We present a physiologically plausible binaural mechanism for the perceptionof the pitch of complex sounds via ghost stochastic resonance. In this scheme,two neurons are driven by noise and different periodic signal each (withfrequencies f1=kf0 and f2=(k+1)f0, where k>1), and their outputs (plus noise)are applied synaptically to a third neuron. Our numerical results, using theMorris-Lecar neuron model with chemical synapses explicity considered, showthat intermediate noise levels enhance the response of the third neuron atfrequencies close to f0, as in the cases previously described of ghostresonance. For the case of inharmonic combinations of inputs (both frequenciesshifted by the same amount Df) noise is also seen to enhance the response ofthe third neuron at a frequency fr with also shift linearly with Df. Inaddition, we show that similar resonances can be observed as a function of thesynaptic time constant. The suggested ghost-resonance-based stochasticmechanism can thus arise either at the peripheral level or at a higher level ofneural processing in the perception of the pitch
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