In this talk I will present my attempts to explain neuronal coding of binaural sounds as a form of adaptation to natural stimulus statistics. In my work I analysed recordings of real-world auditory environments and constructed statistical models of these data building on ideas of efficient coding. I further compared regularities present in natural stimuli with known, experimentally observed neuronal mechanisms of spatial hearing and found a close match between the two.

In a more general perspective, I will use the binaural auditory system as a starting point to consider the notion of function implemented by sensory neurons. I will discuss the possibility that abstract principles such as redundancy reduction can provide a candidate theory of functional separation in sensory systems.