Trends Hear. 2026 Jan-Dec;30:23312165261465030. doi: 10.1177/23312165261465030. Epub 2026 Jul 9.
ABSTRACT
The dynamic interplay between source-specific spectral features and spatial cues is central to auditory inference. While sagittal-plane localization relies on direction-dependent spectral cues shaped by the listener’s anatomy, sound sources themselves introduce spectral patterns that can obscure these cues, creating an ill-posed inference problem. We tested whether listeners can mitigate that problem by statistically learning a source’s spectral shape over the short term. In a free-field localization task, participants localized ripple-spectrum sounds under two conditions: within a block, source spectra were either fixed (predictable) or randomized (unpredictable). Predictability reduced large-scale localization errors – such as front-back reversals and quadrant confusions – by up to 5% within minutes. These findings demonstrate that listeners exploit spectral consistency across stimulus history to adapt spatial decoding, providing empirical evidence for short-term updating of spectral priors and underscoring the adaptive nature of auditory inference.
PMID:42422899 | DOI:10.1177/23312165261465030
