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Related Concept Videos

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...

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.

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.

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...

Hair Cells

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: Jul 16, 2025

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Sound processing in the cricket brain: evidence for a pulse duration filter.

Xinyang Zhang¹, Berthold Hedwig¹

¹Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Journal of Neurophysiology

|September 13, 2023

Summary

Female crickets

Keywords:

auditory brain neurons intracellular recordings intrinsic oscillations pulse duration filter pulse pattern recognition

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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

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Published on: July 1, 2015

Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach

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Functional Imaging of Auditory Cortex in Adult Cats using High-field fMRI

Functional Imaging of Auditory Cortex in Adult Cats using High-field fMRI

Published on: February 19, 2014

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Animal Behavior
Bioacoustics

Background:

Female crickets recognize species-specific male songs by pulse period and duration.
Auditory neurons form networks to detect temporal song features.
Previous research focused on pulse period selectivity; pulse duration selectivity is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the impact of altered sound pulse durations on cricket behavior.
Analyze auditory neuron and network responses to varying pulse durations.
Determine if neural processing of pulse duration matches behavioral tuning.

Main Methods:

Behavioral assays measuring phonotaxis in response to songs with varied pulse durations.
Electrophysiological recordings from auditory neurons (AN1, LN2, LN3, LN5) and feature detector neuron LN4.
Analysis of neural responses to natural and altered sound pulse durations.

Main Results:

Auditory neurons AN1 and LN2 accurately replicate song temporal structure.
Neurons LN5 and LN3 exhibit rebound activity and additional bursts with long pulses, suggesting intrinsic network oscillations.
Feature detector LN4 acts as a pulse duration filter, responding selectively to natural pulse durations, independent of behavioral tuning.

Conclusions:

The cricket auditory system possesses a pulse duration filter mechanism in neuron LN4.
Neural responses to altered pulse durations do not directly correlate with behavioral phonotaxis.
Steering behavior to non-preferred pulse patterns likely occurs at the thoracic level, downstream of brain processing.