What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up processing in relation to the auditory system?
As the metaphor implies, the difference between top-down and bottom up processing has to do with direction. In the top down direction, processing begins with higher order (top level) information. That is, information higher up in the system is used to process information lower in the system. The converse is the case for bottom-up processing. In that case, the processing begins lower in the system, closer to the periphery and becomes interpreted as it is passed up to higher order levels. This directional metaphor has been used when representing different kinds of processing: cognitive; language, phonological, neurological, and auditory. Early in the 1980s, when this information processing metaphor was the talk of the town, the debates were between language people, like me, and audiology people like Jack Katz. As you might have guessed, I focused on how language influenced perception, a top down approach, and Jack Katz emphasis was on what happened to the signal as it became interpreted.
As the metaphor implies, the difference between top-down and bottom up processing has to do with direction. In the top down direction, processing begins with higher order (top level) information. That is, information higher up in the system is used to process information lower in the system. The converse is the case for bottom-up processing. In that case, the processing begins lower in the system, closer to the periphery and becomes interpreted as it is passed up to higher order levels. This directional metaphor has been used when representing different kinds of processing: cognitive; language, phonological, neurological, and auditory. Early in the 1980s, when this information processing metaphor was the talk of the town, the debates were between language people, like me, and audiology people like Jack Katz. As you might have guessed, I focused on how language influenced perception, a top down approach, and Jack Katz emphasis was on what happened to the signal as it became interpreted.
