Final answer:
A time lag between left and right auditory stimulation is key for locating sounds, due to interaural timing differences processed by the auditory system to find the sound's horizontal origin.
Step-by-step explanation:
A time lag between left and right auditory stimulation is important for accurately locating sounds. This aspect of hearing involves binaural cues, which include both interaural level differences and interaural timing differences. Interaural timing differences occur because a sound will arrive at the ear closer to the source slightly before it reaches the opposite ear. This difference in time helps our brain calculate the sound's location in space. For example, if a sound source is to the left, the sound wave will hit the left ear microseconds before the right, which is then processed by central auditory nuclei in the brain stem to determine the sound's horizontal location.