Skip to main content
Log in

Forward Masking of Auditory Evoked Potentials in Dolphins in Monaural and Dichotic Sound Stimulation: Implications for the Precedence Effect and Biosonar

  • Auditory System
  • Published:
Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Non-invasive recordings were made of short-latency auditory evoked potentials (SLAEP) in the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus produced in response to paired pulse sound stimuli (conditioning and tes stimuli) delivered through transducers in contact with the acoustic window on the lower jaw. Two types of stimulation were used: monaural (both stimuli through one transducer) and dichotic (conditioning and test stimuli delivered through different transducers, one in contact with the right acoustic window and the other in contact with the left acoustic window). The conditioning and test stimuli had the same characteristics; theinterval between them varied over the range 0.15–10 msec. During monaural stimulation, suppression of the test response was the same over the range of intervals 0.15–0.5 msec; the response was recovered on further increases in the interval. In dichotic stimulation, the most marked suppression of the test response occurred at an interval of 0.5 msec, with recovery of responses at shorter and longer intervals. Complete recovery occurred when the interval was shortened to 0.15 msec and lengthened to 2 msec. The significance of these results for the precedence effect and for dolphin biosonar is discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agaeva, M. Yu. and Al’tman, Ya. A., “Echo thresholds measured in the vertical and horizontal planes,” Hum. Physiol., 34, 678–684 (2008).

  • Au, W. W. L., The Sonar of Dolphins, Springer, New York (1993).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Au, W. W. L. and Hastings, M. C., Principles of Marine Bioacoustics Springer, New York (2008).

  • Bianchi, F., Verhulst, S., and Dau, T., “Experimental evidence for a cochlear source of the precedence effect,” J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol., 14, 767–779 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bibikov, N. G., “What do evoked potentials tell us about the acoustic system of the harbor porpoise?” Acoust. Physics, 50, 295–304 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Brill, R. L., “The effect of attenuating returning echolocation signals at the lower jaw of a dolphin Tursiops truncatus,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 89, 2851–2857 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Brill, R. L., Sevenich, M. L., Sullivan, T. J., et al., “Behavioral evidence for hearing through the lower jaw by an echolocating dolphin, Tursiops truncatus,” Marine Mammal. Sci., 4, 223–230 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, A. D. and Stecker, G. C., “The precedence effect in sound localization: fusion and lateralization measures for pairs and trains of clicks lateralized by interaural time and level differences,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 133, 2883–2898 (2013).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, A. D., Stecker, G. C., and Tollin, D. J., “The precedence effect in sound localization,” J. Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol., 16, 1–28 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, T. H., Grinnell, A. D., Ikezono, F., et al., “Electrophysiological studies of the central auditory mechanisms in cetaceans,” Z. Vergl. Physiol., 59, 117–156 (1968).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cranford, T. W., Amundin, M., and Norris, K. S., “Functional morphology and homology in the odontocete nasal complex: implications for sound generation,” J. Morphol., 228, 223–285 (1996).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cranford, T. W., Krysl, P., and Hildebrand, J. A., “Acoustic pathways revealed: Simulated sound transmission and reception in Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris),” Bioinspir. Biomim., 3, 1–10 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houser, D. S., Finneran, J., Carder, D., et al., “Structural and functional imaging of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) cranial anatomy,” J. Exp. Biol., 207, 3657–3665 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ketten, D. R., “Cetacean ears,” in: Hearing by Whales and Dolphins, Springer, New York (2000), pp. 43–108.

  • Litovsky, R. Y. and Shinn-Cunningham, D. G., “Investigation of the relationship among three common measures of the precedence: Fusion, localization dominance, and discrimination suppression,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 109, 346–358 (2001).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, J. G., Wever, E. G., Palin, G., and Ridgway, S. H., “Sound conduction in the dolphin ear,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 48, 1418–1428 (1970).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Møhl, B., Au, W. W. L., Pawloski, J., and Nachtigall, P. E., “Dolphin hearing: Relative sensitivity as a function of point of application of a contact sound source in the jaw and head region,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 105, 3421–3424 (1999).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norris, K. S., “The evolution of acoustic mechanisms in odontocete cetaceans,” in: Evolution and Environment, Yale University, New Haven (1968), pp. 297–324.

  • Norris, K. S., “The echolocation of marine mammals,” in: The Biology of Marine Mammals, Academic, New York (1969), pp. 391–424.

  • Norris, K. S., “Peripheral sound processing in odontocetes,” in: Animal Sonar Systems, Plenum, New York (1980), pp. 495–509.

  • Popov, V. V., Nechaev, D. I., Supin, A. Ya., and Sysueva, E. V., “Forward masking in a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus: Dependence on azimuthal positions of the masker and test sources,” J. Comp. Physiol. A, 208, 605–613 (2022).

  • Popov, V. V., Nechaev, D. I., Supin, A. Ya., and Sysueva, E. V., “Interaural sequential masking in the dolphin auditory system,” Neurosci. Behav. Physiol., 53, No. 2, 272– 278 (2023).

  • Popov, V. V. and Supin, A. Ya., “Localization of the acoustic window at the dolphin’s head,” in: Sensory Abilities of Cetaceans: Laboratory and Field Evidence, Plenum, New York, (1990), pp. 417–426.

  • Popov, V. V., Supin, A. Ya., and Klishin, V. O., “Electrophysiological study of sound conduction in dolphins,” in: Marine Mammal Sensory Systems, Plenum, New York (1992), pp. 269–276.

  • Popov, V. V., Supin, A. Ya., and Klishin, V. O., “Auditory brainstem response recovery in the dolphin as revealed by double sound pulses of different frequencies,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 110, 2227–2233 (2001).

  • Schuchmann, M., Hübner, M., and Wiegrebe, L., “The absence of spatial echo suppression in the echolocating bats Megaderma lyra and Phyllostomus discolor,” J. Exp. Biol., 209, 152–157 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seeber, B. U. and Hafter, E. R., “Failure of the precedence effect with a noise band vocoder,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 129, 1509–1521 (2011).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Supin, A. Ya. and Nachtigall, P. E., “Gain control in the sonar of odontocetes,” J. Comp. Physiol. A, 199, 471–478 (2013).

  • Supin, A. Ya., Nachtigall, P. E., and Brees, M., “Evoked-potential recovery during double click stimulation in a whale: A possibility of biosonar automatic gain control,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 121, 618–625 (2007).

  • Supin, A. Ya. and Popov, V. V., “Temporal resolution in the dolphin’s auditory system revealed by double-click evoked potential study,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 97, 2586–2593 (1995).

  • Supin, A. Ya., Popov, V. V., and Mass, A. M., The Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Mammals, Kluwer, Boston (2001).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. V. Sysueva.

Additional information

Translated from Sensornye Sistemy, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 162–170, April–June, 2023.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Supin, A.Y., Sysueva, E.V., Nechaev, D.I. et al. Forward Masking of Auditory Evoked Potentials in Dolphins in Monaural and Dichotic Sound Stimulation: Implications for the Precedence Effect and Biosonar. Neurosci Behav Physi 54, 157–163 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-024-01578-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-024-01578-x

Keywords

Navigation