Neural Correlates of Realistic and Unrealistic Auditory Space Perception

Abstract

Binaural recordings can simulate externalized auditory space perception over headphones. However, if the orientation of the recorder's head and the orientation of the listener's head are incongruent, the simulated auditory space is not realistic. For example, if a person lying flat on a bed listens to an environmental sound that was recorded by microphones inserted in ears of a person who was in an upright position, the sound simulates an auditory space rotated 90 degrees to the real-world horizontal axis. Our question is whether brain activation patterns are different between the unrealistic auditory space (ie, the orientation of the listener's head and the orientation of the recorder's head are incongruent) and the realistic auditory space (ie, the orientations are congruent). River sounds that were binaurally recorded either in a supine position or in an upright body position were served as auditory stimuli. During fMRI experiments, participants listen to the stimuli and pressed one of two buttons indi...