Abstract
Auditory distance perception plays a major role in spatial awareness, enabling location of objects and avoidance of obstacles in the environment. However, it remains under-researched relative to studies of the directional aspect of sound localization. This review focuses on the following four aspects of auditory distance perception: cue processing, development, consequences of visual and auditory loss, and neurological bases. The several auditory distance cues vary in their effective ranges in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. The primary cues are sound level, reverberation, and frequency. Nonperceptual factors, including the importance of the auditory event to the listener, also can affect perceived distance. Basic internal representations of auditory distance emerge at approximately 6 months of age in humans. Although visual information plays an important role in calibrating auditory space, sensorimotor contingencies can be used for calibration when vision is unavailable. Blind individuals often manifest supranormal abilities to judge relative distance but show a deficit in absolute distance judgments. Following hearing loss, the use of auditory level as a distance cue remains robust, while the reverberation cue becomes less effective. Previous studies have not found evidence that hearing-aid processing affects perceived auditory distance. Studies investigating the brain areas involved in processing different acoustic distance cues are described. Finally, suggestions are given for further research on auditory distance perception, including broader investigation of how background noise and multiple sound sources affect perceived auditory distance for those with sensory loss.
Highlights
Auditory distance perception plays a major role in spatial awareness, enabling location of objects and avoidance of obstacles in the environment
Atten Percept Psychophys (2016) 78:373–395 distance and farther sounds in extrapersonal space. This distinction is useful because the range over which distance cues are operable varies, and some cues are only useful within peripersonal space, a region where internal representations of distance are based on both auditory and tactile information (Serino, Canzoneri, & Avenanti, 2011)
The effect of visual loss on auditory distance perception is considerably less clear, due in part to the sparse number of behavioral studies on this topic and the scarcity of neural data. It is still largely unknown whether visual loss leads to cortical reorganization that affects auditory distance perception, recent work involving distance-to-sound learning with sensory substitution devices (SSDs) suggests that occipital areas are recruited for auditory distance processing following visual loss (Chan et al, 2012; Tao et al, 2013)
Summary
Knowledge about the processing of auditory distance cues has been advanced by the development of binaural technology that allows simulation of different acoustical environments via headphone presentation (Zahorik, 2002a). Accurate distance judgments for proximal sound sources required components below 3 kHz. In a study by Kopčo and Shinn-Cunningham (2011), participants judged the distance of noise bursts at distances between 0.15 and 1.7 m that varied in center frequency between 300 and 5700 Hz, and in bandwidth between 200 and 5400 Hz. The sounds were presented in a reverberant environment and the level was roved to make it an unreliable cue. Ashmead et al (1995) showed greater benefits of acoustic tau when the sound source was a noise burst of random intensity presented between 5 and 19 m from the participant, as accuracy at walking to the location of the sound increased when participants listened while walking compared with when they stood still These studies suggest that dynamic cues benefit auditory distance perception for distances greater than 2 m. Several studies have shown that estimates of the distance of speech stimuli
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