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Hearing

The human auditory system is reported to be sensitive to frequencies in the range of 20-20,000 Hz. However, there is much variation among individuals and deterioration of high-frequency sensitivity is common with increasing age.

The Hearing Mechanism

Figure 14: The hearing mechanism (from Rossing, 1990).
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  1. The Outer Ear:

  2. The Middle Ear:

  3. The Inner Ear:

Signal Processing in the Auditory System

Critical Bands

Figure 15: Critical bandwidth as a function of the critical band center frequency (from Rossing, 1990).
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Binaural Hearing and Localization



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