Abstract
IT is well known that a sensation of continuous tone may be produced by presenting to the ear regularly repeated trains of sinusoidal waves, although each train may consist of only a few oscillations followed by a relatively long ‘blank’ period1. I have observed that a sensation of tone may arise by the presentation of trains of very short pulses, each pulse of duration of 0.20 m.sec., and each train consisting of two such pulses only. The pulse duration quoted is that measured on a cathode ray oscilloscope across the output of the amplifier, no suitable instrument being available to monitor the air pressure wave-form as produced by the loudspeaker. The pulses were derived from an electronic stimulator, and were locked to the time-base at predetermined times, each being independently adjustable. Hence, for each time-base two pulses were obtained, the separation of which in time could be varied from zero (coincidence) to 10 m.sec. The time-base repetition-rate could be varied from 10 to 100 per sec. Within this range, at any given rate of repetition, progressive separation of the pulses gave rise to a sensation of falling pitch, and approximation caused a rising pitch. At a separation of 1 m.sec., the sensation was that of a 1,000-cycle per sec. tone, as matched against a known frequency source; at a separation of 2 m.sec. the tone was 500 cycles per sec., at 4 m.sec. 250 cycles per sec., and so on. Since the tone sensation dependent on the pulse separation was heard against a background due to the frequency of repetition of each pulse (the time-base repetition-rate), only those derived tones of frequency considerably higher than the frequency of repetition could readily be detected and matched against the standard frequency source.
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References
Pumphrey, R. J., and Gold, T., Nature, 160, 124 (1947); Nature, 161, 640 (1948); Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 135, 462 (1948).
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CATTON, W. Tone Sensation produced by Repetitive Trains of Auditory ‘Click’ Stimuli. Nature 168, 882 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168882b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/168882b0
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