Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor

Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor

Summary: Echo-imaging evolved as the main remote sense under lightless conditions. It is most precise in the third dimension (depth) rather than in the visually dominating dimensions of azimuth and elevation. We asked how the auditory system accesses spatial information in the dimensions of azimuth...

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Main Authors: A. Leonie Baier, Lutz Wiegrebe, Holger R. Goerlitz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2019-04-01
Series:iScience
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219300951
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spelling doaj-fe66a64148124ad5a8e905584d2969722020-11-24T23:08:23ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422019-04-0114335344Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial SensorA. Leonie Baier0Lutz Wiegrebe1Holger R. Goerlitz2Department Biology II, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 82152 Martinsried, Germany; Acoustic and Functional Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, 82319 Seewiesen, GermanyDepartment Biology II, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 82152 Martinsried, Germany; Corresponding authorAcoustic and Functional Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany; Corresponding authorSummary: Echo-imaging evolved as the main remote sense under lightless conditions. It is most precise in the third dimension (depth) rather than in the visually dominating dimensions of azimuth and elevation. We asked how the auditory system accesses spatial information in the dimensions of azimuth and elevation with a sensory apparatus that is fundamentally different from vision. We quantified echo-acoustic parameters of surface-wave patterns with impulse-response recordings and quantified bats' perceptual sensitivity to such patterns with formal psychophysics. We demonstrate that the spectro-temporal auditory representation of a wave pattern implicitly encodes its spatial frequency. We further show that bats are much more sensitive to wave patterns of high spatial frequencies than of low spatial frequencies. We conclude that echo-imaging accesses spatial information by exploiting an inherent environmental high-pass filter for spatial frequency. The functional similarities yet mechanistic differences between visual and auditory system signify convergent evolution of spatial-information processing. : Acoustics; Bioacoustics; Biological Sciences; Zoology Subject Areas: Acoustics, Bioacoustics, Biological Sciences, Zoologyhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219300951
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author A. Leonie Baier
Lutz Wiegrebe
Holger R. Goerlitz
spellingShingle A. Leonie Baier
Lutz Wiegrebe
Holger R. Goerlitz
Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
iScience
author_facet A. Leonie Baier
Lutz Wiegrebe
Holger R. Goerlitz
author_sort A. Leonie Baier
title Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
title_short Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
title_full Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
title_fullStr Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
title_full_unstemmed Echo-Imaging Exploits an Environmental High-Pass Filter to Access Spatial Information with a Non-Spatial Sensor
title_sort echo-imaging exploits an environmental high-pass filter to access spatial information with a non-spatial sensor
publisher Elsevier
series iScience
issn 2589-0042
publishDate 2019-04-01
description Summary: Echo-imaging evolved as the main remote sense under lightless conditions. It is most precise in the third dimension (depth) rather than in the visually dominating dimensions of azimuth and elevation. We asked how the auditory system accesses spatial information in the dimensions of azimuth and elevation with a sensory apparatus that is fundamentally different from vision. We quantified echo-acoustic parameters of surface-wave patterns with impulse-response recordings and quantified bats' perceptual sensitivity to such patterns with formal psychophysics. We demonstrate that the spectro-temporal auditory representation of a wave pattern implicitly encodes its spatial frequency. We further show that bats are much more sensitive to wave patterns of high spatial frequencies than of low spatial frequencies. We conclude that echo-imaging accesses spatial information by exploiting an inherent environmental high-pass filter for spatial frequency. The functional similarities yet mechanistic differences between visual and auditory system signify convergent evolution of spatial-information processing. : Acoustics; Bioacoustics; Biological Sciences; Zoology Subject Areas: Acoustics, Bioacoustics, Biological Sciences, Zoology
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004219300951
work_keys_str_mv AT aleoniebaier echoimagingexploitsanenvironmentalhighpassfiltertoaccessspatialinformationwithanonspatialsensor
AT lutzwiegrebe echoimagingexploitsanenvironmentalhighpassfiltertoaccessspatialinformationwithanonspatialsensor
AT holgerrgoerlitz echoimagingexploitsanenvironmentalhighpassfiltertoaccessspatialinformationwithanonspatialsensor
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