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Biology of the Auditory System

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Psychoacoustic Music Sound Field Synthesis

Part of the book series: Current Research in Systematic Musicology ((CRSM,volume 7))

Abstract

The auditory system detects pressure fluctuations that propagate as waves. It can be considered as a successor of the lateral line system, which enables fish and some amphibians to detect particle accelerations. These indicate the location and swimming direction of near objects. The auditory system in fish extends the detection range of the lateral line system. Accordingly, its original function can be considered to be spatial orientation and mental representation of the acoustic surrounding, rather than communication. Starting with the lateral line system of fish and their auditory system, the human ear and auditory pathway are described. It appears that spatial information is encoded at the earliest stages of auditory processing in the brain. Spatial attributes of sound are Sound sources are localized long before they are recognized or consciously perceived.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See e.g. Fritzsch et al. (2010), Mallatt (2009), p. 1201, Manley and Clack (2004), p. 8 and Clack (1993), p. 392.

  2. 2.

    For a discussions about the “octavolateralis hypothesis” and “acousticolateralis hypothesis”, see e.g. Popper et al. (1992), Coombs et al. (1992), Popper and Platt (1993), Ryugo (2011), p. 8, Will and Fritsch (1988), p. 160, Kalmijn (1989), pp. 201f, Jørgensen (1989), p. 115 and pp. 132ff, Manley and Clack (2004), p. 7 and Webb et al. (2008), p. 145.

  3. 3.

    See Kalmijn (1989), p. 187, Braun and Grande (2008), and Manley and Clack (2004), p. 15.

  4. 4.

    See e.g. Coombs et al. (1992), p. 267 and Gans (1992), p. 7.

  5. 5.

    See e.g. Webb et al. (2008), pp. 161ff and Braun and Grande (2008).

  6. 6.

    See Webb et al. (2008), p. 145 and pp. 161ff.

  7. 7.

    Mainly based on literature edited by Richard Fay and colleagues, Sheryl Coombs and David H. Evans, particularly Fay et al. (2008), Coombs et al. (1992), Popper and Schilt (2008), Webb et al. (2008), and Braun and Grande (2008), Kalmijn (1989), and Popper and Platt (1993).

  8. 8.

    Mainly based on Gelfand (1990), Zwicker and Fastl (1999), Young (2007) and Dallos (1978).

  9. 9.

    See Coombs et al. (1992), p. 268 and Popper and Platt (1993), pp. 101ff.

  10. 10.

    See e.g. Kalmijn (1989), p. 202.

  11. 11.

    See e.g. Sand and Bleckmann (2008), pp. 138f.

  12. 12.

    Detailed information about pressure of swimming fish is given in Webb et al. (2008), p. 155, Kalmijn (1989), p. 204 and Schellart and Popper (1992), p. 302.

  13. 13.

    See Sand and Bleckmann (2008), p. 184 and Popper and Platt (1993), p. 100.

  14. 14.

    See Braun and Grande (2008), p. 105.

  15. 15.

    See Popper and Platt (1993), p. 117 or Coombs et al. (1992), p. 280, Webb et al. (2008), p. 156 or Coombs et al. (1992), p. 280.

  16. 16.

    See e.g. Popper and Schilt (2008), p. 18, Popper and Platt (1993), p. 117.

  17. 17.

    All functions gathered from Popper and Platt (1993), p. 100 and pp. 117f and Popper and Schilt (2008), p. 18.

  18. 18.

    Examples of lateral line sensors can be found in Ziemer (2014), Ziemer (2015b), Xu and Mohseni (2017), Ziemer (2015a), Santos et al. (2010).

  19. 19.

    See e.g. Braun and Grande (2008), p. 105 or Popper and Schilt (2008), p. 19.

  20. 20.

    See Fay (1992), p. 229.

  21. 21.

    See Popper and Schilt (2008), pp. 18–19, Gans (1992), p. 7, Popper and Platt (1993), pp. 123ff.

  22. 22.

    See Kalmijn (1989), p. 210 and Popper and Platt (1993), p. 117.

  23. 23.

    See Popper and Schilt (2008), p. 19 about the hearing range and Popper and Platt (1993), p. 116 about acoustical communication of fishes.

  24. 24.

    See Schellart and Popper (1992), p. 302.

  25. 25.

    See e.g. Fay et al. (2008), p. 8.

  26. 26.

    See Braun and Grande (2008), p. 99, Coombs et al. (1992), p. 269, Gans (1992), p. 9 and p. 39, Sterbing-d’Angelo (2009), p. 1286.

  27. 27.

    See Motte-Haber (1972), p. 26.

  28. 28.

    The following descriptions and an even much deeper insight into biology, mechanics, neurology, and psychology of the auditory system can be found e.g. in Zwicker and Fastl (1999), Ando (2010), Warren (1982), Hall and Barker (2012), Roederer (2008) and Zatorre and Zarate (2012).

  29. 29.

    Also referred to as “cochlear nerve” or “eighth cranial nerve”, see e.g. Gelfand (1990), p. 33 and Schneider (2018), p. 615. Strictly speaking, the auditory nerve is the auditory branch of the eighth cranial nerve which also includes the vestibular nerve, see, e.g., Herman (2007), p. 592.

  30. 30.

    See Thurlow (1971), p. 230.

  31. 31.

    See e.g. Zwicker and Fastl (1999), p. 29.

  32. 32.

    Details on masking are given in Chap. 4.

  33. 33.

    See e.g. Ando (2010), p. xv and Gelfand (1990), p. 140.

  34. 34.

    See Thurlow (1971), p. 230.

  35. 35.

    The figure and the description rely largely on the illustrations and explanations in Ryugo (2011), p. 4, Schofield (2011), p. 263, Zwicker and Fastl (1999), p. 60, Ando (2010) p. 43, Cariani and Micheyl (2012), p. 370, Hong et al. (2012), p. 3, and Schneider (2018), pp. 615ff.

  36. 36.

    See e.g. Nedzelnitsky (1974), pp. 51f.

  37. 37.

    A vast review of the methods of neuroscience is the context of neuromusicology can be found in Neuhaus (2017).

  38. 38.

    See e.g. Ryugo (2011), p. 4.

  39. 39.

    See Thurlow (1971), p. 230, Ando (2010), p. xiv or Bader (2015), p. 1054.

  40. 40.

    See e.g., Opstal (2016), pp. 152f.

  41. 41.

    See Ando (2010), p. 43.

  42. 42.

    It is speculated that ITDs are neurally encoded by response latency at in the superior olivary complex and maybe even at earlier stages, see Ando (2010), p. 44.

  43. 43.

    See Sinex et al. (2002).

  44. 44.

    See Lee et al. (2015).

  45. 45.

    See Schofield (2011), p. 264 and Warren (1982), p. 14.

  46. 46.

    An attempt to associate aspects of auditory scene analysis to cortical structures can be found in Griffiths et al. (2012).

  47. 47.

    See Hall and Barker (2012), p. 180, Griffiths et al. (2012), p. 214 and Hong et al. (2012), pp. 6 and 10–12.

  48. 48.

    See Rasmussen (1953).

  49. 49.

    Especially in the chapters of Ryugo et al. (2011).

  50. 50.

    See Guinan (2011) for a deeper insight.

  51. 51.

    See e.g. Coffin et al. (2004), p. 72.

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Correspondence to Tim Ziemer .

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Ziemer, T. (2020). Biology of the Auditory System. In: Psychoacoustic Music Sound Field Synthesis. Current Research in Systematic Musicology, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23033-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23033-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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