Books in the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research series

The Lateral Line System provides an overview of the key concepts and issues surrounding the development, evolution, neurobiology, and function of the lateral line, a fascinating yet somewhat enigmatic flow-sensing system.

Since the first edition of the Aging Auditory System volume (in 2009), there has been a tremendous amount of research in basic, translational, and clinical sciences related to age-related changes in auditory system structure and function.

This volume will serve as the first Handbook of its kind in the area of hearing aid research, often the least-defined, least-understood, part of the multi-disciplinary research process.

Insect Hearing provides a broadly based view of the functions, mechanisms, and evolution of hearing in insects.

Although the fundamental principles of vocal production are well-understood, and are being increasingly applied by specialists to specific animal taxa, they stem originally from engineering research on the human voice.

This book reviews the growing literature that is consistent with the hypothesis that hormones can regulate auditory physiology and perception across a broad range of animal taxa, including humans.

Echolocation by bats has proven to be a virtual gold mine for colleagues studying neurobiology, while providing many rich examples of its impact on other areas of bats' lives. This includes an examination of the possible roles of Prestin and FoxP2 genes and various anatomical features affecting bat vocalizations.

Roughly defined as any property other than pitch, duration, and loudness that allows two sounds to be distinguished, timbre is a foundational aspect of hearing. The remarkable ability of humans to recognize sound sources and events (e.g., glass breaking, a friend's voice, a tone from a piano) stems primarily from a capacity to perceive and process differences in the timbre of sounds. Timbre raises many important issues in psychology and the cognitive sciences, musical acoustics, speech processing, medical engineering, and artificial intelligence. Current research on timbre perception unfolds along three main fronts: On the one hand, researchers explore the principal perceptual processes that orchestrate timbre processing, such as the structure of its perceptual representation, sound categorization and recognition, memory for timbre, and its ability to elicit rich semantic associations, as well as the underlying neural mechanisms. On the other hand, timbre is studied as part of specific scenarios, including the perception of the human voice, as a structuring force in music, as perceived with cochlear implants, and through its role in affecting sound quality and sound design. Finally, computational acoustic models are sought through prediction of psychophysical data, physiologically inspired representations, and audio analysis-synthesis techniques. Along these three scientific fronts, significant breakthroughs have been achieved during the last decade. This volume will be the first book dedicated to a comprehensive and authoritative presentation of timbre perception and cognition research and the acoustic modeling of timbre. The volume will serve as a natural complement to the SHAR volumes on the basic auditory parameters of Pitch edited by Plack, Oxenham, Popper, and Fay, and Loudness by Florentine, Popper, and Fay. Moreover, through the integration of complementary scientific methods ranging from signal processing to brain imaging, the book has the potential to leverage new interdisciplinary synergies in hearing science. For these reasons, the volume will be exceptionally valuable to various subfields of hearing science, including cognitive auditory neuroscience, psychoacoustics, music perception and cognition, but may even exert significant influence on fields such as musical acoustics, music information retrieval, and acoustic signal processing.It is expected that the volume will have broad appeal to psychologists, neuroscientists, and acousticians involved in research on auditory perception and cognition. Specifically, this book will have a strong impact on hearing researchers with interest in timbre and will serve as the key publication and up-to-date reference on timbre for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, as well as established scholars.

Wallace is the Louise B McGavock Endowed Chair and Professor in the Departments of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Psychiatry, Psychology and Director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute at Vanderbilt University, NashvilleAllison B.

A comprehensive review about the spiral ganglion neurons is important for researchers not only in the inner ear field but also in development, neuroscience, biophysics as well as neural networks researchers.

This book considers deafness as a medical condition, exploring the neuronal consequences on the peripheral and the central nervous system as well as on cognition and learning, viewed from the standpoint of genetics, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, molecular biology, systems neuroscience, and cognitive neuroscience.

This SHAR volume serves to expand, supplement, and update the original "Cochlea" volume in the series. It also provides insights into where cochlear research is going, including new hearing prostheses for the deaf that will most likely soon enter the phase of clinical trials.

Middlebrooks is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of California, Irvine, with affiliate appointments in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, the Department of Cognitive Sciences, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.Jonathan Z.

This volume will serve as the first Handbook of its kind in the area of hearing aid research, often the least-defined, least-understood, part of the multi-disciplinary research process.

Although pitch has been considered an important area of auditory research since the birth of modern acoustics in the 19th century, some of the most significant developments in our understanding of this phenomenon have occurred comparatively recently.

Perspectives on Auditory Research celebrates the last two decades of the Springer Handbook in Auditory Research. Contributions from the leading experts in the field examine the progress made in auditory research over the past twenty years, as well as the major questions for the future.

This volume covers the higher-level auditory processes that are part of animal perception. The chapters describe how humans and other animals perceive the sounds that they receive from the many sound sources existing in the world.

The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of compre hensive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modern auditory research. The volumes are aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research, including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinical investigators.

Experimental approaches to auditory research make use of validated animal models to determine what can be generalized from one species to another. To address broader comparative issues, this book treats both fish and amphibians together, to overcome the differing theoretical and experimental paradigms that underlie most work on these groups.

The nine review chapters, written by internationally distinguished auditory researchers, provide a detailed and unified introduction to sound processing in the cochlea and the steps by which the ensuing signals are prepared for the central nervous system.

Although pitch has been considered an important area of auditory research since the birth of modern acoustics in the 19th century, some of the most significant developments in our understanding of this phenomenon have occurred comparatively recently.

The function of vertebrate hearing is served by a surprising variety of sensory structures in the different groups of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

The Springer Handbook of Auditory Research presents a series of compreh- sive and synthetic reviews of the fundamental topics in modern auditory - search. The volumes are aimed at all individuals with interests in hearing research including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and clinical investigators.

The function of vertebrate hearing is served by a surprising variety of sensory structures in the different groups of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

By far, the most widely used subjects in psychological and biological research today are rodents. Although rats and mice comprise the largest group of animals used in research, there are over 2,000 species and 27 families of rodents, living all over the world (except Antarctica) and thriving in many different habitat types. The vast environmental diversity that rodents face has led to numerous adaptations for communication, including vocalizing and hearing in both the sonic and ultrasonic ranges, effectively communicating in the open air and underground, and using vocalizations for coordinating sexual behavior, for mother-pup interactions, and for signaling an alarming situation to the group. Some rodent species have even developed foot drumming behaviors for communication. Comparative studies from around the globe, using both field and laboratory methodologies, reveal the vast differences in acoustic communication behavior across many rodent species. Some rodents are amenable to training and have been domesticated and bred purely for research purposes. Since the early 1900s, rats and mice have been indispensable to research programs around the world. Thus, much of what we know about hearing and vocalizations in rodents come from these two species tested in the laboratory. The sequencing of the mouse genome in 2002, followed by the rat genome in 2004, only increased the utility of these animals as research subjects since genetically engineered strains mimicking human diseases and disorders could be developed more easily. In the laboratory, rats and mice are used as models for human communication and hearing disorders and are involved in studies on hearing loss and prevention, hormones, and auditory plasticity, to name a few. We know that certain strains of mice retain hearing better than others throughout their lifespan, and about the genes involved in those differences. We know about the effects of noise, hormones, sex, aging, and circadian rhythms on hearing in mice and other rodents. We also know about normal hearing in many families of rodents, including the perception of simple and complex stimuli and the anatomy and physiology of hearing and sound localization.The importance of acoustic communication to these animals, as well as the significance of these mammals to biomedical research, are summarized in the chapters.

By far, the most widely used subjects in psychological and biological research today are rodents. Although rats and mice comprise the largest group of animals used in research, there are over 2,000 species and 27 families of rodents, living all over the world (except Antarctica) and thriving in many different habitat types. The vast environmental diversity that rodents face has led to numerous adaptations for communication, including vocalizing and hearing in both the sonic and ultrasonic ranges, effectively communicating in the open air and underground, and using vocalizations for coordinating sexual behavior, for mother-pup interactions, and for signaling an alarming situation to the group. Some rodent species have even developed foot drumming behaviors for communication. Comparative studies from around the globe, using both field and laboratory methodologies, reveal the vast differences in acoustic communication behavior across many rodent species. Some rodents are amenable to training and have been domesticated and bred purely for research purposes. Since the early 1900s, rats and mice have been indispensable to research programs around the world. Thus, much of what we know about hearing and vocalizations in rodents come from these two species tested in the laboratory. The sequencing of the mouse genome in 2002, followed by the rat genome in 2004, only increased the utility of these animals as research subjects since genetically engineered strains mimicking human diseases and disorders could be developed more easily. In the laboratory, rats and mice are used as models for human communication and hearing disorders and are involved in studies on hearing loss and prevention, hormones, and auditory plasticity, to name a few. We know that certain strains of mice retain hearing better than others throughout their lifespan, and about the genes involved in those differences. We know about the effects of noise, hormones, sex, aging, and circadian rhythms on hearing in mice and other rodents. We also know about normal hearing in many families of rodents, including the perception of simple and complex stimuli and the anatomy and physiology of hearing and sound localization.The importance of acoustic communication to these animals, as well as the significance of these mammals to biomedical research, are summarized in the chapters.

Vocal signals are central for social communication across a wide range of vertebrate species; consequently, it is critical to understand the mechanisms underlying the learning, control, and evolution of vocal communication. Songbirds are at the forefront of research into such neural mechanisms. Indeed, songbirds provide a particularly important model system for this endeavor because of the many parallels between birdsong and human speech. Specifically, (1) songbirds are one of the few vertebrate species that, like humans, learn their vocal signals during development, (2) the processes of song learning and control in songbirds shares many parallels with the process of speech acquisition in humans, and (3) there exist deep homologies between the circuits for the learning, control, and processing of vocal signals across songbirds and humans. In addition, because of the diversity of songbirds and song learning strategies, songbirds offer a powerful model system to use the comparative method to reveal mechanisms underlying the evolution of song learning and production. Taken together, research on songbirds can not only reveal general principles underlying vertebrate vocal communication but can also provide insight into potential mechanisms underlying the learning, control, and processing of speech. This volume will cover a range of topics in birdsong spanning multiple level of analysis. Chapters will be authored by the world¿s leading experts on birdsong and will provide comprehensive reviews of the processes underlying song learning, of the neural circuits for song learning and control as well as for the extraction and processing of song information, of the selection pressures underlying song evolution, and of genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the learning and evolution of song. The primary goals of this volume are to provide comprehensive, integrative, and comparative perspectives on birdsong and to underscore the importance of birdsong to biomedical research, evolutionary biology, and behavioral, systems, and computational neuroscience.The target audience of this volume will be graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and established academics and neuroscientists who are interested in mechanisms of communication from an integrative and comparative perspective. The volume is intended to function as a high-profile and contemporary reference on current work related to the learning, control, processing, and evolution of birdsong. This volume will have broad appeal to comparative and sensory biologists, neurophysiologists, and behavioral, systems, and cognitive neuroscientists who attend meetings such as the Society for Neuroscience, the International Society for Neuroethology, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Because of the relevance of birdsong research to understanding human speech, it is likely that the volume will also be of interest to speech researchers and clinicians researching communication, motor, and sensory processing disorders.

A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how the nervous system extracts biologically relevant information from the natural environment and how it uses that information to guide and coordinate behavior necessary for reproduction and survival.

Over the past several years, many investigators interested in the effects of man-made sounds on animals have come to realize that there is much to gain from studying the broader literature on hearing sound and the effects of sound as well as data from the effects on humans.

The auditory system is a complex neural system composed of many types of neurons connected into networks. One feature that sets the auditory system apart from other sensory systems, such as somatosensory or visual systems, is the many stages of neural processing that occur between the ear in the periphery and the cerebral cortex.