Auditory looming perception in rhesus monkeys
- *Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Spemanstrasse 38, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; and ‡Department of Psychology, College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44691
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Edited by Peter Marler, University of California, Davis, CA, and approved October 1, 2002 (received for review August 6, 2002)
Abstract
The detection of approaching objects can be crucial to the survival of an organism. The perception of looming has been studied extensively in the visual system, but remains largely unexplored in audition. Here we show a behavioral bias in rhesus monkeys orienting to “looming” sounds. As in humans, the bias occurred for harmonic tones (which can reliably indicate single sources), but not for broadband noise. These response biases to looming sounds are consistent with an evolved neural mechanism that processes approaching objects with priority.
Footnotes
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↵† To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: asifg{at}tuebingen.mpg.de.
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This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
- Received August 6, 2002.
- Copyright © 2002, The National Academy of Sciences
