Every time we listen--to speech, to music, to footsteps approaching or retreating--our auditory perception is the result of a long chain of diverse and intricate processes that unfold within the source of the sound itself, in the air, in our ears, and, most of all, in our brains. Hearing is an "everyday miracle" that, despite its staggering complexity, seems effortless. This book offers an integrated account of hearing in terms of the neural processes that take place in different parts of the auditory system. Because hearing results from the interplay of so many physical, biological, and psychological processes, the book pulls together the different aspects of hearing--including acoustics, the mathematics of signal processing, the physiology of the ear and central auditory pathways, psychoacoustics, speech, and music--into a coherent whole.

Jan Schnupp is University Lecturer and Codirector of the Auditory Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at Oxford University and a Fellow of St. Peter's College.

Israel Nelken is Professor in the Department of Neurobiology in the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and a member of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Andrew King is Professor of Neurophysiology, Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, and Codirector of the Auditory Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at Oxford University and a Fellow of Merton College.