Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Syllabic (∼2-5 Hz) and fluctuation (∼1-10 Hz) ranges in speech and auditory processing
1Department of Neurological Surgery, UC San Francisco, USA.
Abstract:
Given recent interest in syllabic rates (∼2-5 Hz) for speech processing, we review the perception of "fluctuation" range (∼1-10 Hz) modulations during listening to speech and technical auditory stimuli (AM and FM tones and noises, and ripple sounds). We find evidence that the temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) of human auditory perception is not simply low-pass in nature, but rather exhibits a peak in sensitivity in the syllabic range (∼2-5 Hz). We also address human and animal neurophysiological evidence, and argue that this bandpass tuning arises at the thalamocortical level and is more associated with non-primary regions than primary regions of cortex. The bandpass rather than low-pass TMTF has implications for modeling auditory central physiology and speech processing: this implicates temporal contrast rather than simple temporal integration, with contrast enhancement for dynamic stimuli in the fluctuation range. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Communication Sounds and the Brain: New Directions and Perspectives".
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Sound Waves
Sound waves are longitudinal in most fluids because fluids cannot sustain any lateral pressure. In solids, however, shear forces help in propagating the disturbance in the lateral direction as well. Hence,...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
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 Waves
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...
Hearing
Dysrhythmias III: Characteristics of Dysrhythmias
The Cochlea

