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Related Concept Videos

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...
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.
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.
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...
Hair Cells01:22

Hair Cells

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of the auditory system—they transduce mechanical sound waves into electrical energy that the nervous system can understand. Hair cells are located in the organ of Corti within the cochlea of the inner ear, between the basilar and tectorial membranes. The actual sensory receptors are called inner hair cells. The outer hair cells serve other functions, such as sound amplification in the cochlea, and are not discussed in detail here.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning
08:43

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning

Published on: October 22, 2015

The neural code for interaural time difference in human auditory cortex.

Nelli H Salminen1, Hannu Tiitinen, Santeri Yrttiaho

  • 1Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Helsinki University of Technology, PO Box 2200, FI-02015 TKK, Finland. nelli.salminen@tkk.fi

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|February 9, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals how the human brain processes sound timing differences using magnetoencephalography. Findings suggest a neural code based on opposing neural populations, not narrow receptive fields, for sound localization.

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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
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Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
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Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Combined Shuttle-Box Training with Electrophysiological Cortex Recording and Stimulation as a Tool to Study Perception and Learning
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Published on: October 22, 2015

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06:34

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Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example
08:45

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Neuroscience
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • Interaural time difference (ITD) is crucial for sound localization.
  • Existing models propose narrow receptive fields for ITD coding in the human cortex.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural code for ITD in the human cortex.
  • To compare experimental findings with predictions from crosscorrelator models.

Main Methods:

  • Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was employed to measure brain activity.
  • Analysis focused on neural responses to ITD stimuli.

Main Results:

  • The neural code for ITD appears to involve two opposing neural populations, not narrow receptive fields.
  • One population is tuned to the left hemifield, the other to the right.

Conclusions:

  • Human ITD processing aligns with a dual-population neural code.
  • This suggests conserved computational principles for sound localization across species, from mammals to humans.