Abstract
A neural code adapted to the statistical structure of sensory cues may optimize perception. We investigated whether interaural time difference (ITD) statistics inherent in natural acoustic scenes are parameters determining spatial discriminability. The natural ITD rate of change across azimuth (ITDrc) and ITD variability over time (ITDv) were combined in a Fisher information statistic to assess the amount of azimuthal information conveyed by this sensory cue. We hypothesized that natural ITD statistics underlie the neural code for ITD and thus influence spatial perception. To test this hypothesis, sounds with invariant statistics were presented to measure human spatial discriminability and spatial novelty detection. Human auditory spatial perception showed correlation with natural ITD statistics, supporting our hypothesis. Further analysis showed that these results are consistent with classic models of ITD coding and can explain the ITD tuning distribution observed in the mammalian brainstem.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (NS104911)
- José L Peña
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC004263)
- Elyse S Sussman
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC007690)
- José L Peña
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: This study was performed in accordance with the NIH Human Subjects Policies and Guidance and with the Brazilian National Health Council, and it was approved by the Internal Review Board of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (#1999-023) and Ethics Committee of Universidade Federal do ABC (#2968291).
Reviewing Editor
- Catherine Emily Carr, University of Maryland, United States
Publication history
- Received: September 17, 2019
- Accepted: October 9, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: October 12, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: November 12, 2020 (version 2)
- Version of Record updated: December 30, 2020 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2020, Pavão et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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