Hi,
Barn owls have 2-3 times poorer
spatial acuity in elevation than in azimuth (Bala, A. D. S, M.W. Spitzer,
T. T. Takahashi. 2007. Auditory spatial acuity approximates the
resolving power of space-specific neurons. PLOS One, 2(8), e675) Note
that the Bala et al paper is free online at the PLOS website.
Are you interested in absolute
localization (i.e., identifying the source location) or acuity (discriminating
between two locations)? You refer to both in your question. Absolute
localization and acuity are two different psychophysical measures of
localization abilities, but they need not be correlated (e.g., sounds yielding
good acuity may not be localized accurately).
See: Heffner H.E., Heffner R.S., Tollin
D.J., Populin L.C., Moore J.M., Ruhland J.L., Yin T.C.T. (2005) The
sound-localization ability of cats. J Neurophysiol. 94: 3653-3655 http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/94/5/3653
Daniel J. Tollin, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Colorado
Health Sciences
Center
Department of Physiology and Biophysics/Mail Stop 8307
Research Complex 1-N, Rm 7120
12800 East 19th
Ave
PO Box 6511
Aurora, CO 80045
From: AUDITORY -
Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Clark
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
8:07 AM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: animal sound
localization
Bats!
owls are passive locators - so be sure you differentiate between these two
mechanisms.
... and you are asking about scientific
examples of such. FYI - There are observations of large whales
doing things - like counter-calling over long distances and then joining up -
that seem to have an explanation in this domain. Some of these have been
scientifically validated by playback experiments, but these are not able to
test vertical acuity. Whales also find food resources through either active or
passive acoustic localization in 3-space.
chris
At 04:38 PM 10/30/2007, D.W. Smith wrote:
Tyto alba, the barn owl.
-----Original Message-----
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception
[
mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brian Keith Branstetter
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 4:25 PM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: animal sound localization
Hello.
Are there any examples of an animal (besides a dolphin) who can localize
sound sources in the vertical plane with the same (or similar or better)
acuity as the horizontal plane?
Are there any references to such a finding?
Thank you in advance.
Brian Branstetter
NRC postdoc
US
Navy marine mammal program
Dr.
Christopher W. Clark, I.P. Johnson Director
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
Senior Scientist, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
Cornell University
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY
14850
Phone:607-254-2408
FAX:607-254-2460
website:http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/