In:
Journal of Neurophysiology, American Physiological Society, Vol. 108, No. 6 ( 2012-09-15), p. 1548-1566
Abstract:
Species-specific vocalizations of mammals, including humans, contain slow and fast frequency modulations (FMs) as well as tone and noise bursts. In this study, we established sex-specific hemispheric differences in the tonal and FM response characteristics of neurons in the Doppler-shifted constant-frequency processing area in the mustached bat's primary auditory cortex (A1). We recorded single-unit cortical activity from the right and left A1 in awake bats in response to the presentation of tone bursts and linear FM sweeps that are contained within their echolocation and/or communication sounds. Peak response latencies to neurons' preferred or best FMs were significantly longer on the right compared with the left in both sexes, and in males this right-left difference was also present for the most excitatory tone burst. Based on peak response magnitudes, right hemispheric A1 neurons in males preferred low-rate, narrowband FMs, whereas those on the left were less selective, responding to FMs with a variety of rates and bandwidths. The distributions of parameters for best FMs in females were similar on the two sides. Together, our data provide the first strong physiological support of a sex-specific, spectrotemporal hemispheric asymmetry for the representation of tones and FMs in a nonhuman mammal. Specifically, our results demonstrate a left hemispheric bias in males for the representation of a diverse array of FMs differing in rate and bandwidth. We propose that these asymmetries underlie lateralized processing of communication sounds and are common to species as divergent as bats and humans.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0022-3077
,
1522-1598
DOI:
10.1152/jn.00952.2011
RVK:
XA 10000 ; XA 552555
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Physiological Society
Publication Date:
2012
detail.hit.zdb_id:
80161-6
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1467889-5
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