Spectral characteristics of the responses of primary auditory-nerve fibers to amplitude-modulated signals.

The spectral responses of cat single primary auditory nerve fibers to sinusoidal amplitude-modulated (AM) and double-sideband (DSB) acoustic signals applied to the ear were examined. DSB is an amplitude-modulated signal with a suppressed carrier. Period histograms were compiled from the neural spike-train data, and the frequency spectrum was determined by Fourier transforming these histograms. For DSB signals, spectral components were found to be present at the frequencies of the stimulus as well as at certain combination frequencies. For AM signals, several clusters of spectral components were present. The lowest-frequency cluster consisted of components at DC, at the modulation frequency, and at its harmonics. A higher frequency cluster occurs around a component with the frequency of the carrier. The components of cluster are separated from the carrier by the modulation frequency and its harmonics. Yet higher-frequency clusters appear around multiples of the carrier frequency with components at frequencies separated from these multiples by the modulation frequency and its harmonics. The magnitudes of these spectral components were determined for carrier frequencies located below, at, and above the characteristic frequency of the units, and for different stimulus levels, modulation frequencies, and modulation depths. The low-frequency components present in the neural spike train appear to be the result of demodulation taking place in the inner ear. The demodulated components are strong and are present over a wide range of sound levels, carrier frequencies, modulation frequencies, and nerve-fiber characteristics. This demodulation may be significant for speech recognition.