New perspectives on the owl's map of auditory space

•A mapped representation of auditory space emerges in the midbrain.•Frontal space is over represented and spatial tuning broadens in the periphery.•The non-uniform representation is predicted by statistical inference.•The auditory space map is plastic, aligning with a template visual map.•The representation in the map is context-dependent, supporting saliency coding.

A map of sound direction was found in the owl's midbrain more than three decades ago. This finding suggested that the brain reconstructs spatial coordinates to represent them. Subsequent research elucidated the variables used to compute the map. Here we provide a review of the processes leading to its emergence and an updated perspective on how and what information is represented.