BCS/NSC 221 Audition Spring 2003
James Ison 167 Meliora Hall (e-mail ison@bcs.rochester.edu; 275-8461)
and others: Owen Brimijoin (BCS), William O'Neill and Karen Reilly (NB&A).

Introduction

Textbook: William A. Yost (2000) Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction. (Fourth Edition) San Diego: Academic Press. Plus occasional supplementary reading.

Assignments: There will be 4 quizzes and one paper, each having the same weight. Failure to take an examination on time will result in a grade of "0" unless a legitimate excuse is presented in writing. Examination grades and the paper are graded on a 0 to 100 scale, and not on a curve: a average (mean) score of 90 or more at the end of a course will be an A, 80 to 89 a B, 70 to 79 a C, and so forth. Preparation quizzes will be distributed 1 week in advance, and the actual test will be a sample taken from this handout. You are encouraged to work together and help each other in studying for examinations. You can take make-ups for the first three quizzes if you would like to better your score: your score for that quiz would be the average of the original score and the make-up score. To be eligible to take the make-up examination you must first correctly answer all of the answers on the preparatory quiz, and hand in this work within 1 week of receiving the grade on the original in-class quiz. The paper should be about 5 pages long (double spaced) and should be based on an analysis of the contemporary research literature. The topic should be cleared in advance. The paper must be your work and in your words. Any material taken from another source must be placed in quotation marks and properly cited. You can get ideas for the paper from any source, but first, it must provide an up-to-date representation of the research literature on the topic that you chose, and second, it must review original research publications. Students will deliver 3 - 5 minute summaries of their work and hand out a 200-300 word abstract in the last week of class.

Approximate organization of the course

Week 1: 15, 17 January

Wed: Introduction to hearing science
Fri: Demonstrations of auditory phenomena

Part 1: Physical principles of acoustics and their relation to hearing

Week 2: 20, 22, 24 January

Mon: Chapters 1 & 2 Concepts of mechanical vibrations and their implications for understanding speech and hearing.
Wed: Chapter 3 Sound transmission: concepts of pressure and intensity; interference and sound shadows; the important concept of impedance.
Friday: Chapter 4 Complex stimuli and their analysis; Fourier transforms

Week 3: 27, 29, 31 January

Mon: Chapter 5 Sound analysis, resonators and filters
Wednesday: Informal Review Session led by Mr. Brimijoin.
Fri: Quiz 1 over Chapters 1 to 5.

Week 4: 3, 5, 7 February

Mon: Chapter 6 The structure of the outer and middle ear
Wed: Resonance and impedance: the audiogram
Fri: "Sound coloring" and its relationship to auditory localization

Week 5: 10, 12, 14 February

Mon: Chapter 7 Structure of the inner ear
Wed: Mechanical properties of the inner ear
Fri: Chapter 8 The cochlea: a) Cochlea potentials

Week 6: 17, 19, 21 February

Mon: b) Stereocilia and hair cells
Wed: c) Haircells and auditory nerve
Fri: Chapter 9 The auditory nerve - The neural response

Week 7: 24, 26, 28 February [Because of the national meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, there will be no hearing scientists in Rochester on Mon. or Wed.]

Mon: Informal review session led by Dr. Karen Reilly (Dept. of Neurobiology & Anatomy): structural contributions of the outer, middle and inner ear to hearing
Wed: Quiz 2 over chapters 6, 7 and 8

Part 3: The central auditory nervous system

Friday: Chapter 9 (cont.) Central afferent and efferent auditory pathways

Week 8: 3, 5, 7 March Chapter 15 and also Webster D. B. (1992) "An overview of mammalian auditory pathways with an emphasis on humans." Chapter 1 in Webster, D. B., Popper, A. N., & Fay R. R. (Eds) The mammalian auditory pathway: Neuroanatomy. New York: Springer-Verlag

Mon, Weds: Stimulus processing in AN
Fri: The central auditory system (Introduction: methods and anatomy)

8 – 16 March Spring Break

Week 9: 17, 19, 21 March The CANS (continued) Hackett, T.A. and Kaas, J.H. (2002). Auditory processing in the primate brain. Handbook of Psychology: Biological Psychology (Vol. 3). M. Gallagher and R. Nelson (Eds.). New York: John Wiley and Co., pp. 187-210.

Mon: Structure and function: (a)The cochlear nucleus – parallel processing
Wed: (b) the superior olivary complex and the location of sound objects
Fri: (c) the inferior colliculus

Week 10: 24, 26, 28 March

Mon: (d) auditory cortex
Wed: Unfinished business, and review of the CANS
Fri. Quiz 3: Chapters 9 and 15; and Webster (1992), Hackett and Kaas (2002)

Part 4: Auditory perception of simple sounds

Week 11: 31 March, 2, 4 April

Mon: Chapter 10 Auditory sensitivity
Wed: Chapter 11 Masking
Fri: Masking (continued)

Week 12: 7, 9, 11 April

Mon: Chapter 12 Binaural Hearing
Wed: Binaural hearing (Continued)
Fri: Chapter 13 Loudness and pitch

Week 13: 14, 16, 18 April

Mon: Loudness and Pitch (Continued)

Part 5: Complex sound processing

Wed: Chapter 14 Auditory perception of sound objects
Fri: Auditory perception of sound objects (Continued)

Week 14: 21, 23, 25 April Paper due on Monday April 21

Mon: Speech perception
Wed: Chapter 16 The abnormal auditory system

Part 6: Special topics

Fri: Special topics in audition: student presentations

Week 15: 28, 30 April Special topics in audition (presentations, continued)

Mon: Student presentations
Wed: Student presentations (Last day of class)

Quiz 4: Chapters 10 to 14 Thursday 8 May, 10 AM