Paradoxical lateral suppression in the dolphin's auditory system: weak sounds suppress response to strong sounds.

A paradoxical phenomenon was found in the auditory system of dolphins: weak sounds suppressed the brain responses to much stronger sounds. This occurred when the brain evoked potentials to rhythmic sound amplitude modulations were recorded. The response was markedly suppressed by addition of another sound of higher frequency and down to 40 dB lower intensity than the amplitude-modulated signal. Only the sustained rhythmic response was suppressed while transient on-response was not, thus indicating that the suppression influenced the ability of evoked potentials to follow rapid amplitude modulations. This prevents weak sounds from being masked by stronger ones. It may help a dolphin to perceive weaker echo-signals in the background of stronger emitted pulses.