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Auditory system Flashcards

1
Q

What is Sound?

A

The physical properties of sound wave

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2
Q

What is the ear?

A

Hardware that collects the sound

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3
Q

What is sensory transduction?

A

Conversion of sound to neural activity

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4
Q

What is hearing for?

A
  1. Language
  2. Music
  3. Aware of the environment
  4. Echo-location and navigation
  5. Communication
  6. Vigilance
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5
Q

What is sound?

A

A wave which is created by vibrating objects and propagated through a medium from one location to another

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6
Q

What are examples of a medium?

A
  1. Air
  2. Water
  3. Mole
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7
Q

What are the roles of sound/?

A
  1. Time variant pressure
  2. Space variant pressure

From sound source to your ears

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8
Q

What are periods of high pressure called?

A

Compressions

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9
Q

What are contrast with periods of low pressure called?

A

Rarefaction

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10
Q

What is Rarefaction?

A

Reduction of an item’s density

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11
Q

How do you measure amplitude?

A

Compare maximum and minimum pressure

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12
Q

What are sound amplitude associated with?

A

Loudness

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13
Q

What is the frequency of the sound?

A

How many cycles are there in one second (5 Hz)

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14
Q

What is period/cycle?

A

Time it takes to move from one position of wave to the next position

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15
Q

The higher the frequency

A

The higher the pitch of the sound

The faster it is oscillating

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16
Q

Define phase

A

Describes the relative position on a wave, whether you are in a peak, trough or somewhere in between

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17
Q

What is a pure tone?

A

Simplest sort of wave that can be understood

A steady sound without overtone

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18
Q

Sine wave

A

Oscillates up and down
e.g. whistling, birdsong, simple musical instrument

Sine wave shape is unchanged by linear time-invariant system

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19
Q

What is a complex wave?

A

A wave made up of a series of sound wave

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20
Q

What is fourier analysis?

A

Take complex wave and describe it as the sum of sinusoid with different frequencies and different amplitudes

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21
Q

What is the basis of Fourier analysis?

A

The ability to describe any sound of the world

Broken down into different sine components

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22
Q

What do different frequencies have?

A

Different amplitudes

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23
Q

What is a spectra?

A

Reveals information about sound waves

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24
Q

What are peaks in the spectrum called?

A

Harmonics

Occur at integer multiples of fundamental frequency pitch 0

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25
What does fundamental frequency determine?
Pitch
26
What is the shape of envelope associated with?
Timbre of instrument
27
What is timbre?
Allows ear to distinguish sounds which have same pitch and loudness Relates to instrument identity
28
What are spectrograms?
visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time
29
What are formants?
each of several prominent bands of frequency that determine the phonetic quality of a vowel. Frequency shaping of the signal from focal folds by the vocal tract
30
What do movement of format change?
Identity of sound
31
What are real environments?
Spectro-temporally complex and individual sound sources are hard to isolate
32
What is found on the outer ear?
1. Pinna | Visible part of the ear (Auricle) - special helical shape
33
What are the shape of the ears designed to do?
Collect sound from the environment and funnel it into the ear canal (External auditory meatus)
34
What does the outer ear do?
Conduct vibration through sround to ear (Tympanic membrane)
35
What is tympanic membrane?
Membrane that seals the air canal and vibrates in response to sound energy
36
What is present in the middle ear?
Eustachian tube
37
What is the Eustachian tube?
Tube that connects ears to nose and mouth
38
What is the consequence of swallowing?
Open the Eustachian Tube
39
What are the components of the Ear bones (ossicles)?
1. Hammer = Malleus 2. Anvil = Incus 3. Stirrup = Stapes
40
What is the function of the ear bone?
Impedance matching
41
What does the ear bone allow us to do?
Take tympanic membrane with a large surface area, Collect a lot of sound energy and apply that to a much lower surface area called the oval window
42
What does Stapes have?
Smaller surface area - Allow us to match impedance property of inner and outer ear
43
What are ear muscles connected to?
1. Stapedius | 2. Tensor tympani
44
What do ear muscles control?
Movement of ear bone and gain of ear bone
45
What does the inner ear consist of?
1. Semicircular canal (vestibular) | 2. Cochlear (hearing)
46
What causes Basilar membrane to move up and down?
The movement of ear bone and oval window
47
What does the position of movement of basilar membrane depend on?
Frequency of sound
48
High pitch sound
Maximum movement at the base of cochlea
49
When does the position of maximum movement change.?
As sounds get lower in frequency
50
What is the displacement of basilar membrane?
Frequency dependent
51
What do low frequency sound cause?
Displacement at apex of cochlea
52
What do high frequency sound cause?
Displacement at the base of cochlea
53
What is Tonotopicity?
Relationship between place and frequency Biological version of Fourier Analysis Take any complex sound and decompose it into a pattern of movement on basilar membrane
54
What is place code?
Where the membrane vibrates, tells you what frequency the sound was
55
What creates a tonotopic representation of sound along basilar membrane?
Relationship between frequency and membrane
56
Detecting displacement
Filling | no. of different cells - Outer hair cells and Inner hair cells
57
What do inner hair cells detect?
Movement of basilar membrane caused by sound
58
What is sensory transduction?
Conversion of mechanical energy in sound waves to electrochemical energy in neural activity
59
What is each hair of hair cell called?
Stereocilium
60
What do each stereocilium have?
Mechanosensitive cation channels | placed on top of each membrane
61
How are each channel linked to the adjacent stereocilium?
Physical structures called Tip Link
62
What are the stages of hair bundle?
1. Movement of hair bundle by sound 2. Cation (K+) into hair cells 3. Depolarisation of hair cells 4. Synaptic vesicle release
63
What do stereocilia detect?
Displacement of basilar membrane
64
What are present in the base of hair cells?
Dendrites of auditory nerve fibres | pathway that lead to the brain
65
What are synaptic ribbons?
Specialised structures in the hair cells that allow communication of nerve fibres very quickly
66
What do synaptic ribbons detect?
very rapid signal | Sound are very fast
67
What are auditory system specialised for?
Speed
68
Where are the signal about sound encoded in?
Action potential of neurons
69
What do each auditory nerve fibre take in?
Frequency dependence of basilar membrane
70
What do outer hair cells do?
Amplify quiet sounds
71
Autoacoustic commission
Diagnosing hearing loss in young children that can't talk
72
What are the components of the ascending pathway?
1. Cochlear nucleus 2. Superior Olivary complex 3. Inferior colliculus 4. Medial Geniculate body 5. Auditory cortex
73
What is the function of medial geniculate body?
Control centre to filter out signal that are going to cortex
74
Where is auditory cortex located?
Superior Temporal gyrus
75
What are 3 parts of auditory cortex in humans?
1. Primary (core) - Heschl's Gyrus - BA41 2. Secondary (Belt) - lateral surface of brain 3. Tertiary (para-belt)
76
What are the roles of descending auditory pathway?
1. Predictive coding 2. Attentional modulation 3. Gain control
77
What is predictive coding?
Minimize responses to expected sounds
78
What is attentional modulation?
Enhance coding of interesting sounds
79
What is Gain control?
Optimize auditory processing for current circumstances
80
Hearing loss
1. Conductive 2. Sensorineural 3. Central
81
What are examples of Hearing Dysfunction?
1. Tinnitus 2. Hyperacusis 3. Auditory hallucinations 4. Auditory processing disorder
82
What are examples of recovering auditory function?
1. Hearing aids - amplify sound level in ear canal 2. Grommets - Allow fluid to escape middle ear 3. Brain stimulation - suppress tinnitus - electrode on cortex 4. Cochlea implant - Stimulate auditory nerve

C1 Modules (20 decks)

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