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The course is organized by themes
forming a coherent set of lectures, laboratory exercises and discussions
of scientific papers.
Themes:
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Masking and frequency
selectivity: Lectures and labs Theme Papers
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Cellular
mechanisms in the cochlear nucleus: Lectures
and lab
Theme Papers
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Binaural interactions:
Lectures and lab
Theme Papers
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Cochlear implants:
Lecture
Theme Papers
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Auditory cortex and plasticity: Lectures Theme Papers
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Pitch and temporal coding: Lectures
Theme Papers Cortical
Representation of Pitch
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Auditory scene
analysis and object formation: Lecture
Theme Papers
This page has links to all laboratory
instructions and papers for discussion, and most lecture notes. Some lecture notes are available both in Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) and as MS Powerpoint presentations (PPT).
The latter can be directly viewed with your browser if you have installed
Powerpoint on your computer. Lecture notes are only accessible to members of the MIT community. Some of the papers for theme discussions are not
finalized.
Introductory lecture
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Hearing and the auditory system: An overview.
PDF
PPT
Stages of processing in the auditory system and their function. Detection,
localization and recognition of sounds. Auditory demonstrations.
(Delgutte)
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Theme 1: Masking and Frequency Selectivity
Lectures
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Functional cochlear mechanics. PDF
DOC Cochlear tuning. Hair cell transduction. Nonlinearities. The cochlear
amplifier. Otoacoustic emissions. (Guinan) |
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Stimulus coding in the auditory nerve.
PDF
PPT
The AN as
an information conduit. Frequency tuning. Nonlinearities.
Relation of AN activity to cochlear processing. Neural variability as a limit on psychophysical performance.
Compound action potential. (Delgutte) |
| Masking
and frequency selectivity. PDF
PPT
Additional notes,
and this too. Psychophysical
techniques. Power spectrum model of masking.
Techniques for measuring auditory filters. Psychophysical
effects of cochlear nonlinearities. (Braida) |
Laboratories
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Theme 2: Cellular Mechanisms in
the Cochlear Nucleus
Lectures
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Channels,
synapses, and neurotransmitters. PDF
See
also And
this too Excitatory and
inhibitory
synaptic
transmission. Neurotransmitters and receptors. Second messengers.
(Guinan) |
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Cellular mechanisms in the cochlear
nucleus. PDF
Parallel processing pathways in the cochlear
nucleus.
Correlation of cell types with response types.
Neural specializations for temporal processing. (Brown) |
Laboratory
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Theme 3: Binaural Interactions
Lectures
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Binaural hearing.
PDF
PPT
Localization
and lateralization. Cues for
sound localization. Sensitivity to
binaural cues. The Jeffress model.
Hearing in everyday environments:
The precedence effect, binaural unmasking. (Ihlefeld) |
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Binaural interactions in the
auditory brainstem. PDF
PPT
Neural circuitry and cellular specializations for binaural processing. Two
basic forms of binaural interactions. Transformations
of binaural information in the auditory pathway. (Delgutte) |
Laboratory and Demonstrations
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Lecture
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Cochlear Implants.
PDF Electrodes and processors. Basic auditory
capabilities of implantees. Effect of electrode configuration. Processor
design. Bilateral implants. (Eddington) |
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Theme 5: Auditory Cortex and Plasticity
Lectures
| Cortical organization.
PDF
Cortical
areas and layers. Thalamo-cortical and cortico-cortical
projections. Tonotopy. Columnar organization. Parallel and hierarchical
processing. Functions of the cortex. (Brown).
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Human auditory pathway.
PDF
PPT Imaging
modalities: fMRI, MEG, AEP. Tonotopy in human
auditory cortex. What and where pathways. Tinnitus-related
abnormalities in brain activation. (Melcher) |
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Theme 6: Pitch and Temporal Coding
Lectures
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Pitch:
Perception and peripheral neural representation. PDF
PPT
Pitch of pure and complex tones. Virtual pitch. Place and temporal models of
pitch processing. Peripheral representations of pitch. Pitch
processing in the auditory brainstem. Role of pitch in auditory scene analysis.
Pitch perception in the hearing impaired (Delgutte) |
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Coding of pitch and flutter in auditory cortex. PDF
PPT Pitch neurons and pitch
center. Underlying mechanisms (Bendor) |
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Theme 7: Auditory Scene Analysis
and Object Formation
Lecture
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Auditory scene analysis, object formation and attention (ASA).
PPT
PDF
Bottom-up ("primitive") and top-down ("schema based")
mechanisms. Auditory object formation and selection. Gestalt
approach to scene analysis. Role of attention. Neural correlates
of attention (Shinn-Cunningham) |
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