Periodicity Processing in the Auditory System

描述（由申请人提供）：许多不同的复杂声音，包括语音和音乐，具有拥有某种形式的时间周期性的声学波形，并且音高是与该时间周期性密切相关的基本人类感知。我们建议解决有关的问题，时间处理复杂的声音，主要是复杂的音调和迭代波纹噪声，与音高感知。各种属性与音高的感知相关，我们建议解决与四个特定的感知属性，即匹配音高，频谱优势，音高强度和相位效应有关的问题。主要目标是了解人类音高感知的神经基础。我们建议使用一个多学科的方法，动物心理物理学和神经生理学的基础上，以获得洞察的时间机制的音高感知。在动物心理物理实验中，将评估龙猫处理人类心理物理实验中使用的相同类型的复杂声音的感知能力。这些行为实验的目的是确定负责人类受试者感知复杂音高的潜在神经机制是否是人类神经系统独有的或特殊的，或者这些是否是存在于哺乳动物中的常见神经机制。在生理学实验中，将在听觉处理的第一级，即耳蜗核，研究人类和灰鼠行为实验中使用的相同复杂声音的时间特征的神经表征。生理学实验的目的是了解波形和包络周期性的信息是如何在耳蜗核的各个主要子系统中表示和处理的。从龙猫的神经生理数据和行为数据与人类的心理物理和感知数据之间的比较，将提供一个重要的生物背景下，了解人类音高感知的基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many different complex sounds, including speech and music, have acoustic waveforms that possess some form of temporal periodicity, and pitch is a fundamental human perception closely related to this temporal periodicity. We propose to address issues concerned with the temporal processing of complex sounds, primarily complex tones and iterated rippled noises, as related to pitch perception. A variety of attributes are associated with the perception of pitch, and we propose to address issues concerned with four specific perceptual attributes, namely, matched pitch, spectral dominance, pitch strength and phase effects. The major goal is to understand the neural basis of pitch perception in humans. We propose to use a multidisciplinary approach based on animal psychophysics and neurophysiology in order to gain insights into the temporal mechanisms underlying pitch perception. In animal psychophysical experiments, the perceptual capabilities of the chinchilla for processing the same types of complex sounds used in human psychophysical experiments will be evaluated. The goal of these behavioral experiments is to determine if the underlying neural mechanisms responsible for the perception of complex pitch in human subjects are unique or special to the human nervous system, or whether these are common neural mechanisms that exist across mammals. In physiological experiments, the neural representations of the temporal features of the same complex sounds used in the human and chinchilla behavioral experiments will be studied at the first level of auditory processing, namely, the cochlear nucleus. The goal of the physiological experiments is to understand how information about waveform and envelope periodicities is represented and processed in each of the various principal subsystems in the cochlear nucleus. The comparisons between neurophysiological data and behavioral data from the chinchilla with human psychophysical and perceptual data will provide an important biological context in which to understand the basis of human pitch perception.