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Critical Bandwidth in Man and Some Other Species in Relation to the Traveling Wave Envelope

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Sensation and Measurement

Abstract

The hypothesis was offered some years ago (Greenwood, 1961) that critical bandwidth in man was an exponential function of distance on the basilar membrane. Integration of the function yielded a frequency-position curve fitting Békésy’s data. Scale relations between frequency-position functions of a few species and between displacement envelopes (Greenwood, 1962) suggest that critical bandwidth may correspond to scale-related distances and may be proportional to the apical segment of the traveling wave envelope. A revision of the critical-bandwidth function (Greenwood, 1971), in which critical bandwidth corresponds to about 1.25 mm in man, is reviewed; functions, based on distances scale related to 1.25 mm, are suggested for cat and squirrel monkey. Analysis of data on basilar-membrane motion in squirrel monkey and guinea pig (Johnstone, 1969/70; Kohllöffel, 1972; Rhode, 1970, 1971) indicates that the apical segments of the displacement envelopes closely agree in length with the respective distances to which critical bandwidth may correspond in these species and would imply an apical segment length close to 1.25 mm in man.

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© 1974 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland

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Greenwood, D.D. (1974). Critical Bandwidth in Man and Some Other Species in Relation to the Traveling Wave Envelope. In: Moskowitz, H.R., Scharf, B., Stevens, J.C. (eds) Sensation and Measurement. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-2247-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2245-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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