Talk abstract:

Fundamental Issues in Binaural Processing

H. Steven Colburn
Hearing Research Center
Boston University
colburn@bu.edu

In this presentation, I will summarize the primary capabilities of the binaural system and the way that these capabilities have been characterized mathematically. This summary will include both psychophysical abilities in tasks that depend on sensitivity to differences in the signals at the ears and physiological responses to interaural differences in level and timing. In addition to descriptions of these basic sensitivities, an overall summary of modeling approaches that have been generated to explain and/or relate these phenomena will be introduced. These mathematical and computational descriptions start with the classic Jeffress coincidence network for the representation of interaural timing information. The types of models that will be discussed include those purely focused on psychophysical data, those purely focused on physiological data, and those that focus on the relation of psychophysical abilities to physiological data. In general this presentation will be directed toward a separation of what fits with model conceptions and what is not understood about binaural processing.

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1998-1999 Mathematics in Biology