Grading:
50% will be based on reports from 5 lab exercises; 30% on final project presentation; 10% paper presentation; 10% on class participation and attendance.
Learning Goals: Upon completion of the course, students will have a good understanding of basic auditory phenomena and underlying biophysical and computational mechanisms.
Classes will consist of lectures on basic concepts followed by discussions of primary papers. In lab sessions, students will perform classical psychoacoustical experiments and simulations. Programs will be provided, and no previous programming experience needed. Students will write a report on the basic findings in the form of a short paper (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) due 2 weeks after the lab exercises.
Required Materials:
1. Textbooks (free online through NYU):
a. An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing, editor: BCJ Moore, Brill publ. 2013
b. Integrative Functions in the Mammalian Auditory Pathway, editors: Oertel, Fay, Popper (henceforth OFP), Springer 2002
2. Matlab: available for free through NYU
3. Head- or ear- phones
Sample Schedule
Class 1: Introduction: Physics of sound, units of frequency/intensity, auditory pathway
Class 2: Transduction of sound to neural activity
Class 3: Biophysical properties of neurons of brainstem
Class 4: Thalamus and Auditory Cortex
Class 5: imulations of neurons
Class 6: Psychophysics I: pitch and loudness perception
Class 7: Psychophysical experiments: Pitch and loudness, two tone discrimination
Class 8: Models for pitch and loudness
Class 9: Network simulations
Class 10: Psychophysics II: sound localization
Class 11: Psychophysical experiments: sound localization
Class 12: Changes in cortical properties with deafness
Class 13 and exam week: Student presentations