Complex Sounds and Auditory Images

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the perception of complex sounds, and a growing interest in models that attempt to explain our perception of these sounds in terms of peripheral processes involving the interaction of neighbouring frequency bands and/or more central processes involving the combination of information across distant frequency bands. In this paper we review the perception of four types of complex sound, two traditional (pulse trains and vowels), and two novel (Profile Analysis, PA, and Comodulation Masking Release, CMR). The review is conducted with the aid of a general purpose model of peripheral auditory processing that produces ‘auditory images’ of the sounds. The model includes the interactions associated with adaptation and suppression as observed in the auditory nerve, and it includes the phase alignment and temporal integration which take place before the formation of our initial images of the sounds, but it does not include any of the processes that combine information across widely separated frequency bands. The auditory images assist the discussion of complex sounds by indicating which effects might be explained peripherally and which effects definitely require central processing.