The Oxford Handbook of Auditory Science

Adrian Rees is Reader in Auditory Neuroscience at Newcastle University. He gained a BA in Physiological Sciences and DPhil from the University of Oxford (Keble College) and spent three years as Staines Medical Research Fellow at Exeter College. After postdoctoral study as a Harkness Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh and at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham, he was appointed to a lectureship in Physiological Sciences at Newcastle. He is currently a member of the University's Institute of Neuroscience where he researches the brain mechanisms that underlie hearing, and teaches in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. Alan Palmer received his first degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham UK in 1972 and his PhD in Communication and Neuroscience from the University of Keele UK in 1977. After three years as a postdoctoral researcher at Keele, he established his own neurophysiological laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. This was followed by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the University of Sussex before taking a program leader position at the Medical Research Council Institute for Hearing Research in 1986. He heads a research team that uses neurophysiological and neuroanatomical techniques to study the way the brain processes sound. He is currently Deputy Director of the Institute and has responsibility for major technical developments. He also holds a Special Professorship in neuroscience at the University of Nottingham UK.

1. Overview ; SECTION I - STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE AUDITORY BRAIN ; 2. Structural organization of the ascending auditory pathway ; 3. Structural organization of the descending auditory pathway ; 4. Central auditory neurotransmitters ; SECTION II - INFORMATION CODING IN THE AUDITORY BRAIN: SOUND IDENTIFICATION ; 5. Level and spectrum ; 6. Time varying sounds: amplitude envelope modulations ; 7. Pitch ; 8. Ethological stimuli ; 9. Speech ; 10. Formation of auditory streams ; 11. role of descending control in the auditory pathway ; SECTION III - INFORMATION CODING IN THE AUDITORY BRAIN: SOUND LOCATION ; 12. Binaural localization cues ; 13. Sound location: monaural cues and spectral cues for elevation ; 14. Physiological correlates of the precedence effect and binaural masking level differences ; SECTION IV - DEVELOPMENT, AGING AND PLASTICITY OF THE AUDITORY BRAIN ; 15. Development of the auditory pathway ; 16. Plasticity of the auditory pathway ; 17. Aging changes in the central auditory system ; SECTION V - COGNITION AND EMOTION IN THE AUDITORY BRAIN ; 18. The cognitive auditory cortex ; 19. Emotional responses to auditory stimuli ; SECTION VI - PATHOLOGY OF THE AUDITORY BRAIN ; 20. Disorders of the auditory brain ; 21. Tinnitus ; 22. Auditory prostheses for the brainstem and midbrain