Where did that sound come from?

The human brain is finely tuned not only to recognize particular sounds, but also to determine which direction they came from. By comparing differences in sounds that reach the right and left ear, the brain can estimate the location of a barking dog, wailing fire engine, or approaching car. MIT neuroscientists have now developed a computer model that can also perform that complex task. The model, which consists of several convolutional neural networks, not only performs the task as well as humans do, it also struggles in the same ways that humans do. "We now have a model that can actually localize sounds in the real world," says Josh McDermott, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and a member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research.