Auditory motion-direction neurons in barn owls tolerate very broad velocity ranges

Evidence

Witten et al. ( 2006 ) presented simulated motion based on ITD change at a speed of 32°/s observing shifts of auditory spatial receptive fields in relation to motion direction that could be explained by adaptation. Similarly, Wang and Peña ( 2013 ) showed that adaptation affected direction selectivity for simulated motion of 470°/s in free-field stimulation. Wagner and Takahashi ( 1992 ) observed a broad tuning of motion direction selective units with respect to stimulus velocity when presenting simulated motion with an angular velocity ranging between 125 and 1200°/s. They suggest that inhibition accounts for the directional sensitivity. Our behavioural data obtained with noise sweeps in the free field and with an angular velocity between 53 and 2400°/s are in accord with the observed broad angular velocity tuning. Stimulus velocity had a moderate effect on motion direction sensitivity provided that the stimulus duration was not too short. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3218

Categorization

• XREF: Consistent with the reader’s existing knowledge on inhibition and motion-direction selectivity mechanisms across species (e.g., visual MT/MST motion tuning), suggesting a possible cross-modal commonality.