Binaural Meeting

June 10, 1998

University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

This is a preliminary schedule of the Binaural Workshop that is coming up on the 10th of June here at the University of Maryland.

The idea of the meeting is to have discussions that will bring out the current controversies in the different subjects that are mentioned below. Basically, we plan to have one or two speakers per subject who will give us a review, and also isolate controversies or puzzles with implications to binaural hearing in particular, and to hearing in general.
All participants are asked to bring with them slides (view-graphs, or anything else) that might touch upon their particular concerns or beliefs.
Included below are a few samples questions/issues that will be discussed. Further input from all of you prior to the meeting will be posted out on the following website address:
http://www.isr.umd.edu/CAAR/binaural.html
Feedback on this proposed format and list of subjects would be greatly appreciated. Send your remarks to binaural-feedback.

The Preliminary Schedule and Topics

Location :

Conference room 2460, A V Williams Bldg.
Check out directions on how to get there.

8:00 Breakfast

8:30 - 10:30 The Precedence effect

Ruth Litovsky

Is the precedence effect a binaural phenomenon per se? Is it even spatial? How exactly is it different from Masking phenomena? Are all these just different paradigms studying the same underlying adaptive or suppressive process?

10:30 - 12:30 Virtual Hearing

Steve Colburn and John Middlebrooks

Are we learning anything really new from HRTF's in the Lab? How realistic is the goal of a normalized HRTF?

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00-3:30 Models and Neural Mechanisms of ITD Detection

Carr and Batra (Mechanisms)

What are the cellular mechanisms involved in the transformation of ITD information through the central auditory system? How accurate does coincident detection need to be? Where should learning occur in order for ITD maps to emerge? Do delay lines really serve as the Jeffress model suggests? Can certain forms of plasticity alter the neural code or representation of ITD?

Tino Trahiotis and Les Bernstein (Psychoacoustics)

Is there a need for internal matching or compensation of large ITDs? How well does a monistic quantification of inter-aural correlation account for binaural detection data across a broad range of center frequencies?

3:30 - 5:30 Sound Motion

Terry Takahashi

Why is sound motion such a sluggish percept? What are its analogs in the visual world? Do we have any evidence for dedicated motion detectors? What is special or interesting about sound motion (as opposed to being a series of snap shots of a pseudo-stationary percept)?

Physiologists have been using stimuli that are motion-like, but are they really studying motion? Specifically, one can show in Barn owl that neurons respond to binaural beat stimuli in excess of 1,000 degrees of azimuth per second! Mammal people (e.g., Shig) will attest to a similar observation. Yet, Wes Grantham talks about "binaural sluggishness". We have a disconnect here!

Physiologists need to ask what kinds of binaural, free-field, or virtual stimuli best simulate motion in the natural world (biologically relevant motion)? Why are neurons responding to such fast "motion"? Maybe for the segregation of concurrent sounds.

7:00 Dinner (and possible Jazz night in town)

Directions

The College Park campus is located about two miles inside the Washington Capital Beltway (Route 495/95) in College Park, Maryland.

From points north of Washington, DC, take I 95 south to the Capital Beltway (Route 495/95). Exit onto the Beltway (495/95) toward College Park. Stay in the right hand lane, and exit on to Route 1 South toward College Park. Continue on Route 1 about two miles. At the main gate to the University of Maryland campus, turn right on Campus Drive.

From points south of Washington, DC, take I 95 to the Capital Beltway (Route 495/95). Take the Beltway around to the Maryland side (you may go in either direction: Route 1 is virtually equi-distant from I 95) to Route 1. Exit onto Route 1 South toward College Park. Continue on Route 1 about two miles. At the main gate to the University of Maryland campus, turn right on Campus Drive.

To get to AV Williams Building : Remain in the right hand lane; this lane turns off to the right, Paint Branch Drive. The first building on the right is the Wind Tunnel, the second building is the A.V. Williams Building. This is a large U shaped building with a smaller building situated in the cup of the U, making it difficult to see the name of the building and the main door. There are metered parking spaces directly across the street from the building. Go in the main entrance and take the elevator to the second floor. Turn right out of the elevator, proceed through the glass doors. Conference room 2460 is on the right.

Need other directions (metro, train, some other starting point)?
Call (301-405-6576) or email (pwhite@isr.umd.edu) for specifics.

Remember to bring slides or transparencies so you can contribute to the discussions. If you have special needs for any audio-visual equipment or computers, please let us know in advance so we can make them available.

If you feel you have something to contribute even if your name isn's listed above. We would like feedback on the above, and altogether we are hoping that people will walk or fly away from this meeting having learned the current controversies and issues on the subjects listed above.

Also have a look at June 11th, Mini-symposium on neurosciences.

Back to the CAAR Conferences and Talks page.