Object localization using a biosonar beam: how opening your mouth improves localization.

ABSTRACT: Determining the location of a sound source is crucial for survival. Both predators and prey usually produce sound while moving, revealing valuable information about their presence and location. Animals have thus evolved morphological and neural adaptations allowing precise sound localization. Mammals rely on the temporal and amplitude differences between the sound signals arriving at their two ears, as well as on the spectral cues available in the signal arriving at a single ear to localize a sound source. Most mammals rely on passive hearing and are thus limited by the acoustic characteristics of the emitted sound. Echolocating bats emit sound to perceive their environment. They can, therefore, affect the frequency spectrum of the echoes they must localize. The biosonar sound beam of a ba

SUBMITTER: Arditi G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4555857 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature