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pmid: 23716237
The skills of some blind humans orienting in their environment through the auditory analysis of reflections from self-generated sounds have received only little scientific attention to date. Here we present data from a series of formal psychophysical experiments with sighted subjects trained to evaluate features of a virtual echo-acoustic space, allowing for rigid and fine-grain control of the stimulus parameters. The data show how subjects shape both their vocalisations and auditory analysis of the echoes to serve specific echo-acoustic tasks. First, we show that humans can echo-acoustically discriminate target distances with a resolution of less than 1 m for reference distances above 3.4 m. For a reference distance of 1.7 m, corresponding to an echo delay of only 10 ms, distance JNDs were typically around 0.5 m. Second, we explore the interplay between the precedence effect and echolocation. We show that the strong perceptual asymmetry between lead and lag is weakened during echolocation. Finally, we show that through the auditory analysis of self-generated sounds, subjects discriminate room-size changes as small as 10%.In summary, the current data confirm the practical efficacy of human echolocation, and they provide a rigid psychophysical basis for addressing its neural foundations.
Neural Inhibition, Blindness, Adaptation, Physiological, Echolocation, Psychophysics, Animals, Humans, Sound Localization, Sensory Deprivation, Psychoacoustics
Neural Inhibition, Blindness, Adaptation, Physiological, Echolocation, Psychophysics, Animals, Humans, Sound Localization, Sensory Deprivation, Psychoacoustics
citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 13 | |
popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |