Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

The Cochlea01:13

The Cochlea

40.8K
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.
40.8K
Hearing01:31

Hearing

47.8K
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.
47.8K
Auditory Pathway01:15

Auditory Pathway

7.0K
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...
7.0K
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location01:21

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

1.3K
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...
1.3K
Hair Cells01:22

Hair Cells

36.0K
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.
36.0K
Perception of Sound Waves01:01

Perception of Sound Waves

4.7K
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...
4.7K

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

A computational model of the mammalian auditory periphery with a closed-loop medial olivocochlear reflex simulating across-channel efferent gain control.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2026
Same author

Modeling auditory enhancement: Efferent control of cochlear gain can explain level dependence and effects of hearing loss.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2026
Same author

Modelling Auditory Enhancement: Efferent Control of Cochlear Gain can Explain Level Dependence and Effects of Hearing Loss.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Duration effects on detection cues in simultaneous masking: Analysis using decision variable correlationa).

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2025
Same author

Chirp sensitivity and vowel coding in the inferior colliculus.

Hearing research·2025
Same author

Forward masking in the inferior colliculus: Dynamics of discharge-rate recovery after narrowband noise maskers.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2025
Same journal

Erratum: Yao et al., "Estrogen Regulates Bcl-w and Bim Expression: Role in Protection against β-Amyloid Peptide-Induced Neuronal Death".

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Erratum: L'Episcopo et al., "Plasticity of Subventricular Zone Neuroprogenitors in MPTP (1-Methyl-4-Phenyl-1,2,3,6-Tetrahydropyridine) Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease Involves Cross Talk between Inflammatory and Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathways: Functional Consequences for Neuroprotection and Repair".

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Representations of subsecond duration-based timing by complex spike synchrony in cerebellar Purkinje neurons.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

The extended language network: Language-responsive brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Cortical and thalamic afferent connectomes distinguish ACC subregions of the macaque brain.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

The synaptic vesicle priming protein Munc13 mediates evoked somatodendritic dopamine release.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Long-range Channelrhodopsin-assisted Circuit Mapping of Inferior Colliculus Neurons with Blue and Red-shifted Channelrhodopsins
07:04

Long-range Channelrhodopsin-assisted Circuit Mapping of Inferior Colliculus Neurons with Blue and Red-shifted Channelrhodopsins

Published on: February 7, 2020

6.7K

Timbre Encoding in the Inferior Colliculus.

Johanna B Fritzinger1, Laurel H Carney2,3

  • 1Departments of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642 johanna_fritzinger@URMC.rochester.edu.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|April 21, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers investigated how spectral peaks, crucial for sound timbre, are encoded in the auditory system. They found robust neural encoding in the inferior colliculus, matching human perception, with potential applications for hearing technologies.

Keywords:
auditoryauditory midbraincomputational modelsinferior colliculustimbre

More Related Videos

Extracellular Recording of Neuronal Activity Combined with Microiontophoretic Application of Neuroactive Substances in Awake Mice
11:19

Extracellular Recording of Neuronal Activity Combined with Microiontophoretic Application of Neuroactive Substances in Awake Mice

Published on: May 21, 2016

9.7K
Author Spotlight: Unveiling Neural Coding and Mechanisms of Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus
10:43

Author Spotlight: Unveiling Neural Coding and Mechanisms of Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus

Published on: April 21, 2023

3.7K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Long-range Channelrhodopsin-assisted Circuit Mapping of Inferior Colliculus Neurons with Blue and Red-shifted Channelrhodopsins
07:04

Long-range Channelrhodopsin-assisted Circuit Mapping of Inferior Colliculus Neurons with Blue and Red-shifted Channelrhodopsins

Published on: February 7, 2020

6.7K
Extracellular Recording of Neuronal Activity Combined with Microiontophoretic Application of Neuroactive Substances in Awake Mice
11:19

Extracellular Recording of Neuronal Activity Combined with Microiontophoretic Application of Neuroactive Substances in Awake Mice

Published on: May 21, 2016

9.7K
Author Spotlight: Unveiling Neural Coding and Mechanisms of Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus
10:43

Author Spotlight: Unveiling Neural Coding and Mechanisms of Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus

Published on: April 21, 2023

3.7K

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Processing
  • Computational Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

  • Timbre, the quality of sound, is vital for speech and music perception.
  • Brightness, a timbre percept, relates to spectral features like the spectral centroid.
  • Neural encoding of timbre, particularly spectral peaks, in the subcortical auditory system is poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural representation of spectral peaks in harmonic complex tones.
  • To explore how these spectral features are encoded in the inferior colliculus (IC).
  • To compare neural discrimination thresholds with human behavioral thresholds for timbre perception.

Main Methods:

  • Extracellular single-neuron recordings in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus of awake rabbits.
  • Stimulus presentation using harmonic complex tones with varying spectral peaks.
  • Computational modeling to capture physiological response patterns.

Main Results:

  • Spectral peaks were robustly encoded in the average firing rate profiles of IC neurons across sound levels.
  • Neural discrimination thresholds closely matched human behavioral thresholds.
  • Computational models incorporating neural fluctuation sensitivity and broadband inhibition explained key physiological findings.

Conclusions:

  • The inferior colliculus robustly encodes spectral peaks, a key component of timbre.
  • Neural mechanisms involving average rate and inhibitory processes contribute to spectral-peak representation.
  • Findings offer insights into auditory processing for speech and music, with implications for hearing aid technology.