A Changing View of the Auditory System Obtained from the Ears of Bats

Abstract

For the past 43 years I have been conducting research on how sensory systems encode and represent features of the external world in the brain. This has been, and continues to be, an exciting and rewarding adventure. Indeed, it is difficult to convey the sense of excitement, really exhilaration, that is part and parcel of discovery, when one sees nature reveal a part of itself for the first time. Now, previously unrelated parts begin to fit into a compelling unity, and the realization of that unity provides new and unique insights into the grand scheme of life. The insights are very personal because no one has ever before seen things quite in those ways.

In this chapter, I recount the discoveries my colleagues and I made at each stage of my career and how those discoveries changed my understanding of the mammalian auditory system. I gradually learned that the processing in the auditory system is far more complex, diverse, and expansive than I had previously thought, or even imagined. It is full of surprises because nothing is quite as it seems. Nuance prevails, and the nuance profoundly impacts the functioning of the circuitry in the ascending auditory pathway, changing it from something that at first appeared simple into something far more complex, but also more interesting and conceptually important. It was, for me at least, not only exciting and but enormously rewarding.