Comparison of sound location variations in free and reverberant fields: An event-related potential study.

This study compares event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by variations of sound location in free and reverberant fields. The virtual sound sources located at azimuths 0 degrees - 40 degrees were synthesized with head-related transfer functions and binaural room impulse responses for free and reverberant fields, respectively. The sound stimulus at 0 degrees was assigned as standard in the oddball paradigm. Results show that the P3 amplitude is larger in the free field and acoustical conditions have no significant effect on the amplitudes of N2 and mismatch negativity. Moreover, a linear relationship between sound angle and amplitude of ERP components is observed.