Microsecond sensitivity to envelope interaural time differences in rats

Currently, there is controversy around whether rats can use interaural time differences (ITDs) to localize sound. Here, naturalistic pulse train stimuli were used to evaluate the rat's sensitivity to onset and ongoing ITDs using a two-alternative forced choice sound lateralization task. Pulse rates between 50 Hz and 4.8 kHz with rectangular or Hanning windows were delivered with ITDs between ±175 μs over a near-field acoustic setup. Similar to other mammals, rats performed with 75% accuracy at ∼50 μs ITD, demonstrating that rats are highly sensitive to envelope ITDs.