Hearing Where Things Are

Echolocating bats rely mainly on their biological§sonar system to navigate and capture pray. Bats§perceive direction, distance and identity of objects§in space by emitting brief ultrasound pulses and§listening to the echoes returned. By investigating§directional properties of the bat sonar system via§acoustic measurements of external ears and sound§emission directivities this study reveals§direction-dependent acoustic cues that are available§to bats for localizing echo sources in space. It also§brings out the necessity of the extra-auditory§information for the interpretation of the acoustic§spatial information. The book further focuses on how§an organism could learn to localize sound sources§without any a priori neural representation of its§direction-dependent acoustic cues or prior experience§with auditory spatial information. A sensorimotor§model is proposed to address this question reveals§how different aspects of sound localization, e.g.§experience-dependent acquisition, adaptation, and§extra-auditory influences, can be joined under a§comprehensive framework for the first time.