Loudness cannot be explained by single auditory nerve fiber firing alone

Evidence

However, we must also consider that loudness is a perception that is not only a consequence of basilar membrane vibration. The central auditory system has a clear role in the representation of loudness and includes mechanisms that transform basilar membrane vibration into perception. The next step in the pathway, of course, is that of the auditory nerve. Unlike the pattern observed for vibration measured at a single place on the basilar membrane, however, there is no obvious correlate contained within a single auditory nerve fiber that can immediately explain loudness growth. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 731

Categorization

• QUESTION: What central mechanisms transform BM vibration into loudness? This sets up the coding-of-intensity question to be answered next.
• XREF: connects to: Clean auditory sensation emerges only from pooling many noisy nerve fibres — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1639; A single auditory nerve fibre’s firing is unpredictable and noisy — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1639