Re: pitch neurons

[Israel Nelken <israel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Eckard and list,
       Just for the record, I didn't way anything about pure spectral coding
inside the cochlea. My statement, as quoted by Eckard, is purely data
driven.
       I would like however to raise another issue: why is there such a pressure
to assume low-level representation (i.e. subcortical) of pitch? After
all, pitch is a pretty high-level property of sounds, it is invariant to
many features of the physical structure of the sounds, and it is
affected by all kinds of high-level cognitive effects (e.g. capture of
harmonics in streaming conditions). All of these would suggest to me
that whatever is responsible for the pure representation of pitch
(independent of the physical structure of the sounds) is rather
high-level, rather than low-level.
       Eli

--
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Israel Nelken                     | Tel: Int-44-1865-272438
Dept. of Physiology,              | Fax: Int-44-1865-272469
Hebrew University -               |
       Hadassah Medical School    |
P.O.Box 12272, Jerusalem 91120    | Email:israel@md.huji.ac.il
ISRAEL                            |
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