In a forthcoming paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, neuroscientists at Emory University have, for the first time, mapped the sensory and motor systems of two dolphin brains. Unlike most mammals, which process sound in the temporal lobe, the dolphin auditory nerve is wired to both the temporal lobe and the brain’s primary visual region. And that connection could help explain the animals’ fantastic sonar.
“For decades, we’ve thought of the dolphin brain as having one primary auditory region,” said cetacean neuroscientist and study co-author Lori Marino in a press release. “This research shows that the dolphin brain is even more complex than we realized.”
via Gizmodo
