Sensorimotor integration on a rapid time scale

Abstract

Humans and other animals continuously monitor sensory information to inform the selection of motor commands for adaptive behaviors. Acoustic communication, for example, utilizes auditory feedback to fine-tune vocal production parameters. Because most animal species produce vocalizations that last several hundred milliseconds, it is difficult to dissect the temporal dynamics of audio-vocal feedback control. Here we took advantage of the brief echolocation signals of bats and mapped out the time course of vocal adjustments to background noise on a millisecond time scale. The high temporal resolution data provided the foundation for the model of audio-vocal volume control. We discovered that temporal summation, a shared auditory process across the animal kingdom, lies at the core of adaptive vocal volume control.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 05, 2017
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1702671114

Entities

People

  • Cynthia F. Moss
  • Jinhong Luo
  • Ninad B Kothari

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Human Frontier Science Program
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Marine Mammal Biology
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.