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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...
Perception of Sound Waves01:01

Perception of Sound Waves

The human ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies in the audible range. It may perceive sound waves with the same pressure but different frequencies as having different loudness. Moreover, the perception of sound waves depends on the health of an individual's ears, which decays with age. The health of one's ears may also be affected by regular exposure to loud noises.
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...
Auditory Perception01:17

Auditory Perception

The auditory system is essential for sound perception, utilizing various critical structures. When sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are then transmitted to the middle ear, where three tiny bones – the malleus, incus, and stapes – amplify the sound. This amplification is crucial, as it ensures that the sound vibrations are strong enough to be conveyed to the inner ear. These vibrations then reach the cochlea, a...
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...
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...
Sound Waves: Interference00:53

Sound Waves: Interference

Sound waves can be modeled either as longitudinal waves, wherein the molecules of the medium oscillate around an equilibrium position, or as pressure waves. When two identical waves from the same source superimpose on each other, the combination of two crests or two troughs results in amplitude reinforcement known as constructive interference. If two identical waves, that are initially in phase, become out of phase because of different path lengths, the combination of crests with troughs...

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Related Experiment Video

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A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
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A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

One sound or two? Object-related negativity indexes echo perception.

Lisa D Sanders1, Amy S Joh, Rachel E Keen

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA. lsanders@psych.umass.edu

Perception & Psychophysics
|December 10, 2008
PubMed
Summary

Listeners perceive a single sound source due to the precedence effect, influenced by cognitive processes. Event-related potentials reveal a neural mechanism, the object-related negativity (ORN), linked to conscious perception of multiple auditory objects.

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A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons
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A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons

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Last Updated: Jun 27, 2026

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
07:14

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons
07:13

A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons

Published on: November 9, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Auditory Neuroscience
  • Psychoacoustics
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Auditory perception requires isolating sound sources amidst reverberation.
  • The precedence effect demonstrates how brief delays cause listeners to perceive a single sound source.
  • Both low-level neural mechanisms and top-down cognitive processes influence echo perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of auditory objects.
  • To determine if cognitive processes influence the neural correlates of the precedence effect.
  • To identify a specific neural marker for the conscious perception of separate sound sources.

Main Methods:

  • Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in human listeners.
  • Stimuli consisted of click pairs presented with varying onset asynchronies around the echo threshold.
  • Listeners reported their perception of hearing one or two sound sources.

Main Results:

  • A distinct negativity between 100 and 250 milliseconds, termed the object-related negativity (ORN), was observed.
  • The ORN was present when listeners perceived two distinct sound sources, even with identical stimuli.
  • The presence of the ORN correlated with the conscious perception of a second sound source.

Conclusions:

  • The object-related negativity (ORN) represents a neural mechanism for conscious auditory object perception.
  • Cognitive factors significantly shape the perception of auditory events, including simulated echoes.
  • This research provides a neural basis for understanding how the brain segregates concurrent auditory information.