Virtual pitch only arises under specific combinations of fundamental and lowest-component frequency.

Evidence

Not all complex tones from which the lower harmonics have been removed elicit a virtual pitch. Rather, specific combinations of fundamental frequency and of the frequency of the lowest component must occur in order to produce a virtual pitch. An existence region of virtual pitch, as displayed in Fig. 5.10, can be defined. It shows the fundamental frequency of a complex tone as a function of the lowest component, below which all spectral components were removed. In order to produce a virtual pitch, spectral components within the shaded area of Fig. 5.10 have to be presented. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 709

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: What mechanism explains the sharp existence-region boundary for virtual pitch? Worth digging into the underlying cochlear/neural basis.

Related

• Virtual pitch arises only for certain fundamental-to-lowest-component combinations (similarity 0.98)
• Listeners perceive missing fundamentals from the harmonics that remain (similarity 0.89)
• Pitch can be heard even when no sound component exists at that frequency (similarity 0.85)
• Humans perceive a fundamental frequency even when it is absent from the signal (similarity 0.83)
• Removing lower harmonics barely changes the perceived pitch of a complex tone. (similarity 0.82)
• The ear perceives a virtual pitch not physically present in a sound’s components (similarity 0.82)
• Listeners perceive the fundamental frequency even when its lowest partials are absent (similarity 0.81)
• Raising the level of a complex tone shifts its pitch downward. (similarity 0.80)
• Removing the fundamental frequency does not change perceived pitch. (similarity 0.80)
• Pitch is perceptual while frequency is acoustic, and not all sounds have pitch (similarity 0.79)
• Rhythm perception can arise from pitch variation alone without loudness change (similarity 0.79)
• Inharmonic tone complexes can yield multiple or virtual perceived pitches (similarity 0.79)
• Virtual pitch is extracted from separately perceived spectral pitches by Gestalt-style recognition (similarity 0.79)
• Complex-tone pitch tracks the spectral pitch of lower components (similarity 0.79)
• The missing fundamental is still heard when all low harmonics are removed (similarity 0.79)