Cortical representation of acoustic motion in the rufous horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus rouxi

Responses of neurons to apparent auditory motion in the azimuth were recorded in three different fields of auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat. Motion was simulated using successive stimuli with dynamically changing interaural intensity differences presented via earphones. Seventy-one percent of sampled neurons were motion-direction-sensitive. Two types of responses could be distinguished. Thirty-four percent of neurons showed a directional preference exhibiting stronger responses to one direction of motion. Fifty-seven percent of neurons responded with a shift of spatial receptive field position depending on direction of motion. Both effects could occur in the same neuron depending on the parameters of apparent motion. Most neurons with contralateral receptive fields exhibited directional preference only with motion entering the receptive field from the opposite direction. Receptive field shifts were opposite to the direction of motion. Specific combinations of spatiotemporal parameters determined the motion-direction-sensitive responses. Velocity was not encoded as a specific parameter. Temporal parameters of motion and azimuth position of the moving sound source were differentially encoded by neurons in different fields of auditory cortex. Neurons with a directional preference in the dorsal fields can encode motion with short interpulse intervals, whereas direction-preferring neurons in the primary field can best encode motion with medium interpulse intervals. Furthermore, neurons with a directional preference in the dorsal fields are specialized for encoding motion in the midfield of azimuth, whereas direction-preferring neurons in the primary field can encode motion in lateral positions. The results suggest that motion information is differentially processed in different fields of the auditory cortex of the rufous horseshoe bat.