Sound localization in a changing world

•Auditory spatial processing is updated as behavioral goals and sensory conditions change.•Adaptation to monaural deprivation can occur throughout the lifespan.•Adaptation can be achieved by remapping the altered cues or by cue reweighting.•The expression of adaptive changes can be specific to particular auditory contexts.•Behavioral plasticity likely emerges from interactions between cortical and subcortical processing.

In natural environments, neural systems must be continuously updated to reflect changes in sensory inputs and behavioral goals. Recent studies of sound localization have shown that adaptation and learning involve multiple mechanisms that operate at different timescales and stages of processing, with other sensory and motor-related inputs playing a key role. We are only just beginning to understand, however, how these processes interact with one another to produce adaptive changes at the level of neuronal populations and behavior. Because there is no explicit map of auditory space in the cortex, studies of sound localization may also provide much broader insight into the plasticity of complex neural representations that are not topographically organized.