It is shown that digital linear filter networks with characteristics similar to physiologically measured magnitude, phase and impulse response characteristics of channels with lower centre frequencies in the auditory pathway up to the auditory nerve can be found. An IIR filterbank with similar characteristics has been designed on a psychoacoustic frequency scale. An auditory image in a tonotopical versus periodicity space has ben constructed. This image is shown to posess a number of attractive features for speech recognition.