Listeners identify melodies perfectly using only temporal information because amplitude-modulated noise can encode pitch

Evidence

Burns and Viemeister (1976) demonstrated strong support for a temporal code by using noises to evoke a pitch. They measured whether amplitude modulated noises, with modulation rates selected to correspond to musical notes, could be put together to form a melody. These stimuli contained no spectral cues, ensuring that the mechanism for coding pitch was temporally based. They then constructed a number of common melodies using these stimuli and found that all of their listeners were able to identify the melodies 100% of the time, using only temporal information present in the sounds. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1298

Categorization

• CANDY: Pitch carried purely by timing — modulated noises that ordinary listeners recognize as familiar melodies 100% of the time. Striking.