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Distribution of response types across entire hemispheres of the mustached bat's auditory cortex
Author(s) -
Fitzpatrick Douglas C.,
Suga Nobuo,
Olsen J.F.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19980216)391:3<353::aid-cne5>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - auditory cortex , neuroscience , human echolocation , cortex (anatomy) , biology , auditory system
The responses of neurons in the mustached bat's auditory cortex are specialized to extract particular information from biosonar signals. For this study, we mapped response properties across entire hemispheres in several animals. These experiments enabled us to construct a standard map that aided in determining the connections among the areas, as described subsequently. The mapping also yielded quantitative data regarding the relative sizes of areas and the proportion of cortex devoted to different response types. We identified six response types that were distributed in 11 areas. Eight areas, comprising two‐thirds of the auditory cortex, contained neurons sensitive to particular components in biosonar signals. Most were facilitated by combinations of frequency modulated and constant frequency biosonar signal components (FMs and CFs, respectively). There were three major types of combination‐sensitive neurons: FM‐FM, CF/CF, and FM‐CF. Each type of combination sensitivity occurred in multiple areas. The largest proportion were FM‐FM neurons (approximately 30% of all neurons in auditory cortex), followed by FM 1 ‐CF 2 (approximately 23%) and CF/CF (approximately 11%). In the other three areas comprising approximately one‐third of the auditory cortex, most neurons responded well to frequencies not contained in biosonar signals. J. Comp. Neurol. 391:353–365, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.