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  • Title: Evolutionary aspects of bat echolocation.
    Author: Neuweiler G.
    Journal: J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol; 2003 Apr; 189(4):245-56. PubMed ID: 12743729.
    Abstract:
    This review is yet another attempt to explain how echolocation in bats or bat-like mammals came into existence. Attention is focused on neuronal specializations in the ascending auditory pathway of echolocating bats. Three different mechanisms are considered that may create a specific auditory sensitivity to echos: (1). time-windows of enhanced echo-processing opened by a corollary discharge of neuronal vocalization commands; (2). differentiation and expansion of ensembles of combination-sensitive neurons in the midbrain; and (3). corticofugal top-down modulations. The second part of the review interprets three different types of echolocation as adaptations to ecological niches, and presents the sophisticated cochlear specializations in constant-frequency/frequency-modulated bats as a case study of finely tuned differentiation. It is briefly discussed how a resonant mechanism in the inner ear of constant-frequency/frequency-modulated bats may have evolved in common mammalian cochlea.
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