Chapter 11

Sound, the Auditory System, and Pitch

Perception
Figure 11.1 ❚ (a) The effect of a vibrating speaker diaphragm on the surrounding
air. Dark areas represent regions of high air pressure, and light areas represent
areas of low air pressure. (b) When a pebble is dropped into still water, the
resulting ripples appear to move outward. However, the water is actually moving
up and down, as indicated by movement of the boat. A similar situation exists for
the sound waves produced by the speaker in (a).
Figure 11.2 ❚ (a) Plot of
sine-wave pressure
changes for a pure tone.
(b) Pressure changes are
indicated, as in Figure
11.1, by darkening
(pressure increased
relative to atmospheric
pressure) and lightening
(pressure decreased
relative to atmospheric
pressure).
Figure 11.3 ❚ Three different amplitudes of a pure tone. Larger
amplitude is associated with the perception of greater loudness.
TABLE 11.1 : Relative Amplitudes and Decibels for
Environmental Sounds
SOUND RELATIVE AMPLITUDE DECIBELS (DB)
Barely audible (threshold) 1 0

Leaves rustling 10 20
Quiet residential community 100 40
Average speaking voice 1,000 60
Express subway train 100,000 100
Propeller plane at takeoff 1,000,000 120
Jet engine at takeoff (pain 10,000,000 140
threshold)
Spacecraft Launch at close 100,000,000 160
range
Figure 11.4 ❚ 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. (Adapted from
Gulick, Gescheider, &
Frisina, 1989.)
Figure 11.5 ❚ Three
different frequencies
of a pure tone.
Higher frequencies
are associated with
the perception of
higher pitches.
Figure 11.7 ❚ The audibility curve and the auditory response area. 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. (From Fletcher & Munson, 1933.)
Figure 11.11 ❚ The ear, showing its three subdivisions—
outer, middle, and inner. (From Lindsay & Norman, 1977.)
Figure 11.12 ❚
The middle ear.
The three bones of
the middle ear
transmit the
vibrations of the
tympanic
membrane to the
inner ear.
Figure 11.15 ❚ (a) 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
Figure 11.18 ❚ Hair cells all along the cochlea send signals to nerve fibers that
combine to form the auditory nerve. According to place theory, low frequencies
cause maximum activity at the apex end of the cochlea, and high frequencies
cause 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.
• Figure 11.19 ❚ 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. (From Tonndorf, 1960.)
Figure 11.22 ❚ 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. (From Schubert, 1980.)
Figure 11.21 ❚ 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.)
Figure 11.22 ❚ The
envelope of the basilar
membrane’s vibration at
frequencies ranging
from 25 to 1,600 Hz, as
measured by Békésy
(1960). These envelopes
were based on
measurements of
damaged cochleas. The
envelopes are more
sharply peaked in
healthy cochleas.
Figure 11.36 ❚ Diagram of the auditory pathways. This diagram is greatly simplified, as
numerous connections between the structures are not shown. Note that auditory
structures are bilateral—they exist on both the left and right sides of the body—and
that messages can cross over between the two sides. (Adapted from Wever, 1949.)
Figure 11.37 ❚ The three main auditory areas in the cortex are the core area, which
contains the primary auditory receiving area (A1), the belt area, and the parabelt area.
Signals, indicated by the arrows, travel from core, to belt, to parabelt. The dark lines
show where the temporal lobe was pulled back to show areas that would not be
visible from the surface. (From Kaas, Hackett, & Tramo, 1999.)
Figure 11.38 ❚ Areas in the monkey cortex that respond to auditory
stimuli. The green areas respond to auditory stimuli, the purple areas to
both auditory and visual stimuli. The arrows from the temporal lobe to the
frontal lobe represent the what and where streams in the auditory system.
(Adapted from Poremba et al., 2003.)
Figure 11.39 ❚ (a) Colored
areas indicate brain damage
for J.G. (left) and E.S. (right).
(b) Performance on
recognition test (green bar)
and localization test (red bar).
(Clarke, S., Thiran, A. B.,
Maeder, P., Adriani, M.,
Vernet, O., Regli, L.,
Cuisenaire, O., & Thiran, J.-
P., What and where in human
auditory systems: Selective
defi cits following focal
hemispheric lesions,
Experimental Brain Research,
147, 2002, 8–15.)
Figure 11.41 ❚ The outline of the core area of the monkey
auditory cortex, showing the tonotopic map on the primary
auditory receiving area, A1, which is located within the core.
The numbers represent the characteristic frequencies (CF) of
neurons in thousands of Hz. Low CFs are on the left, and high
CFs are on the right. (Adapted from Kosaki et al., 1997.)
Figure 11.44 ❚ (a) Tonotopic map of the owl monkey’s primary auditory
receiving area (A1), showing areas that contain neurons with the
characteristic frequencies indicated. The blue area contains neurons with
CF 2,500 Hz. (b) Tonotopic map of an owl monkey that was trained to
discriminate between frequencies near 2,500 Hz. The blue areas indicate
that after training more of the cortex responds best to 2,500 Hz. (From
Recanzone et al., 1993.)
Figure 11.43 ❚ Performance of patient A, with auditory cortex
damage, on four tasks. See text for details. (Based on data
from Tramo et al., 2002.)