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Related Concept Videos

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...
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...
Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
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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Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities
09:38

Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities

Published on: January 29, 2014

Visual perceptual load modulates an auditory microreflex.

Nathan A Parks1, Matthew R Hilimire, Paul M Corballis

  • 1Department of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. nateparks@gatech.edu

Psychophysiology
|June 5, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The postauricular reflex (PAR), a tiny reflex to sound, is surprisingly influenced by visual attention demands. Increased visual task difficulty reduced the PAR

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Perception
  • Visual Attention

Background:

  • The postauricular reflex (PAR) is a vestigial microreflex triggered by sudden sounds.
  • Prior research suggested the PAR is not affected by selective auditory attention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the PAR can be modulated by crossmodal attentional demands.
  • To examine the effect of visual perceptual load on the PAR.

Main Methods:

  • Participants (N=17) completed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task.
  • Auditory distractor probes eliciting the PAR were presented during the RSVP task.
  • Visual attentional demands were manipulated by varying the perceptual load of the RSVP task.

Main Results:

  • The PAR amplitude systematically decreased as the perceptual load of the visual task increased.
  • This modulation indicates a link between visual attention and the PAR.

Conclusions:

  • The postauricular reflex (PAR) is not solely unresponsive to attention.
  • Attention within the visual modality can influence the PAR, challenging previous assumptions.