The mechanisms underlying temporal pitch perception studied with sequences of filtered clicks

Abstract

In order to probe the mechanisms underlying temporal pitch perception it is necessary to eliminate all spectral cues from the stimulus, i.e., to use stimuli that cannot be resolved by the cochlea. High-pass filtered clicks combined with the corresponding low-pass filtered noise prove to be especially suitable for the construction of stimuli with specific temporal properties. These stimuli allow for the testing of specific hypotheses concerning temporal processing in the auditory system. The present study compares psychophysical results, obtained with periodic and aperiodic click sequences with single-cell simulations of chopper cells in the ventral cochlear nucleus. The latter are thought to explain the observed sensitivity to temporal regularity.