Brightness Discrimination Thresholds in the Bat, Eptesicus fuscus

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Abstract
Echolocating bats (Eptesicus fuscus)were trained on a brightness discrimination task. It was found that the ability of these bats to discriminate luminance differences at a fixed dim ambient illumination compares to that of rats and mice. The mean Weber ratio for four different standard-comparison stimulus sets was 0.85. When tested under varying conditions of ambient illumination, it was found that brightness discrimination sensitivity was optimal at about 10.44 lx. Sensitivity for distinct luminance differences remained good under conditions of very dim ambient illumination, indicating that echolocating bats may utilize visual cues in their night flight.

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