Individual auditory fibres cover only 40-60 dB yet we hear over 100 dB range

Evidence

The dynamic range of the hair cells , and therefore of the fibres, is assumed to be about 40 to 60 dB. Despite these restrictions we can perceive intensities over a range of more than 100 dB because of two factors: firstly, the peripheral preprocessing produces some dynamic compression, and secondly, at higher intensities different nerve fibre,; hecome stimulated according to their sensitivity. … At low frequencies, the fibres respond according to the instantaneous phase of the motion of the basilar memhrane. At high frequencies, above about 3.5 kHz, this phase synchronization disappears. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 391

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader auditory level-coding problem in hearing science and to neural population-rate coding.