Can auditory brainstem and midbrain processing of interaural level difference cues really explain perceptual performance?

Neurons in the lateral superior olive (LSO) are believed to be involved in processing of interaural level difference (ILD) cues for sound localization. However, the ILD-tuning of LSO neurons varies with the absolute sound pressure levels (SPLs) at the two ears, in contrast to the relatively robust perceptual processing of ILD cues at different absolute SPLs. Tsai et al. (J. Neurophysiol. 2010) proposed that if some inferior colliculus (IC) …