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Updated: Sep 2, 2026

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals
Published on: May 23, 2017
Cochlear Nonlinear Network Correlate of Consonant vs Dissonant Sounds Perception
1ETH Zürich, University, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Irchel Campus, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
For centuries, the human distinction between consonant and dissonant dyadic sounds ("c-d perception phenomenon") has remained an unresolved puzzle, igniting novel directions in physics research. Here, we demonstrate that nonlinear sound processing by the network of activated cochlear amplifiers reveals a close correlate of the psychoacoustic perception that matches the behavioral data to the level of the best phenomenological approach, suggesting that combination-tone avalanches triggered from coupled nonlinear oscillators, paired with biological information parsimony, may be the essential elements underlying this phenomenon. The observed correlate highlights the potential of a physics-driven explanation of behavioral phenomena that are commonly attributed to "the cortex" but may have their origins in the nonlinear properties of the involved sensors.
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