A THEORY OF PRIMARY SENSATIONS AND SPATIAL SENSATIONS MEASURING ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE

A theory of primary sensations and spatial sensations to environmental noise is proposed here. The model of the auditory–brain system includes the autocorrelation function (ACF), the interaural cross-correlation function (IACF) mechanisms and the specialization of the human cerebral hemispheres [1]. In addition to primitive sensations to the noise source-loudness, pitch and timbre-perception of duration is introduced here as a fourth. They are described by the temporal factors extracted from the ACF. It is worth noting that the information in the power density spectrum of a signal is identical to the ACF of the signal. In order to describe spatial sensations to the noise field, the spatial factors extracted from the IACF are taken into account. Timbre is defined as an overall sensation including the primitive sensations and spatial sensations.