Hearing

Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics is concerned with the physiology and psychophysics of audition. It aims to introduce the new student to the sciences of hearing and to rekindle the interests of the experienced reader. The book begins with an overview of the auditory system. This is followed by separate chapters on theories of hearing; the routes over which sound is conducted to the inner ear; the cochlear mechanism; the auditory nerve and pathways; and psychoacoustic methods. Subsequent chapters cover the theory of signal detection; how sensitivity for one sound is affected by the presence of another sound; loudness; pitch; aspects of binaural hearing; and speech perception. This book provides both an introduction and a broad overview of the field of hearing science for the advanced undergraduate student or the postgraduate student in such disciplines as audiology and psychology. It should be an extremely useful guide to these students, as well as to those researchers who wish to refresh their knowledge of the field beyond their areas of specialization.

ForewordPreface1 / Anatomy Gross Anatomy and Overview Temporal Bone Outer and Middle Ear Inner Ear Central Auditory Pathways2 / Hearing Theories and Sensory Action Theories of Hearing Action of Sensory Receptors3 / Conductive Mechanism Air Conduction Route Bone Conduction Route Acoustic Reflex4 / Cochlear Mechanism Traveling Waves Hair Cell Stimulation Cochlear Electrical Potentials Distortions in the Cochlea Cochlear Frequency Selectivity5 / Auditory Nerve Frequency Coding Intensity Coding Whole-Nerve Action Potentials6 / Auditory Pathways Stimulus Coding Binaural Coding Tonotopic Organization Averaged Evoked Auditory Potentials Effects of Cortical Ablation7 / Psychoacoustic Methods Measurement Methods Scales of Measurement8 / Theory of Signal Detection Factors Affecting Responses Psychophysical Methods in TSD Implications of TSD9 / Auditory Sensitivity Absolute Sensitivity Differential Sensitivity10 / Masking Monaural Masking Critical Bands and Ratios Central Masking Temporal Masking Poststimulatory Fatigue (TTS)11 / Loudness Loudness Level Loudness Scaling Critical Bands and Loudness of Complex Sounds Temporal Integration of Loudness Loudness Adaptation12 / Pitch Pitch Scales Pitch and Intensity Beats, Harmonics, and Combination Tones Complex Tones and Periodicity Pitch13 / Binaural Hearing Binaural Summation Differential Sensitivity Binaural Fusion and Beats Directional Hearing Time-Intensity Trades Precedence Effect, Localization, and Reverberation Masking Level Differences MDL Models14 / Speech Perception Speech Sounds: Production and Perception Power of Speech Sounds Speech Intelligibility and Distortion Dichotic ListeningAuthor IndexSubject Index