An application of neural speech processing in the cochlear nucleus to the estimation of fundamental frequency

The cochlear nucleus (CN) transforms the spike-discharge activity of auditory-nerve fibers to form second-order sound representations. Onset units are one subclass of CN neurons and are notable for their response to changes in the synchrony of their high frequency auditory-nerve fiber inputs. The authors show that the mechanisms underlying this response can be used to inspire an algorithm for estimating the fundamental frequency of speech in background noise using standard Fourier-based methods