Re: Get lost, Mr. Cochlea!! --- The Brain (Michael Norris )

Subject: Re: Get lost, Mr. Cochlea!! --- The Brain
From:    Michael Norris  <michaeln(at)CSEE.UQ.EDU.AU>
Date:    Mon, 26 Feb 2001 11:14:12 +1000

On Sun, 25 Feb 2001, Yadong Wang wrote:

> >"The function of auditory scene analysis -- and audition in general --
> >is to extract *useful* information (defined according to the goals of
> >the organism), and throw away the rest."
>
> OK, you are right only at this point. Then who "extract *useful*
> information and throw away the rest"? The cochlea, neuron, or the brain?

I'm not sure you could be so all-or-nothing about it. Background
streams are automatically organized and do contribute to the context
in which the foreground is heard. There has to be a loss of information
through any filtering processes, but the whole piece of meat is not
there just to transform the signal. The result of a perception is an
action, or at least a change of state. The auditory system transforms
sounds into motives. - So I'd be cautious of characterizing ASA as
extracting and discarding - I'd stick with "organizing", pending some
more holistic/Gibsonian understanding.

-michaeln.

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