A novel view of hearing in reverberation.

In nature, sounds of interest arrive at the eardrums accompanied by echoes that reflect off of surfaces. This superposition can distort the cues by which we localize the source of a sound. Yet, we seem to have no difficulty turning precisely toward the source even in the presence of moderately intense echoes. The article by Devore and colleagues in this issue of Neuron suggests that the auditory system can perform this feat by being more responsive to the early portion of a sound which includes the earliest portions when the echoes have yet to arrive.