Headphone audio internalizes because static binaural cues signal an inside-the-head source

Evidence

One of the reasons why headphone reproduction of audio is, in most cases, internalized is the lack of dynamic cues. In such cases, the binaural cues in audio reproduction do not change at all when the listener moves his or her head. The only situation where cues remain constant when the head is moved is when the source is inside the head, and the localization mechanisms take this as strong evidence that the sources are indeed inside the skull. Note that localizing sounds inside one’s own head is not at all unusual. Typical inside-the-head-localized sounds are, for example, one’s own voice and eating and breathing sounds. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1461

One of the reasons why headphone reproduction of audio is, in most cases, internalized is the lack of dynamic cues. In such cases, the binaural cues in audio reproduction do not change at all when the listener moves his or her head. The only situation where cues remain constant when the head is moved is when the source is inside the head, and the localization mechanisms take this as strong evidence that the sources are indeed inside the skull. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1461

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism of headphone sound externalization failure via the brain’s inference rule that constant-under-head-motion means inside the head.
• SEED: Article angle: why ordinary headphones always sound ‘inside your head’ and how head-tracking binaural solves it — a concrete explainer of a phenomenon everyone has experienced.
• XREF: Directly explains a well-known phenomenon in audio engineering and VR audio — connects to spatial audio and head-tracking technology applications. — connects to: Headphones sound ‘in the head’ because they fail to model head movement cues — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 735
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1461