Overview

• A Journal of Neuroscience paper reports results from 30 volunteers who walked a figure-eight path while listening to a continuous sound stream as researchers recorded brain activity.
• Neural responses to sound were stronger during walking than during standing or walking in place, with effects comparable in size to changing sound intensity.
• Turning direction transiently biased ear-specific responses, with the ear on the turning side showing initial enhancement followed by suppression.
• Brief tone bursts presented to one ear disrupted the ongoing associative response and elicited the strongest reactions during walking, indicating heightened sensitivity to peripheral input.
• The authors interpret the pattern as the brain downweighting predictable footsteps and upweighting novel sounds to aid navigation, based on neural measures collected in a controlled lab task.