Neural System Model of Human Sound Localization

This paper examines the role of biological constraints in the human audi(cid:173) tory localization process. A psychophysical and neural system modeling approach was undertaken in which performance comparisons between competing models and a human subject explore the relevant biologi(cid:173) cally plausible "realism constraints". The directional acoustical cues, upon which sound localization is based, were derived from the human subject's head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). Sound stimuli were generated by convolving bandpass noise with the HRTFs and were pre(cid:173) sented to both the subject and the model. The input stimuli to the model was processed using the Auditory Image Model of cochlear processing.