PSYC2274 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Basilar Membrane, Auditory System, Interaural Time Difference
Document Summary
Hair cells synapse onto neurons of the auditory nerve (an) An neurons are tuned to a characteristic frequency (determined by what part of the basilar membrane they are plugged into ) Activity of a single neuron can"t tell you much about pitch, though. An neurons function as labeled lines for frequency - coupled with tonotopy, an uses a. Analogy - a piano uses a place code for frequency. Analogy - musical notation uses a place code for frequency. So each an neuron has a characteristic frequency displays tonotopy in which nearby neurons have similar characteristic frequencies, and those that are not near are more different. Auditory system tells you not just what things sound like but also where they are. Advantage over vision: ears constantly receive input from every direction. Humans are very good at identifying the location of sound sources. Strategy 1: measure interaural time difference (itd)
