Temporal encoding precision of bat auditory neurons tuned to target distance deteriorates on the way to the cortex

• Published in: Journal of Comparative Physiology Vol. 202; no. 3; pp. 195 - 202
• Main Authors: Macias, Silvio, Hechavarria, Julio C, Kossl, Manfred
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Acoustics; Action Potentials - physiology; Animal Physiology; Animals; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Auditory Pathways - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chiroptera - physiology; Echolocation - physiology; Inferior Colliculi - cytology; Life Sciences; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Reaction Time - physiology; Signal Detection, Psychological; Statistics, Nonparametric; Zoology; Bats; Spiking precision; Delay tuning; Inferior colliculus; Auditory cortex

During echolocation, bats estimate distance to avoid obstacles and capture moving prey. The primary distance cue is the delay between the bat’s emitted echolocation pulse and the return of an echo. In the bat’s auditory system, echo delay-tuned neurons that only respond to pulse–echo pairs having a...