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The ability to quickly detect and accurately decode emotional stimuli arising in the environment is critical for an organism’s survival. Some of these stimuli are species-specific and their affective value innate, genetically determined throughout evolution. In contrast, other signals have no intrinsic meaning and only acquire a particular emotional value through experience; their meaning may thus vary from individual to individual, and depends on the specific spatial and temporal context in which they appear. Although all sensory modalities can carry emotional information, acoustic stimuli are particularly well suited for efficiently conveying biologically relevant information, such as information about predators. For instance, the sound made by an approaching predator can be detected well before the animal enters the potential prey’s field of view. This is due to the ability of auditory stimuli to signal distant events and their …