There is a connection between:
The almost hyper-rationality of the “What-If” faculty of the brain. [counterfactuals]
and
The ability to conjure up musical pitches, timbres and compositions in the imagination.
I don’t know what it is yet, but I see these two books in my PDF reader and there’s a “something” there that hooks them together. Some feature I will find in each book that will link them – a triangulation.
I’ll be disappointed if I don’t find it. I might not. But this is as close as I’ve seen to understanding this not just intuitively but with some kind of evidence-y backup.
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I’m still not fully ready for time crystals and microtubules. I’ll get there I’m sure. For now my interest is finding analogs of this:
“In Chapter 8, Darwin considers one of the most important uses of periodicity information, the segregation of sounds from different sources and the grouping of frequency components from the same source”
Segregation and grouping. Categorizing. Classifying. Yesterday, I (re)-learned about “lateral inhibition”. I’d been there before years ago but that was prior to understanding “Mexican Hat Wavelet” in medical imaging and that it is that same simple matrix that is responsible for the human ability to “see lines” everywhere: it happens RIGHT in the cells of the retina itself – the filtering.
So, I’m finding correlates. I try to avoid master theories — it’s my process — but I’ll get to it one day.
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Oh dear lord, this is a SERIES!! I know I won’t understand all of it. But I also know what I *do* learn will likely be state-of-the-art.
“
The psychoacoustics of spectral, temporal, and pitch processing
have been presented earlier in Volume 3 (Human Psychophysics).
Comparative studies of hearing at the anatomical, physiological, and behavioral levels have been extensively treated in Volumes
4 (Comparative Hearing: Mammals),
11 (Comparative Hearing: Fish and Amphibians), and
13 (Comparative Hearing: Birds and Reptiles).
Neurophysiological studies of coding and auditory representations relevant to pitch perception have been discussed in Volumes 4, 11,
and 13 and in Volumes 2 (The Mammalian Auditory Pathway: Neurophysiology) and 15 (Integrative Functions in the Mammalian Auditory Pathway).
Models of auditory information processing, including pitch, were introduced in Volume 8 (The Cochlea) and more extensively developed in Volume 6 (Auditory Computation).
More information on pitch perception and the hearing functions of
persons with hearing impairments and cochlear implants can be found in Volumes 7 (Clinical Aspects of Hearing) and 20 (Cochlear Implants: Auditory Prostheses and Electric Hearing).
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“..stimuli that cannot be used to produce recognizable melodies, for ex-
ample, pure tones with frequencies above 5000 Hz.”
5K is RIGHT where my hearing dies and always did. Sound just “disappears”. No melodies above 5K? So I was only missing a bit of timbre? I’m ok with that.
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“pitch is related more closely to the repetition rate (or in some cases envelope repetition rate) of the sound, with a range from about 30 Hz to 5000 Hz.Sounds with the same repetition rate and very different spectra often have the same pitch (e.g., a pure tone with a frequency of 100 Hz and a complex tone with high harmonics with an F0 of 100 Hz), and sounds with similar spectra can have very different pitches (e.g., a wideband noise amplitude modulated at 100 or 200 Hz).This means that the frequency to place mapping performed by the cochlea does not equate to a frequency to pitch mapping.
“
“
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the repe-
tition rates of stimuli are very well represented by the pattern of phase locking
in the auditory nerve. For many researchers, the classical arguments of place
versus time have been replaced by arguments about how and where in the au-
ditory pathway the phase-locked activity is analyzed.
tition rates of stimuli are very well represented by the pattern of phase locking
in the auditory nerve. For many researchers, the classical arguments of place
versus time have been replaced by arguments about how and where in the au-
ditory pathway the phase-locked activity is analyzed.
===
I’m so glad. It’s already answering long-standing questions I had.
” the repetition rates of stimuli are very well represented by the pattern of phase locking in the auditory nerve.
For many researchers, the classical arguments of place versus time have been replaced by arguments about how and where in the auditory pathway the phase-locked activity is analyzed. “
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questions answered questions answered questions answered questions answered questions answered
Fiber can’t phase lock? Kenny don’t hear it. Gotta phase lock or it ain’t happening. It’s not melodic? I don’t hear it. Firing has to have synchrony. I’m a damn clock machine. Good. good.
“Auditory-nerve recordings indicate that the ability of a fiber to phase lock to a pure tone breaks down around 5000 Hz in the cat (Johnson 1980), although this value is lower (3500 Hz or so) in the guinea pig (Palmer and Russell 1986). It has been assumed that above this frequency neurons can no longer represent the periodicity of the stimulus in terms of synchrony of firing. Some of the psychophysical results presented in this section also suggest that there may be a change in frequency coding around 4000 to 5000 Hz. First, frequency dis- crimination seems to deteriorate dramatically as frequency is increased above 4000 Hz (Moore 1973). Second, the effect of tone duration on the FDL in- creases as the frequency is raised above 4000 Hz (Moore 1973). Third, random variations in level, which might be expected to disrupt a place representation, have a substantial effect on the FDL only for frequencies of 4000 Hz and above (Henning 1966; Emmerich et al. 1989; Moore and Glasberg 1989). Finally, our perception of musical melody and our ability to recognize musical intervals breaks down above 4000 to 5000 Hz (Ward 1954; Attneave and Olson 1971).
“
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I’ve had so many personal mysteries about the auditory system. My hearing died off at 5000hz yet I can imagine higher octaves and also my brain spontaneously composes music constantly.
Seeing that the limitation _may_ be a transition point between two ways of processing sound — lower phase locking and temporal based, and the higher than 5K not phase locking but place based and timbre rather than melody, really answers a lot of these questions for me — and I just started reading.
“A possible interpretation of these findings is that the frequency of pure tones may be represented in terms of phase locking (a temporal representation) for frequencies below about 5000 Hz, and purely spectrally (a place representation) for higher frequencies.”
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“The results from both the cued and uncued conditions suggest that the global pitch provides a level of analysis, or representation, that is different from (and possibly orthogonal to) that provided by the individual spectral components.”
This opens me up a lot. A “Global pitch”, which is usually represented by the fundamental frequency when present — can also be present when the fundamental frequency is not there. Its is “top down”, perceived, expected. It is the stereotype, the category, the group, the bucket, the General.
Orthogonal (90 degrees, plotted going up when the other’s plotted going across), is the spectral components.. The harmonics. They are the specific, the members of a set.
Yes, this is helping.
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I think that aspect you’re referring to, I’ll find it in the Psychology of Music where they talk about envelope shapes and chord inversions, musical structures, very western Music theory stuff. My piano teacher from age 6-10 was heavy into that and I learned a lot but it kind of turned me off of viewing music as geometrical.
But that’s something I’ll overcome at some point. I know it’s equivalent ultimately, the completed algorithm and the geometric structure, function following form as much as form following function. — I just have some of my own prejudice to get through first, which I will at some point.
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5-10 harmonics can be discriminated.
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