PMID: 16613059Apr 15, 2006Paper

Analysis of auditory information in the brain of the cetacean

Rossiĭskii fiziologicheskiĭ zhurnal imeni I.M. Sechenova
V V Popov, A Ia Supin

Abstract

The cetacean brain specifics involve an exceptional development of the auditory neural centres. The place of projection sensory areas including the auditory that in the cetacean brain cortex is essentially different from that in other mammals. The EP characteristics indicated presence of several functional divisions in the auditory cortex. Physiological studies of the cetacean auditory centres were mainly performed using the EP technique. Of several types of the EPs, the short-latency auditory EP was most thoroughly studied. In cetacean, it is characterised by exceptionally high temporal resolution with the integration time about 0.3 ms which corresponds to the cut-off frequency 1700 Hz. This much exceeds the temporal resolution of the hearing in terranstrial mammals. The frequency selectivity of hearing in cetacean was measured using a number of variants of the masking technique. The hearing frequency selectivity acuity in cetacean exceeds that of most terraneous mammals (excepting the bats). This acute frequency selectivity provides the differentiation among the finest spectral patterns of auditory signals.

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