Auditory System: Introduction
• Sound: Physics; Salient features of perception.
– Weber-Fechner laws, as in touch, vision
• Auditory Pathway: cochlea – brainstem – cortex
– Optimal design to pick up the perceptually salient features
– Coding principles common to other sensory systems:
Ψ sensory or “place” maps,
Ψ receptive fields,
Ψ hierarchies of complexity.
– Coding principles unique to auditory system: timing
– Physiology explains perception
• fMRI of language processing
• Plasticity (sensory experience or external manipulation).
• Diseases:
– Hearing impairment affects ~ 30 million in the USA