Sound localization in pigeon (Columba livia).

The presence of a binaurally activated nucleus (nucleus laminaris) in the hindbrain of birds suggests that they may be capable of binaural sound localization. In this report, after verification that pigeons were capable of either homing or scanning for the source of a sound, 5 Ss were also shown to be (a) capable of localizing a single burst of noise whose duration was too brief for homing or scanning; (b) capable of using either binaural time or intensity disparities for the localization of brief tones; (c) capable of localizing a single tone-pip throughout their frequency range of hearing from 125 Hz to 8 kHz, though having considerable difficulty in their midfrequency range (1–2 kHz); and (d) capable of localizing a single brief burst of narrow band noise even in their midfrequency range. It is concluded that the capacity of pigeons to localize brief sounds and to use binaural disparity cues for doing so is not qualitatively different from that of mammals and, therefore, that the nucleus laminaris or some similar brain-stem nuclei in pigeons are probably analogous in their contribution to sound localization to the superior olivary complex in mammals. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)