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Related Concept Videos

Echo01:06

Echo

The human ear cannot distinguish between two sources of sound if they happen to reach within a specific time interval, typically 0.1 seconds apart. More than this, and they are perceived as separate sources.
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
The Cochlea01:13

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.
Hearing01:31

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
Sound Intensity Level00:53

Sound Intensity Level

Humans perceive sound by hearing. The human ear helps sound waves reach the brain, which then interprets the waves and creates the perception of hearing. The loudness of the environment in which a person is located determines whether they can distinguish between different sound sources.
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and hence a...
Auditory Pathway01:15

Auditory Pathway

Auditory pathways constitute the complex neural circuits responsible for transmitting and interpreting auditory information from the peripheral auditory system to the brain. Sound waves are initially captured by the outer ear, funneled through the ear canal, and reach the tympanic membrane (eardrum). These vibrations are transmitted via the middle ear's ossicles to the inner ear's cochlea.
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking the...

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Understanding auditory distance estimation by humpback whales: a computational approach.

E Mercado1, S R Green, J N Schneider

  • 1Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. emiii@buffalo.edu

Behavioural Processes
|December 11, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Humpback whales may use sound frequency changes to determine the distance of singing whales. Underwater sound propagation effects on frequency provide cues for distance estimation, even with simplified auditory models.

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Area of Science:

  • Marine bioacoustics
  • Animal behavior
  • Signal processing

Background:

  • Sound ranging is crucial for marine mammals, relying on predictable sound attenuation patterns.
  • Humpback whale songs are complex vocalizations used for communication over long distances.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if humpback whales use frequency degradation cues for ranging singing whales in coastal waters.
  • To assess the effectiveness of neural networks in classifying sound distances based on frequency content.

Main Methods:

  • Measuring long-range sound propagation in coastal waters.
  • Training multi-layer and single-layer perceptron neural networks to classify sounds by distance.
  • Processing recordings with a computational model of the humpback whale's auditory system.

Main Results:

  • A multi-layer neural network successfully classified sound distances using frequency content, confirming its utility for ranging.
  • Normalizing sounds by ambient noise improved distance estimation accuracy for single-layer perceptrons.
  • Physiologically based auditory models, despite reduced information, led to more accurate distance estimations by neural networks.

Conclusions:

  • Underwater sound propagation effects on frequency content provide sufficient cues for humpback whales to estimate source distance.
  • Whale auditory system processing may enhance the ability to perceive distance-dependent frequency changes in songs.
  • Humpback whales likely utilize frequency degradation as a key mechanism for ranging singing conspecifics.