Place and temporal codes work together and must stay synchronized for accurate pitch.

Evidence

A focus of the field has been to determine which code best describes pitch perception, but both codes might work in concert. One possibility is a combination of the place and temporal codes. This spectral-temporal code posits that the temporal patterns in the auditory nerve form the code for the pitch, but these temporal patterns must align with the appropriate place in the cochlea (Loeb, White, & Merzenich, 1983). This particular version of the codes requires both place and temporal information to be appropriately aligned and synchronized. Distortions to either cochlear representation could lead to altered pitch. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1222

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Defines the spectral-temporal code as a combined model requiring alignment.

Related

• Pitch may be jointly coded by temporal patterns and their cochlear location (similarity 0.92)
• Both place and temporal codes could underlie pitch, confounding identification of the main code (similarity 0.88)
• Place and temporal codes each offer distinct neural mechanisms for extracting pitch (similarity 0.87)
• Temporal codes yield weak pitches compared to place codes (similarity 0.86)
• Place coding poorly carries pitch when harmonics go unresolved. (similarity 0.86)
• Pitch perception codes operate in parallel and can compensate for each other’s loss (similarity 0.86)
• The place code alone explains pure-tone pitch above 4-5 kHz. (similarity 0.86)
• Hearing analyzes pitch through both place and timing mechanisms (similarity 0.85)
• Place code governs pitch perception of pure tones above about 4 to 5 kHz (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch arises from where along the cochlea a sound maximally stimulates (similarity 0.85)
• Only two classical theories, place and temporal, explain pitch tracking. (similarity 0.84)
• Temporal pitch coding via entracking gives way to place coding above 500 Hz (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch perception involves both spectral and temporal representations of sound (similarity 0.84)
• FDL findings compromise a purely temporal account of low-frequency pitch. (similarity 0.84)
• Two competing theories explain how the ear tracks pitch (similarity 0.84)