Question

Why does a narrow ITD tuning curve suggest that an animal might be better at sound localization?

Answer 1

A narrow ITD tuning curve helps in identifying that an animal better sound localization. The ITD or interaural time difference helps the animals to localize the sounds within the horizontal space and they can figure out the sound by finding the difference in arrival time of the sound within both the ears. The ITD tuning curve tend to become narrower with the increase in the frequency. As the frequency of the sound increases, it tends to help in better sound localization and hence it narrows down the ITD. Hence as they are generated from high frequency sound, they are easy to localize and hence they become narrow.