Topic: categorical perception

Categorical perception of sensory inputs, including human speech, enables adaptive behavior and is thought to emerge in the sensory cortex. There would be significant computational advantages, however, to functional specialization before cortical processing. To what extent do categorical representations emerge earlier in the auditory hierarchy? To address this, we reasoned that the ideal species would exhibit expert auditory sensing and a rich repertoire of vocalizations, akin to human listening and speech. The big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, stands out in the animal kingdom for its acoustic