THE ROLE OF THE PINNA IN HUMAN LOCALIZATION

In theory, the role of the pinna in localization is to introduce, by means of delay paths, a transformation of the incoming signal which is mentally inverted to provide attention, and that the inverse transform required defines the location of the sound source. It may be that relatively simple systems of delays, attenuations, and signed additions may be used to construct the inverse transformations, and that these could easily be realized in the nervous system. It may be further theorized that the same method of constructing inverse transformations can apply to monaural and binaural localization, sound recognition, and the utilization of reverberation.