Evidence for two pitch encoding mechanisms using a selective auditory training paradigm

The neural mechanisms underlying the perception of pitch, a sensory attribute of paramount importance in hearing, have been a matter of debate for over a century. A question currently at the heart of the debate is whether the pitch of all harmonic complex tones can be determined by the auditory system's using a single mechanism, or whether two different neural mechanisms are involved, depending on the stimulus conditions. When the harmonics are widely spaced, as is the case at high fundamental frequencies (FOs), and/or when the frequencies of the harmonics are low, the frequency components of the sound fall in different peripheral auditory channels and are then "resolved" by the peripheral auditory system. In contrast, at low F0s, or when the harmonics are high in frequency, several harmonics interact within the passbands of the same auditory filters, being thus "unresolved" by the peripheral auditory system. The idea that more than one mechanism mediates the encoding of pitch depending on the resolvability status of the harmonics was investigated here by testing for transfer of learning in F0 discrimination between different stimulus conditions involving either resolved or unresolved harmonics after specific training in one of these conditions. The results, which show some resolvability-specificity of F0-discrimination learning, support the hypothesis that two different underlying mechanisms mediate the encoding of the F0 of resolved and unresolved harmonics.