Hörauflösung

Hörauflösung is a term used in hearing science to describe the ability of the auditory system to resolve distinct acoustic events as separate percepts. It encompasses both spectral (frequency) resolution and temporal (timing) resolution, reflecting how finely sounds are encoded and differentiated by the ear and the auditory pathways. In practice, hörauflösung refers to how well the auditory system can distinguish close-in-frequency sounds, rapid changes in amplitude or pitch, and brief gaps in noise or speech.

Spectral resolution concerns the ear’s frequency selectivity and the precision with which different tones can be separated. This is shaped by cochlear filtering, outer-hair-cell function, and neural coding in the auditory nerve and brain. Temporal resolution concerns the processing of time-related cues, including the ability to detect short gaps, discriminate brief sound durations, and follow rapid amplitude or frequency modulations. Psychoacoustic tests such as frequency discrimination tasks, gap-detection tests, and modulation-detection tests are commonly used to assess hörauflösung, often complemented by physiological measures like otoacoustic emissions or auditory-evoked potentials.

Physiologically, hörauflösung depends on the integrity of cochlear mechanics, hair cell transduction, neural synchrony, and central auditory processing. Aging, sensorineural hearing loss, and cochlear implant processing can degrade both spectral and temporal resolution, while certain hearing technologies aim to preserve or enhance these aspects of resolution through optimized signal processing and stimulation strategies.

Clinically and technologically, hörauflösung informs diagnostic evaluation, rehabilitation planning, and the design of hearing aids and cochlear implants. It serves as a link between basic auditory physiology and applied audiology, bridging psychoacoustics, auditory neuroscience, and device engineering. See also: psychoacoustics, auditory processing, cochlear implants.