Acuity of Sound Localisation: A Topography of Auditory Space. II. Pinna Cues Absent

Oldfield, S.; Parker, Simon

doi:10.1068/p130601

Cited by 103 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…For example, altering the spectral cues with pinna molds abolishes elevation localization but leaves azimuth performance intact (Oldfield and Parker, 1984;. Moreover, human listeners can adapt to modified spectral cues and relearn to localize elevation without changing their azimuth performance .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Head Shadow and Pinna Cues to Chronic Monaural Sound Localization

Wanrooij¹,

Opstal²

2004

J. Neurosci.

168

197

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Monaurally deaf people lack the binaural acoustic difference cues in sound level and timing that are needed to encode sound location in the horizontal plane (azimuth). It has been proposed that these people therefore rely on spectral pinna cues of their normal ear to localize sounds. However, the acoustic head-shadow effect (HSE) might also serve as an azimuth cue, despite its ambiguity when absolute sound levels are unknown. Here, we assess the contribution of either cue in the monaural deaf to two-dimensional (2D) sound localization. In a localization test with randomly interleaved sound levels, we show that all monaurally deaf listeners relied heavily on the HSE, whereas binaural control listeners ignore this cue. However, some monaural listeners responded partly to actual sound-source azimuth, regardless of sound level. We show that these listeners extracted azimuth information from their pinna cues. The better monaural listeners were able to localize azimuth on the basis of spectral cues, the better their ability to also localize sound-source elevation. In a subsequent localization experiment with one fixed sound level, monaural listeners rapidly adopted a strategy on the basis of the HSE. We conclude that monaural spectral cues are not sufficient for adequate 2D sound localization under unfamiliar acoustic conditions. Thus, monaural listeners strongly rely on the ambiguous HSE, which may help them to cope with familiar acoustic environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Head Shadow and Pinna Cues to Chronic Monaural Sound Localization

Wanrooij¹,

Opstal²

2004

J. Neurosci.

168

197

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Auditory stimuli are initially encoded in a head-centered reference frame; the spatial coordinates of auditory targets are extracted from interaural differences in arrival time and level. The sound emitted by a source is diffracted by its interaction with the head and external ears, and the resulting changes in the temporal characteristics and intensity provide cues about the location of the sound relative to the head (Hofman & Van Opstal, 1998;Middlebrooks, 1992;Oldfield & Parker, 1984). When action is required, the representation of sensory stimuli often must be transformed into another reference frame.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye-movement-driven changes in the perception of auditory space

Collins

Heed

Röder

2010

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

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The perceptual localization of sensory stimuli often depends on body position, and, when action is required, sensory coordinates must be transformed into a motor reference frame. We investigated the role of such a reference frame change on visual and auditory spatial cognition. Participants had to make a saccade to a visual or auditory target and subsequently compare the location of a visual or auditory probe to the remembered location of the target. Neither visual nor auditory localization depended on trial-by-trial variability in saccade endpoint, suggesting that target locations are remapped across saccades in a manner allowing for oculomotor noise. We also compared visual and auditory localization performance before and after the systematic modification of saccade metrics by saccadic adaptation. Adaptation introduced systematic biases into transsaccadic visual and auditory localization behavior. These results show that information about eye movements is taken into account in both visual and auditory spatial cognition. We propose that auditory stimuli are remapped across saccades and that this eye-centered representation contributes to normal auditory localization.

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“…Several studies have shown that listeners with one ear plugged retain a respectable ability to determine the elevation and front-back hemifield of a free-field sound source (e.g., Fisher and Freedman 1968;Oldfield and Parker 1986;Butler et al 1990;Slattery and Middlebrooks 1994). This finding suggests that monaural spectral cues provide sufficient information for some aspects of a sound-source's location to be determined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Utility of Monaural Spectral Cues Is Enhanced in the Presence of Cues to Sound-Source Lateral Angle

Martin¹,

Paterson²,

McAnally

2004

JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngolog

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The contention that normally binaural listeners can localize sound under monaural conditions has been challenged by Wightman and Kistler (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101:1050Am. 101: -1063Am. 101: , 1997, who found that listeners are almost completely unable to localize virtual sources of sound when sound is presented to only one ear. Wightman and Kistler's results raise the question of whether monaural spectral cues are used by listeners to localize sound under binaural conditions. We have examined the possibility that monaural spectral cues provide useful information regarding sound-source elevation and front-back hemifield when interaural time differences are available to specify sound-source lateral angle. The accuracy with which elevation and front-back hemifield could be determined was compared between a monaural condition and a binaural condition in which a wide-band signal was presented to the near ear and a version of the signal that had been lowpass-filtered at 2.5 kHz was presented to the far ear. It was found that accuracy was substantially greater in the latter condition, suggesting that information regarding soundsource lateral angle is required for monaural spectral cues to elevation and front-back hemifield to be correctly interpreted.

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Acuity of Sound Localisation: A Topography of Auditory Space. II. Pinna Cues Absent

Cited by 103 publications

References 12 publications

Contribution of Head Shadow and Pinna Cues to Chronic Monaural Sound Localization

Contribution of Head Shadow and Pinna Cues to Chronic Monaural Sound Localization

Eye-movement-driven changes in the perception of auditory space

Utility of Monaural Spectral Cues Is Enhanced in the Presence of Cues to Sound-Source Lateral Angle

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