Abstract:   Categorical perception (CP) refers to the ability that listeners can distinguish cross-category stimuli, but cannot discriminate different stimuli within the same category. The degree of categorization for lexical tone perception may be influenced by the acoustical similarity of different tones. The perception of two similar tones seems to be less categorical than that of dissimilar tones. In addition to the internal features of tones, the factors influencing the categorical perception of lexical tone include language experience, age, tonal context and stimulus type (speech or nonspeech). The use of electrophysiological techniques has advanced the study of categorical perception of lexical tone, and is expected to be helpful in solving more theoretical problems.

Key words: tone, categorical perception, neural mechanisms