This volume constitutes the Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Hearing (ISH), held from 23 to 27 July 2012 in St. John’ s College, Cambridge, UK. As is traditional for the ISH series, the emphasis was on bringing together those performing basic research on physiological and perceptual processing by the auditory system, including modelling. All chapters were submitted and subjected to preliminary editing prior to the meeting, and all chapters were available to participants before the meeting started. The timetable of ISH 2012 allowed plenty of time for discussion, and synopses of some of the discussions are included at the ends of the relevant chapters. The chapters are organised according to seven broad themes, and their order reflects the order of presentation at the meeting.