Phase-locked neural timing underlies musical pitch and is limited above 4-5 kHz.

Evidence

Periodic sounds produce periodic patterns of phase-locked activity in the auditory nerve. It has been argued that this temporal code is the basis for our sensation of pitch, and, specifically, that musical pitch i.e. pitch in its strictest sense, requires phase locking. In this vein, most current models of pitch perception rely on the precise timing of action potentials, or spikes, within the auditory nerve (Cariani and Delgutte 1996 ; Meddis and O’Mard 1997 ). Furthermore, the precision of phase locking weakens at high frequencies, and the putative upper limit of phase locking at frequencies of about 4–5 kHz (Johnson 1980 ; Palmer and Russell 1986 ) has been used to explain the finding that the ability to recognize melodies, the accuracy of musical interval judgements, and frequency discrimination are all severely degraded for pure tones above about 4–5 kHz (Ward 1954 ; Attneave and Olson 1971 ; Moore 1973 ; Sek and Moore 1995 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5396

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines phase locking as the temporal code of auditory nerve spikes thought to underlie pitch, and fixes its upper frequency limit at about 4-5 kHz.