Sensory and Cognitive Ecology, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein Strasse 3, 18059 Rostock, Germany.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2019 Jul;146(1):189. doi: 10.1121/1.5114809.
Pinnipeds use a variety of acoustic information underwater for social interactions, hunting, and predator avoidance. Thus, the ability to accurately localize a sound source in the environment can have a clear survival value. Nonetheless, the sound localization mechanisms for seals underwater still have to be clarified, especially for sounds received in the median plane. In this study, the sound localization abilities of five harbor seals for high-frequency noise band stimuli were measured underwater in the median plane. The seals' minimum audible angles (MAAs) were determined for two different high-frequency noise band stimuli using a two-alternative forced-choice procedure. Noise 1 had a frequency range between 8 and 16 kHz. Noise 2 contained frequencies between 14 and 16 kHz. Psychoacoustic results for the tested harbor seals show that the seals were able to localize these stimuli in the median plane underwater with MAAs between 5.1° and 17.5°. The results suggest that spectral cues improve the seals' ability to localize high-frequency sound signals in the median plane.
鳍足类动物在水下利用各种声学信息进行社交互动、捕猎和躲避捕食者。因此，能够准确地在环境中定位声源具有明显的生存价值。尽管如此，海豹在水下的声源定位机制仍有待澄清，特别是对于中平面接收到的声音。在这项研究中，使用两种选择强制选择程序，在中平面下水下测量了五只港湾海豹对高频噪声带刺激的声音定位能力。海豹的最小可听角（MAA）是通过两种不同的高频噪声带刺激来确定的。噪声 1 的频率范围在 8 到 16 kHz 之间。噪声 2 包含 14 到 16 kHz 的频率。对测试的港湾海豹的心理声学结果表明，海豹能够在中平面下水下定位这些刺激，最小可听角在 5.1°到 17.5°之间。结果表明，频谱线索提高了海豹在中平面上定位高频声音信号的能力。
