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

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...

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...

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...

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.

Interference: Path Lengths

Interference: Path Lengths

Consider two sources of sound, that may or may not be in phase, emitting waves at a single frequency, and consider the frequencies to be the same.
Two special sources may be considered when they are in phase. This can be easily achieved by feeding the two sources from the same source. An example would be synchronizing the two speakers by feeding them with the same source, such as the sound waves produced by a tuning fork. This setup ensures that the two sources have the same frequency and are...

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...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Cochlear aging after synaptopathic noise: age-noise interactions in hair cell loss and axonal degeneration.

Hearing research·2026

Same author

Acoustic Scene-Aware Processing and Auditory Model-Based Compensation Strategies.

Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO·2026

Same author

Using more realistic speech material to enhance ecological validity in the Everyday Conversational Danish Sentence Test.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2026

Same author

Phoneme Perception in Children With Bilateral Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids in Quiet, Noise, and Reverberation.

Ear and hearing·2026

Same author

A comparison of hearing abilities in memory clinic patients with mild cognitive impairment and cognitively intact older adults.

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD·2026

Same author

Investigating the impact of background noise on collaborative decision-making using an individual-weighted voting model.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Acoustic scene complexity affects motion behavior during speech perception in audio-visual multi-talker virtual

Valeska Slomianka¹, Torsten Dau², Axel Ahrens²

¹Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. vaslo@dtu.dk.

Scientific Reports

|August 16, 2024

Summary

Listeners adjust head and eye movements to understand speech in complex sound environments. More talkers and reverberation prolong search times and increase gaze shifts, impacting speech comprehension and localization.

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

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

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

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

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

Area of Science:

Auditory perception
Human movement behavior
Acoustic scene analysis

Background:

Real-world listening involves head and eye movements to enhance sensory information.
Specific movement patterns during acoustic scene exploration are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how acoustic scene complexity influences head and eye movement behavior during speech comprehension and localization.
To characterize movement patterns in response to varying reverberation and number of concurrent talkers.

Main Methods:

Thirteen normal-hearing participants performed a speech comprehension and localization task in virtual audio-visual scenes.
Acoustic scenes were manipulated for complexity by varying reverberation and the number of concurrent talkers.
Head and eye movements were tracked during the task.

Main Results:

Delayed initial head movements were observed with increased numbers of simultaneous talkers.
Reverberation and more talkers prolonged the search period, increased fixated locations, and led to more gaze jumps.
Response times increased with more talkers, and head position at decision differed in reverberant scenes.

Conclusions:

Acoustic scene complexity significantly impacts listener behavior during speech comprehension and localization.
Head and eye movement strategies adapt to environmental complexity to aid auditory information gathering.
Findings highlight the interplay between auditory scene characteristics and sensorimotor behaviors for effective listening.