The auditory sensory system may be the most intriguing sensitivity to perceive the surrounding space for animals and humans. From the beginning of evolution, the nerve system was faced with an acoustic environment, where sound waves oscillate very fast and have a huge range of pressures. It was a challenge, because processing auditory signals require both temporal and amplitude precision which lay far beyond the ability of live systems. To solve these problems, the nerve system invented Fourier transformation, coherent analysis and many other useful tools which were later re-uncovered by humans. However, animals and humans have developed exquisite auditory system, which is widely used both by preys and predators. These lectures will briefly introduce structure and function of auditory system and mainly focus on problem of sound source localization.
Tutor of the course:
Dr. R. Tikidji-Hamburyan, A.B. Kogan Research Institute for Neurocybernetics, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia; visiting researcher, Louisiana State University, Health Sciences Center, New Orlean, USA