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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...

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.

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 20, 2025

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique

Published on: September 7, 2022

Predictable sequential structure augments auditory sensitivity at threshold.

Nadège Marin¹, Grégory Gérenton¹, Hadrien Jean²

¹Université Paris Cité, Institut Pasteur, AP-HP, INSERM, CNRS, Fondation Pour l'Audition, Institut de l'Audition, IHU reConnect, 75012 Paris, France.

|March 24, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Expectations significantly impact human hearing sensitivity, influencing auditory thresholds. This finding challenges traditional hearing tests and suggests new methods for assessing hearing ability.

Keywords:

Audiology Sensory neuroscience

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Last Updated: May 20, 2025

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Published on: September 7, 2022

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Published on: October 16, 2012

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

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Published on: June 6, 2012

Area of Science:

Auditory Neuroscience
Psychoacoustics
Human Sensation and Perception

Background:

Human hearing exhibits remarkable sensitivity, detecting faint acoustic events.
Hearing sensitivity depends on cochlear mechanisms and central factors like attention and expectation.
The precise role of probabilistic expectations in modulating auditory thresholds remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the influence of different types of expectations on hearing thresholds.
To explore how understanding these top-down influences can refine hearing sensitivity assessments.
To question the conventional methods used in audiological and fundamental hearing research.

Main Methods:

Utilized psychoacoustic paradigms to manipulate auditory expectations.
Measured hearing thresholds under varying conditions of probabilistic expectation.
Analyzed the impact of top-down cognitive processes on auditory sensitivity.

Main Results:

Demonstrated that probabilistic expectations significantly alter auditory sensitivity at threshold.
Showed that current audiometric tests may not fully capture true hearing sensitivity due to cognitive influences.
Identified specific ways expectations modulate the perception of auditory stimuli.

Conclusions:

Auditory perception is not solely determined by bottom-up cochlear processing but is substantially shaped by top-down expectations.
Conventional hearing threshold assessments may require revision to account for cognitive factors.
Findings have implications for both fundamental auditory research and clinical audiology practices.