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Workshop on the Auditory Basis of Speech PerceptionKeele University, UK |
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Workshop on the Auditory Basis of Speech PerceptionKeele University, UK |
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The way in which elements of speech sounds are encoded and represented in the discharge patterns of populations of neurones in the peripheral auditory system is described. The distribution of activity along the cochlea, and therefore across the best frequencies of the bank of bandpass auditory-nerve fibre filters, is a powerful way in which spectra are represented. The way that components falling within each frequency channel is signalled is less certain, since the utility of synchronized activity is open to question and mean rate coding, at least for vowels, is problematic under some listening conditions. For vowels, it seems unlikely that the distribution of synchronized activity across the neural population is preserved beyond the cochlear nucleus, but a simple place representation may be passed to higher levels. The timing of impulses is likely to be important for signalling cues such as the voice pitch.
Bibliographic reference. Palmer, A. R. (1996): "Low-level processing of speech sounds in the auditory nervous system", In ABSP-1996, 49-56.