Many theories and models have influenced thinking in this field; here we survey some of these, including those modern theories on which we base machine hearing systems.

A “New” Theory of Hearing

Books and papers entitled “A New Theory of Hearing” or something to that effect were once almost commonplace (Rutherford, 1887; Hurst, 1895; Ewald, 1899; Meyer, 1899; Békésy, 1928; Fletcher, 1930; Wever and Bray, 1930b; Wever, 1949). Like many ideas from a few generations back, some of these theories seem a bit quaint from our modern perspective. But in many cases they really did represent some of the most insightful scientific thinking and freshest experimental observations of their times. We review some of these ideas here, emphasizing those that left a lasting mark on our thinking about how hearing works.

Hermann von Helmholtz's Tonempfindungen (Helmholtz, 1863) presented the first major influential theory of hearing. His theory that structures in the cochlea vibrate sympathetically, each place resonating with its own narrow range of frequencies to stimulate a specific nerve, was the foundation for the long-lasting concept of the ear as a frequency analyzer. The arrangement of nerves in the cochlea was associated with individual just-distinguishable tone frequencies, adapting Müller's doctrine of specific nerve energies (Müller, 1838) and applying Fourier's finding that any periodic signal is equal to a sum of sinusoids of harmonically related frequencies (Fourier, 1822).