email: metzner@ucla.edu
phone: (310) 206-2023
fax: (310) 825-3679
office: 4365 Life Science
research interests: Sensory processing/motor control, especially auditory feedback control of vocalization; Behavioral Neuroscience (Neuroethology)
Research Interests
We aim at understanding how the central nervous system transforms sensory signals into motor commands that control adaptive behavior. Specific topics include a) Mechanisms of auditory feedback control of mammalian vocalization. Although hearing one's own voice is essential for the production of correct vocalization patterns in many birds and mammals, including humans, neuronal substrates and mechanisms for auditory feedback control of vocalizations are still largely unknown in any vertebrate. We study how hearing affects voice in echolocating horseshoe bats. These bats accurately control the frequency of their echolocation calls through auditory feedback, which becomes especially apparent when they are flying and compensating for frequency shifts in the echo signal that are caused by Doppler-effects. Similar to visual fixation, where eye movements keep an image of interest centered on the visual fovea, this "Doppler-shift compensation behavior" in horseshoe bats ensures that the echo of interest remains within a so called "auditory fovea". b) Electrosensory processing and synaptic modulation of a neuronal oscillator: My research in weakly electric gymnotiform fish concentrates on the segregation of behaviors on both the sensory and motor side of the central nervous system. This includes studying the synaptic modulation of one of the most precise neuronal oscillators, the pacemaker nucleus, as well as determining the behavioral significance of multiple sensory and premotor pathways.
Selected Publications
Ma, J., Liang, B., Zhang, S., Metzner, W. 2007. Dietary composition and echolocation call design of three sympatric insectivorous bat species from China - (Ecol Res, ) .
Ma, J., Kobayasi, K., Zhang, S., Metzner, W. 2006. Vocal communication in adult greater horseshoe bats, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum Journal of Comparative Physiology A 192 535-550 .
Ma, J., Zhang, J., Liang, B., Zhang, L., Zhang, S., Metzner, W. 2006. Dietary characteristics of Myotis ricketti in Beijing, North China Journal of Mammalogy 87 339-344 .
Smotherman, M.S., Kobayasi, K., Ma, J., Zhang, S.Y., Metzner, W. 2006. A mechanism for vocal-respiratory coupling in the mammalian parabrachial nucleus Journal of Neuroscience 26 4860-4869 .
Smotherman, M.S., Metzner, W. 2005. Auditory-feedback control of temporal call patterns in echolocating horseshoe bats Journal of Neurophysiology 93 1295-1303 .
Gozalo, A.S., Schwiebert, R.S., Metzner, W., Lawson, G.W. 2005. Spontaneous, generalized lipidosis in captive greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 44 49-52 .
Ma, J., Metzner, W., Liang, B., Zhang, L.B., Zhang, J.S., Zhang, S.Y., Shen, J.S. 2004. Differences in diet and echolocation in four sympatric bat species and their respective ecological niches Acta Zoologica Sinica 50 145-150 .
Tian, L., Liang, B., Maeda, K., Metzner, W., Zhang, S. 2004. Molecular studies on the classification of Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences Folia Zoologica 53 303-311 .
Smotherman, M., Metzner, W. 2003. Effect of echo intensity on Doppler-shift compensation behavior in horseshoe bats Journal of Neurophysiology 89 814-821 .
Smotherman, M., Zhang, S.Y., Metzner, W. 2003. A neural basis for auditory feedback control of vocal pitch Journal of Neuroscience 23 1464-1477 .