article_snippet.sent: How we work out the distance of something we can hear but not see has been somewhat of a mystery - until now.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists say we know how far away the source of a sound is by listening to the echoes a sound produces.
article_snippet.sent: In a study Scientists found that the reverberations of sound help us locate the distance of, for example, a car passing round a bend or a person nearby.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists at the University of Connecticut say we know how far away the source of a sound is by listening to the echoes a sound produces (stock image shown).
article_snippet.sent: In a study Scientists at the University of Connecticut found that the reverberation of sound helps us locate the distance of, for example, a car passing round a bend or a person nearby .
article_snippet.sent: The research use to figure out the distance between us and the source of a noise.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers have long understood how us can tell a sound's direction - whether it's to us left or right, front or back, and above or below us.
article_snippet.sent: The third dimension of sound location was pretty much unknown,' said Dr Duck Kim, a neuroscientist at UConn Health.
article_snippet.sent: The results suggest that, as a sound gets further away, our brains are able to work out the differences in its maximum and minimum volume - and thus its distance.
article_snippet.sent: The researchers hope to investigate the problem further, and  tie together the perception of distance, horizontal and vertical directions of sound.