Chapter 8

Question 1

Pure tones

Answer 1

Sounds with a sinusoid waveform (when pressure change is plotted against time)

Question 2

Pitch

Answer 2

The perceived property of sounds that enables them to be ordered from low to high

Question 3

Loudness

Answer 3

The perceived intensity of the sound

Question 4

Fundamental frequency

Answer 4

The lowest frequency component of a complex sound that determines the perceived pitch

Question 5

Missing fundamental phenomenon

Answer 5

If the fundamental frequency of a complex sound is removed, then the pitch is not perceived to change (the brain reinstates it)

Question 6

Timbre

Answer 6

The perceptual quality of a sound enables us to distinguish between different musical instruments

Question 7

Cochlea

Answer 7

Part of the inner ear that converts liquid-borne sound into neural impulses

Question 8

Basilar membrane

Answer 8

A membrane within the cochlea containing tiny hair cells linked to neural receptors

Question 9

Primary auditory cortex

Answer 9

The main cortical area to receive auditory-based thalamic input

Question 10

Belt region

Answer 10

Part of secondary auditory cortex, with many projections from primary auditory cortex

Question 11

Parabelt region

Answer 11

Part of secondary auditory cortex, receiving projections from the adjacent belt region

Question 12

Tonotopic organization

Answer 12

The principle that sounds close to each other in frequency are represented by neurons that are spatially close to each other in the brain

Question 13

Sparse scanning

Answer 13

In fMRI, a short break in scanning to enable sounds to be presented in relative silence

Question 14

Head-related transfer function (HRTF)

Answer 14

An internal model of how sounds get distorted by the unique shape of one’s own ears and head

Question 15

Planum temporale

Answer 15

A part of auditory cortex (posterior to primary auditory cortex) that integrates auditory information with non-auditory information, for example to enable sounds to be separated in space

Question 16

Inter-aural time difference

Answer 16

The difference in timing between a sound arriving in each ear (used to localize sounds)

Question 17

Inter-aural intensity difference

Answer 17

The difference in loudness between a sound arriving in each ear (used to localize sounds)

Question 18

Cocktail party problem

Answer 18

The problem of attending to a single auditory stream in the presence of competing streams (with different acoustic and spatial properties)—for instance, attending to one person’s voice in a noisy room of other voices

Question 19

Auditory stream segregation

Answer 19

The division of a complex auditory signal into different sources or auditory objects

Question 20

Mismatch negativity (MMN)

Answer 20

An ERP component that occurs when an auditory stimulus deviates from previously presented auditory stimuli

Question 21

Amusia

Answer 21

An auditory agnosia in which music perception is affected more than the perception of other sounds

Question 22

Tone-deafness (or congenital amusia)

Answer 22

A developmental difficulty in perceiving pitch relationships

Question 23

Prosody

Answer 23

Changes in the stress pattern of speech (e.g. to add emphasis), the rhythm of speech, or the intonation (e.g. rising/falling pitch to indicate questioning or sarcasm)

Question 24

Melody

Answer 24

Patterns of pitch over time

Question 25

Pure word deafness

Answer 25

Type of auditory agnosia in which patients are able to identify environmental sounds and music but not speech

Question 26

Spectrogram

Answer 26

This plots the frequency of sound (on the y-axis) over time (on the x-axis) with the intensity of the sound represented by how dark it is

Question 27

Allophones

Answer 27

Different spoken/acoustic renditions of the same phoneme

Question 28

Formants

Answer 28

Horizontal stripes on the spectrogram produced with a relative free flow of air (e.g. by vowels)

Question 29

Voicing

Answer 29

Vibration of the vocal cords that characterizes the production of some consonants

Question 30

Co-articulation

Answer 30

The production of one phoneme is influenced by the preceding and proceeding phonemes

Question 31

McGurk illusion

Answer 31

An auditory perception derived from a fusion of mismatching heard speech and seen speech

Question 32

Arcuate fasciculus

Answer 32

A white matter bundle that connects the temporoparietal region to the frontal lobes