Paul Nachtigall

Cetacean sensory and perceptual processes

My research interests focus on the sensory and perceptual processes of dolphins and small whales. Past research has focused on taste reception, vision, hearing and echolocation of toothed whales and dolphins. Currently conducting research on hearing (sound localization, low frequency audiometrics, evoked auditory potential measurements as a way to study hearing in large whales, examining hearing while animals echolocate), echolocation (determining acoustic processes of echolocation via phantom echo experiments, effects of noise on dolphins, modeling discrimination abilities) with further interest in aiding stranded animals and may be conducting future studies on vision and taste reception.

Representative publications

Mooney, T.A., Nachtigall, P.E., Miller, L., Rasmussen, M., and Taylor, K.A. (2009) > Auditory temporal resolution of a wild white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris ) Journal of Comparative Physiology - A

Mooney T.A., Nachtigall, P.E. and Vlachos, S. (2009) Sonar induced temporary hearing loss in dolphins. Biology Letters , 5, 565-567

Supin, A. Ya., Nachtigall, P.E., and Breese, M. (2009) Forward masking based gain control in odontocete biosonar: an evoked-potential study. J Acous Soc Am

Mooney T.A., Nachtigall, P.E. Breese, M. Vlachos, S. and Au, W.L. (2009), Predicting temporary threshold shifts in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): the effects of noise level and duration. J Acous Soc Am , 125, 1816-1826.

Nachtigall, P.E. Recent directions in Odontocete cetacean hearing.(2008) Bioacoustics, 17, 82-85.

Southall, B.L., Bowles, A.E., Ellison,W.T. Finneran, J.J., Gentry, R.L., Greene, C.R.Jr., Kastak, D., Ketten D.R., Miller J.H., Nachtigall, P.E., Richardson, W.J., Thomas, J.A., and Tyack, P.L. (2008) Marine mammal noise exposure criteria: initial scientific recommendations. Edited by: Paul Lepper, Ross Compton, Simon Dible, Trevor Guymer, Ed Harland, Simon Richards and Stephen Robinson. Underwater Noise Measurement, Impact and Mitigation, 2008. Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Conference on Underwater Noise Measurement, Impact and Mitigation. Southampton, UK 14-15 October, 2008. Published by the Institute for Acoustics: St Albans, UK. Pages 13-16.

Supin, A.Ya., Nachtigall, P.E. and Breese, M. (2008) Forward masking as a mechanism of automatic gain control in whale biosonar: a psychophysical study, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 124, 648-656.

Mooney, T.A.,Nachtigall, P.E. Castellote, M., Taylor, K.A., Pacini, A.F. and Estaban, J.A. (2008)Hearing pathways and directional sensitivity of the beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas. Journal of Experimental Biology and Ecology. 362, 108-116.

Nachtigall, P.E., Reichmuth, C. and Schusterman, R.J. (2008) Healthy stranded animals and laboratory research . Marine Mammal Science 23, 746.

Nachtigall, P.E. and Supin, A. Ya., (2008) A false killer whale adjusts its hearing when it echolocates. Journal of Experimental Biology, 211, 1714-1718

Nachtigall, P. E., Mooney T.A., Taylor K.A., Miller L.A., Rasmussen M. H., Akamatsu T., TeilmanJ., Linnenschmidt M., and Vikingsson G. A. (2008) Shipboard measurements of the hearing of the white-beaked dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris. Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 642-647.

Supin, A.Ya., Nachtigall, P.E. and Breese, M. (2008) Hearing sensitivity during target presence and absence while a whale echolocates. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 534-541