Formants

105
Q

What are formants?

A

Vowel outputs that result from combining the harmonic spectrum with a filter function

106
Q

Formants have ______ (higher/lower) frequencies for people who have shorter vocal tracts

A

higher

107
Q

What is coarticulation?

A

When you are pronouncing multiple vowels or consonants at the same time as a result of speech production being very fast

108
Q

How does categorial perception help solve the problem of coarticulation?

A

It helps us perceive sounds that are different as belonging to the same phoneme category

109
Q

What is the motor theory of speech perception?

A

Motor processes used to produce speech sounds are used in reverse to understand the acoustic speech signal

110
Q

What is the McGurk effect?

A

What someone sees can effect what they hear

111
Q

What is the problem with motor theory?

A

Speech production is as complex, if not more complex, than speech perception

112
Q

TRUE/FALSE

sound distinctions are specific to various languages

A

true

113
Q

Where in the brain does phonetic discrimination take place?

A

In the belt and parabelt areas surrounding the primary auditory cortex

114
Q

What brain area is responsible for assembling phonemes to form words and retrieve the semantic meaning of the words?

A

Wernicke’s area

115
Q

Describe Wernicke’s aphasia

A

These patients do not have trouble producing speech, however the words they use will be wrong. When they hear speech, they will accessing the semantic meaning of the wrong word which causes them to mix up the words they hear as well

116
Q

What do patients who have Broca’s aphasia struggle with?

A

Producing speech

117
Q

What is causing people with Broca’s aphasia to have trouble speaking?

A

They have trouble with the complex coordination of different motor movements of the lips, tongue, etc. that is necessary for producing speech

118
Q

Which hemisphere do you almost always find lesions in Wernicke’s or Broca’s areas?

A

Left

119
Q

What is the hypothesis for the meaning of music?

A

May help with social cohesion

120
Q

Define tone height

A

A sound quality corresponding to the level of pitch

121
Q

Define tone chroma

A

A sound quality shared by tones that have the same octave interval

122
Q

What is an octave?

A

The interval between two sound frequencies having a ratio of 2:1

123
Q

How many octaves are in the audible range?

A

10

124
Q

What is consonance?

A

The combinations of sounds is pleasant, as if the notes “go together”

125
Q

What is dissonance?

A

The combination of sounds is unpleasant or “off”

126
Q

When does consonance occur?

A

When the fundamental frequency of the two notes have a simple ratio (e.g., 3:2 or 4:3)

127
Q

When two notes coincide, what happens to the frequencies?

A

They join to form a note with a lower frequency

128
Q

When does dissonance occur?

A

When the fundamental frequency of two notes gave a complex ratio (e.g., 42:33)

129
Q

What is a scale?

A

A particular subset of notes in an octave

130
Q

What is a key?

A

The scale that functions as the basis of a musical composition

131
Q

How do you differentiate between major and minor scales?

A

By the pattern of intervals (number of semitones) between successive notes

132
Q

In general, major scales sound _____ (happy/sad) and minor scales sound ______ (happy/sad)

A

happy, sad

133
Q

What is the root note of a key?

A

Acts as the gravity point of the key (e.g., the root note of C minor is C)

134
Q

What is a melody?

A

A sequence of notes or chords perceived as a single coherent structure

135
Q

How do you define melodies?

A

By their contours (aka the pattern of rises and declines in pitch)

136
Q

Where in the brain is music processed?

A

In the right auditory cortex, in the belt and parabelt areas of the right temporal lobe

137
Q

What is congenital amusia?

A

An umbrella term for lifelong musical disabilities that cannot be attributed to intellectual disability, lack of exposure, or brain damage after birth

138
Q

What is an early right anterior negativity (ERAN)?

A

A negative event-related potential that occurs 200ms after the detection of a melodic tonal violation

139
Q

Where are ERANs thought to be produced?

A

In the belt and parabelt region of the superior temporal gyrus

140
Q

What is a P600?

A

A positive event-related potential that occurs 600ms after the detection of a melodic tonal violation

141
Q

Where are P600s thought to be generated?

A

in the inferior frontal gyrus in the homologous regions of Broca’s area in the right hemisphere

142
Q

What do P600s reflect?

A

Conscious perception of a tonal violation

143
Q

Amusics have normal ERANs, but have no P600. What does this suggest?

A

Suggests they lack conscious access to processed pitch deviances

144
Q

What is absolute pitch?

A

A rare ability whereby people are able to very accurately name or produce notes without comparison to other notes

PSYC 212 (6 decks)

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