Lecture 22

Sound Perception
Topic: 92-96

Topic No. 92
Perceiving Sound
Loudness
 Loudness is the quality most closely related to the amplitude or sound pressure, which is also
called the level of an auditory stimulus.
 Thus, decibels are often associated with loudness. Decibels are a physical measure, whereas
loudness is psychological

Left: Waveforms of (a) a complex periodic sound with a fundamental frequency of 200 Hz;
(b) fundamental (first harmonic) 200 Hz;
(c) second harmonic 400 Hz;
(d) third harmonic 600 Hz;
(e) fourth harmonic 800 Hz.
Right: Frequency spectra for the tones on the left.

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(a) The complex tone with its frequency spectrum; (b) the same tone with its first harmonic
removed.

Loudness of a 1,000-Hz tone as a function of intensity, determined using magnitude estimation.

The dashed lines show that increasing the intensity by 10 dB almost doubles the loudness.

Pitch
Pitch, the perceptual quality we describe as “high” or “low” is defined as the attribute of auditory
sensation in terms of which sounds may be ordered on a musical scale (Bendor & Wang, 2005).
Pitch is most closely related to the physical property of frequency. Low fundamental frequencies
are associated with low pitches, and high fundamental frequencies are associated with high
pitches.

Tone height is the perceptual experience of increasing pitch that accompanies increases in a
tone’s fundamental frequency. Starting at the lowest note on the piano, at the left end of the
keyboard (fundamental frequency 27.5 Hz), and moving to the right toward the highest note
(fundamental 4,166 Hz) creates the perception of increasing tone height.

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A piano keyboard, indicating the frequency associated with each key. Moving up the keyboard to
the right increases frequency and tone height. Notes with the same letter, like the A’s(arrows),
have the same tone chroma.

Timbre
Timbre is the quality that distinguishes between two tones that have the same loudness, pitch,
and duration, but still sound different. For example, when a flute and a bassoon play the same
note with the same loudness, we can still tell the difference between these two instruments. We
might describe the sound of the flute as clear or mellow and the sound of the bassoon as nasal or
reedy. When two tones have the same loudness, pitch, and duration, but sound different, this
difference is a difference in timbre

The audibility curve and the auditory response area

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Hearing occurs in the light green area between the audibility curve (the threshold for hearing)
and the upper curve (the threshold for feeling). Tones with combinations of dB and frequency
that place them in the light red area below the audibility curve cannot be heard. Tones above the
threshold of feeling result in pain. Where the dashed line at 10 dB traverses the auditory response
area indicates which frequencies can be heard at 10 dB SPL.

Frequency spectra for a guitar, a bassoon, and an alto saxophone playing a tone with a
fundamental frequency of 196 Hz. The position of the lines on the horizontal axis indicates the
frequencies of the harmonics, and their height indicates their intensities.

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Topic No. 93
Structure of the Ear
The Ear
The auditory system must accomplish three basic tasks before we can hear. First, it must deliver
the sound stimulus to the receptors. Second, it must transduce this stimulus from pressure
changes into electrical signals, and third, it must process these electrical signals so they can
indicate qualities of the sound source such as pitch, loudness, timbre, and location.

A device that resembles “a contraption some ingenious plumber has put together from spare
parts.” Diane Ackerman (1990)

The Outer Ear

When we talk about ears in everyday conversation, we are usually referring to the pinnae, the
structures that stick out from the sides of the head. Although this most obvious part of the ear is
important in helping us determine the location of sounds and is of great importance for those
who wear eyeglasses, it is the part of the ear we could most easily do without.

The major workings of the ear are found within the head, hidden from view.
Sound waves first pass through the outer ear, which consists of the pinna and the auditory canal.
The auditory canal is a tube like structure about 3 cm long in adults that protects the delicate
structures of the middle ear from the hazards of the outside world.

In addition to its protective function, the outer ear has another effect: to enhance the intensities of
some sounds by means of the physical principle of resonance.

Resonance occurs in the auditory canal when sound waves that are reflected back from the
closed end of the auditory canal interact with sound waves that are entering the canal.
We can appreciate how the resonant frequency depends on the length of the canal by noting how
the tone produced by blowing across the top of a soda bottle changes as we drink more soda.

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Drinking more soda increases the length of the air path inside the bottle, which decreases the
resonant frequency, and this creates a lower-pitched tone.

Measurements of the sound pressures inside the ear indicate that the resonance that occurs in the
auditory canal has a slight amplifying effect on frequencies between about 1,000 and 5,000 Hz

This interaction reinforces some of the sound’s frequencies, with the frequency that is reinforced
the most being determined by the length of the canal. The frequency reinforced the most is called
the resonant frequency of the canal.

Topic No. 94
Functions of inner ear
The Middle Ear
 When airborne sound waves reach the tympanic membrane at the end of the auditory canal,
they set it into vibration, and this vibration is transmitted to structures in the middle ear, on
the other side of the tympanic membrane.
 The middle ear is a small cavity, about 2 cubic centimeters in volume, which separates the
outer and inner ears. This cavity contains the ossicles, the three smallest bones in the body.
The first of these bones, the malleus (also known as the hammer), is set into vibration by the
tympanic membrane, to which it is attached

 The middle ear. The three bones of the middle ear transmit the vibrations of the tympanic
membrane to the inner ear
 The malleus transmits its vibrations to the incus(or anvil), which, in turn, transmits its
vibrations to the stapes(or stirrup). The stapes then transmits its vibrations to the inner ear
by pushing on the membrane covering the oval window
 Ossicles are necessary because middle ear is filled with air (low density)and inner ear is
filled with watery liquid (higher density)

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If vibrations had to pass directly from the air in the middle ear to the liquid in the inner ear, less
than 1 percent of the vibrations would be transmitted (Durrant & Lovrinic, 1977). It would be
like hearing underwater to people on the surface

(a) A diagrammatic representation of the tympanic membrane and the stapes, showing the
difference in size between the two. (b) How lever action can amplify a small force, presented on
the right, to lift the large weight on the left. The lever action of the ossicles amplifies the sound
vibrations reaching the tympanic inner ear. (Adapted from Schubert, 1980.)

The ossicles help solve this problem in two ways: (1) by concentrating the vibration of the large
tympanic membrane onto the much smaller stapes, which increases the pressure by a factor of
about 20; and (2) by being hinged to create a lever action that creates an effect similar to what
happens when a fulcrum is placed under a board, so pushing down on the long end of the board
makes it possible to lift a heavy weight on the short end.

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The Inner Ear

The main structure of the inner ear is the liquid-filled cochlea, the snail-like structure
The liquid inside the cochlea is set into vibration by the movement of the stapes against the oval
window.
A partially uncoiled cochlea. (b) A fully uncoiled cochlea. The cochlear partition, indicated here
by a line, actually contains the basilar membrane and the organ of Corti.

 Hair Cells; Inner hair cells, outer hair cells

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 The cilia; protrude from the tops of the cells, here the sound acts to produce electrical
signals.
 About 3,500 inner hair cells
 12,000 outer hair cells
 The basilar membrane; supports the organ of Corti and vibrates in response to sound.
 The tectorial membrane; extends over the hair cells.

(a) Cross section of the cochlea. (b) Close-up of the organ of Corti, showing how it rests on the
basilar membrane. Arrows indicate the motions of the basilar membrane and tectorial membrane
that are caused by vibration of the cochlear partition. (Adapted from Denes & Pinson, 1993.)

 Bending of the cilia of the inner hair cells, which are responsible for transduction—the
conversion of the vibrations caused by the sound stimulus into electrical signals.
 The in-and-out movement of the stapes creates pressure changes in the liquid inside the
cochlea that sets the cochlear partition into an up-and-down motion, as indicated by the blue
arrow in Figure.
 This up-and-down motion of the cochlear partition causes two effects: (1) it sets the organ of
Corti into an up-and down vibration, and (2) it causes the tectorial membrane to move back
and forth, as shown by the red arrow. These two motions cause the cilia of the inner hair cells
to bend because of their movement against the surrounding liquid and affects the outer hair
cells because some of the cilia are in contact with the tectorial membrane.

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(a) Movement of hair cilia in one direction opens ion channels in the hair cell, which results in
the release of neurotransmitter onto an auditory nerve fiber. (b) Movement in the opposite
direction closes the ion channels, so there is no ion flow and no transmitter release
 Very small amount of movement needed to hear a sound
 The auditory system can detect extremely small pressure changes
 So small, cause the eardrum to move only 10 –11 cm, less than the diameter of a hydrogen
atom
 The air pressure at threshold in the most sensitive range of hearing only 10 to 15 db above
the air pressure generated by the random movement of air molecules.
 This means that if our hearing were much more sensitive than it is now, we would hear the
background hiss of colliding air molecules!

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Topic No. 95
The representation of frequency

Physiological mechanisms behind our perception of pitch

 Perception of pitch closely linked to a tone’s frequency
 How frequency is represented by the firing of neurons in the auditory system
 Classic research by Georg von Békésy, the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, 1961,
research on the physiology of hearing.

Place Theory of Hearing

The frequency of a sound is indicated by the place along the cochlea at which nerve firing is
highest. Low frequencies cause maximum activity in the hair cells and auditory nerve fibers at
the apex end of the basilar membrane. High frequencies cause maximum activity in hair cells and
auditory nerve fibers at the base of the membrane.

Hair cells all along the cochlea send signals to nerve fibers that combine to form the auditory
nerve. Low frequencies; maximum activity at the apex end of the cochlea, high frequencies
maximum activity at the base. Activation of the hair cells and auditory nerve fibers indicated in
red would signal that the stimulus is in the middle of the frequency range for hearing.

A perspective view showing the traveling wave motion of the basilar membrane
This picture shows what the membrane looks like when the vibration is “frozen” with the wave
about two thirds of the way down the membrane.

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A perspective view of an uncoiled cochlea, showing how the basilar membrane gets wider at the
apex end of the cochlea. The spiral lamina is a supporting structure that makes up for the basilar
membrane’s difference in width at the base and the apex ends of the cochlea

Vibration of the basilar membrane, showing the position of the membrane at three instants in
time, indicated by the blue, green, and red lines, and the envelope of the vibration, indicated by
the black dashed line. P indicates the peak of the basilar membrane vibration. (From Békésy,
1960.)

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Evidence for Place Theory

 Measurement of electrical response of the cochlea and of individual hair cells and auditory
nerve fibers.
 Placing disc electrodes at different places along the length of the cochlea and measuring the
electrical response to different frequencies
 A monotopic map—an orderly map of frequencies along the length of the cochlea

The characteristic frequency of each fiber , the arrows along the frequency axis. The frequency
scale is in kilohertz (kHz), where 1 kHz = 1,000 Hz.

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(Palmer, Physiology of the cochlear nerve and cochlear nucleus, British Medical Bulletin on
Hearing, 43,1987, 838–855

Auditory masking
Psychophysical experiments on the phenomenon of auditory masking

Topic No. 96
Auditory Threshold

 Hearing occurs in the light green area between the audibility curve (the threshold for hearing)
and the upper curve (the threshold for feeling).
 Tones with combinations of dB and frequency in the light red area below the audibility curve
cannot be heard.
 Tones above the threshold of feeling result in pain.
 Where the dashed line at 10 dB traverses the auditory response area indicates which
frequencies can be heard at 10 dB SPL.

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The threshold increases the most near the frequencies of the masking noise, and the masking
effect spreads more to high frequencies than to low frequencies. (From Egan & Hake, 1950.)

Acoustic Prism
 The link between frequency and activation of specific places along the basilar membrane.
 The way the cochlea separates frequencies along its length has been described as an acoustic
prism
 Just as a prism separates white light, which contains all wavelengths in the visible spectrum,
into its components, the cochlea separates frequencies entering the ear into activity along
different places on the basilar membrane.

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(a) Waveform of a complex tone consisting of three harmonics. (b) Basilar membrane. The
shaded areas indicate locations of peak vibration associated with each harmonic in the complex
tone

How hair cell activation and auditory nerve fiber firing are synchronized with pressure changes
of the stimulus. The auditory nerve fiber fires when the cilia are bent to the right. This occurs at
the peak of the sine-wave change in pressure.
 Phase locking; firing at the same place in the sound stimulus, fire in bursts separated by
silent intervals, the timing of these bursts matches the frequency of the stimulus.
 Temporal coding; The connection between the frequency of a sound stimulus and the
timing of the auditory nerve fiber firing
 Measurements of the pattern of firing indicate that phase locking occurs up to a frequency
of about 4,000 Hz.

Hearing loss
 Blockage of sound from reaching the receptors, called conductive hearing loss
 Damage to the hair cells
 Damage to the auditory nerve or the brain.
 Hearing loss due to damage to the hair cells, auditory nerve, or brain is called sensorineural
hearing loss
 Cochlear transplants and new technology

Diagram of the auditory pathways

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 The auditory structures are bilateral, exist on both the left and right sides of the body so
messages can cross over between the two sides
 The auditory nerve carries the signals generated by the inner hair cells away from the cochlea
and toward the auditory receiving area in the cortex
 Auditory nerve fibers from the cochlea synapse in a sequence of subcortical structures—
structures below the cerebral cortex
 Begins with the cochlear nucleus and continues to the superior olivary nuclei in the brain
stem
 Consists of a number of subdivisions that serve different functions, the inferior colliculus in
the midbrain, and the medial geniculate nucleus in the thalamus.
 SONIC MG (a very fast sports car); the three structures between the cochlear nucleus and
the auditory cortex:
o SON = superior olivary nuclei
o IC = inferior colliculus
o MG = medial geniculate nucleus

What and Where Streams

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