A comparative study of human auditory models of interaural processing for lateral angle estimation

A number of auditory models have been developed that process binaural sound to estimate interaural cues and the perceived lateral angle. Such models share comparable stages of signal processing, since they aim at emulating specific functions of human hearing processing. We compare some of these models for which their implementation is available. In particular, we focus on understanding differences between the following model-specific stages to isolate their effect on interaural cue processing: cochlear filterbank, inner hair cell and auditory nerve modelling, binaural processing, interaural cue estimation and response decision. Additional analyses concentrate on isolating specific model stages to asses their effect against alternative strategies. The discussion includes some recommendations for future applications of auditory models.