eli5 How does the brain separate out frequencies it’s hearing so that we can make out different instruments in a song? It seems like some insanely complex analysis behind the scenes??
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The cells in your inner ear are what convert sound from air pressure waves to electrical signals in the brain. They physically vibrate in response to the air pressure and induce a signal in the specific part of the auditory nerve to which they’re attached. This isn’t so different from how cells in your retina work, or how an actual microphone works (it just uses a little magnet and wires instead of cells and nerves).
The important part for your question is that each individual cell responds to a narrow range of frequencies. So your brain decodes the information essentially from which cells are stimulated.
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