the ear

Question 1

what is sound

Answer 1

a physical change in air pressure over time

Question 2

cochlea

Answer 2

fluid filled tube in inner ear; carries out auditory transduction

Question 3

basilar membrane

Answer 3

inner ear; undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid

Question 4

hair cells

Answer 4

auditory receptor neurons embedded in basilar membrane

Question 5

how do we perceive pitch

Answer 5

action potentials travel from the inner ear to the thalamus, and then to a1 in the cerebral cortex

Question 6

a1

Answer 6

primary auditory cortex

Question 7

tonotopic

Answer 7

organised so that certain frequencies activate specific neurons in adjacent locations

Question 8

two types of encoding

Answer 8

place code

temporal code

Question 9

place coding

Answer 9

used for higher frequencies

active when the cochlea encodes different frequencies at different locations along the basilar membrane

Question 10

temporal coding

Answer 10

used for lower frequencies

Question 11

stereophonic hearing

Answer 11

placement of ears produces multi-dimensional sound, helps to localise sources

Question 12

multisensory integration

Answer 12

the perceptual representation of events from more than one sensory modality