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Volume 17, Number 5, Issue of March 1, 1997 pp. 1720-1733
Copyright ©1997 Society for Neuroscience

Spatially Selective Auditory Responses in the Superior Colliculus of the Echolocating Bat

Received March 25, 1996; revised Nov. 26, 1996; accepted Dec. 2, 1996.

Doreen E. Valentine and Cynthia F. Moss

Program in Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

When a bat approaches a target, it continuously modifies its echolocation sounds and relies on incoming echo information to shape the characteristics of its subsequent sonar cries. In addition, acoustic information about the azimuth and elevation of a sonar target elicits orienting movements of the head and pinnae toward the sound source. This requires a common sensorimotor interface, where echo information is used to guide motor behaviors.

Using single-unit neurophysiological methods and free-field auditory stimulation, we present data on biologically relevant specializations in the superior colliculus (SC) of the bat for orientation by sonar. In the bat's SC, two classes of spatially tuned neurons are distinguished by their sensitivity to echoes. One population shows facilitated, delay-tuned responses to pairs of sounds, simulating sonar emissions and echoes. Delay tuning, related to encoding target range, may play a role in guiding motor responses in echolocation, because the bat adjusts its emissions with changes in target distance. The delay-facilitated response depends on the direction of stimulation and on the temporal relationship between the simulated emission and echo in the sound pair, suggesting that this class of neurons represents the location of a target in three dimensions. A second population encodes the target in two dimensions, azimuth and elevation, and does not show a facilitated response to echoes delivered from any locus. Encoding of azimuth and elevation may be important for directing head aim, and this class may function in transforming auditory spatial information into signals used to guide acoustic orientation.

Key words: superior colliculus; echolocation; bats; acoustic orientation; spatial perception; sensorimotor integration

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Ulanovsky and C. F. Moss What the bat's voice tells the bat's brain PNAS, June 24, 2008; 105(25): 8491 - 8498. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. R. Sinha and C. F. Moss Vocal Premotor Activity in the Superior Colliculus J. Neurosci., January 3, 2007; 27(1): 98 - 110. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Suga, E. Gao, Y. Zhang, X. Ma, and J. F. Olsen The corticofugal system for hearing: Recent progress PNAS, October 24, 2000; 97(22): 11807 - 11814. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. V. Portfors and J. J. Wenstrup Delay-Tuned Neurons in the Inferior Colliculus of the Mustached Bat: Implications for Analyses of Target Distance J Neurophysiol, September 1, 1999; 82(3): 1326 - 1338. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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