Loudness above 60 dB is encoded by cross-frequency spread, not single-neuron rate

Evidence

The output of the neuron to the auditory nerve is practically constant for signal levels above 50–60 dB, and the question then remains, how does our hearing analyse the loudness of sound at higher levels? A possible answer is that the cross-frequency spreading of the activation caused by loud sounds shown in Figure 7.12 is taken into account. With such an assumption, the auditory system analyses the auditory input across frequency and combines the excitation in several adjacent bands to form the loudness perception. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 789

Categorization

• QUESTION: Curious how broadband loudness summation is modeled computationally — the multi-band excitation model starting point.