SPECIALIZATION AUDITORY PATHWAYS IN THE MOLE 43.80.Lb Sound reception by animals: anatomy, physiology, auditory capacities, processing

To get morphological substrates for sensory specialization in the subterranean mammals, we investigate both auditory and visual pathways in the mole. The inferior colliculus (IC), an auditory relay, projects not only to medial geniculate, the major gateway to the auditory cortex, but also to the lateral geniculate (LG), the major gateway to the visual cortex. Further evidence is that the LG does not send many fibers to the cortex in the mole. Instead, the auditory inputs to the LG are likely to be conveyed to the suprachiasmatic hypothalamic nucleus (SCN), which plays a role in photoperiodic functions in common mammals. Auditory inputs to the SCN may subserve periodic reproductive behaviors in the exclusively separated territorial domains of subterranean mammals.