BCS/NSC 221: Audition

Spring 2007

Skip to course schedule Download syllabus pdf

Instructor

William O'Neill, Dept. of Neurobiology & Anatomy, SMD
Med. Ctr. 6-8531
275-4023

Textbook

William A. Yost (2007), Fundamentals of Hearing: An Introduction (5th Ed.), San Diego: Academic Press.
Occasional supplementary reading.

Grading

Grades are based on four quizzes and one term paper (equally weighted).

Quizzes: Preparation questions will be distributed one week in advance, and the actual quiz will be a sample of questions taken from this handout. You are encouraged to work together and help each other in studying for examinations. You can take a make-up for one of the first three quizzes, if you would like to better your grade: your grade for that quiz would be the average of the original and the make-up. 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.
Paper: The term 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 with the instructor in advance. The paper must be your work and in your words. Any material taken from another source must be properly cited. Direct quotes are to be avoided, but if used, must be placed in quotation marks along with a citation. 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.
Failure to take an examination or hand in the term paper on time will result in a grade of "0" unless a legitimate excuse is presented in writing (preferably ahead of time).
Examination grades and the paper are graded on a 0 to 100 scale, not on a curve: an 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.

Online Course Material

Course materials, grades, discussion forums, etc. are hosted by the on-line program "Blackboard" (http://bb.urmc.rochester.edu). You will be "enrolled" in the on-line course automatically if you pre-registered for the course. Otherwise please email Dr. O'Neill to be added. Once enrolled, you will receive a username and password (which you can change) to log in. Lecture presentations, commentaries, and handouts will be available to download. You should depend on this resource to obtain all course materials.

Schedule

- Week 1: January 17, 19
  - Wed: Organization of course; introduction to hearing science
  - Fri: Yost, Ch 1 & 2 Mechanical vibrations and their implications for understanding speech and hearing
Part 1: Physical principles of acoustics and their relation to hearing
- Week 2: January 22, 24, 26
  - Mon: Ch 3 Sound transmission: concepts of pressure and intensity; interference and sound shadows; the important concept of impedance
  - Wed: Ch 4 Complex sounds and their analysis; Fourier transforms
  - Fri: Ch 5 Sound analysis, resonators/filters, distortion
- Week 3: January 29, 31; February 2
  - Mon: Review - Physical acoustics and sensory implications
  - Wed: Quiz 1: Physical acoustics; Yost, Ch 1-5
Part 2: Psychoacoustics: sensation and perception of sounds
- Week 4: February 5, 7, 9
  - Mon: Ch 10 Auditory sensitivity
  - Wed: Ch 11 Masking I
  - Fri: Masking II
- Week 5: February 12, 14, 16
  - Mon: Ch 12 Binaural hearing I
  - Wed: Binaural hearing II
  - Fri: Ch 13 Loudness and pitch I
- Week 6: February 19, 21, 23
  - Mon: Loudness and pitch II
  - Wed: Ch 14 Perception of sound objects
  - Fri: Quiz 2: Psychoacoustics Yost, Ch 10-14
Part 3: The auditory periphery
- Week 7: February 26, 28; March 2
  - Mon: Ch 6 Outer and middle ear: structure
  - Wed: Outer ear: "sound coloring" - the pinna and sound localization
  - Fri: Middle ear: resonance and impedance: the audiogram
- Week 8: March 5, 7, 9
  - Mon: Ch 7 Structure of the inner ear
  - Wed: Mechanics of the inner ear: traveling waves, place coding
  - Fri: Ch 8 Hair cells I structure, transduction, cochlear potentials
- **March 10-18 Spring Break
- Week 9: March 19, 21, 23
  - Mon: Hair cells II
  - Wed: Outer hair cells -amplification, cochlear emissions
  - Fri: Ch 9 Auditory nerve - structure, innervation of cochlea
- Week 10: March 26, 28, 30
  - Mon: Auditory nerve - spontaneous activity, level coding, discharge patterns
  - Wed: Auditory nerve - place coding, frequency tuning, receptive fields
  - Fri: Auditory nerve - temporal coding, phase-locking, coding of complex sounds
- Week 11: April 2, 4, 6
  - Mon: Auditory nerve - efferent modulation of cochlear output
  - **Wed: Quiz 3: Ear and auditory nerve Yost, Ch 6-9
Part 4: The central auditory system
- - Yost, Ch 15
    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. 187-210. (Blackboard download)
  - Fri: Cochlear nucleus - tonotopy, spectral/temporal processing
- Week 12: April 9, 11, 13
  - Mon: Superior olivary complex I - ILD processing
  - Wed: Superior olivary complex II - ITD processing
  - Fri: Midbrain I - structure and convergence
- **Paper due on Friday April 20
- Week 13: April 16, 18, 20
  - Mon: Midbrain II - complex feature selectivity
  - Wed: Auditory thalamus and cortex I - organization, processing streams
  - Fri: Auditory cortex II: processing simple and complex sounds
- Week 14: April 23, 25, 27
  - Mon: Auditory cortex III - plasticity, descending control
Part 5: Auditory disorders
- - Wed: Ch 16 Hearing loss: noise, ototoxicity, disease, heredity
  - Fri: Aging, adult plasticity
- Week 15: April 30; May 2
  - Mon: Therapy - hair cell regeneration, cochlear implants
  - Wed: Quiz 4: Central auditory system, auditory disorders Yost, Ch 15-16; Hackett & Kaas (2002)

top