Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation

Abstract Echolocating bats adapt their emissions to succeed in noisy environments. In the present study we investigated if echolocating humans can detect a sound-reflecting surface in the presence of noise and if intensity of echolocation emissions (i.e. clicks) changes in a systematic pattern. We t...

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Autores principales:	J. G. Castillo-Serrano, L. J. Norman, D. Foresteire, L. Thaler
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0d2c3f9f81ed4946bb46d2e17302bae1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0d2c3f9f81ed4946bb46d2e17302bae12021-12-02T10:49:16ZIncreased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation10.1038/s41598-021-81220-92045-2322https://doaj.org/article/0d2c3f9f81ed4946bb46d2e17302bae12021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81220-9https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Echolocating bats adapt their emissions to succeed in noisy environments. In the present study we investigated if echolocating humans can detect a sound-reflecting surface in the presence of noise and if intensity of echolocation emissions (i.e. clicks) changes in a systematic pattern. We tested people who were blind and had experience in echolocation, as well as blind and sighted people who had no experience in echolocation prior to the study. We used an echo-detection paradigm where participants listened to binaural recordings of echolocation sounds (i.e. they did not make their own click emissions), and where intensity of emissions and echoes changed adaptively based on participant performance (intensity of echoes was yoked to intensity of emissions). We found that emission intensity had to systematically increase to compensate for weaker echoes relative to background noise. In fact, emission intensity increased so that spectral power of echoes exceeded spectral power of noise by 12 dB in 4-kHz and 5-kHz frequency bands. The effects were the same across all participant groups, suggesting that this effect occurs independently of long-time experience with echolocation. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that people can echolocate in the presence of noise and suggest that one potential strategy to deal with noise is to increase emission intensity to maintain signal-to-noise ratio of certain spectral components of the echoes.J. G. Castillo-SerranoL. J. NormanD. ForesteireL. ThalerNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q J. G. Castillo-Serrano L. J. Norman D. Foresteire L. Thaler Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
description	Abstract Echolocating bats adapt their emissions to succeed in noisy environments. In the present study we investigated if echolocating humans can detect a sound-reflecting surface in the presence of noise and if intensity of echolocation emissions (i.e. clicks) changes in a systematic pattern. We tested people who were blind and had experience in echolocation, as well as blind and sighted people who had no experience in echolocation prior to the study. We used an echo-detection paradigm where participants listened to binaural recordings of echolocation sounds (i.e. they did not make their own click emissions), and where intensity of emissions and echoes changed adaptively based on participant performance (intensity of echoes was yoked to intensity of emissions). We found that emission intensity had to systematically increase to compensate for weaker echoes relative to background noise. In fact, emission intensity increased so that spectral power of echoes exceeded spectral power of noise by 12 dB in 4-kHz and 5-kHz frequency bands. The effects were the same across all participant groups, suggesting that this effect occurs independently of long-time experience with echolocation. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that people can echolocate in the presence of noise and suggest that one potential strategy to deal with noise is to increase emission intensity to maintain signal-to-noise ratio of certain spectral components of the echoes.
format	article
author	J. G. Castillo-Serrano L. J. Norman D. Foresteire L. Thaler
author_facet	J. G. Castillo-Serrano L. J. Norman D. Foresteire L. Thaler
author_sort	J. G. Castillo-Serrano
title	Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
title_short	Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
title_full	Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
title_fullStr	Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
title_full_unstemmed	Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
title_sort	increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/0d2c3f9f81ed4946bb46d2e17302bae1
work_keys_str_mv	AT jgcastilloserrano increasedemissionintensitycancompensateforthepresenceofnoiseinhumanclickbasedecholocation AT ljnorman increasedemissionintensitycancompensateforthepresenceofnoiseinhumanclickbasedecholocation AT dforesteire increasedemissionintensitycancompensateforthepresenceofnoiseinhumanclickbasedecholocation AT lthaler increasedemissionintensitycancompensateforthepresenceofnoiseinhumanclickbasedecholocation
_version_	1718396570433486848

Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation

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