Abstract
This chapter is a personal perspective on the neurobehavioral study of auditory cortex and the comparative study of mammalian hearing. These two lines of research have their roots in the cortical ablation studies of Dewey Neff and the comparative approach brought to it by Irving Diamond. Progress in these areas was accelerated by the development of behavioral tests for determining the sensory abilities of animals that began in the laboratory of James Smith of Florida State University and were adapted by Bruce Masterton and his students for testing hearing in animals. In addition to describing the study of auditory cortex by testing animals before and after cortical ablation and the study of mammalian hearing by comparing the audiograms and sound localization abilities of mammals of different sizes and lifestyles, the chapter describes how behavioral procedures for testing the sensory abilities of animals changed over time. It tells the stories that are not often found in the research reports, such as how the study of auditory cortex accidently led to the comparative study of mammalian hearing, why an auditory laboratory had to learn to do retinal whole mounts in order to explain mammalian sound localization, and what the reasons were behind the development of behavioral procedures for testing animal hearing. In addition to describing past and current views, thoughts on the future are presented.
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Heffner, H.E., Heffner, R.S. (2014). The Behavioral Study of Mammalian Hearing. In: Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Perspectives on Auditory Research. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 50. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9102-6_15
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