Humans receive information from their environment via the visual and auditory systems. This information protects us from dangers and guarantees vital actions, such as social interaction, locomotion, work processes and nutrition. The most important anatomical and functional features of these two sensory systems are compared and elucidated with respect to their interaction/functional complementarity. For this purpose, a selective literature search was carried out in the databases PubMed (also in the Europe PubMed Central), Psychline, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Additional information was obtained from relevant books and websites in the fields of (neuro)anatomy, (neuro)physiology, (neuro)ophthalmology and (neuro)otology. Search terms were Hörbahn, Sehbahn, visual system, auditory system, visual pathway, auditory pathway, receptors, spatial hearing, spatial cognition, auditory cognition and visual cognition.
Keywords: Auditory system; Retinotopy; Sensory systems; Tonotopy; Visual system.