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Science 22 June 1979:
Vol. 204. no. 4399, pp. 1336 - 1338
DOI: 10.1126/science.451543
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Articles

Science, Vol 204, Issue 4399, 1336-1338
Copyright © 1979 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Perception of echo phase information in bat sonar

JA Simmons

Echolocating bats (Eptesicus fuscus) can detect changes as small as 500 nanoseconds in the arrival time of sonar echoes when these changes appear as jitter or alternations in arrival time from one echo to the next. The psychophysical function relating the bat's performance to the magnitude of the jitter corresponds to the half-wave rectified cross-correlation function between the emitted sonar signals and the echoes. The bat perceives the phase or period structure of the sounds, which cover the 25- to 100-kilohertz frequency range, as these are represented in the auditory system after peripheral transformation. The acoustic image of a sonar target is apparently derived from time-domain or periodicity information processing by the nervous system.


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