Phase-locking limits matter far less when envelope-fine-structure interaction encodes pitch

Evidence

Second, when thinking about pitch perception of unresolved complex tones in terms of interaction between envelope and fine structure, it appears that the limitation of phase locking is probably much less critical than when thinking in terms of fine structure only. In fact, it seems clear that there is no need to encode every phases of the signal to encode the most intense phases located nearby an envelope maximum. This explains that the simulation can extract a periodicity related to pitch when the carrier frequency is over 10 kHz (Fig. 3 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4660

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the classic phase-locking limit near 4-5 kHz in auditory nerve fibers, and why pitch of unresolved harmonics survives above that. — connects to: Envelope and fine structure are mathematically orthogonal but not perceptually independent; A half-wave-rectified-threshold spike model encodes both envelope and fine structure in one mechanism.; Low-frequency pitch judgments reflect temporal fine structure via neural phase locking — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1043 (+4 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Reframes a core constraint in hearing science: rather than needing to encode every phase of the stimulus, only the intense phases near envelope maxima matter — a selective-neural-encoding principle that may generalize.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4660

Broader Connections

• Phase locking fails above 5 kHz, so high-pitch perception relies on place theory #qualifies (0.85)
• Low-frequency pitch judgments reflect temporal fine structure via neural phase locking #expands (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1043
• Temporal envelope suffices for speech while fine structure carries pitch information #expands (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3381
• Transposed stimuli induce phase locking to the envelope at high carrier frequencies #expands (0.72) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1039
• A nerve-fiber threshold near 0.5 yields the most reliable pitch periodicity estimates #complicates (0.70)