The ear analyzes complex sounds by superposition of individual frequency responses

Evidence

This is the basis of the “place” analysis of sound by the hearing system. The extent, or “envelope,” of basilar membrane movement is plotted against frequency in an idealized manner for five input pure tones of different frequencies. If the input sound were a complex tone consisting of many components, the overall basilar membrane response is effectively the sum of the responses for each individual component. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 553

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘place’ analysis as the fundamental frequency-encoding mechanism.
• XREF: connects to: The hearing system analyzes complex sounds by linear superposition of component responses — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 553; Listening analyzes periodic sound into integer-multiple sine components — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 800