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

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...

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.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Optogenetic circuit mapping reveals connectivity and synaptic physiology of T-stellate projections from the cochlear nucleus to the auditory midbrain.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Impacts of heminode disruption on auditory processing of noisy sound stimuli.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Scalable and multiplexed recorders of gene regulation dynamics across weeks.

Nature·2026

Same author

The Ventral Tectal Longitudinal Column: A Midbrain Nucleus for Modulation of Auditory Processing in the Cochlear Nucleus, Superior Olivary Complex, and Inferior Colliculus.

The Journal of comparative neurology·2025

Same author

The Ventral Tectal Longitudinal Column: A Midbrain Nucleus for Modulation of Auditory Processing in the Cochlear Nucleus, Superior Olivary Complex and Inferior Colliculus.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Neurons in the inferior colliculus use multiplexing to encode features of frequency-modulated sweeps.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same journal

MT-MRI for detection of renal interstitial fibrosis in renovascular disease.

Scientific reports·2026

Same journal

Detection of underground objects from GPR data using a lightweight YOLO-based approach.

Scientific reports·2026

Same journal

Early systemic inflammatory-metabolic trajectory phenotypes are associated with survival outcomes in metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with nivolumab.

Scientific reports·2026

Same journal

Water balance components in a dry-seeded rice-wheat system: Untangling the effects of tillage and mulching practices.

Scientific reports·2026

Same journal

Topological approaches to quantum tensor train compression via ZX-calculus and SVD.

Scientific reports·2026

Same journal

determinants of flood impacts and adaptive capacity among market vendors in Walukuba-Masese, Jinja city, Uganda.

Scientific reports·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 13, 2025

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Published on: December 20, 2024

A multi-stage auditory model for binaural sound localization using the locally competitive algorithm.

Evelyn E Ware¹, Michael T Roberts², Michael P Flynn³

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Scientific Reports

|July 27, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study presents a brain-inspired neural network model for accurate sound localization, achieving 95% accuracy. The model uses sparse coding to improve hearing technologies and our understanding of auditory processing.

Keywords:

Auditory pathway Binaural hearing Locally competitive algorithm Sound localization Sparse coding Unsupervised learning

More Related Videos

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 13, 2025

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Sound Source Localization Testing in Single-sided Deafness Following Bone Conduction Intervention

Published on: December 20, 2024

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition

Published on: October 29, 2018

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Mapping Cortical Dynamics Using Simultaneous MEG/EEG and Anatomically-constrained Minimum-norm Estimates: an Auditory Attention Example

Published on: October 24, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Computational Auditory Neuroscience
Artificial Intelligence

Background:

Accurate sound localization is crucial for environmental interaction and is impaired by current hearing aids and cochlear implants.
Precise sound localization is vital for emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles and robotics.
Understanding neural processing of auditory cues is essential for technological advancement.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a novel brain-inspired neural network model for high-accuracy azimuthal sound localization.
To leverage binaural and spectral auditory cues for improved sound localization performance.
To explore the application of sparse coding techniques in auditory signal processing.

Main Methods:

Development of a brain-inspired neural network model.
Utilizing sparse coding techniques, specifically the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA).
Processing of binaural and spectral auditory cues for sound localization.

Main Results:

The proposed model achieved a sound localization accuracy of 95%.
Performance is comparable to human sound localization capabilities.
Demonstrated efficient sparse coding of auditory signals via LCA.

Conclusions:

The novel neural network model effectively achieves high-accuracy sound localization.
This approach enhances understanding of neural auditory processing.
The model shows promise for improving hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other auditory technologies.