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A Method to Study Adaptation to Left-Right Reversed Audition
Published on: October 29, 2018
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Relearning auditory spectral cues for locations inside and outside the visual field
1Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia, simonc@physiol.usyd.edu.au.
Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO
|December 6, 2013
Summary
The auditory system can adapt to altered sound localization cues in posterior space, similar to frontal space. This adaptation occurs without visual cues, suggesting a unified recalibration mechanism for the auditory system.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- The auditory system adapts to spectral cue changes for frontal sound localization over weeks.
- It remains unclear if similar adaptation occurs for posterior sound locations without visual guidance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate auditory system accommodation to altered spectral cues in posterior sound localization.
- To determine if visual information is necessary for recalibrating sound localization to modified spectral cues.
Main Methods:
- Eight listeners wore ear moulds to alter monaural spectral cues for sound localization.
- Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) recordings verified cue distortion and residual cues.
- Sound localization performance was measured before, during, and after a period of continuous mould wear (up to 60 days).
Main Results:
- Initial sound localization performance significantly decreased, with increased front-back confusions and elevation errors.
- Performance improved with prolonged mould wear but remained below control levels.
- Accommodation extent and rate did not differ significantly between frontal (audio-visual) and posterior (audio-only) sound localization regions.
Conclusions:
- The auditory system demonstrates accommodation to altered spectral cues for sound localization in posterior space.
- This adaptation occurs in the absence of contemporaneous visual information, suggesting a common recalibration mechanism.
- Visual input is not essential for the auditory system to recalibrate to modified spectral cues for sound localization.
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