Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception.
Timbre is the attribute of sound that allows humans and other animals to distinguish among different sound sources. Studies based on psychophysical judgments of musical timbre, ecological analyses of sound's physical characteristics as well as machine learning approaches have all suggested that...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2012-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3486808?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818585807399682048 |
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| author | Kailash Patil Daniel Pressnitzer Shihab Shamma Mounya Elhilali |
| author_facet | Kailash Patil Daniel Pressnitzer Shihab Shamma Mounya Elhilali |
| author_sort | Kailash Patil |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Timbre is the attribute of sound that allows humans and other animals to distinguish among different sound sources. Studies based on psychophysical judgments of musical timbre, ecological analyses of sound's physical characteristics as well as machine learning approaches have all suggested that timbre is a multifaceted attribute that invokes both spectral and temporal sound features. Here, we explored the neural underpinnings of musical timbre. We used a neuro-computational framework based on spectro-temporal receptive fields, recorded from over a thousand neurons in the mammalian primary auditory cortex as well as from simulated cortical neurons, augmented with a nonlinear classifier. The model was able to perform robust instrument classification irrespective of pitch and playing style, with an accuracy of 98.7%. Using the same front end, the model was also able to reproduce perceptual distance judgments between timbres as perceived by human listeners. The study demonstrates that joint spectro-temporal features, such as those observed in the mammalian primary auditory cortex, are critical to provide the rich-enough representation necessary to account for perceptual judgments of timbre by human listeners, as well as recognition of musical instruments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:42:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4724b34ae29b48fe86b54021a319275d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:42:56Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-4724b34ae29b48fe86b54021a319275d2022-12-21T22:37:40ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582012-01-01811e100275910.1371/journal.pcbi.1002759Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception.Kailash PatilDaniel PressnitzerShihab ShammaMounya ElhilaliTimbre is the attribute of sound that allows humans and other animals to distinguish among different sound sources. Studies based on psychophysical judgments of musical timbre, ecological analyses of sound's physical characteristics as well as machine learning approaches have all suggested that timbre is a multifaceted attribute that invokes both spectral and temporal sound features. Here, we explored the neural underpinnings of musical timbre. We used a neuro-computational framework based on spectro-temporal receptive fields, recorded from over a thousand neurons in the mammalian primary auditory cortex as well as from simulated cortical neurons, augmented with a nonlinear classifier. The model was able to perform robust instrument classification irrespective of pitch and playing style, with an accuracy of 98.7%. Using the same front end, the model was also able to reproduce perceptual distance judgments between timbres as perceived by human listeners. The study demonstrates that joint spectro-temporal features, such as those observed in the mammalian primary auditory cortex, are critical to provide the rich-enough representation necessary to account for perceptual judgments of timbre by human listeners, as well as recognition of musical instruments.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3486808?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Kailash Patil Daniel Pressnitzer Shihab Shamma Mounya Elhilali Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. |
| title_full | Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. |
| title_fullStr | Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. |
| title_short | Music in our ears: the biological bases of musical timbre perception. |
| title_sort | music in our ears the biological bases of musical timbre perception |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3486808?pdf=render |
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