The influence of stimulus duration on the delay tuning of cortical neurons in the FM bat, Myotis lucifugus.

Abstract

1. Echolocating bats use echo delay as the primary cue to determine target distance. During target-directed flight, the emitted pulses increase in repetition rate and shorten in duration as distance decreases. To determine how these parameters affect the delay tuning of neurons in the auditory cortex of the awake bat, Myotis lucifugus, we examined the responses of 104 delay-sensitive neurons as the pulse repetition rate (PRR) and duration were independently varied. Stimulus duration of 4, 2 and 1 ms and PRR of 5-100/s were used for both the pulse and echo to determine delay sensitivity. These parameter ranges span those used during the search, approach, and the initial terminal phases of echolocation. 2. As the stimulus duration was shortened, the range of PRRs for delay sensitivity was extended to higher rates in 41% of the neurons, narrowed or disappeared in 40%, and remained unchanged in 4%. The remaining 15% were not categorized since it was not possible to determine a trend in which the range of delay-sensitive PRRs changed with stimulus duration. 3. Three types of tracking neurons (i.e., neurons that change their best delay during target-directed flight) were found. For the first type, the best delay (BD) shortened with shorter stimulus duration, for the second type, BD shortened with both shorter stimulus durations and higher PRRs, and for the third type, BD shortened with higher PRRs. 4. These results suggest that the stimulus parameters of sonar emission influence delay tuning and hence processing by cortical neurons in FM bats.