Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, Unité Mixte de Recherche 8248, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2023 May 1;153(5):2600. doi: 10.1121/10.0017978.
This paper suggests an explanation for listeners' greater tolerance to positive than negative mistuning of the higher tone within an octave pair. It hypothesizes a neural circuit tuned to cancel the lower tone that also cancels the higher tone if that tone is in tune. Imperfect cancellation is the cue to mistuning of the octave. The circuit involves two neural pathways, one delayed with respect to the other, that feed a coincidence-sensitive neuron via excitatory and inhibitory synapses. A mismatch between the time constants of these two synapses results in an asymmetry in sensitivity to mismatch. Specifically, if the time constant of the delayed pathway is greater than that of the direct pathway, there is a greater tolerance to positive mistuning than to negative mistuning. The model is directly applicable to the harmonic octave (concurrent tones) but extending it to the melodic octave (successive tones) requires additional assumptions that are discussed. The paper reviews evidence from auditory psychophysics and physiology in favor-or against-this explanation.
本文提出了一种解释，说明为什么听众对八度音程内高音的正音高偏差比对低音的负音高偏差更为容忍。该假说假设存在一个神经回路，专门用于抵消低音，如果高音与该音高匹配，也会抵消高音。不完全抵消是八度音程偏差的线索。该回路涉及两个神经通路，一个相对于另一个延迟，并通过兴奋性和抑制性突触为一个对一致性敏感的神经元提供信息。这两个突触的时间常数不匹配会导致对不匹配的敏感性不对称。具体来说，如果延迟通路的时间常数大于直接通路的时间常数，那么对正音高偏差的容忍度就会大于对负音高偏差的容忍度。该模型直接适用于谐波八度（同时音），但将其扩展到旋律八度（连续音）需要进一步讨论一些假设。本文综述了来自听觉心理物理学和生理学的支持或反对这一解释的证据。
