Experimentists in various disciplines, such as anatomy, physics, chemistry, physiology, psychophysics and psychology, have been carrying out their studies in order to increase our knowledge and understanding of sensory perception. To profit maximally from the results, obtained from these different viewpoints each should take the work of the others into account. The need for intensive communication is, therefore, ever present. In 1969, in the field of auditory research, this need resulted in P10mp's initiative to organizing an international symposium "Frequency analysis and periodicity perception in hearing". Considering the lively discussions and the numerous references in literature to the proceedings of this Driebergen symposium, the meeting clearly fulfilled its need. It was clear at the time that this sort of symposium should be held regularly. This resulted in meetings in 1972 (Eindhoven), 1974 (Tutzing) and 1977 (Keele). At the meeting in Keele it was agreed that the next one should be held in 1980, again in the Nether lands. With regard to the program, we decided to carryon the - now expande- tradition of including anatomy, physiology, psychophysics and the development of models in the program, but to pay more attention to the behavioural aspects of hearing at the same time. As a result, some contributions on animal behaviour have been included in the program. One of the great advantages of this sort of symposium is, that one has the opportunity of paying immediate attention to topics that are of current interest at the time.

Experimentists in various disciplines, such as anatomy, physics, chemistry, physiology, psychophysics and psychology, have been carrying out their studies in order to increase our knowledge and understanding of sensory perception. To profit maximally from the results, obtained from these different viewpoints each should take the work of the others into account. The need for intensive communication is, therefore, ever present. In 1969, in the field of auditory research, this need resulted in P10mp's initiative to organizing an international symposium "Frequency analysis and periodicity perception in hearing". Considering the lively discussions and the numerous references in literature to the proceedings of this Driebergen symposium, the meeting clearly fulfilled its need. It was clear at the time that this sort of symposium should be held regularly. This resulted in meetings in 1972 (Eindhoven), 1974 (Tutzing) and 1977 (Keele). At the meeting in Keele it was agreed that the next one should be held in 1980, again in the Nether lands. With regard to the program, we decided to carryon the - now expande- tradition of including anatomy, physiology, psychophysics and the development of models in the program, but to pay more attention to the behavioural aspects of hearing at the same time. As a result, some contributions on animal behaviour have been included in the program. One of the great advantages of this sort of symposium is, that one has the opportunity of paying immediate attention to topics that are of current interest at the time.

Recent advances in auditory neuroscience are characterized by a close interaction between neurophysiological findings, psychophysical effects and integrative models that attempt to bridge the gap between neuroscience and psychophysics. This volume introduces the latest developments in this quickly evolving interdisciplinary area. Tutorials by leading international scientists as well as more focused contributions by active researchers providing an invaluable summary of our current knowledge of psychophysics and auditory physiology and the main lines of research in this field. The book will be of interest to anyone involved in hearing research, including neuroscientists, behavioral scientists, acousticians and biophysicists.

The present book contains the original papers and essential points of the general discussion of a meeting organized in a series of tri-annual conferences, initiated by Dr. R. Plomp with the meeting in Driebergen, The Netherlands, 1969. These symposia have tried to bring to\ether people from extreme fields in auditory research and to amalgamate their recent findings. This series of conferences has proven to be most successful and has attracted much attention by scientists in auditory research. The organizers have tried to maintain the character of the meeting with em phasis on discussion by precirculation of the full text of the papers and by re stricting the number of active contributions. Unfortunately, this forced us to reject a great number of submitted papers - in selection we attempted to compose a fair survey of certain fields of auditory research but leave others untreated. Because of the same reason the number of invited review papers had to be limited to three. The reader may decide whether or not this selection was adequate. We thank all those participants who attended the meeting inspite of the rejection of their paper. The authors have been responsible for text and typing of their manuscripts. The editors have not attempted to standardize the spelling.

A textbook of sensory physiology and sensory psychology, this volume presents the fundamentals of hearing necessary to the development and understanding of psychophysical concepts. Although the core of the book treats the data of sensory and nerve physiology and auditory psychophysics, the author also draws on the material of physical acoustics, anatomy, and neurology.

Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics is concerned with the physiology and psychophysics of audition. It aims to introduce the new student to the sciences of hearing and to rekindle the interests of the experienced reader. The book begins with an overview of the auditory system. This is followed by separate chapters on theories of hearing; the routes over which sound is conducted to the inner ear; the cochlear mechanism; the auditory nerve and pathways; and psychoacoustic methods. Subsequent chapters cover the theory of signal detection; how sensitivity for one sound is affected by the presence of another sound; loudness; pitch; aspects of binaural hearing; and speech perception. This book provides both an introduction and a broad overview of the field of hearing science for the advanced undergraduate student or the postgraduate student in such disciplines as audiology and psychology. It should be an extremely useful guide to these students, as well as to those researchers who wish to refresh their knowledge of the field beyond their areas of specialization.

The book is an exchange of information between molecular biologists, physiologists, psychoacousticians, psychologists and computer scientists all addressing, from their own perspectives, the mechanisms of the ear and brain upon which hearing depends.