Mapping of the auditory area in the cerebellar vermis and hemispheres of the mustache bat, Pteronotus parnellii parnellii

Abstract

Microelectrode mapping of the auditory areas in the cerebellar vermis and hemispheres of mustache bats, Pteronotus parnellii parnellii, reveals that a large area of the bat's cerebellum contains units responding to acoustic signals. A study of frequency tuning of isolated units shows that there are two large groups of auditory units. The units of one group are sharply tuned to a very narrow band of frequency with BFs between 60 and 64 kHz. The units of the other group are broadly tuned, with BFs between 47 and 59 kHz. These two groups of units are probably involved in processing the predominant CF and FM portions of the bat's orientation sounds during echolocation.