The hearing brain Flashcards
Sounds with a sinusoid waveform (when pressure change is plotted against time)
Pure tones
The perceived property
of sounds that enables
them to be ordered from
low to high
Pitch
The perceived intensity of
the sound
Loudness
The lowest frequency component of a complex sound that determines the perceived pitch
Fundamental frequency
If the fundamental
frequency of a complex
sound is removed, then
the pitch is not perceived
to change (the brain
reinstates it)
Missing fundamental
phenomenon
The perceptual quality
of a sound enables us
to distinguish between
different musical instru-
ments
Timbre
Part of the inner ear that
converts liquid-borne
sound into neural im-
pulses
Cochlea
A membrane within the
cochlea containing tiny
hair cells linked to neural
receptors
Basilar membrane
The main cortical area to
receive auditory-based
thalamic input
Primary auditory cortex
Part of the secondary
auditory cortex, with
many projections from
the primary auditory
cortex
Belt region
Part of the secondary
auditory cortex, receiving
projections from the
adjacent belt region
Parabelt region
The principle that sounds
close to each other in
frequency are represented by neurons that are spatially close to each
other in the brain
Tonotopic organization
In fMRI, a short break
in scanning to enable
sounds to be presented
in relative silence
Sparse scanning
The difference in timing
between a sound arriving
in each ear (used to
localize sounds).
Inter-aural intensity
difference
Inter-aural time difference
The difference in loud-
ness between a sound
arriving in each ear (used
to localize sounds)
Inter-aural intensity
difference
An internal model of
sounds get distorted by
the unique shape of
one’s own ears and head
Head-related transfer
function
A part of the auditory
cortex (posterior to the
primary auditory cortex)
that integrates auditory
information with non-auditory information, for ex-
ample to enable sounds
to be separated in space
Planum temporale
The division of a complex
auditory signal into
different sources or
auditory objects
Auditory stream
segregation
An ERP component that
occurs when an auditory
stimulus deviates from
previously presented
auditory stimuli
Mismatch negativity
(MMN)
The problem of attending to
a single auditory stream in
the presence of competing
streams (with different
acoustic and spatial
properties)—for instance,
attending to one person’s
voice in a noisy room of
other voices
Cocktail party problem
An auditory agnosia in
which music perception
is affected more than
the perception of other
sounds
Amusia
A developmental difficulty in perceiving pitch relationships
Tone-deafness (congenital amusia)
Changes in the stress
pattern of speech (e.g.,
to add emphasis), the
rhythm of speech or the
intonation (e.g., rising/
falling pitch to indicate
questioning or sarcasm)
Prosody
Patterns of pitch over
time
Melody
