Interrelationships between intranarial pressure and biosonar clicks in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Loading...
Date
2004-09-30
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Texas A&M University
Abstract
Recent advances in technology permitted the first simultaneous digital recording
of intranarial pressure and on-axis acoustic data from bottlenose dolphins during a
biosonar target recognition task. Analysis of pressurization events in the intranarial
space quantifies and supports earlier work, confirming that intranarial pressure
is increased when whistle vocalizations are emitted. The results show complex relationships
between various properties of the biosonar click to the intranarial pressure
difference at the time it was generated. The intranarial pressure that drives the production
of clicks is not the primary determinant of many of the acoustic properties
of those clicks. A simple piston-cylinder physical model coupled with a sound production
model of clicks produced at the monkey-lips/dorsal bursae complex yields an
estimate of mechanical work for individual pressurization events. Individual pressurization
events are typically associated with a single click train. Mechanical work for
an average pressurization event is estimated at 10 Joules.
Description
Keywords
dolphins, biosonar, clicks, bioenergetics