Perception: Difference between revisions

The interpretation of sound begins with sound waves defined as vibrations through a medium, for instance, air pressure, which travels through the outer ear channels towards the eardrum. The eardrums begin to vibrate and convey them through the middle ear bones into the fluid-filled cochlea of the inner ear. Further, the frequency being established in the basilar membrane of the cochlea disperses it to specific locations, forming a tonotopic map. Hair cells convert these mechanical vibrations into neural signals transmitted onwards the auditory nerve to the brain. However, due to finely arranged cochlear filters, a vast range of sound frequencies can be detected and separated into distinct pitches.<ref name=":2">Oxenham, A. J. (2018). How We Hear: the Perception and Neural Coding of Sound. ''Annual Review of Psychology'', ''69''(1), 27–50. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011635</nowiki>.</ref> Once the signals travel through the central auditory nerve, main sound properties such as amplitude and frequency are processed by the midbrain's inferior colliculus, while high frequency is received by the inferior colliculus, overlapping with pure auditory processing. However, before tactile high frequencies reach the inferior colliculus, they must pass through the pacinian corpuscles of the skin. Pacinian corpuscles are primarily touch receptors contributing to a better sound experience. This overall convergence suggests that touch and sound information being shared, thereby interchangeable neuronal circuits, being the reason therefore why we feel and hear music. This underlines the human capacity to distinguish numerous pitches due to the cochlea's ability to segregate frequencies precisely.<ref name=":2" /> In the same way, hearing a sound from different angles illustrates how inductive reasoning shapes the confidence we have in locating a pitch, leading to an overcross of auditory sensation and perceptual belief.<ref name=":6" />