The location of sounds can be described in multiple coordinate systems that are defined relative to ourselves, or the world around us. Evidence from neural recordings in animals point toward the existence of both head-centered and world-centered representations of sound location in the brain; however, it is unclear whether such neural representations have perceptual correlates in the sound localization abilities of nonhuman listeners. Here, we establish novel behavioral tests to determine the coordinate systems in which ferrets can localize sounds. We found that ferrets could learn to discriminate between sound locations that were fixed in either world-centered or head-centered space, across wide variations in sound location in the alternative coordinate system. Using probe sounds to assess broader generalization of spatial hearing, we demonstrated that in both head and world-centered tasks, animals used continuous maps of auditory space to guide behavior. Single trial responses of individual animals were sufficiently informative that we could then model sound localization using speaker position in specific coordinate systems and accurately predict ferrets' actions in held-out data. Our results demonstrate that ferrets, an animal model in which neurons are known to be tuned to sound location in egocentric and allocentric reference frames, can also localize sounds in multiple head and world-centered spaces.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans can describe the location of sounds either relative to themselves, or in the world, independent of their momentary position. These different spaces are also represented in the activity of neurons in animals, but it is not clear whether nonhuman listeners also perceive both head and world-centered sound location. Here, we designed behavioral tasks in which ferrets discriminated between sounds using their position in the world, or relative to the head. Subjects learnt to solve both problems and generalized sound location in each space when presented with infrequent probe sounds. These findings reveal a perceptual correlate of neural sensitivity previously observed in the ferret brain and establish that, like humans, ferrets can access an auditory map of their local environment.

声音的位置可以在多个坐标系中描述，这些坐标系是相对于我们自己或我们周围的世界定义的。来自动物神经记录的证据表明大脑中存在以头部为中心和以世界为中心的声音位置表征；然而，尚不清楚此类神经表征是否与非人类听众的声音定位能力具有感知相关性。在这里，我们建立了新的行为测试来确定雪貂可以定位声音的坐标系。我们发现雪貂可以学会区分固定在以世界为中心或以头部为中心的空间中的声音位置，跨越替代坐标系中声音位置的广泛变化。使用探测声音来评估更广泛的空间听觉概括，我们证明，在以头部和以世界为中心的任务中，动物使用连续的听觉空间图来指导行为。个体动物的单次试验反应提供了足够的信息，因此我们可以使用特定坐标系中的扬声器位置对声音定位进行建模，并准确预测雪貂在保留数据中的行为。我们的结果表明，雪貂是一种动物模型，已知其神经元在自我中心和非中心参考系中调整到声音位置，也可以在多个头部和以世界为中心的空间中定位声音。个体动物的单次试验反应提供了足够的信息，因此我们可以使用特定坐标系中的扬声器位置对声音定位进行建模，并准确预测雪貂在保留数据中的行为。我们的结果表明，雪貂是一种动物模型，已知其神经元在自我中心和非中心参考系中调整到声音位置，也可以在多个头部和以世界为中心的空间中定位声音。个体动物的单次试验反应提供了足够的信息，因此我们可以使用特定坐标系中的扬声器位置对声音定位进行建模，并准确预测雪貂在保留数据中的行为。我们的结果表明，雪貂是一种动物模型，已知其神经元在自我中心和非中心参考系中调整到声音位置，也可以在多个头部和以世界为中心的空间中定位声音。

意义声明人类可以描述声音相对于他们自己或在世界上的位置，而与他们的瞬时位置无关。这些不同的空间也体现在动物神经元的活动中，但尚不清楚非人类听众是否也能感知头部和以世界为中心的声音位置。在这里，我们设计了行为任务，其中雪貂使用它们在世界中的位置或相对于头部的位置来区分声音。当出现不常见的探测声音时，受试者学会解决每个空间中的问题和一般声音位置。这些发现揭示了先前在雪貂大脑中观察到的神经敏感性的感知相关性，并证实，与人类一样，雪貂可以访问其当地环境的听觉地图。