Skip to ContentGo to accessibility pageKeyboard shortcuts menu
OpenStax Logo
Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience

Introduction

Introduction to Behavioral NeuroscienceIntroduction
Scanning electron microscopy image showing the tip links between hair cells.
Figure 7.1 Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of mouse outer hair cell stereocilia are pseudocolored to highlight the rows of cilia. Image credit: SEM cilia images from: Velez-Ortega et al., 2017, eLife https://elifesciences.org/articles/24661. CC BY 4.0

Chapter Outline

7.1 Acoustic Cues and Signals
7.2 How Does Acoustic Information Enter the Brain?
7.3 How Does the Brain Process Acoustic Information?
7.4 Balance: A Sense of Where You Are

Meet the Author

C. Daniel Meliza, PhD

Access multimedia content

Imagine yourself lying in a field on a warm summer day. With your eyes closed, you can hear the wind moving through the grass, and off to your left, through the branches of an oak tree. In the tree, a Scrub Jay is giving a loud, screeching call, while a Western Meadowlark is singing its long, warbled improvisations. Over to your right, a stream is lazily flowing through the meadow except where it spills around some rocks. At intervals, you hear splashes from the water. Your friend is throwing in rocks. Just as you are starting to doze off, she calls your name, waking you up. You can sense a note of impatience in her voice. Later, in a crowded room, you are straining to listen to an acquaintance tell a rather boring story over the sounds of a dozen other conversations when you hear your friend say your name again, and you turn your head to look at her.

How is it possible to gain so much information from sound? How are you able to distinguish one type of bird from another, or tell the difference between the texture of wind in grass from wind in a tree, or between a lazy brook and one that is moving rapidly? How do you know where sounds originate, even in a complex landscape of other sounds? How can you follow a conversation against a background of similar, almost identical voices, and how can the sound of your name arouse you from unconsciousness or instantly claim your attention?

Some of these questions can be answered now, while others remain mostly unsolved. This chapter will introduce you to the auditory system, which consists of the ear, a highly specialized sensory organ that can detect miniscule movements in the air, along with the assembly of nerves and brain areas that filter and process this information into a rich perceptual world.

This chapter also covers the vestibular system, which detects movement of the head and is responsible for the sense of balance. The vestibular sensory organ is also located in the inner ear, and there are close similarities in how both systems convert physical movement into neural signals.

PreviousNext
Citation/Attribution

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience/pages/1-introduction
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience/pages/1-introduction
Citation information

© Nov 20, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.