On the use of natural stimuli in neurophysiological studies of audition

Close scrutiny of the conceptual base which supports a recent explosion of interest in biologically relevant stimuli reveals several gaps and examples of inconsistent terminology. It is apparent that selection of stimuli has not always been optimal, in the sense that relevance was undefined and controls were lacking. The neurophysiological evidence most often sought has been the response of single neurons in central auditory pathways, and presentation of these results has at times made progress difficult to discern. A simplified, testable version of the feature detector hypothesis is discussed.