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Echo

Echo

The human ear cannot distinguish between two sources of sound if they happen to reach within a specific time interval, typically 0.1 seconds apart. More than this, and they are perceived as separate sources.
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

The Measurement and Treatment of Suppression in Amblyopia

The Measurement and Treatment of Suppression in Amblyopia

Published on: December 14, 2012

Echolocation versus echo suppression in humans.

Ludwig Wallmeier¹, Nikodemus Geßele, Lutz Wiegrebe

¹Division of Neurobiology, Department Biologie II, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Großhadernerstraße 2, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|August 30, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Blind humans use echolocation for spatial awareness, but echo suppression interferes. This study reveals echolocation training improves spatial discrimination and reduces sound perception asymmetry, crucial for effective navigation.

Keywords:

auditory binaural hearing reverberation temporal processing

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Last Updated: May 8, 2026

The Measurement and Treatment of Suppression in Amblyopia

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Published on: December 14, 2012

Determining Ultrasonic Vocalization Preferences in Mice using a Two-choice Playback Test

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Published on: July 26, 2024

Area of Science:

Auditory Perception
Spatial Cognition
Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

Echolocation enables blind individuals to perceive spatial information.
The precedence effect in sound localization can hinder echolocation by suppressing echo information.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the interplay between echolocation and echo suppression.
To examine how discrimination of sound/reflector positions is affected in virtual acoustic space.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted: 'Listening' (discriminating sound source positions) and 'Echolocation' (discriminating reflector positions using self-produced vocalizations).
Sighted subjects participated in both experiments, evaluating single and dual sound/reflector positions.

Main Results:

Sighted subjects achieved comparable accuracy in discriminating reflector positions via echolocation as they did for sound sources.
The precedence effect showed asymmetric influence in the 'Listening' experiment (lead affecting lag more), but this asymmetry was diminished in the 'Echolocation' experiment.

Conclusions:

Sighted individuals can learn echo-acoustic spatial discrimination skills comparable to auditory source localization.
Active vocalization and direct sound contribute to the reduced asymmetry observed in echolocation tasks, enhancing spatial perception.