Phonetics in the Brain - Paperbackby Pelle Sderstrm (Author) Spoken language is a rapidly unfolding signal: a complex code that the listener must crack to understand what is being said. From the structures of the inner ear through to higher order areas of the brain, a hierarchy of interlinked processes transforms the acoustic signal into a linguistic message within fractions of a second. This Element outlines how we perceive speech and explores what the auditory system needs to