Pitch perception:: A dynamical-systems perspective

doi:10.1073/pnas.081070998

Pitch perception:: A dynamical-systems perspective

2001-04-24

29

OA

AI

J

Julyan H. E. Cartwright *

DOI：10.1073/pnas.081070998

Original

Save

View PDF

Abstract

En 中文

Two and a half millennia ago Pythagoras initiated the scientific study of the pitch of sounds; yet our understanding of the mechanisms of pitch perception remains incomplete. Physical models of pitch perception try to explain from elementary principles why certain physical characteristics of the stimulus lead to particular pitch sensations. There are two broad categories of pitch-perception models: place or spectral models consider that pitch is mainly related to the Fourier spectrum of the stimulus, whereas for periodicity or temporal models its characteristics in the time domain are more important. Current models from either class are usually computationally intensive, implementing a series of steps more or less supported by auditory physiology, However, the brain has to analyze and react in real time to an enormous amount of information from the ear and other senses. How is all this information efficiently represented and processed in the nervous system? A proposal of nonlinear and complex systems research is that dynamical attractors may form the basis of neural information processing. Because the auditory system is a complex and highly nonlinear dynamical system, it is natural to suppose that dynamical attractors may carry perceptual and functional meaning. Here we show that this idea, scarcely developed in current pitch models, can be successfully applied to pitch perception.

Keywords:

3-FREQUENCY RESONANCES

AUDITORY-CORTEX

COMPLEX TONES

ORGANIZATION

PHASE

Pitch perception:: A dynamical-systems perspective

Abstract

AI Summary

Journal

Organization