William Mitchell Masters
Associate Professor
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Ph.D., Behavioral Biology
| Research Division : |
Cellular and Integrative Biophysics |
Contact : |
300 Aronoff Laboratory |
More info : |
Research Interests: Research Interests:
RESEARCH IN our laboratory addresses the questions of how bats construct a three-dimensional view of the world by sonar (echolocation), and what the properties of this sonar images are. We generate hypotheses about how bats might process sonar signals mainly from radar and sonar signal-processing theory and from neurophysiologial studies (carried out in other laboratories) on the bat's auditory system. Our approach is behavioral and psychophysical. Bats are trained to interrogate electronically synthesized phantom targets and to report on some aspect of their perception of the target by turning to the right (to indicate that the target possesses the characteristic under study) or to the left (to indicate it lacks the characteristic). Usually the artificial echo used to create a phantom target is a mathematically created signal (i.e., not simply a replay of the bat's sonar emission), thus permitting us nearly complete control of the sonar signal the bat's auditory system must process.