Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2004 Feb 3;101(5):1114-5.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0307334101. Epub 2004 Jan 26.

Topographic organization is essential for pitch perception

Shihab A Shamma  1
Affiliations
Comment

Topographic organization is essential for pitch perception

Shihab A Shamma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Time waveforms and/or spectra. (A) Single (pure) tone at a frequency of 125 Hz. (B) Three harmonically related tones with a fundamental frequency of 125 Hz (125, 250, and 375 Hz). (C) Schematic spectra of A3 played on a violin and a piano. Both spectra have the same fundamental frequency (440 Hz) and hence are perceived at the same pitch. The amplitudes of the harmonic components are quite different between the two instruments, giving rise to their distinctive timbres.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Schematic of the place theory and the temporal theory of pitch. (A) Pitch theories. The pattern of activation evoked by a three-harmonic stimulus (125, 250, and 375 Hz) on the auditory nerve. The place theory assumes that the neural response pattern across the tonotopic axis (white dashed line) is compared with the patterns from a bank of harmonic templates stored in the central auditory system. Pitch is then assigned to the fundamental of the best-matching template. The temporal theory postulates that first the response periodicity is measured in parallel in all auditory-nerve channels. The pitch is then evaluated by pooling the measurements and selecting the fundamental period common to all channels (or the least common period). (B) Predictions of the place and temporal theories of the pitch of the transposed stimuli. Because the spectral pattern of these stimuli does not resemble that of any harmonic pattern, the place theory predicts no particular clear pitch percept. The temporal theory predicts an unaltered pitch percept because the temporal modulations remain well represented in the transposed tones.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Oxenham, A. J., Bernstein, J. G. W. & Penagos, H. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 1421–1425. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Goldstein, J. (1973) J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 54, 1496–1516. - PubMed
    1. Terhardt, E. (1979) Hear. Res. 1, 155–182. - PubMed
    1. Wightman, F. (1973) J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 54, 397–406. - PubMed
    1. van de Par, S. & Kohlrausch, A. (1997) J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101, 1671–1680. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources