Israel Lucindo
New Member
How many cycles of a certain frequency does the ear need to receive to detect it?
Yes, depends on frequency. But how many cycles for a given frequency?I guess it depends on the duration of the sound that reach ear so number of cycles depends on frequency.
does it make sense?
REW gives us the option to add a frequency dependent window, but my question is how many cycles it takes to understand a certain frequency, assuming this number of cycles is different between frequencies? Or is it the same? If so, how many cycles?
Well, the entering energy displaces the basilar membrane directly at the base (where high frequencies are detected) and migrates, as a travelling wave to the apex (where low frequencies are detected). The difficulty/efficiency of displacement is frequency-dependent but I do not know of any data which correlates the difficulty/efficiency of physical displacement with signal sensitivity. If anything, I'd suspect that the vulnerability of HF haircells to intense and/or repetitive high levels, compared to those for lower frequencies, suggests that basal turn is easier to displace.It's an interesting question... I do not have an exact answer, but there are a few things we know. The basilar membrane is most easily displaced in the middle (detecting frequency is displacement of the basilar membrane in the cochlea), so I would expect the middle frequencies to more rapidly displace the basilar membrane. At the ends the basilar membrane is much more difficult to displace so perhaps more cycles would be needed to do that (i.e. at the frequency extremes).