An overview of the functions of the ear

Abstract

The function of the peripheral auditory system (external, middle, and inner ears) is to produce a representation of sound across the population of auditory‐nerve fibers. This representation is processed by the brain to produce appropriate behaviors (e.g., perception, movement, etc.). This talk will focus on the representation of the spectral features of speech sounds in the auditory nerve. Emphasis will be placed on those aspects of the encoding in the auditory nerve that allow the representation to be robust over a large range of sound levels and in the presence of background noise. The transformations of this representation by populations of cochlear nucleus cells will bc discussed. [Work supported by grants from NINCDS.]