Peripheral Adaptations for Spatial Hearing in Fish

Abstract

We know from our own experience that hearing is a spatial sense. Sounds are perceived as sources—objects having a number of characteristics, including size, direction, and distance. In addition, ambient sound that reaches our ears contains rich information about the overall structure of the acoustical environment, including the sources of sounds and the location and characteristics of reflectors. We are often unaware of the richness of auditory space and texture, perhaps because so much of human “listening” focuses on speech and speech messages; but it is likely that auditory space perception is of greater general biological significance than the decoding of vocalized messages, since all vertebrates have clear peripheral and central adaptations for spatial hearing, whereas only some have found value in vocalization.