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Related Experiment Videos

Human sound localization at near-threshold levels.

Andrew T Sabin1, Ewan A Macpherson, John C Middlebrooks

  • 1Central Systems Laboratory, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, 1301 E. Ann Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0506, USA.

Hearing Research
|December 3, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Human sound localization improves with increasing sound levels, even as neural spatial selectivity decreases. This suggests accurate sound localization does not rely on narrow neural receptive fields.

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Area of Science:

  • Auditory neuroscience
  • Psychoacoustics
  • Human sensory systems

Background:

  • Physiological studies indicate cortical neurons' spatial receptive fields narrow at low sound levels and broaden at moderate levels.
  • This broadening appears to reduce neuronal spatial selectivity, creating a conflict with accurate human sound localization performance at moderate levels.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate human sound localization performance across a wide range of sensation levels, from detection threshold upwards.
  • To determine the relationship between sound level, neural spatial selectivity, and the accuracy of sound source localization.

Main Methods:

  • Human listeners reported sound audibility and turned their heads towards the perceived sound source direction.
  • Head orientation was tracked using electromagnetic sensors.

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  • Stimulus levels were relative to individual detection thresholds for front-positioned sounds.

    • Main Results:

    • At near-threshold levels, localization responses were variable and biased towards the midline, with vertical components biased towards the horizontal plane.
    • Increasing sound levels led to improvements in both lateral and vertical localization, eventually reaching asymptotic performance.
    • Localization accuracy improved significantly as sound levels increased, despite presumed broadening of neural receptive fields.

    Conclusions:

    • Sound localization accuracy improves with increasing sound levels.
    • The findings challenge the notion that precise sound localization relies solely on narrow spatial receptive fields in the cortex.
    • Auditory system plasticity and integration mechanisms likely contribute to accurate spatial hearing across different sound intensities.