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      Timing matters: sonar call groups facilitate target localization in bats

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          Abstract

          To successfully negotiate a cluttered environment, an echolocating bat must control the timing of motor behaviors in response to dynamic sensory information. Here we detail the big brown bat's adaptive temporal control over sonar call production for tracking prey, moving predictably or unpredictably, under different experimental conditions. We studied the adaptive control of vocal-motor behaviors in free-flying big brown bats, Eptesicus fuscus, as they captured tethered and free-flying insects, in open and cluttered environments. We also studied adaptive sonar behavior in bats trained to track moving targets from a resting position. In each of these experiments, bats adjusted the features of their calls to separate target and clutter. Under many task conditions, flying bats produced prominent sonar sound groups identified as clusters of echolocation pulses with relatively stable intervals, surrounded by longer pulse intervals. In experiments where bats tracked approaching targets from a resting position, bats also produced sonar sound groups, and the prevalence of these sonar sound groups increased when motion of the target was unpredictable. We hypothesize that sonar sound groups produced during flight, and the sonar call doublets produced by a bat tracking a target from a resting position, help the animal resolve dynamic target location and represent the echo scene in greater detail. Collectively, our data reveal adaptive temporal control over sonar call production that allows the bat to negotiate a complex and dynamic environment.

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          Most cited references35

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          Echolocation by Insect-Eating Bats

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            The echolocation of flying insects by bats

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              Plasticity in echolocation signals of European pipistrelle bats in search flight: implications for habitat use and prey detection

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Physiol
                Front Physiol
                Front. Physiol.
                Frontiers in Physiology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-042X
                12 May 2014
                2014
                : 5
                : 168
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Auditory Neuroethology Lab, Psychology, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA
                [2] 2Biology, University of Southern Denmark Odense, Denmark
                Author notes

                Edited by: Silvio Macias, Havana University, Cuba

                Reviewed by: Paul Faure, McMaster University, Canada; Lutz Wiegrebe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

                *Correspondence: Cynthia F. Moss, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Biology-Psychology Building, RM. 2123M, College Park, MD 20742, USA e-mail: cynthia.moss@ 123456gmail.com

                This article was submitted to Integrative Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

                †Co-first authors with equal contributions.

                Article
                10.3389/fphys.2014.00168
                4026696
                24860509
                fbe3b779-258e-4bed-a9f5-31f710a19930
                Copyright © 2014 Kothari, Wohlgemuth, Hulgard, Surlykke and Moss.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 19 December 2013
                : 11 April 2014
                Page count
                Figures: 6, Tables: 3, Equations: 0, References: 40, Pages: 13, Words: 10696
                Categories
                Physiology
                Original Research Article

                Anatomy & Physiology
                echolocation behavior,sonar call timing,active sensing,spatial perception,target tracking

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