In order to measure the extent to which vestibular and proprioceptive cues influence processing of dynamic sound localization cues resulting from head rotation, we measured in passive, active, and counter rotation conditions, the ability of normally hearing listeners to localize front/rear sources of low-frequency sounds that typically cannot be accurately localized without head motion. These targets were presented during head rotations and were gated on/off as the head moved through a variable-width spatial window. In the passive condition, information about rotation carried by efference copy was minimized by passively rotating the listener's body with no neck movement, while the subject actively moved their own head on body in the active condition in order to measure for vestibular influence. The proprioceptive input from the neck was isolated by counter-rotating the body relative to the stationary head-in-space in the counter condition, which minimized vestibular input. Performance improved monotonically with increasing spatial window width but decreased as head velocity increased in both passive and active conditions while performance was near chance in the counter condition. These results suggest that among the two sensorimotor cues (vestibular and proprioceptive), only the vestibular inputs are necessary and sufficient to inform the auditory system about head movement.
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2 June 2013
ICA 2013 Montreal
2–7 June 2013
Montreal, Canada
Psychological and Physiological Acoustics: Session 4aPPb: Binaural Hearing (Poster Session)
May 14 2013
Integration of auditory input with vestibular and neck proprioceptive information in the interpretation of dynamic sound localization cues
Janet Kim;
Janet Kim
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Program, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7 Canada
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Michael Barnett-Cowan;
Michael Barnett-Cowan
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Ontario Canada
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Ewan A. Macpherson
Ewan A. Macpherson
National Centre for Audiology, Western University, 1201 Western Rd, London, ON N6G 1H1 Canada
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Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 19, 050142 (2013)
Article history
Received:
January 22 2013
Accepted:
January 29 2013
Citation
Janet Kim, Michael Barnett-Cowan, Ewan A. Macpherson; Integration of auditory input with vestibular and neck proprioceptive information in the interpretation of dynamic sound localization cues. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 2 June 2013; 19 (1): 050142. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4799748
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