Contextual modulation of neural responses in the bat auditory cortex

• Applicant: Dr. Julio Hechavarria
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 428645493

Animals use acoustic information as a mean of advertising physiological states, socio-contextual scenarios and for orientation. The aim of this proposal is to study how “context” information modulates the processing of acoustic signals in the auditory cortex of the fruit eating bat Carollia perspicillata. We define context as the assembly of additional auditory or nonauditory sensory information that could potentially affect the processing of specific sound stimuli. The proposal is subdivided into two work-packages (w1 and w2). In w1, we will study how auditory context modulates the processing of echolocation and distress vocalizations, by presenting mixtures of those two vocalization types to the animals and evaluating the responses to the unexpected stimulus. This approach is based on the fact that distress and echolocation signals differ largely in their spectral composition. The results obtained in w1 will shed light into how phenomena such as predictive coding influence the encoding of natural vocalizations. In the second work-package (w2), we will study auditory processing during social interactions in pairs of bats using the so-called resident-intruder paradigm. In this situation, “contextual cues” will be quantified by taking into account variables such as the distance between the bats studied and the nature of previous interactions (i.e. appeasing vs. aggressive) between the animals. The experiments listed in this proposal will provide important data on the neuronal mechanisms for context-dependent information coding in the auditory cortex of mammals.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants