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Hearing Flashcards

(58 cards)

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1
Q

Pinna

A

Outer part of our ear

  • responsible for funnelling soundwaves and for elevation localization
  • unique for every human
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2
Q

tympanic membrane

A

membrane at the end of our ear canal, which vibrates when stimulated by pressure waves and then in turn moves our auditory bones.

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3
Q

Ossicles

A

Bones on our middle ear

  • translate the sound energy from air medium to fluid medium
  • malleus, incus, stapes
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4
Q

Oval window

A
  • also called vestibular window
  • between middle and inner ear
  • covered by membrane
  • vibrations get translated to the fluid in our inner ear
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5
Q

Inner ear

A
  • 3 semicircular canals
  • cochlea
  • cochlear nerve
  • vestibular nerve
  • round/cochlear window
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6
Q

Auditory transduction

A

Vibrations of the oval window -> Basilar membrane -> Movement of Cilia -> “rubs” against tectorial membrane -> leads to changing of firing rates of auditory nerve cells

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7
Q

Cilia

A

Tip of hair cells

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8
Q

Organ of Corti

A
  • receptor organ of hearing
  • inside of the cochlea, on the basilar membrane
  • made up of hair cells and auditory nerve endings
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9
Q

Tonotopic map

A
  • The cochlea/basilar membrane is organized in a way, where high frequency sounds get detected towards the base and low frequencies get detected at the apex of the structure -> Tonotopic map with similar frequencies being adjacent to one another.
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10
Q

Place-code

A

different frequencies cause activity in certain locations in our auditory system.

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11
Q

Timing-code

A

Different sound frequencies trigger according firing rates . -> Neurons have tuning curves (V-shape)

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12
Q

Volley principle

A

Neurons are “phase-locked”. If however the frequency is to high for the neuron to fire every time this phase occurs, other neurons locked to the same phase fire for the times, when the other neuron is in its refractory period.

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13
Q

Phase locking

A

Means that a neuron is tuned to fire every time a pressure wave is at a certain stage in its cyclus.

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14
Q

What happens if a sound gets very loud?

A

Because of the tuning curves (the preferred frequency is only “preferred”, not “absolute”), neurons that are tuned to different frequencies also start to fire.

  • > We can’t distinguish between frequencies very well if the sound gets too loud.
  • In the cochlea, the sound travels all the way to the apex and winds back around, exiting through the round window.
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15
Q

Auditory Processing streams

A

Similarly to the visual pathways, there are 2 auditory processing streams.
Where? -> Dorsal
What? -> Ventral
-> Both end up in the prefrontal cortex

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16
Q

Physical and Psychological properties of sound

A

Physical -> Psychological
Frequency -> Pitch
Amplitude -> Loudness
Phase -> Timbre

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17
Q

Audible spectrum

A

20 - 20k Hz

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18
Q

Minimum audibility curve

A

Curve that plots, how many decibel are necessary at each frequency, for a human to perceive the sound

  • > lowest threshold at ~2.75kHz
  • > Extreme frequencies need more dB to be audible
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19
Q

Does the Fourier analysis include phase information?

A

No

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20
Q

Pain threshold of sound

A

~ 140dB

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21
Q

Three representations of sound

A
  • Time domain / Waveform
  • Frequency domain / Spectrum
  • Time-frequency domain / Spectrogram
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22
Q

Time domain / Waveform

A

X-Axis: Time

Y-Axis: Amplitude

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23
Q

Frequency domain / Spectrum

A

X-Axis: Frequency

Y-Axis: Amplitude

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24
Q

Spectrogram

Study These Flashcards
A

X-Axis: Time
Y-Axis: Frequency
Color-grading: Amplitude (Red=High; Blue=Low)

25
Fundamental
Lowest frequency of natural sounds
26
(Higher) Harmonics
Integer multiples of the fundamental
27
Missing fundamental
Our central auditory system can reconstruct the fundamental of a sound, if it's missing. This is often used in phones and church organs
28
Timbre
- "Color" of a tone | - Determined by harmonic amplitude pattern; Attack & Decay (Envelope)
29
Shepard-Scale
Seemingly never ending ascend/descend in tone height
30
Azimuth
Horizontal plane of sound localization
31
2 Major kinds of Sound Localization Cues
- Monaural | - Binaural
32
Three Dimensions in sound space and their cues
- Horizontal Plane -> Interaural time and level difference - Elevation -> Filtering due to shape of pinna - Distance -> Filtering due to absorption in medium
33
Which brain structure is responsible for detecting Interaural Time Difference?
Medial Superior Olive/Olivary Nucleus
34
Coincidence Detection Model
- Jeffress, 1948 - Neurons only fire if the information about the sound reaches it from both sides at the same time. Due to their organization, a sound coming from the left will activate a neuron more to the right. - Localization of sounds with frequencies greater than 1.5kHz is ambiguous on the basis of this model.
35
Which brain structure is responsible for detecting Interaural Level Difference?
Lateral Superior Olives/Olivary Nucleus
36
ILD
- Influenced by head | - works better for higher frequencies
37
Raleighs Duplex Theory of tone localization
- ITD is main cue for <1500Hz tones | - ILD is main cue for >1500Hz tones
38
Grouping by spectral proximity
Sound Gestalt Principle, where sounds with similar frequencies are grouped together.
39
Grouping by temporal proximity
Sound Gestalt Principle, where a group of tones, differing in frequency, if played slowly, are perceived as one melody, but if they are played quickly, it becomes two independent melodies. In general: Sounds that occur close to each other in time get grouped together.
40
Grouping by good continuation
if a smoothly ascending/descending/even tone is disrupted by noise, we perceive it as one constant tone and not two tines with noise in between. (Noise has to be at least as loud as the tone, not be too long and include the tone's frequency.)
41
Visual Capture/Ventriloquism
Sound appears to come from a probable visual source.
42
Precedence Effect
If two tones with similar properties occur very quickly after one another, our brain "ignores" the second tone, as it could be a reflection from our environment.
43
Two approaches to detecting ITD in the brain
- Coincidence Detection Model (Narrowly tuned neurons) | - Broadly tuned ITD neurons
44
Broadly tuned ITD Neurons approach
- Neurons decide if a sound comes either from the left or from the right - > Population Coding: Ration of neurons "saying" left vs right determines sound location.
45
When a sound increases in amplitude by 6 dB, what happens to the physical sound pressure?
It doubles.
46
How much decibel increase corresponds to a doubling in perceived volume?
10 dB
47
Which phenomenon corresponds to the temporal code of auditory neurons?
Phase locking
48
Where is the Tympanic Membrane located?
At the inner end of the ear canal(s).
49
Which ossicle is connected to the tympanic membrane?
The Malleus
50
Which ossicle is connected to the oval window?
The stapes
51
What is the acoustic reflex?
Muscles connected to our ossicles tightening and thus restricting their vibration. This is a protection mechanism against loud environments and also the noises of our own body.
52
How many parallel canals are there in the cochlea?
3
53
Tectorial Membrane
- found at the top of the organ or Corti - attached only on one end, so the other end floats -> sensitive to movements of the basilar membrane - The movement of the basilar membrane caused by sound pressure waves causes the hair cells to bend against the tectorial membrane.
54
The cilia are connected by a tiny structure called the...
tip link
55
What phenomenon accounts for the place code in auditory perception?
The fact that neurons towards the base of the cochlea are tuned to higher frequencies and neurons closer to the apex to lower frequencies.
56
Conductive Hearing Loss
- > Damage to the outer or middle ear | - > Can be solved by amplifying incoming sounds
57
Sensorineural hearing loss
- > Damage to the cilia, auditory nerves, or brain cortical structures - > More difficult to repair - > If possible, a cochlear implant or a brainstem implant can solve this
58
Hidden hearing loss
- > Novel research | - > Difficulties when isolating sounds in a noisy environment

Perception (4 decks)

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