Spatial hearing and the Acoustics Research Institute Seminar

Abstract
Spatial hearing relies on cues encoded in the spatially-filtered acoustic signals entering the two ears. The spatial filtering, caused by the head, torso, and pinna, can be described by the head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and is based on different principles for horizontal and for vertical planes. Consequently, different neural mechanisms are involved in the decoding of the spatial cues in the auditory system. In this talk, principles of spatial encoding of acoustic signals and neural decoding of spatial cues are introduced. The results from psychoacoustic studies are related to neural mechanisms, modelling approaches are presented, and open issues particularly addressed at the Acoustics Research Institute (Austrian Academy of Sciences) are discussed.