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Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

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.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages

Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages

Published on: March 24, 2023

Temporal pitch perception at high rates in cochlear implants.

Ying-Yee Kong¹, Robert P Carlyon

¹Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. yykong@neu.edu

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

|December 2, 2010

Summary

Cochlear implant users can perceive temporal pitch changes at rates exceeding 300 pulses per second (pps). Some individuals can even detect pitch variations up to 900 pps, challenging previous upper limits.

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Area of Science:

Auditory Neuroscience
Psychoacoustics
Cochlear Implant Technology

Background:

The "upper limit" for temporal pitch perception in cochlear implant (CI) users is often cited as 300 pulses per second (pps).
Previous research suggested limitations in high-rate temporal pitch processing for CI users.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the upper limit of temporal pitch perception in Med-El COMBI 40+ CI users.
To explore pitch perception at high pulse rates using multiple psychophysical tasks.

Main Methods:

Utilized three tasks: pitch ranking, rate discrimination, and multidimensional scaling (MDS).
Tested CI users on their ability to detect changes in pulse train rates.
Analyzed perceptual dimensions in high-rate pitch perception.

Main Results:

All subjects could follow rate changes above 300 pps.
Two subjects demonstrated exceptional temporal pitch perception up to approximately 900 pps.
MDS results indicated high-rate pitch perception (500-840 pps) was orthogonal to place of excitation.

Conclusions:

The upper limit of temporal pitch perception in CI users is higher than previously reported.
High pulse rates are processed along a distinct perceptual dimension, separate from tonotopic place information.
Temporal pitch processing at high rates may involve neural mechanisms beyond simple place coding.