PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Little is known about fine scale neural dynamics that accompany rapid shifts in spatial attention in freely behaving animals, primarily because reliable indicators of attention are lacking in standard model organisms engaged in natural tasks. The echolocating bat can serve to bridge this gap, as it exhibits robust dynamic behavioral indicators of overt spatial attention as it explores its environment. In particular, the bat actively shifts the aim of its sonar beam to inspect objects in different directions, akin to eye movements and foveation in humans and other visually dominant animals. Further, the bat adjusts the temporal features of sonar calls to attend to objects at different distances, yielding a metric of acoustic gaze along the range axis. Thus, an echolocating bat\'s call features not only convey the information it uses to probe its surroundings, but also provide fine scale metrics of auditory spatial attention in 3D natural tasks. These explicit metrics of overt spatial attention can be leveraged to uncover general principles of neural coding in the mammalian brain.
摘要：
关于在行为自由的动物中伴随空间注意力快速转移的精细尺度神经动力学知之甚少，主要是因为从事自然任务的标准模型生物缺乏可靠的注意力指标。回声定位蝙蝠可以用来弥合这个差距，因为它在探索环境时表现出明显的空间注意力的强大动态行为指标。特别是,蝙蝠积极转移声纳光束的目标，以检查不同方向的物体，类似于人类和其他视觉优势动物的眼球运动和视觉模糊。Further,蝙蝠调整声纳叫声的时间特征，以关注不同距离的物体，沿着范围轴产生声学凝视的度量。因此，回声定位蝙蝠的呼叫特征不仅传达了它用来探测周围环境的信息，而且还提供了在3D自然任务中听觉空间注意力的精细尺度度量。可以利用这些明显的空间注意力度量来揭示哺乳动物大脑中神经编码的一般原理。
