Seminar 5 - Recap material

Question 1

What are the 5 main steps in the perceptual process?

Answer 1

1. air pressure waves enter ear canal
2. Travels down to tympanic membrane (ear drum)
3. Vibrations of tympanic membrane vibrate the ossicles in the middle ear
4. Stapes (one of the ossicles) is attached to the oval window in the cochlea.
5. Vibration in oval window passes to the perilymphic fluid, flowing through the cochlea from oval window to round window and back

Question 2

What is opponent process analysis?

Answer 2

Sets of neurons in the left hemisphere broadly turned to sounds coming from the right and vice versa.
AUditory system determines location of a sound by comparing firing rate across these sets of neurons.

Question 3

What is the Jeffress Neural Coincidence Model?

Answer 3

Measured using ITD tuning curves
Apparent in some animals but not humans.

Question 4

What is temporal coding?

Answer 4

Basilar membrane vibrates at same frequency incoming sound, stimulating hair cells at specific rate/frequency.

Question 5

What is place coding?

Answer 5

Different areas of the basilar membrane vibrate maximally at different frequencies.