| Sound-diffracting flap in the ear of a bat generates spatial information. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 18352240 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Sound diffraction by the mammalian ear generates source-direction information. We have obtained an immediate quantification of this information from numerical predictions. We demonstrate the power of our approach by showing that a small flap in a bat's pinna generates useful information over a large set of directions in a central band of frequencies: presence of the flap more than doubled the solid angle with direction information above a given threshold. From the workings of the employed information measure, the Cramér-Rao lower bound, we can explain how physical shape is linked to sensory information via a strong sidelobe with frequency-dependent orientation in the directivity pattern. This method could be applied to any other mammal species with pinnae to quantify the relative importance of pinna structures' contributions to directional information and to facilitate interspecific comparisons of pinna directivity patterns. |
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Authors:
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Rolf Müller; Hongwang Lu; John R Buck |
Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article Date: 2008-03-14 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Physical review letters Volume: 100 ISSN: 0031-9007 ISO Abbreviation: Phys. Rev. Lett. Publication Date: 2008 Mar |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2008-03-20 Completed Date: 2008-05-13 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0401141 Medline TA: Phys Rev Lett Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 108701 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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School of Physics and Microelectronics, Shandong University, Hongjia Lou 5, 250100 Jinan, China. mueller@sdu.edu.cn |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Animals Chiroptera / anatomy & histology*, physiology* Ear, External / anatomy & histology*, physiology* Echolocation / physiology Models, Anatomic Models, Biological* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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