Speech is transmitted through continuous sound waves. When someone is familiar with a language that someone is speaking in, they are able to break up the continuous waves into discrete words with individual meaning. They are in a sense segmenting the sound waves (from speech) into words.

Speech segmentation

There are anatomical and functional connections between auditory and somatosensory processing. For instance, hearing a rubbing sound and feeling sandpaper with the fingers activates the same part of the cortical area in the caudal auditory region.

Auditory and Somatosensory Processing

- speech segmentation
- audio and somatosensory processing

New Mexico Highlands University

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The perception of sound is called hearing, or auditory perception. The perception of sound happens through the perception of noise through vibrations, changes in pressure within the surrounding medium, through the ear (in humans). 

Hearing (auditory perception)

Focuses of hearing (auditory perception)

Sound localization is the auditory ability to identify the origin of a sound within an environment, which is a crucial aspect of hearing. This ability is analogous to depth perception in the visual system. Just as depth perception relies on monocular and binocular visual cues, the auditory system utilizes both monaural (one-eared) and binaural (two-eared) cues to pinpoint where a sound is coming from.

Sound Localization

A musician plays a single note on a flute, and then plays the exact same note on a tuba. A listener perceives the tuba's note as being much lower and the flute's note as being much higher, even though they are played at the same volume. Which statement correctly analyzes the fundamental difference in the physical properties of the sound waves produced by each instrument to create this perceptual distinction?

Humans can hear sound frequencies from about $$20$$ Hz to $$20{,}000$$ Hz, and human hearing is most sensitive to frequencies near the middle of that range.

Human Audible Frequency Range

Audible frequency range is the span of sound frequencies a species can hear, and this range differs across species. In the textbook examples, chickens hear roughly $$125$$ to $$2000$$ Hz, mice hear roughly $$1000$$ to $$91000$$ Hz, beluga whales hear roughly $$1000$$ to $$123000$$ Hz, dogs hear about $$70$$ to $$45000$$ Hz, and cats hear about $$45$$ to $$64000$$ Hz.

Species Differences in Audible Frequency Range

There are multiple theories proposed to explain how the auditory system accounts for pitch perception, with two prominent models being the temporal theory and the place theory.

Pitch Perception Theories

Deafness refers to the partial or complete inability to hear.

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