TY - JOUR
T1 - Active head rolls enhance sonar-based auditory localization performance
AU - Wijesinghe, Lakshitha P.
AU - Wohlgemuth, Melville J.
AU - So, Richard H.Y.
AU - Triesch, Jochen
AU - Moss, Cynthia F.
AU - Shi, Bertram E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2021 Wijesinghe et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Animals utilize a variety of active sensing mechanisms to perceive the world around them. Echolocating bats are an excellent model for the study of active auditory localization. The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), for instance, employs active head roll movements during sonar prey tracking. The function of head rolls in sound source localization is not well understood. Here, we propose an echolocation model with multi-axis head rotation to investigate the effect of active head roll movements on sound localization performance. The model autonomously learns to align the bat’s head direction towards the target. We show that a model with active head roll movements better localizes targets than a model without head rolls. Furthermore, we demonstrate that active head rolls also reduce the time required for localization in elevation. Finally, our model offers key insights to sound localization cues used by echolocating bats employing active head movements during echolocation.
AB - Animals utilize a variety of active sensing mechanisms to perceive the world around them. Echolocating bats are an excellent model for the study of active auditory localization. The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), for instance, employs active head roll movements during sonar prey tracking. The function of head rolls in sound source localization is not well understood. Here, we propose an echolocation model with multi-axis head rotation to investigate the effect of active head roll movements on sound localization performance. The model autonomously learns to align the bat’s head direction towards the target. We show that a model with active head roll movements better localizes targets than a model without head rolls. Furthermore, we demonstrate that active head rolls also reduce the time required for localization in elevation. Finally, our model offers key insights to sound localization cues used by echolocating bats employing active head movements during echolocation.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008973
DO - 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008973
M3 - Article
C2 - 33970912
AN - SCOPUS:85106319968
SN - 1553-734X
VL - 17
JO - PLoS computational biology
JF - PLoS computational biology
IS - 5
M1 - e1008973
ER -