Pitch in a non-animate world (Christian Kaernbach )

Subject: Pitch in a non-animate world
From:    Christian Kaernbach  <auditory(at)KAERNBACH.DE>
Date:    Wed, 2 Mar 2005 19:08:02 +0100

Dear List,

It recently came to my mind that nearly all experiences of pitch are
related to animal communication soounds. Sure, there is something like
edge pitch of broadband stimuli, maybe even echo pitch under specific
conditions, but clearly periodic sounds stemming from a periodically
moving source would nearly always come from an animal (and most often be
communication sounds... exception: humming of bees etc.). Is this a
complete nonsense? Or could it be that pitch processing evolved in
parallel to communication capabilities?

Best,
Christian Kaernbach