Study of sound localization by owls and its relevance to humans

Human psychoacoustical studies have been the main sources of information from which the brain mechanisms of sound localization are inferred. The value of animal models would be limited, if humans and the animals did not share the same perceptual experience and the neural mechanisms for it. Barn owls and humans use the same method of computing interaural time differences for localization in the horizontal plane. The behavioral performance of owls and its neural bases are consistent with some of the theories developed for human sound localization. Neural theories of sound localization largely owe their origin to the study of sound localization by humans, even though little is known about the physiological properties of the human auditory system. One of these ideas is binaural cross-correlation which assumes that the human brain performs a process similar to mathematical cross-correlation to measure the interaural time difference for localization in the horizontal plane. The most complete set of neural evidence for this theory comes from the study of sound localization and its brain mechanisms in barn owls, although partial support is also available from studies on laboratory mammals. Animal models of human sensory perception make two implicit assumptions; animals and humans experience the same percept and the same neural mechanism underlies the creation of the percept. These assumptions are hard to prove for obvious reason. This article reviews several lines of evidence that similar neural mechanisms must underlie the perception of sound locations in humans and owls.