Faster Repetition Rate Sharpens the Cortical Representation of Echo Streams in Echolocating Bats

Macías, Silvio; Bakshi, Kushal; Smotherman, Michael

doi:10.1523/eneuro.0410-21.2021

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(101 reference statements)

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“…The bat auditory cortex may have been more readily primed for accurate processing due to the higher signal to noise ratio. This corresponds with findings showing forward suppression to sharpen cortical response and reduce spike rate per echo in echolocating bats (Macias et al, 2022). In the comparison of signal traces at ∼5 and ∼40 Hz (Figure 2), bat normalized cortical activity had less jitter around stimulus response.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Comparative analysis of primary auditory cortical responses in bats and mice to repetitive stimuli trains

Deane

García‐Rosales

Klymentiev

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The brains of black 6 mice (Mus musculus) and Seba′s short-tailed bats (Carollia perspicillata) weigh roughly the same and share the mammalian neocortical laminar architecture. Bats have highly developed sonar calls and social communication and are an excellent neuroethological animal model for auditory research. Mice are olfactory and somatosensory specialists and are used frequently in auditory neuroscience, particularly for their advantage of standardization and genetic tools. Investigating their potentially different general auditory processing principles would advance our understanding of how the ecological needs of a species shape the development and function of the mammalian nervous system. We compared two existing datasets, recorded with linear multichannel electrodes down the depth of the primary auditory cortex (A1) while awake, across both species while presenting repetitive stimulus trains with different frequencies (~5 and ~40 Hz). We found that while there are similarities between cortical response profiles in bats and mice, there was a better signal to noise ratio in bats under these conditions, which allowed for a clearer following response to stimuli trains. This was most evident at higher frequency trains, where bats had stronger response amplitude suppression to consecutive stimuli. Phase coherence was far stronger in bats during stimulus response, indicating less phase variability in bats across individual trials. These results show that although both species share cortical laminar organization, there are structural differences in relative depth of layers. Better signal to noise ratio in bats could represent specialization for faster temporal processing shaped by their individual ecological niches.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Comparative analysis of primary auditory cortical responses in bats and mice to repetitive stimuli trains

Deane

García‐Rosales

Klymentiev

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…While many collicular neurons are adapted to encode the time points of acoustic signals in an echolocation sequence ( Sanderson and Simmons, 2005 ; Beetz et al, 2017 ; Macías et al, 2018 ), forward suppression vastly deteriorates this tracking ability at the cortex level ( Bartenstein et al, 2014 ; Beetz et al, 2016b ; Figure 5A ). In contrast to C. perspicillata and Phyllostomus discolor , cortical suppression is weaker in the FM-bat Tadarida brasiliensis and some neurons well represent the time points of acoustic signals ( Macías et al, 2022 ). Hereby, the spike timing precision increases with the stimulus rate and thus improves the neurons’ tracking ability ( Macías et al, 2022 ) similar to what has been found in the inferior colliculus of C. perspicillata ( Beetz et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Influence Of the Temporal Context On Neural Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to C. perspicillata and Phyllostomus discolor , cortical suppression is weaker in the FM-bat Tadarida brasiliensis and some neurons well represent the time points of acoustic signals ( Macías et al, 2022 ). Hereby, the spike timing precision increases with the stimulus rate and thus improves the neurons’ tracking ability ( Macías et al, 2022 ) similar to what has been found in the inferior colliculus of C. perspicillata ( Beetz et al, 2017 ). In contrast to this, neural suppression in the inferior colliculus of E. fuscus is stronger than in C. perspicillata , resulting in some neurons selectively responding to particular call-echo pairs in a naturalistic echolocation sequence ( Macías et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Influence Of the Temporal Context On Neural Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hereby, both the call dynamics and the temporal context of acoustic signals, i.e., the organization of echolocation signals in sequences, has often been neglected. This is surprising when considering the substantial effects of stimulus rate on neural processing ( O’Neill and Suga, 1982 ; Wong et al, 1992 ; Wu and Jen, 1996 ; Galazyuk et al, 2000 ; Smalling et al, 2001 ; Zhou and Jen, 2006 ; Macías et al, 2022 ). One possible reason why many scientists use synthesized acoustic stimuli instead of naturalistic echolocation signals is, besides from the fact that artificial stimuli are well controllable, the challenge of recording the echolocation signals immediately before they arrive at the bat’s ears.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural Processing of Naturalistic Echolocation Signals in Bats

Beetz

Hechavarría

2022

Front. Neural Circuits

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Echolocation behavior, a navigation strategy based on acoustic signals, allows scientists to explore neural processing of behaviorally relevant stimuli. For the purpose of orientation, bats broadcast echolocation calls and extract spatial information from the echoes. Because bats control call emission and thus the availability of spatial information, the behavioral relevance of these signals is undiscussable. While most neurophysiological studies, conducted in the past, used synthesized acoustic stimuli that mimic portions of the echolocation signals, recent progress has been made to understand how naturalistic echolocation signals are encoded in the bat brain. Here, we review how does stimulus history affect neural processing, how spatial information from multiple objects and how echolocation signals embedded in a naturalistic, noisy environment are processed in the bat brain. We end our review by discussing the huge potential that state-of-the-art recording techniques provide to gain a more complete picture on the neuroethology of echolocation behavior.

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The prefrontal cortex of the Mexican free-tailed bat is more selective to communication calls than primary auditory cortex

Macías

Bakshi

Troyer

et al. 2022

Journal of Neurophysiology

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In this study, we examined the auditory responses of a prefrontal area, the frontal auditory field (FAF) of an echolocating bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) and presented a comparative analysis of the neuronal response properties between the FAF and the primary auditory cortex (A1). We compared single-unit responses from the A1 and the FAF elicited by pure tones, downward frequency-modulated (dFM) sweeps, and species-specific vocalizations. Unlike the A1, FAF were not frequency tuned. However, progressive increases in downward FM sweep rate elicited a systematic increase of response precision, a phenomenon which does not take place in the A1. Call-selectivity was higher in the FAF versus A1. We calculated the neuronal spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRF) and spike-triggered averages (STAs), to predict responses to the communication calls and provide an explanation for the differences in call selectivity between the FAF and A1. In the A1, we found a high correlation between predicted and evoked responses. However, we did not generate reasonable STRFs in the FAF and the prediction based on the STAs showed lower correlation coefficient than that of the A1. This suggests non-linear response properties in the FAF that are stronger than the linear response properties in the A1. Stimulating with a call sequence increased call selectivity in the A1 but it remained unchanged in the FAF. These data are consistent with a role for the FAF in assessing distinctive acoustic features downstream of A1, similar to the role proposed for primate ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

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Faster Repetition Rate Sharpens the Cortical Representation of Echo Streams in Echolocating Bats

Abstract: Alerts: Sign up at www.eneuro.org/alerts to receive customized email alerts when the fully formatted version of this article is published. Title:Faster repetition rate sharpens the cortical representation of echo streams in echolocating bats.

Cited by 4 publications

References 60 publications

Comparative analysis of primary auditory cortical responses in bats and mice to repetitive stimuli trains

Comparative analysis of primary auditory cortical responses in bats and mice to repetitive stimuli trains

Neural Processing of Naturalistic Echolocation Signals in Bats

The prefrontal cortex of the Mexican free-tailed bat is more selective to communication calls than primary auditory cortex

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