How do human can judge the exact location of source of sound with 2 ears?

Question

With eyes closed, How do we know whether the sound comes from front or rear ?

Answer 1

one of the Major organs int the ear that deals with hearing is called the Cochlea this organ is filled with support cells and hair cells. The hair cells are named for there long stiff micro villi called stereocilia. there are about 3500 inner hair cells and 20000 other hair cells. the inner hair cells produce about 90-95% of the sound we hear. There are bipolar neurons at the base of these hairs. The axons of these neurons form the cochlear nerve. the cochlear nerve then connects to the Vestibular nerve becoming the establishes nerve(cranial nerve VIII) That nerve enters the cochlear nuclei on either side of the pones. nerves connect to the tensor tympani and stapes muscle. The superior olivary nucleus function in binaural hearing comparing sound strenght from each ear to determin where the sound came from

Answer 2

Basically, I think the brain 'triangulates' sound location the way two radio direction finders can...information on the direction the sound is heard is received from both ears and the brain uses this to localize the sound...probably why our ears are as far away from each other as possible, on opposite sides of the head

Answer 3

As a added bonus-owls have ears that are placed slightly different on their heads. Because of this, they can determine exactly where the sound is coming from. They can locate a mouse that is making tunnels in the snow.