Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Hearing

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.

Auditory Pathway

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...

Perception of Sound Waves

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...

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.
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...

Auditory Perception

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...

The Cochlea

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.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Pain as muse: How creative acts flourish in the shadow of struggle.

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews·2026

Same author

Behavioral and neural aftermath of right inferior frontal cortex disruption on ambiguous vocal emotion decisional processes.

Scientific reports·2026

Same author

Domain-specific perception of emotional intensity in brief musical and vocal expressions.

JASA express letters·2026

Same author

Emotion Induction Modulates Neural Dynamics Related to the Originality of Ideational Creativity.

Human brain mapping·2025

Same author

Understanding voice naturalness.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2025

Same author

Evolutionary continuities and discontinuities in affective voice signaling.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Cortical voice processing is grounded in elementary sound analyses for vocalization relevant sound patterns.

Matthias Staib¹, Sascha Frühholz²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8050, Switzerland.

Progress in Neurobiology

|December 18, 2020

Summary

The human "voice area" (TVA) processes non-voice sounds by evaluating their acoustic and perceptual features, not just voices. This suggests a broader role in auditory processing than previously understood.

Keywords:

Auditory cognition Auditory cortex Communication MVPA Voice fMRI

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception

Published on: August 9, 2024

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception

Published on: August 9, 2024

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Auditory Perception
Cognitive Science

Background:

The temporal voice area (TVA), a subregion of the auditory cortex, is hypothesized to selectively process human voices.
The precise selectivity of the TVA and its function in processing non-voice sounds remain unclear.
Understanding the TVA's broader role is crucial for a comprehensive functional description.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural responses of the TVA to both voice and non-voice sounds.
To explore the TVA's processing of textural sound patterns (TSPs) that share acoustic features with natural sounds but are perceptually distinct from voices.
To determine if TSPs can explain TVA activity observed during voice processing.

Main Methods:

Recorded neural activity in the TVA in response to various sounds, including TSPs.
Utilized perceptual ratings of TSPs along a voice similarity scale.
Employed linear combination modeling and multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to reconstruct and analyze TVA activity.

Main Results:

TSPs elicited significant activity in large subregions of the TVA, primarily driven by perceptual voice similarity ratings.
TVA activity patterns typically seen in voice processing could be reconstructed using activation patterns from TSPs.
MVPA confirmed that TSPs contain sufficient acoustic information to account for TVA activity during voice processing.

Conclusions:

The human voice area (TVA) is not exclusively dedicated to higher-order voice processing.
The TVA employs mechanisms to evaluate perceptual and acoustic qualities of non-voice sounds.
The TVA exhibits voice-like processing patterns for non-voice sounds when rudimentary perceptual similarity to voices is detected.