Pitch is one of the most important auditory perception characteristics of sound; however, the mechanism underlying the pitch perception of sound is unclear. Although theoretical researches have suggested that percepti...Pitch is one of the most important auditory perception characteristics of sound; however, the mechanism underlying the pitch perception of sound is unclear. Although theoretical researches have suggested that perception of virtual pitch is connected with physics in cochlea of inner ear, there is no direct experimental observation of virtual pitch processing in the cochlea. By laser interferometry, we observe shift phenomena of virtual pitch in basilar membrane vibration of exsomatized cochlea, which is consistent with perceptual pitch shift observed in psychoacoustic experiments. This means that the complex mechanical vibration of basilar membrane in cochlea plays an important role in pitch information processing during hearing.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11374118 and 90820001
文摘Pitch is one of the most important auditory perception characteristics of sound; however, the mechanism underlying the pitch perception of sound is unclear. Although theoretical researches have suggested that perception of virtual pitch is connected with physics in cochlea of inner ear, there is no direct experimental observation of virtual pitch processing in the cochlea. By laser interferometry, we observe shift phenomena of virtual pitch in basilar membrane vibration of exsomatized cochlea, which is consistent with perceptual pitch shift observed in psychoacoustic experiments. This means that the complex mechanical vibration of basilar membrane in cochlea plays an important role in pitch information processing during hearing.
