Accurate Sound Localization in Reverberant Environments Is Mediated by Robust Encoding of Spatial Cues in the Auditory Midbrain
Name
Devore-2009-Accurate Sound Local.pdf
Size
1.14 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c6db0c50606dd38763b0be1ff08b76e9
Author(s)
Devore, Sasha
Ihlefeld, Antje
Hancock, Kenneth E.
Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara
Delgutte, Bertrand
Date Issued
April 2009
Journal
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Devore, Sasha, Antje Ihlefeld, Kenneth Hancock, Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, and Bertrand Delgutte. “Accurate Sound Localization in Reverberant Environments Is Mediated by Robust Encoding of Spatial Cues in the Auditory Midbrain.” Neuron 62, no. 1 (April 2009): 123–134. © 2009 Elsevier Inc.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In reverberant environments, acoustic reflections interfere with the direct sound arriving at a listener's ears, distorting the spatial cues for sound localization. Yet, human listeners have little difficulty localizing sounds in most settings. Because reverberant energy builds up over time, the source location is represented relatively faithfully during the early portion of a sound, but this representation becomes increasingly degraded later in the stimulus. We show that the directional sensitivity of single neurons in the auditory midbrain of anesthetized cats follows a similar time course, although onset dominance in temporal response patterns results in more robust directional sensitivity than expected, suggesting a simple mechanism for improving directional sensitivity in reverberation. In parallel behavioral experiments, we demonstrate that human lateralization judgments are consistent with predictions from a population rate model decoding the observed midbrain responses, suggesting a subcortical origin for robust sound localization in reverberant environments.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2009.02.018
