ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by different tones

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what your mom asks you to use when she's not appreciating your sarcasm well [Mom shouting at son]

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here's today's question the theory of hearing that suggests that we hear

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different tones due to where the hair cells are located in the cochlea is

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called the what and here are your potential answers.... well right

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off the bat we can go ahead and eliminate E) Basilar theory that's not

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even a real thing creativity is great and everything but maybe not in a [Man painting]

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multiple choice test taking scenario so save that for art class people how about

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option A) well it's got one thing going for it opponent process theory is a real

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thing it suggests that there are certain combinations of colors that one never [red and blue button with smiley and crying faces]

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sees together at the same time in place think about it we can definitely see

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yellowish greens and bluish reds, like these but what about reddish greens or

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yellowish blues? well, these colors are considered impossible colors made [greenish red and yellowish blue colors]

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impossible by the way in which the perceptive cones in our eyes sometimes

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oppose one another cool definitely related to hair cells definitely not so [A digram of a hair cell]

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we can cross out A) let's check out D) gate-control theory developed in the

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1960s the gate-control theory of pain says that non painful stimulus can close [people walking through a door labelled central nervous system]

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the gate to painful input preventing the pain sensation from reaching the

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central nervous system the idea is that large nerve fibers in the spinal cord [a spinal cord]

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stimulated by non painful stimulation can activate in blocks of small fibers

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that would typically communicate with the sensation of pain also pretty cool [person hearing soundwaves]

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but it doesn't have to do with hearing so it's not our answer so take D) out

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could our answer be C) temporal theory well temporal theory suggests that how we [girl listening to music on a field]

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perceive sound depends on the temporal patterns in which the neurons in our

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cochlea respond to the sound.. In other words the pitch of sound is an attribute [Person whispering in a girls ear]

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that is perceived not a physical property of the stimulus and the way in

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which we perceive the pitch is dependent on the timing of the firing of the nerve [Arrow points to nerve in the brain]

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impulses from within our ear hmmm close but no cigar this definitely has to do

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with the basilar membrane within the cochlea [arrow pointing to cochlea in an ear]

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the hair cells it contains but it doesn't have anything to do with the

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placement of those cells so C) can see its way out of the scene that leaves us

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with B) place theory, place theory differs from temporal theory in one

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major way it suggests that the way in which we interpret pitch has to do with [Man talking on a cell phone]

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the placement of the hair cells in the cochlea but once it sound hits the

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eardrum it initiates a transfer of vibrations into the cochlea this [vibrations travelling down the ear]

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vibration determines which hair cells move along the basilar membrane and as

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the theory goes where a hair cell is located determines the frequency that

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any given cell will detect the perceived pitch then is determined by which parts [Person making noise and sound waves travel]

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of the membrane the initial sound eventually causes to vibrate that means

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B) is the correct answer now every time you hear music you get to imagine a [A couple listening to music with headphones]

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whole bunch of ear hair fun huh?

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