Temporal integration in the echolocating bat, Megaderma lyra

Wiegrebe, Lutz und Schmidt, Sabine (1996): Temporal integration in the echolocating bat, Megaderma lyra. In: Hearing Research, Bd. 102, Nr. 1/2: S. 35-42

Abstract

Temporal integration is a crucial feature of auditory temporal processing. We measured the psychophysical temporal integration of acoustic intensity in the echolocating bat Megaderma lyra using a two-alternative forced-choice procedure. A measuring paradigm was chosen in which the absolute threshold for pairs of short tone pips was determined as a function of the temporal separation between the pips. The time constants determined with this paradigm are a crucial characteristic of the sonar system of M. lyra, a species orientating in its environment by very short broadband sonar calls emitted at high rates. Two different carrier frequencies for the tone pips were used to obtain data from the lower and the higher half of the hearing area of M. lyra. Both in the lower and in the higher frequency range, M. lyra showed very short time constants of about 220 mu s. Our results are comparable to data from the echolocating dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, showing click integration times of about 260 mu s and to estimates of auditory temporal integration in the context of echo clutter interference in the big brown bat.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Biologie > Department Biologie II > Neurobiologie
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
• ISSN: 0378-5955
• Sprache: Englisch