Neural Mechanisms of Audition

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Abstract
_The detection and discrimination of tones (in man, the pitch experience) are to be explained through the synthesis of data from psychology, neuroanatomy, and neurophysiology. Comparative studies indicate that the unique elaborateness of the mammalian auditory apparatus may be immaterial to the proficiency of pitch perception. "Listening" and "Learning" are important factors in the hearing of tones. The author presents a summary of the anatomy of the auditory nervous system, discusses the role of the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures as uncovered by animal experimentation, examines the contribution of electrophysiological methods, and attacks the problem how stimulus frequency is translated through mechanical events at the cochlea and chemical events in the neurons into sensation. He favors a modified "place" concept, but begs the ultimate question (as students of the other senses must also do) how a locus of neural action becomes converted into a particular sensation.

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