An fMRI experiment was performed to identify the main stages of melody processing in the auditory pathway. Spectrally matched sounds that produce no pitch, fixed pitch, or melody were all found to activate Heschl's gyrus (HG) and planum temporale (PT). Within this region, sounds with pitch produced more activation than those without pitch only in the lateral half of HG. When the pitch was varied to produce a melody, there was activation in regions beyond HG and PT, specifically in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and planum polare (PP). The results support the view that there is hierarchy of pitch processing in which the center of activity moves anterolaterally away from primary auditory cortex as the processing of melodic sounds proceeds.

A wide-band noise having a deep notch with sharp edges was used to mask a tone. The notch was centered on the tone, and threshold was measured as the width of the notch was increased from 0.0 to 0.8 times the tone frequency (0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 kHz). The spectrum level of the noise was 40 dB SPL. If it is assumed that the auditory filter is reasonably symmetric at these intensities, then the shape of the filter centered on the tone can be estimated from the first derivative of the curve relating tone threshold to the width of the notch in the noise. The 3-dB bandwidths of the filters obtained were about 0.13 of their center frequency. In the region of the passband, the Gaussian curve provides a good approximation to the shape of the derived filters. The equivalent rectangular bandwidths of the Gaussian approximations are about 0.20 of their center frequency, which is comparable to the critical-band estimates of R. Zwicker, G. Flottorp, and S. S. Stevens [’’Critical bandwidth in loudness summation,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 29, 548–557 (1957)]. The Gaussian approximation cannot be used outside the passband, because the tails of the derived filters do not fall as fast as the Gaussian curve. Subject Classification: [43]65.58, [43]65.35; [43]80.50.

The frequency selectivity of the auditory system was measured by masking a sinusoidal signal (0.5, 2.0, or 4.0 kHz) or a filtered-speech signal with a wideband noise having a notch, or stopband, centered on the signal. As the notch was widened performance improved for both types of signal but the rate of improvement decreased as the age of the 16 listeners increased from 23 to 75 years, indicating a loss in frequency selectivity with age. Auditory filter shapes derived from the tone-in-noise data show (a) that the passband of the filter broadens progressively with age, and (b) that the dynamic range of the filter ages like the audiogram. That is, the range changes little with age before 55, but beyond this point there is an accelerating rate of loss. The speech experiment shows comparable but smaller effects. The filter-width measurements show that the critical ratio is a poor estimator of frequency selectivity because it confounds the tuning of the system with the efficiency of the signal-detection and speech-processing mechanisms that follow the filter. An alternative, one-point measure of frequency selectivity, which is both sensitive and reliable, is developed via the filter-shape model of masking.

There have been several attempts to use the neuromagnetic response to the onset of a tonal sound (N100m) to study pitch processing in auditory cortex. Unfortunately, a large proportion of the N100m is simply a response to the onset of sound energy, independent of whether the sound produces a pitch. The current study describes a novel stimulus paradigm designed to circumvent the energy-onset response and thereby isolate the response of those neural elements specifically involved in pitch processing. The temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography enables us to show that the latency and amplitude of this pitch-onset response (POR) vary with the pitch and pitch strength of the tone. The spatial resolution is sufficient to show that its source lies somewhat anterior and inferior to that of the N100m, probably in the medial part of Heschl's gyrus.

A software package with a modular architecture has been developed to support perceptual modeling of the fine-grain spectro-temporal information observed in the auditory nerve. The package contains both functional and physiological modules to simulate auditory spectral analysis, neural encoding, and temporal integration, including new forms of periodicity-sensitive temporal integration that generate stabilized auditory images. Combinations of the modules enable the user to approximate a wide variety of existing, time-domain, auditory models. Sequences of auditory images can be replayed to produce cartoons of auditory perceptions that illustrate the dynamic response of the auditory system to everyday sounds.