The barn owl brain over-represents frontal space with overlapping maps and sharper neural fields.

Evidence

Previous barn owl studies indicated that the frontal space is represented by a larger population of neurons than the lateral space (e.g., as reflected by the distribution of best ITDs in the IC; Wagner et al. 2007 ). Furthermore, the space maps in each IC represent the contralateral space plus an angular range of about 15° from the midline in the ipsilateral space (Knudsen and Konishi 1978a , 1978b ). This results in an overlap in the representation of the frontal space (‑15° to 15°) by IC neurons from both sides of the brain. Finally, neurons in the IC tuned to locations in the frontal space have more confined spatial receptive fields (Knudsen and Konishi 1978b ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3181

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the reader’s goal of understanding how neural population size and receptive-field width determine perceptual acuity — a direct physiological mechanism for the frontal-space behavioral advantage.