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. 2015 Jan;137(1):42-52.
doi: 10.1121/1.4904529.

Sound localization in common vampire bats: acuity and use of the binaural time cue by a small mammal

Rickye S Heffner  1 , Gimseong Koay  1 , Henry E Heffner  1
Affiliations

Sound localization in common vampire bats: acuity and use of the binaural time cue by a small mammal

Rickye S Heffner et al. J Acoust Soc Am. 2015 Jan.

Abstract

Passive sound-localization acuity and the ability to use binaural time and intensity cues were determined for the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus). The bats were tested using a conditioned suppression/avoidance procedure in which they drank defibrinated blood from a spout in the presence of sounds from their right, but stopped drinking (i.e., broke contact with the spout) whenever a sound came from their left, thereby avoiding a mild shock. The mean minimum audible angle for three bats for a 100-ms noise burst was 13.1°-within the range of thresholds for other bats and near the mean for mammals. Common vampire bats readily localized pure tones of 20 kHz and higher, indicating they could use interaural intensity-differences. They could also localize pure tones of 5 kHz and lower, thereby demonstrating the use of interaural time-differences, despite their very small maximum interaural distance of 60 μs. A comparison of the use of locus cues among mammals suggests several implications for the evolution of sound localization and its underlying anatomical and physiological mechanisms.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Sound-localization performance of three common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). The performances of the three individuals are plotted with the line representing the mean. The 50% corrected detection threshold is 13.1°. Chance performance for this task was approximately 30%–35% corrected detection.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Sound-localization performance at 60° separation for three common vampire bats as a function of the frequency of a pure tone stimulus or the frequency of sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM) of an 8-kHz tone. The ability of the bats to localize high- and low-frequency pure tones demonstrates their ability to use both the binaural intensity and time locus cues, respectively. Although they were unable to use either of the binaural cues to localize pure tones from 6.3 to 16 kHz, they were able to localize 8 kHz if a time cue was introduced by modulating the tone at 250 or 500 Hz. Note that vampire bats can barely detect a 500-Hz pure tone at 70 dB SPL and are unable to hear 250-Hz tones (Heffner et al., 2013). Arrows indicating cue availability are estimates based on physical calculations.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Use of the binaural phase-difference cue among small to medium sized mammals; all larger species tested so far have been able to use this cue. The common vampire bat, with its estimated interaural delay of 61 μs, is the smallest species to use time cues in the form of interaural phase-differences. Note that there is considerable overlap in the calculated maximum interaural delays of species that use the cue versus species that do not use the cue.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 4.
Relation between lowest audible frequency at 60 dB SPL and the highest frequency at which a species can use the binaural phase-difference cue. All species that hear below 125 Hz are able to use the phase cue and most species that do not hear below about 500 Hz are unable to use the phase cue. However, at least three species with poor low-frequency hearing are able to use the cue. Thus, low-frequency hearing is not a good predictor of the ability or inability to use the phase cue. However, it does predict the highest frequency at which the cue can be used among those species whose low-frequency hearing extends below 0.125 kHz.
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