TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kössl, Manfred
A1  - Voss, Cornelia
A1  - Mora, Emanuel C.
A1  - Macias, Silvio
A1  - Föller, Elisabeth
A1  - Vater, Marianne
T1  - Auditory cortex of newborn bats is prewired for echolocation
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Neuronal computation of object distance from echo delay is an essential task that echolocating bats must master for spatial orientation and the capture of prey. In the dorsal auditory cortex of bats, neurons specifically respond to combinations of short frequency-modulated components of emitted call and delayed echo. These delay-tuned neurons are thought to serve in target range calculation. It is unknown whether neuronal correlates of active space perception are established by experience-dependent plasticity or by innate mechanisms. Here we demonstrate that in the first postnatal week, before onset of echolocation and flight, dorsal auditory cortex already contains functional circuits that calculate distance from the temporal separation of a simulated pulse and echo. This innate cortical implementation of a purely computational processing mechanism for sonar ranging should enhance survival of juvenile bats when they first engage in active echolocation behaviour and flight.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1782
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -