The Relationship between Musical Pitch and Temporal Responses of the Auditory Nerve Fibers

Abstract

To investigate how the high pitched notes in a musical score are played on the piccolo, nine flutists produced tones of a C major scale, from C6 to C8, using their own piccolo. The fundamental frequency of each tone was measured. The results showed that all tones were produced higher in frequency than the theoretical values and that this tendency was striking in the higher frequency range. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of temporal responses of auditory nerve fibers.