Tools to simulate non-human mammalian hearing?

Question

I'd like to run simulations of a bat's (and perhaps other mammals too later) peripheral auditory system. The input would be the 'input sounds' (synthetic signals, ambient noise, social vocalisations) and I'd like the output to be some proxy for neural activity across the frequency channels.

Essentially, I would like to understand the relation between (this is an exploratory project and admittedly vague...) various input sounds and neural activity. There are proposed models in the literature (Wiegrebe 2008, Vanderelst et al. 2016). The papers describe the models in sufficient detail. I could perhaps write my own implementation, but would like to avoid doing so if there are pre-existing tools for the scenario.

Is anyone aware of such general (non-human) peripheral auditory toolboxes? (Searches of 'animal hearing simulation', 'toolkit' and adding various langauages failed me).

References

1. Wiegrebe, L. (2008). An autocorrelation model of bat sonar. Biological cybernetics, 98(6), 587-595. paper link
2. Vanderelst, D., Steckel, J., Boen, A., Peremans, H., & Holderied, M. W. (2016). Place recognition using batlike sonar. Elife, 5, e14188. paper link

Answer 1

AFAIK, the mammalian auditory system follows the same kind of bauplan across species. Aside from a few exceptions like the horseshoe bat (with acoustic foveas).

Head-related-transfer function (HRTF) measurements are available for bats (and others I'm sure), and can be used to simulate the directionality and reflections caused by the face and pinnae together. A small sampling : De Mey et al. 2008, Firzlaff & Schuller 2004, Aytekin et al. 2004

About the middle ear, to be honest, I've not really considered it in this answer!

In general the inner ear is often simulated as a set of frequency filters (a filterbank), rectifiers along with other functions to implement the cochlea's nonlinear response (louder sounds don't always equal higher spike rate).

Considering the bauplan is the same across many mammals, I would suggest trying out any of the human auditory system packages available. You may need to tweak and parameterise many variables (number of frequency bands, nonlinear functions etc.) - but this may be a useful avenue to try such an exercise.

I don't have personal experience trying out any of these packages - and am suggesting them by what I perceive as project maturity:

1. Brian 2 hears
2. cochlea

About other animals, I have a feeling you may find sufficient data to parameterise your simulations with other model systems too

References

• De Mey, F., Reijniers, J., Peremans, H., Otani, M., & Firzlaff, U. (2008). Simulated head related transfer function of the phyllostomid bat Phyllostomus discolor. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124(4), 2123-2132.
• Firzlaff, U., & Schuller, G. (2004). Directionality of hearing in two CF/FM bats, Pteronotus parnellii and Rhinolophus rouxi. Hearing research, 197(1-2), 74-86.
• Aytekin, M., Grassi, E., Sahota, M., & Moss, C. F. (2004). The bat head-related transfer function reveals binaural cues for sound localization in azimuth and elevation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116(6), 3594-3605.