Research overview: binaural cues and interaural comparisons in cats

Localizing sound in the horizontal plane depends on comparing the signals reaching the two ears, and cats exploit these binaural cues effectively. This overview surveys interaural time and level differences, the tiny differences in arrival time and intensity between the ears that the feline auditory system uses to judge the direction of a sound. For sounds arriving from one side, the nearer ear receives them slightly sooner and louder, and the brain decodes these differences into a direction estimate. The survey relates binaural processing to the cat's strong localization performance and to its role as a model in auditory neuroscience. It discusses how binaural cues combine with pinna-derived spectral cues for full three-dimensional localization. Understanding binaural hearing connects the physics of two-eared listening to the cat's ability to place sounds in space, a key skill for a predator that must direct strikes toward unseen prey by ear.