Tuning in to Very Fast Events

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that entrainment applies to very fast events, namely sounds with high frequencies. To illustrate this, prominent approaches to pitch perception are sketched along with basic pitch perception phenomena (e.g., virtual pitch perception). In this chapter, multiple frequency components comprise a single complex sound, and people must judge the pitch of this collection of frequencies. Both a successful psychoacoustic theory of pitch perception and a dynamic attending approach offer valid explanations of various phenomena surrounding the pitch of such sounds. This suggests the potential of entrainment in describing pitch perception (i.e., entrainments at fast time scales). The perception of consonance and dissonance is also considered, where dissonance is linked to complex synchronicities termed attractors. Finally, this chapter introduces oscillator clusters, a group of endogenously entrained oscillations.