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This study investigated the energy-onset and motion-onset responses (N1, P2, cN 1 and cP2 components of the auditory evoked potential) elicited by moving sound stimuli in the passive and active listening conditions. In the passive conditions the subjects were distracted from auditory information; in active conditions they lo- calized the starting and final points of the stimulus trajectory. The sound movement to the left/right from the head midline was produced by linear-changes of the interaural time delay (ITD). The onset of motion was preceded by stationary sound located near the head midline. In the active conditions, the NI component was higher and the P2 component was higher and peaked later as compared to the passive listening. The early and later parts of the motion-onset response (cN 1 and cP2) also were larger in magnitude and peaked later during active listening. Both in active and passive conditions, cNI and cP2 amplitude exhibited increase and latency showed decrease when the stimulus velocity increased. Contralateral asymmetry was found only in the mo- tion-onset responses recorded from the left hemisphere.

The multimodal influence of the auditory motion adaptation was studied until now on visual perception only, however, the auditory motion adaptation can influence other modalities. This study is the first attempt to investigate postural aftereffects to 45-second adaptation to approaching or withdrawing sound images, that were simulated by rhythmic sequences of tone pulses changed linearly in amplitude and frequency in the free field. The oscillations of the center of pressure in the sagittal plane with the rhythm of stimuli were detected. These oscillations were more noticeable for approaching than for withdrawing stimuli and resulted in an increase of the length of the trajectory of the center of pressure and average linear velocity of its motion. The center of pressure shifted in the direction of the sound motion during listening to approaching sound images, and to the opposite direction during 20 s after its turning off. The shift to the opposite direction demonstrates typical negative aftereffect. The data are in accordance with the results of studies of postural responses to moving visual stimuli, where the «negative» effect was also revealed.

The spectral dynamics of the EEG rhythmicity during active and passive discrimination of stationary and moving sound stimuli presented according to the oddball paradigm were investigated. Standard stimuli represented stationary midline sounds. Deviant stimuli simulated smooth and stepwise sound source motion (to the left/right from head midline) produced by linear and stepwise changes of interaural time delay. Significant changes of the brain oscillations were found in the frequency range of 3-30 Hz. The dynamics of the moving deviant stimuli (smooth vs. stepwise) had greater impact on theta-rhythm power in active listening conditions: a stronger theta-power increase was evoked by the stepwise sound motion as compared to smooth motion. Significant increase in theta-power was also observed with rightward sound displacement as compared to leftward displacements. Active deviant discrimination reduced alpha-power (8-11 Hz) mostly during smooth deviant motion. The power increase of lower alpha-oscillations (12-15 Hz) was stronger with step- wise motion than with smooth motion of deviants. The interhemispheric asymmetry of beta-power decrease in active conditions (as compared to passive) was found in the whole beta-range. The sup- pression of beta-power was stronger at the right hemisphere than at the midline or left hemisphere and showed no dependence on spatial properties of the deviant stimuli. This asymmetry may be related to selective attention to task-relevant sounds and with preparation to motor response. Generally, active auditory discrimination resulted in stronger deviant-related changes of the wide-ranged EEG spectral power than passive discrimination with attentional tuning to task-irrelevant stimuli.

The current study investigates auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) and mismatch negativity (MMN) during active and passive discrimination of stationary and moving sound stimuli presented according to the oddball paradigm. Standard stimuli represented stationary midline sounds. Deviant stimuli simulated sound source location shifts (to the left/right from head midline) produced by linear or stepwise changes of interaural time delay (ITD). The event-related responses were evaluated by peak amplitudes of N1 waves and mean amplitudes of MMN, P3a, P3b and reorienting negativity (RON) components. The N1 amplitude was larger in active than in passive conditions, and was unaffected by spatial dynamic changes of the deviant stimuli. The deviant motion pattern (smooth or stepwise) affected only MMN and RON obtained in passive listening conditions. Abrupt deviant displacement elicited larger MMN and RON components than smooth motion. Drawing listeners' attention to the deviant stimuli resulted in suppression of MMN/RON sensitivity to auditory motion pattern.

The present study investigates the hemispheric asymmetry of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) and mismatch negativity (MMN) during passive discrimination of the moving sound stimuli presented according to the oddball paradigm. The sound movement to the left/right from the head midline was produced by linear changes of the interaural time delay (ITD). It was found that the right-hemispheric N1 and P2 responses were more prominent than the left-hemispheric ones, especially in the fronto-lateral region. On the contrary, N250 and MMN responses demonstrated contralateral dominance in the fronto-lateral and fronto-medial regions. Direction of sound motion had no significant effect on the ERP or MMN topography. The right-hemispheric asymmetry of N1 increased with sound velocity. Maximal asymmetry of P2 was obtained with short stimulus trajectories. The contralateral bias of N250 and MMN increased with the spatial difference between standard and deviant stimuli. The results showed different type of hemispheric asymmetry for the early and late ERP components which could reflect the activity of distinct neural populations involved in the sensory and cognitive processing of the auditory input.

The auditory after effect of continuously and brokenly approaching sound images was investigated. The images were formed by sequences of broadband noise pulses, which were linearly modulated by their amplitude. These sequences were presented through two loudspeakers, placed at a distance of 1.1 and 4.5 m from a subject. Adaptation to continuous motion caused changes in perception of continuously moving sound sources, and adaptation to broken motion induced changes in perception of brokenly moving sources. Aftereffect didn't arise when adapting and test stimuli had different qualities of motion. Regardless to the quality of motion (broken or continuous) when adapting and test stimuli had same rhythmical structure aftereffect was stronger than when the stimuli had different structures. The results allow us to assume that the ways of processing information about continuously and brokenly moving sound sources are different.

The parallel psychophysical and MMN study focused at the sensitivity of human hearing system to variations in velocity of sound image movement. The motion of sound stimuli with various velocities in the 450 deg/s to 732 deg/s range in increments of 6 deg/s to the left or to the right from the head midline was simulated by introducing linear changes of interaural delay into dichotic stimuli. The psychophysical experiments were designed according to the 2-alternative forced choice paradigm. The subjects were presented by pairs of moving stimuli and were asked to decide which moved faster. The stimuli created for the present study ensured that the subjects performed the discrimination task without relying on associated cues of sound displacement or duration. The psychophysical measures were compared with electrophysiological indexes of sound processing (auditory evoked responses (ERPs) and mismatch negativity (MMN)). Significant MMN was elicited by the difference of 170 deg/s between the reference and test velocity, which corresponded to the relative velocity increase of 38%. At the same time, the difference thresholds for velocity were much higher and exceeded 50%. The results suggest that MMN magnitude depended on the velocity difference between standard and deviant stimuli and was more sensitive to velocity difference than psychophysical measure.

Localization of biologically significant moving rhythmic sources with different pulse/pause ratio has been practically not investigated. The issue of the perception thresholds of continuously approaching sound sources is addressed in the present study. The illusion of approaching sound courses was created by noise pulse sequences linearly increasing in amplitude and emitted by a loudspeaker placed at the level of the subject's head, 1.1 m away, under free field conditions. The sequences were formed by short (5 and 10 ms) or long (70 and 100 ms) pulses. The continuous movement thresholds were evaluated by the pauses between noise pulses varying from 10 to 150 ms. For the short pulse sequences the thresholds were 49 and 41 ms, while for the long ones they decreased to 21 and 16 ms, respectively. A progressive decay of the continuous movement perception threshold in pausing between noise pulses with increasing width over the whole pulse-width range studied was observed. The thresholds for the short noise pulse sequences were 54 and 51 ms did not differ significantly, while for the long noise pulse sequences they were almost twice as long, 91 and 115 ms. For the structures representing the short (up to 10 ms) pulse sequences, the thresholds were highly variable in magnitude that is indicative of a probabilistic evaluation of movement in case of insufficient information. For the long (tens of ms) pulse sequences, the threshold evaluation was stabilized. The continuous movement thresholds and the effective masking time for sound pulse sequences coincided suggesting critical role of non-simultaneous masking for the evaluation of movement continuity.

The spatial specificity of auditory approaching and withdrawing aftereffects was investigated in an anechoic chamber. The adapting and testing stimuli were presented from loudspeakers located in front of the subject at the distance of 1.1 m (near) and 4.5 m (far) from the listener's head. Approach and withdrawal of stimuli were simulated by increasing or decreasing the amplitude of the wide-noise impulse sequence. The listeners were required to determine the movement direction of test stimulus following each 5-s adaptation period. The listeners' "withdrawal" responses were used for psychometric functions plotting and for quantitative assessment of auditory aftereffect. The data summarized for all 8 participants indicated that the asymmetry of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects depended on spatial localization of adaptor and test. The asymmetry of aftereffects was largest when adaptor and test were presented from the same loudspeaker (either near or far). Adaptation to the approach induced a directionally dependent displacement of the psychometric functions relative to control condition without adaptation and adaptation to the withdrawal was not. The magnitude of approaching aftereffect was greater when adaptor and test were located in near spatial domain than when they came from far domain. When adaptor and test were presented from the distinct loudspeakers, magnitude approaching aftereffect was decreasing in comparison to the same spatial localization, but after adaptation to withdrawal it was increasing. As a result, the directionally dependent displacements of the psychometric functions relative to control condition were observed after adaptation as to approach and to withdrawal. The discrepancy of the psychometric functions received after adaptation to approach and to withdrawal at near and far spatial domains was greater under the same localization of adaptor and test in comparison to their distinct localization. We assume that the peculiarities of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects observed reflect their spatial specificity. It is possible that spatial peculiarities of approaching and withdrawing aftereffects can be associated with specialized mechanisms for analysis of motion at the different distance from subject.

The study focused at the objective and subjective indexes of human hearing system sensitivity towards different types of moving sound stimuli. The experiment employed two methods: electrophysiological (MMN recording) and psychophysical method (two-alternative forced choice). Two types of spatial sound stimuli simulated gradual and abrupt sound motion from the head midline. MMN as an objective index of spatial discrimination has been obtained in response to the subthreshold and the suprathreshold stimuli. An increase of trajectory length of the moving stimuli resulted in an increase of the MMN amplitude and of subjective discrimination as well, although their correlation remained below the significance level. The results obtained are discussed from the point of view of preconscious perception of auditory spatial information.

This paper focuses on the modeling of the neural representations of subjective auditory image motion characters that can be induced by bilateral brain dysfunctions. The modeling is based on a biologically inspired computational model that simulates the behavior of bilaterally located populations of binaural auditory neurons. To assess neural model responses in terms of psychophysical data, a special method is designed. The application of the method reveals the inertness of auditory image motion perception. The results of the modeling show stable influence of both value and bilateral location of the noises (which mimic effect of different brain part dysfunctions) on phenomena of auditory image localization.

Auditory evoked response and mismatch negativity potential have been studied using the reversed odd-ball paradigm of standard and deviant stimulus presentation. In the experiments, three types of spatial sound stimuli (stationary and moving either gradually or abruptly from the head midline) were presented in three configurations. Each configuration employed one stimulus type as standard and the other two types as deviants. It was demonstrated that the configuration reversals influenced significantly the evoked response and mismatch negativity. The results obtained are discussed as the possible evidence of the categorical perception of auditory motion revealed at the earlier stages of sound processing in the hearing system.

The ability to evaluate direction of amplitude changes of sound stimuli was studied in adults and in the 11-12- and 15-16-year old teenagers. The stimuli representing sequences of fragments of the tone of 1 kHz, whose amplitude is changing with time, are used as model of approach and withdrawal of the sound sources. The 11-12-year old teenagers at estimation of direction of amplitude changes were shown to make the significantly higher number of errors as compared with two other examined groups, including those in repeated experiments. The structure of errors - the ratio of the portion of errors at estimation of increasing and decreasing by amplitude stimulus - turned out to be different in teenagers and in adults. The question is discussed about the effect of unspecific activation of the large hemisphere cortex in teenagers on processes if taking solution about the complex sound stimulus, including a possibility estimation of approach and withdrawal of the sound source.

The review presents the data concerning auditory event-related potentials and their "mismatch negativity" component under conditions of stationary and moving sound source localization. Both free-field and dichotic experimental conditions are considered. The interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain responses elicited by the sound sources of various spatial properties is also discussed.

The mechanisms underlying acoustic capacity to localize the sound source in horizontal plane were studied. The results obtained are discussed from the aspect of existing ideas of the mechanisms providing the localization acoustic capacities in natural way of stimulation in neuronal activity of the acoustic centres. The data obtained are also considered from the viewpoint of a possible considerable improvement of deaf people's spatial orientation with the aid of bilateral implanted cochlear implants.

The precedence effect refers to the fact that humans are able to localize sound sources in reverberant environments. In this study, sound localization was studied with dual sound source: stationary (lead) and moving (lag) for two planes: horizontal and vertical. Duration of lead and lag signals was 1s. Lead-lag delays ranged from 1-40 ms. Testing was conducted in free field, with broadband noise busts (5-18 kHz). The listeners indicated the perceived location of the lag signal. Results suggest that at delays above to 25 ms in horizontal plane and 40 ms in vertical plane subjects localized correctly the moving signal. At short delays (up to 8-10 ms), regardless of the instructions, all subjects pointed to the trajectory near the lead. The echo threshold varied dramatically across listeners. Mean echo thresholds were 7.3 ms in horizontal plane and 10.1 ms in vertical plane. Statistically significant differences were not observed for two planes [F(1, 5) = 5.52; p = 0.07].

Displacement of the perceived position of the starting points relative to the objective one during the moving sound source localization is an example of the auditory perception sluggishness. The ability to localize starting and end points of sound image trajectories was studied in comparison with stationary sound image positions. Sound images moved gradually or abruptly to the left or right from the head midline. The subjects were asked to estimate the position of the virtual sound source, using the graphic tablet. It was revealed that the starting points shifted systematically in the direction of the sound image movement. This tendency was stronger for the gradual movement then for the abrupt shift, and for shorter stimuli (100 ms) in comparison with longer ones (200 ms). The starting point displacement magnitude depended on the final value of the interaural time delay. The findings are discussed in view of the "snapshort" and "movement detectors" theories. The representational momentum and anticipation ability of the auditory perception were also considered.

Auditory motion aftereffects with approaching and withdrawing sound sources were investigated in the free field. Radial sound moving image (approaching or withdrawing) was imitated by means of rhythmical noise impulse sequences with arising or diminishing amplitude presented through two loudspeakers placed at 1.1 and 4.5 m from the listener. The adaptation to the auditory approaching and withdrawing exposure caused changing of evaluation by listeners the test signals followed by adapting ones. Stationary test signals were perceived by listeners as moving to the direction opposite to ones presented during adaptation. Stimuli subtly moving to the adapting signals' direction were determined as stationary. The peculiarities of auditory motion aftereffects with approaching and withdrawing sound sources were similar to ones with horizontally moving sound sources.

Ability to discriminate the moving sound sources with different dynamic properties was studied in humans. The auditory motion was simulated by introducing variable interaural time differences into the deviant stimuli. The electrophysiological experiment explored mismatch negativity elicited by the abrupt sound shift taken as deviant against gradual sound motion taken as standard. The psychoacoustic procedure revealed that these stimuli were not differentiated behaviorally. Nevertheless, the significant mismatch negativities were obtained. It was also established that the mismatch negativity was not influenced by the direction of sound motion. The results obtained are discussed from the point of view of actual theories of moving sound localization. The findings are in line with the hypothesis that mismatch negativity should not be considered as a direct index of behavioral discrimination accuracy.

The spatial resolution of human auditory system has been studied while the localization of sound source has been changed according to the different temporal patterns of interaural time delay. Two experimental procedures have been run in the same group of subjects: psychophysical procedure (the transformed staircase method) and electrophysiological one (which requires recording of mismatch negativity, the auditory evoked response component). It has been established that 1) the magnitude of the mismatch negativity reflects the extent of spatial deviance of the sound source 2) the mismatch negativity is elicited even at minimal (20 micros) interaural time delays under both temporal patterns (abrupt azimuth change and gradual sound movement at various velocities) 3) the abrupt change of the sound source azimuth results in greater mismatch negativity than the gradual sound movement does, if the interaural time delay exceeds 40 micros 4) the discrimination threshold values of the interaural delay obtained in the psychophysical procedure are greater than the minimal interaural delays that elicit the mismatch negativity, with the exception of the expert listeners who has shown no significant difference.

The long-latency auditory evoked potentials and mismatch negativities were studied in humans using dichotic stimulation. Deviant stimuli either changed their azimuth abruptly from zero to +/- 22.5 degrees or moved gradually to the left/right from the head midline at different velocities ranging from 11.25 degrees per second to 112.5 degrees per second. It was demonstrated that the amplitude of N1-P2 wave of the evoked potential was higher when recorded from the right frontal sites than from the left sites. The mismatch negativity depended significantly on the spatial location of the deviant stimulus: the right deviants elicited greater and earlier mismatch negativities than the left deviants. The involvement of the right hemisphere in the auditory spatial discrimination is discussed.

Capability for identification of direction of movement of sound images (upward or downward) was studied in listeners of two age groups: 19- 27-year-old (11 subjects) and 55- 73-year-old (9 subjects). Various sound models of movement in the median plane were used as stimuli. Initially, a model of movement was developed based on filtration of broadband noise pulses by sets of non-individualized. i. e., measured in other listeners, head-related transfer functions. These functions corresponded to consecutive positions of the sound sources with the 5.6 degrees step between the space points with coordinates of elevation from -45 degrees to 45 degrees. The signals generated on the basis of transfer function sets of 23 subjects were distinguished by regulatory and value of the spectral minimum shift as well as by dynamic changes of the spectral maximum. Then the dynamic changes typical on non-individual sound images were used to create synthetic models. In these models, movement of sound images in the median plane was simulated either by a regular shift of the spectral minimum in broadband noise pulses or by a combination of the spectral minimum shift with a simultaneous change of the spectral maximum width and power. The obtained data have shown that young listeners with the high capability for vertical localization could identify direction of the sound image movement based on displacement of the spectral minimum in the broadband noise. For identification of direction of the sound image movement, the younger listeners with poor capabilities for vertical localization and the older listeners used dynamic changes of the signal power, which were connected mainly with the spectral maximum range.

Echo thresholds were measured for two configurations of loudspeakers in the vertical plane. The first configuration was characterized by the lead sound presentation from a loudspeaker placed in front of a subject, whereas the lag sound was presented from the loudspeaker above the subject's head. In the second configuration, the lead and lag sounds were presented from the same loudspeakers but in reverse order. All the stimuli were broadband noise bursts in the frequency range of 5-20 kHz. Burst durations were 5, 10, 20, and 100 ms. Average echo thresholds differences were significant only for the signals of 100 ms in duration (F (1, 16) = 6.28; p < 0.05). For the other signals (5, 10, 20 ms), there was no significant effect of location of lead and lag signals (p > 0.05).

The significant role of inertial features of the auditory system in localization of moving sound sources is presented. This inertia requires some time of observation about the movement in space of the auditory signals. Slower time of estimation of the localizing features of the moving sound source (as comparing with the unmoving one) is followed by the appearance of new important possibility of the auditory system, namely in perception and analysis of the parameters of moving sound sources. Meanwhile these inertial features are manifested by another significant change in the activity of the auditory system. After the cessation of the auditory signals we observed some aftereffects which manifested that the subjective perceived trajectory of the moving sound source is lengthening toward the direction of the existing movement even when the auditory signal is switched off. Stated above can serve as an evidence of presence in the auditory system some predictive possibilities concerning the direction of moving sound sources. This feature is essential from biological point of view for an adequate organisation of behaviour of the subjects.

The accuracy of localizing the underwater sound source in the vertical-plane by the bottlenose dolphin was investigated using the method of instrumental conditioned reflexes with food reinforcement. The accuracy of determining the underwater sound in the vertical plane (the full angle) was on the average: 2 - 2,5 degrees for tonal signals with frequencies of 5, 20, and 120 kHz; pulsed clicks with the central frequency of 120 kHz and the exponential forms of amplitude alteration wavefronts were localized by the dolphin with an accuracy of 1,5 degrees. Among all marine mammals examined, dolphins are characterized by the maximal exact analysis of acoustic space.

The peculiarities of underwater sound conduction through the body of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus p.) were investigated to elucidate the mechanisms of acoustic orientation of marine mammals. By using the method of instrumental conditioned reflexes with food reinforcement, underwater hearing thresholds in the bottlenose dolphin depending on signal parameters (tonal pulses and various noises) and sound conduction pathways were measured under conditions of full and partial (with the head out of water and sound being conducted through the body tissues) submergence of the animal into water. The underwater hearing thresholds increased by 6-27 dB upon sound conduction through the body tissues (to the least extent for tonal pulses of 10 and 20 kHz). The hearing thresholds for tonal pulses and narrow-band noises were very similar both under conditions of full and partial submergence of the animal into water.

A model of the acoustic field of interfering reflections from steel cylinders was developed. Analysis of the model showed the availability of great potential resources for a decrease of the influence of unwanted echoes and hence for increasing the signal-to-clatter ratio. The conformity of the available models of the echolocation hearing of the dolphin to the acoustic field of the clatter was considered. The participation of mandidle mental foramens in conducting the echo to the cochlea was considered. In this case the hearing aperture is determined by the dimensions of mental foramens, while the hearing base is determined by the distance between the mental foramens of the left and right mandible halves. There are good reasons to believe that the optimal dimensions of the aperture and the base of echolocation hearing of Odontoceti essentially increase the effectiveness of defense of their sonar from reverberation.

The work investigated event-related potentials, mismatch negativity (MMN), and P3a component under dichotic stimulation with deviant stimuli simulating abrupt or smooth displacement of auditory images to the left or to the right from the head midline by means of interaural time delay introduced into the deviant stimuli. Repetitive standard stimuli were localized near the head midline. All deviant stimuli elicited mismatch negativity and P3a component. It was shown the MMN for smooth deviant motion was lower than that for the abrupt deviant displacement. MMN amplitude for both deviant types obviously depended on interaural time delay, which confirms that MMN might be considered as a measure of the auditory system spatial discriminative ability. The P3a component demonstrated the same amplitude dependences as the MMN. The results obtained are discussed in respect to manifestation of the processes underlying the auditory motion detection in the event-related potentials.

Analysis of the lateralization phenomena of a fused auditory image (FAI) was performed on the basis of the previously developed model of the binaural directional hearing. It was found earlier that, under conditions of auditory stimulation without interaural differences, the FAI was localized at the head midline only in about a quarter of subjects. In a greater part of the listeners, the FAI was lateralized within the range of -4.6 ... +11.2 degrees from the midline. It was shown that FAI localization with reference to the head midline may be determined by the extent of asymmetry and spatial contrast between the "active" neural zones in the left and right halves of the subjective auditory space. In turn, the asymmetry (or its absence) of these "active" zones fully depends on a distribution of neurons by characteristic time delays in the left and right halves of the subjective auditory field. The model also explains the fact of a decrease in localization precision with the FAI position just at the midline.

The influence of sound image motion on postural reactions was studied. The movement of sound source was created by successive switching of the loudspeakers situated over the arc in sagittal plane. Movement duration of sound stimulus was 1.6 s, 3.2 s and 4.8 s. The mean sway magnitudes decreased when the stimuli duration was 1.6 s and 3.2 s. Averaging of the wave-forms of center-of-pressure sway for signal with 4.8 s duration revealed that the sound image presentation induces body displacement in the direction opposite to that of sound image.

Characteristics of mismatch negativity elicited by dichotic stimulation were examined using deviant stimuli simulating movement of fused auditory images towards the standard stimuli or in the reverse direction. The effect of stationary deviants localized at 90 degrees in respect to standards was also measured. The standard stimuli were localized near either of ears or along the head midline. The spatial locations were produced by introducing interaural time differences into the click trains. All deviant stimuli evoked the mismatch negativity. The deviants moving from standards seem to evoke the lowest mismatch negativity with the longest latency at all azimuthal locations of standard stimuli. Besides, the deviant shift from standards proved to be the only direction at which the characteristics of mismatch negativity depended upon the standard's azimuth. It is seems that the discrimination of interaural time delay is essentially dependent on the pattern of interaural delay changes at the moment when the deviant occurs.

Response variability of the single neurons of the inferior colliculus of mouse (Mus musculus) to series of noise bands and of notch noises with regular 1/12 octave steps of the band/notch center frequency and width of noise band/notch 1/3 octave, was studied. Neurons with strong inhibitory influence in excitatory response area (inhibitory-dominated) show low impulse activity when noise band exceeded excitatory response area. Spectral contrasts crossing the center of excitatory response area (at CF or nearly CF) were found to be the most efficient stimuli for such neurons. Neuron responses to spectral contrasts derived both from noise band and noise notch were identical. Approaching of inhibitory and excitatory inputs is expected to sharpen the auditory neurons frequency tuning to position of spectral contrasts, similar to neuronal processing in visual system. Neuron selectivity to the direction of spectral contrasts movement was determined in neuron response differences when the noise band or notch shifted from excitatory area to inhibitory areas as compared with shift in the opposite direction. Functional role of contrast mechanism for sound localization on the base spectral cues related to external ear transfer characteristics is discussed.

Amplitude changes of inferior colliculus evoked potentials (EPs) in anaesthetized adult cats were studied under presentation of acoustic stimuli simulating both azimuth-moving and stationary sound source. The movement was simulated with gradual changes of interaural time delay between binaurally presented click trains. It was shown that the amplitude of EPs elicited by "moving" signals depended on the velocity of movement. Amplitude differences between EPs to "moving" and stationary stimuli were observed under motion velocities up to 320 deg./s. The greatest response amplitudes in different experiments took place under velocities within the range of 67-320 deg./s with most of them recorded under velocities of 170 and 125 deg./s. Amplitude of the responses to lateral-medial movement with any velocity were always greater than those to opposite direction of movement with the same velocity.

Unit responses in the primary auditory cortex of anesthetized cats to stationary and apparently moving stimuli resulted from a static and dynamically varying interaural delay (ITD) were recorded. The static stimuli consisted of binaurally presented tones and clicks. The dynamic stimuli were produced by in-phase and out-of-phase binaurally presented click trains with time-varying ITD. Sensitivity to ITDs was mostly seen in responses of the neurons with low characteristic frequency (below 2.8 kHz). All cells sampled with static stimuli responded to simulated motion. A motion effect could take the form of a difference in response magnitude depending on the direction of stimulus motion and a shift in the ITD-function opposite the direction of motion. The magnitude of motion effects was influenced by the position of motion trajectory relative to the ITD-function. The greatest motion effect was produced by motion crossing the ITD-function slopes.

The work presents experimental data on certain changes in electrical responses of the auditory system's midbrain centre in a contraphasic binaural presentation of sound impulse series. Neuronal cortical activity is selective in respect to dynamic interaural changes of signals' phasic spectre which may serve as a basis for the mechanisms of localising a moving source of sound. Human auditory evoked potentials reveal a manifestation of memorizing the auditory image movement direction as shown by appearance of stimuli deviant from standard mismatch negativity.

In chronic experiment, responses of single neurons of the caudate nucleus (CN) to spatial characteristics of acoustic signal have been investigated in dogs. It is shown that 92% of neurons of the caudate nucleus' head responding to sound stimulation asymmetrically react to contra- and ipsilateral monoaural, with a greater efficacy of a contralateral stimulation. For 50% of the CN neurons simultaneous sound inputs appear more effective in comparison with contralateral stimulation. 77% of the caudate neurons responding to sound have shown sensitivity to change of the value and sign of the interaural delay.

Series of a notch noise with regular shifts of the notch center frequency: one--from low frequencies to high frequencies and the other--from high frequencies to the low, were synthesized. The notch noise series imitated sound source vertical moving. Single neuron's responses of inferior colliculus of the house mouse (Mus musculus) to the notch-noises altered with notch central frequency varying through excitatory and inhibitory frequency response areas in neurones' receptive fields. The neural responses alteration to the notch noise varying depended on the bandwidth of notch. Disinhibition in inhibitory side band could be higher if the notch overlying the inhibitory areas followed the notch overlying the excitatory areas. The data obtained make it possible to consider the excitatory and inhibitory interaction as a mechanism of neural sensitivity to the notch moving direction. Neurones' response set could provide information about sound source moving over auditory space.

Characteristics of the mismatch negativity (MMN) were studied by presenting the subjects with four blocks of stimuli containing standard series of clicks (90%) simulating a stationery sound image located in the head midline, and one of three different deviant series of clicks (10%) simulating either a stationary sound image located near the left ear or a moving sound image which shifted from the head midline to the left ear or in the opposite direction. All the deviant stimuli elicited the MMN with the minimal peak amplitude and the greatest latency evoked by the deviant series of clicks simulating the sound image moving from the head midline to the left ear. These findings suggest that the MMN may be considered as a pre-perceptual physiological measure of the discrimination accuracy for the sound signals with various spatial locations.

The findings seemed to be based on direction and velocity of modelling the radial sound source shifting in free acoustic field. The threshold and the optimal parameters of the acoustic model imitating the approaching and withdrawing of the sound source shifting in silence and under conditions of noise, were established. A correlation between peak-to-peak amplitudes of the N1-P2 components of auditory EPs and the imitated direction of the sound shifting, was shown. The role of different left and right hemispheres' areas in perception of the radial sound source was analysed. The detector features of the central auditory neurones were shown as a possible mechanism of estimating the sound source approaching and withdrawal.

Binaurally presented click trains with gradually changing ITDs were used to imitate the sound source motion. Focal EP-trains from the cat inferior colliculus, IC, were recorded, and changing amplitude of the successive EPs following successive clicks was taken for estimation of the motion effect (ME). It was shown that a) in 25% of cases the ME depends on the motion direction; b) the ME is better presented ipsilaterally in respect to the recording point, with equal dependence on motion velocity both on the left and on the right; c) the ME phenomenon is connected with prevalence of contralateral afferentation as compared to the ipsilateral one; d) the ME is connected with inhibitory phenomena such as binaural suppression of monaural afferentation; e) the ME of the best amplitude is most pronounced in the ventrolateral area of the IC central nucleus, its localisation being near to that of the great multipolar neurones, whereas slightly and moderately pronounced MEs are presented rather uniformly over the central nucleus like the "basic" neurones are; MEs of different pronouncement are supposed to depend differently on effectiveness of ipsi- and contralateral stimulation--in accordance with properties of multipolar and "basic" neurons.

A set of impulsive transient signals has been synthesized for earphone delivery whose waveform and amplitude spectra, measured at the eardrum, mimic those of sounds arriving from a free-field source. The complete stimulus set forms a "virtual acoustic space" (VAS) for the cat. VAS stimuli are delivered via calibrated earphones sealed into the external meatus in cats under barbiturate anesthesia. Neurons recorded extracellularly in primary (AI) auditory cortex exhibit sensitivity to the direction of sound in VAS. The aggregation of effective sound directions forms a virtual space receptive field (VSRF). At about 20 dB above minimal threshold, VSRFs recorded in otherwise quiet and anechoic space fall into categories based on spatial dimension and location. The size, shape and location of VSRFs remain stable over many hours of recording and are found to be shaped by excitatory and inhibitory interactions of activity arriving from the two ears. Within the VSRF response latency and strength vary systematically with stimulus direction. In an ensemble of such neurons these functional gradients provide information about stimulus direction, which closely accounts for a human listener's spatial acuity. Raising stimulus intensity, introducing continuous background noise or presenting a conditioning stimulus all influence the extent of the VSRF but leave intact the gradient structure of the field. These and other findings suggest that such functional gradients in VSRFs of ensembles of AI neurons are instrumental in coding sound direction and robust enough to overcome interference from competing environmental sounds.