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Evolutionary aspects of bat echolocation

  • Karl von Frisch Lecture
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Abstract

This review is yet another attempt to explain how echolocation in bats or bat-like mammals came into existence. Attention is focused on neuronal specializations in the ascending auditory pathway of echolocating bats. Three different mechanisms are considered that may create a specific auditory sensitivity to echos: (1) time-windows of enhanced echo-processing opened by a corollary discharge of neuronal vocalization commands; (2) differentiation and expansion of ensembles of combination-sensitive neurons in the midbrain; and (3) corticofugal top-down modulations. The second part of the review interprets three different types of echolocation as adaptations to ecological niches, and presents the sophisticated cochlear specializations in constant-frequency/frequency-modulated bats as a case study of finely tuned differentiation. It is briefly discussed how a resonant mechanism in the inner ear of constant-frequency/frequency-modulated bats may have evolved in common mammalian cochlea.

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Fig. 1a–d.
Fig. 2a–c.
Fig. 3a–c.
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Abbreviations

AVCN:

anteroventral cochlear nucleus

CF:

constant frequency element of an echolocation signal

DPOAE:

distortion product otoacoustic emission

FM:

frequency-modulated echolocation signal

IC:

inferior colliculus

IHC:

inner hair cell

INLL:

intermediate nucleus of the lateral lemniscus

MSO:

medial superior olive

OAE:

otoacoustic emission

OHC:

outer hair cell

PVCN:

posterior ventral cochlear nucleus

SI:

sparsely innervated section of the cochlea

SOC:

superior olivary complex

VNLL:

ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus

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Acknowledgements

I thank Prof. Manfred Kössl, Frankfurt for critically reading the manuscript, and S. Peisker for preparing the figures. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer who helped to clarify the text.

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  1. Department of Biology II, University of Munich (LMU), Luisenstrasse 14, 80333, München, Germany

    G. Neuweiler

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Neuweiler, G. Evolutionary aspects of bat echolocation. J Comp Physiol A 189, 245–256 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0406-2

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