Commun. and Digital Signal Process. Ctr., Dept. of Elec. and Comput. Eng. 409 DA), Northeastern Univ., 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115-5096
This talk reviews how Fletcher used excitation patterns to understand auditory processing. In the 1930's, Fletcher suggested that the relation between place of maximal excitation on the basilar membrane could be derived from measurements of critical bandwidths and frequency difference limens. He also showed that loudness and masking were closely related and that loudness for an arbitrary sound could be calculated on the basis of patterns of excitation integrated along the basilar membrane. Likewise, he suggested that discrimination of level differences between sounds could be understood on the basis of their excitation patterns. These concepts remain valid 60 years later.