Treble is an aspect of pitch. It is the experience of high-frequency sounds. This is often used when explaining musical sounds, though it also talks about the locational vibration of the basilar membrane at the base of the cochlea.

Grinnell College

The physical location of a sound can be distinguished based on the activation of receptors near the base of the cochlea and near the apex. Treble sounds vibrate at the base of the cochlea while basss sounds at the apex. Coplex sounds activate multiple areas of the cochlea with simultanious peaks of vibration along the basilar membrane. 

Place Coding

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

Sound: treble

Bass is an aspect of pitch. It is the experience of low-frequency sounds. This is often used when talking about musical sounds or instruments, though it also talks about the locational vibration of the basilar membrane at the apex of the cochlea.

Sound: bass

In practice, pitch perception is explained by a combination of the temporal and place theories, with their respective contributions depending on the sound's frequency. For frequencies up to approximately 4000 Hz, both the firing rate of neurons (temporal cues) and the specific location of stimulation on the basilar membrane (place cues) work together to determine pitch. However, for frequencies above this 4000 Hz threshold, pitch is encoded exclusively through place cues.

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