The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception

Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda, Ph.D. is director of the Auditory Computation and Psychoacoustics Unit of the Neuroscience Institute of Castilla y León (University of Salamanca, Spain). His research focuses on understanding and modeling human cochlear nonlinear signal processing and the role of the peripheral auditory system in normal and impaired auditory perception. He has authored over 45 scientific papers and book chapters and is co-editor of the book Computational Models of the Auditory System (Springer Handbook of Auditory Research). He has been principal investigator, participant and consultant on numerous research projects. He is member of the Acoustical Society of America and of the Association of Research in Otolaryngololgy.   Alan R. Palmer, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of the MRC Institute of Hearing Research and holds a Special Professorship in neuroscience at the University of Nottingham UK. He received his first degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham UK and his PhD in Communication and Neuroscience from the University of Keele UK.  After postdoctoral research at Keele, he established his own 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, computational and neuroanatomical techniques to study the way the brain processes sound.   Ray Meddis, Ph.D. is director of the Hearing Research Laboratory at the University of Essex, England. His research has concentrated on the development of computer models of the physiology of the auditory periphery and how these can be incorporated into models of psychophysical phenomena such as pitch and auditory scene analysis. He has published extensively inthis area. He is co-editor of the book Computational Models of the Auditory System (Springer Handbook of Auditory Research). His current research concerns the application of computer models to an understanding of hearing impairment. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a member of the Association of Research in Otolaryngololgy.

Contents


Part I Cochlea/Peripheral Processing


1 Influence of Neural Synchrony on the Compound Action Potential,


Masking, and the Discrimination of Harmonic Complexes





2 A Nonlinear Auditory Filterbank Controlled by Sub-band Instantaneous


Frequency Estimates





3 Estimates of Tuning of Auditory Filter Using Simultaneous


and Forward Notched-noise





4 A Model of Ventral Cochlear Nucleus Units Based on First Order





5 The Effect of Reverberation on the Temporal Representation


of the F0 of Frequency Swept Harmonic Complexes


in the Ventral Cochlear Nucleus





6 Spectral Edges as Optimal Stimuli for the Dorsal Cochlear





7 Psychophysical and Physiological Assessment of the Representation


of High-frequency Spectral Notches in the Auditory Nerve





Part II Pitch


8 Spatio-Temporal Representation of the Pitch of Complex Tones


in the Auditory





9 Virtual Pitch in a Computational Physiological





10 Searching for a Pitch Centre in Human Auditory





11 Imaging Temporal Pitch Processing in the Auditory Pathway





Part III Modulation


12 Spatiotemporal Encoding of Vowels in Noise Studied with


the Responses of Individual Auditory-Nerve





13 Role of Peripheral Nonlinearities in Comodulation Masking





14 Neuromagnetic Representation of Comodulation Masking Release


in the Human Auditory





15 Psychophysically Driven Studies of Responses to Amplitude


Modulation in the Inferior Colliculus: Comparing Single-Unit


Physiology to Behavioral





16 Source Segregation Based on Temporal Envelope Structure


and Binaural





17 Simulation of Oscillating Neurons in the Cochlear Nucleus:


A Possible Role for Neural Nets, Onset Cells, and Synaptic





18 ForwardMasking: Temporal Integration or Adaptation?





19 The Time Course of Listening





Part IV Animal Communication


20 Frogs Communicate with Ultrasound in Noisy Environments





21 The Olivocochlear System Takes Part in Audio-Vocal Interaction





22 Neural Representation of Frequency Resolution in the Mouse


Auditory Midbrain





23 Behavioral and Neural Identification of Birdsong under Several


Masking Conditions





Part V Intensity Representation


24 Near-Threshold Auditory Evoked Fields and Potentials are In Line


with the Weber-Fechner Law





25 Brain Activation in Relation to Sound Intensity and Loudness





26 Duration Dependency of Spectral Loudness Summation, Measured


with Three Different Experimental Procedures





Part VI Scene Analysis


27 The Correlative Brain: A Stream Segregation Model





28 Primary Auditory Cortical Responses while Attending


to Different Streams





29 Hearing Out Repeating Elements in Randomly Varying Multitone


Sequences: A Case of Streaming?





30 The Dynamics of Auditory Streaming: Psychophysics, Neuroimaging,


and Modeling





31 Auditory Stream Segregation Based on Speaker Size, and Identification


of Size-Modulated Vowel Sequences





32 Auditory Scene Analysis: A Prerequisite for Loudness Perception





33 Modulation Detection Interference as Informational Masking





34 A Paradoxical Aspect of Auditory Change Detection





35 Human Auditory Cortical Processing of Transitions Between


‘Order’ and ‘Disorder’





36 Wideband Inhibition Modulates the Effect of Onset Asynchrony


as a Grouping Cue





37 Discriminability of Statistically Independent Gaussian Noise Tokens


and Random Tone-BurstComplexes





38 The Role of Rehearsal and Lateralization in Pitch Memory





Part VII Binaural Hearing


39 Interaural Correlation and Loudness





40 Interaural Phase and Level Fluctuations as the Basis of Interaural


Incoherence Detection





41 Logarithmic Scaling of Interaural Cross Correlation: A Model Based


on Evidence from Psychophysics and EEG





42 A Physiologically-Based Population Rate Code for Interaural Time


Differences (ITDs) Predicts Bandwidth-Dependent Lateralization





43 A p-Limit for Coding ITDs: Neural Responses and the Binaural Display





44 A p-Limit for Coding ITDs: Implications for Binaural Models





45 Strategies for Encoding ITD in the Chicken Nucleus Laminaris





46 Interaural Level Difference Discrimination Thresholds and Virtual


Acoustic Space Minimum Audible Angles for Single Neurons in the


Lateral Superior Olive





47 Responses in Inferior Colliculus to Dichotic Harmonic Stimuli:


The Binaural Integration of Pitch Cues





48 Level Dependent Shifts in Auditory Nerve Phase Locking Underlie


Changes in Interaural Time Sensitivity with Interaural Level


Differences in the Inferior Colliculus





49 Remote Masking and the Binaural Masking-Level Difference





50 Perceptual and Physiological Characteristics of Binaural


Sluggishness





51 Precedence-Effect with Cochlear Implant Simulation





52 Enhanced Processing of Interaural Temporal Disparities at


High-Frequencies: Beyond Transposed Stimuli





53 Models of Neural Responses to Bilateral Electrical Stimulation





54 Neural and Behavioral Sensitivities to Azimuth Degrade with Distance


in Reverberant Environments





Part VIII Speech and Learning


55 Spectro-temporal Processing of Speech – An Information-Theoretic


Framework





56 Articulation Index and Shannon Mutual Information





57 Perceptual Compensation for Reverberation: Effects of


‘Noise-Like’ and ‘Tonal’ Contexts





58 Towards Predicting Consonant Confusions of Degraded Speech





59 The Influence of Masker Type on the Binaural Intelligibility


Level





Index