An experience-based approach to auditory perception research

Abstract

What and how we hear is determined by our past experience. Thus attempting to quantify human experience becomes the challenge for modeling auditory perception. Based on my recent research at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, I will discuss some principles that should guide such an approach to study of auditory neuroscience and perception. One crucial principle is to account for the frequency of occurrence of stimulus patterns to which humans have been exposed over phylogeny and ontogeny (an alternative to explaining perception based solely on peripheral auditory physiology). I will discuss the implications of this research approach and include a brief report on my research progress in my new position at Brigham and Women's Hospital.