Fig. 1.

Response of a single auditory nerve fiber with a characteristic frequency of 16 kHz to low-, medium-, and high-intensity tones. Regardless of intensity, auditory nerve fibers do not respond well to tones above their characteristic frequency. For this fiber, playing a 32-kHz tone will not fatigue or adapt the response of the fiber to a 16-kHz tone. Shaded area indicates the frequency range from one octave below to one octave above the fiber’s characteristic frequency. Based on data from Kiang (1965).