Library · Physiology
How you know where a sound is coming from
Make it clearer
When someone speaks to you and you turn toward them without thinking about it, what your brain did was a subtraction: it compared what one ear heard with what the other heard. Your ears are two microphones set apart, and the difference between them is the information.
That comparison is not made by the thinking part of the brain. It is made by a station on the central auditory pathway, the superior olivary complex.
The math is about time. If a noise goes off on your right, the wave reaches the right ear first and the left ear an instant later. That tiny delay between one ear and the other is what locates the source.
And if the sound comes from straight ahead, it reaches both ears at the same time: there is no difference to measure.
All of this is possible because almost the entire auditory pathway is binaural, meaning it takes information from both sides instead of carrying each ear's input separately.
In brief
The brain locates where a sound comes from by comparing what reaches each ear.
Two microphones set apart: the difference between them is the information.
That comparison happens in the superior olivary complex, a station on the central auditory pathway.
A sound on the right reaches the right ear first, and that delay locates the source.
A sound coming from straight ahead reaches both ears at the same time.
Almost the entire auditory pathway is binaural: it takes input from both sides.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingNeuroanatomy, Auditory Pathway, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated