OPTIMAL BINAURAL PROCESSING BASED ON POINT PROCESS MODELS OF PREPROCESSED CUES

Toward localizing high-frequency tonal signals in the horizontal plane , the lateral superior olive (LSO) encodes the interaural level differ ences, the crucial cue for azimuthal angle extraction by more central nuclei in the binaural pathway. This paper derives optimal processors for localization using inputs from the LSO and anteroventral cochlear nucleus. Both Poisson and non-Poisson point processes are developed to model cellular responses. The LSO projection is shown to be the only input needed in maximum Likelihood angle estimation, and it is process ed similarly under different LSO response models. However, localizatio n performance depends strongly on the model's regularity, with increas ing regularity improving localization accuracy and precision. (C) 1997 Acoustical Society of America.