Loudness correlates vary by region, not by a single uniform code

Evidence

Our findings support the notion that neural activation in auditory cortex as well as in certain stages of the ascending auditory pathway is more a direct linear reflection of perceived loudness rather than of physical sound intensity. There are, however, systematic differences between the investigated auditory regions in terms of the strength of this relationship and the degree of lateralization. We therefore suggest that functional differentiation, both between cortical and subcortical regions as well as between regions of auditory cortex, is an important issue to consider in the pursuit of a complete and comprehensive understanding of the physiological correlates of loudness perception. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2649

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Auditory pathway neural activity linearly encodes perceived loudness, not sound level (similarity 0.94)
• The neural site where intensity becomes loudness remains unknown. (similarity 0.91)
• Midbrain and cortical auditory areas differ in how they encode loudness versus sound intensity (similarity 0.91)
• Distinct brain regions process sound intensity versus perceived loudness differently (similarity 0.90)
• Loudness is not reducible to sound pressure level or signal power (similarity 0.88)
• Loudness perception is probabilistic, with a response distribution at each stimulus level. (similarity 0.87)
• People with identical audiometric thresholds can perceive loudness differently. (similarity 0.87)
• The neural locus of the intensity-to-loudness transform remains unidentified (similarity 0.87)
• Subcortical auditory activation grows linearly with sound level, unlike cortex (similarity 0.86)
• Auditory cortex activation linearly reflects perceived loudness rather than physical intensity (similarity 0.86)
• Loudness estimates explain cortical responses better than sound intensity alone (similarity 0.86)
• Listeners with identical hearing thresholds differ in suprathreshold loudness perception (similarity 0.86)
• Primary auditory cortex shows the strongest intensity encoding along the auditory pathway (similarity 0.86)
• Loudness perception is a random variable at every stimulus level (similarity 0.86)
• Loudness depends on more than physical sound intensity alone (similarity 0.86)