Hearing adapts in real time to drastically modified HRTFs

Evidence

In everyday life we often listen through modified HRTFs. Wearing a sun hat or winter knitted hats that cover the ears, parka hoods, earmuffs and other paraphernalia, even deliberately distorting the fleshy pinnae, all modify HRTFs. Sitting with our head close to or on a chair headrest makes major changes to the sounds arriving at our ears, but we normally don’t notice audible distortions. Sound quality and localization continue in a relatively normal fashion. Humans seem to adapt in real time. and part of the reason may be that a combination of visible sound sources and head movements enable revised correlation between the modified HRTFs and real sound source locations. We might be adapting, in real time. Plausibility is a likely factor; that is, we tend to ignore cues that are implausible or contradictory. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 294

Categorization

• QUESTION: This real-time adaptation mechanism — visual correlation and plausibility filtering — is a promising angle for why head-related transfer function corrections in headphones often underperform expectations.
• XREF: connects to: Individual HRTF measurements give the most accurate external ear emulation — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1608