Barn owl ITD maps rely on regulated phase delays, not absolute latencies.
Evidence
We found the microsecond precision needed to construct maps of ITD is achieved through precisely regulated phase delays, rather than by regulation of absolute latency, consistent with the observation that nucleus laminaris neurons respond over a wide range of integer multiples of their preferred interaural phase difference (Christianson and Peña 2006 ). Thus latencies from the ear to the point of coincidence detection need only be adjusted within a stimulus period, creating a flexible yet precise system for detection of sound source sound location. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2843
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Connects to the general question of how noisy/slow neural elements achieve microsecond temporal precision in sound localization.
Related
- Barn owl ITD maps depend on phase matching rather than absolute conduction latency (similarity 0.94)
- The periodic ringing of cochlear inputs sustains phase-based ITD coding for nonperiodic sounds (similarity 0.83)
- Microsecond ITD precision arises from phase-delay matching, not absolute latency (similarity 0.82)
- Barn owl delay-line input geometry creates an orderly ITD map in nucleus laminaris (similarity 0.82)
- Interaural time difference maps derive from precise phase delays, not absolute latencies (similarity 0.80)
- Barn owls distinguish sound motion only across spans far exceeding their static localization acuity (similarity 0.80)
- The ear detects binaural delays finer than individual neuron timing supports (similarity 0.79)
- Auditory motion direction detection requires much larger angular sweeps than static sound localization does. (similarity 0.78)
- Inhibition shapes the barn owl’s binaural temporal window for sound localization (similarity 0.78)