prenatal auditory localization PS

[Richard Parncutt <richard.parncutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

PS My question about prenatal auditory localization was a bit unclear
about physical cues. Of course the (small!) fetal head will cast no
acoustic shadow at such low frequencies, so intensity differences are no
use. But it is possible that the fetus could perceive the time
difference between the arrival of the wavefront at the two ears in much
the same way that adults do. A possible problem is that this time
difference is even smaller for the fetus (since the head is smaller).
Conversely, the fetal brain may not be as fast as an adult brain at
processing such short time intervals. But if babies can do it, then
there seems to be no physical reason why the fetus could not do it too.

--
Richard Parncutt, Ph.D., Professor of Systematic Musicology
Department of Musicology, University of Graz
Mozartgasse 3,  A-8010 Graz (Austria/Europe)
Tel +43 316 380-2409 or -2405   Fax +43 316 380-9755
<lastname>@uni-graz.at   http://www-gewi.uni-graz.at/muwi/parncutt