[CTN] Invite: Tuesday Feb 24 1-2:30pm Ewan Macpherson "Listener sensitivity to dynamic cues for front/back sound localization and the role of vestibular and proprioceptive information in their interpretation"

[Michael Barnett-Cowan]

*Department chairs and research institute representatives, please circulate
this to your faculty and students.*

Tomorrow (Feb 24 1-2:30pm, *LHS 1621*) the Kinesiology Neuroscience Seminar
Series welcomes you to attend a guest lecture presented by Ewan Macpherson
<http://www.uwo.ca/fhs/csd/people/faculty/macpherson_e.html> (Western, School
of Communication Sciences and Disorders):

Title: Listener sensitivity to dynamic cues for front/back sound
localization and the role of vestibular and proprioceptive information in
their interpretation.

Abstract: The spatial hearing literature describes many examples of the
benefits of listener head motion in enhancing the accuracy of sound
localization, particularly in the front/rear dimension. These benefits
derive primarily from the listener-controlled generation of dynamic
interaural-difference cues, which, if (and only if) coupled with
information about the head motion that produced them, help to specify the
location of an auditory target. This presentation will describe studies
employing real-time motion tracking and motion-contingent stimulus
synthesis techniques to address the effect of a number of stimulus and
motion factors on listener sensitivity to dynamic cues for front/rear sound
localization. The results indicate that stimuli carrying low-frequency
interaural time-difference cues can be localized accurately to the front or
rear with slow head rotations as small as 5 degrees, but that for those
stimuli the required head rotation increases with head-turn velocity such
that the duration of the stimulus, rather than the head-turn angle, best
predicts performance. In addition, to address the roles of vestibular and
proprioceptive information in the interpretation of the dynamic cues, the
techniques of real-time tracking and dynamic virtual auditory space
synthesis were used in conjunction with an oscillating chair apparatus that
permitted dissociation of head-on-body and head-in-space motion. Results
suggest that vestibular (head-in-space) information is necessary and
sufficient for accurate front/rear localization via dynamic cues, whereas
proprioceptive (head-on-body) information is neither necessary nor
sufficient. Assessment of the role of visual input in dynamic sound
localization is also currently underway.

If anyone would like to arrange to meet with Ewan (cc'd here) outside of
his talk please contact him at ewan.macpherson at nca.uwo.ca

Hope to see many of you there!

-- 
Michael Barnett-Cowan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Kinesiology
University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1
p: +1.519.888.4567 x39177
f: +1.519.746.6776
e: mbc at uwaterloo.ca
w: https://sites.google.com/site/mbarnettcowan
t: https://twitter.com/#!/multisensebrain
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