News Release

How bat brain tracks prey

Neural recordings of wild bats reveal unique organization of midbrain region for tracking and capturing prey

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Society for Neuroscience

Platform Echolocation

video: In this three-part video, the bat is shown tracking a moving insect from a stationary position on a platform. While the bat performs this task, microphones recording sonar vocalizations and echoes, and neural recordings are collected. A 'bat detector' device makes the vocalizations of a bat audible to the human ear. The last segment was captured with high-speed video recording and has been slowed down by a factor of ten. Displayed on the bottom is the ongoing spectrographic representation of the bat's vocalizations. view more 

Credit: Wohlgemuth MJ, Kothari NB, Moss CF (2016) Action Enhances Acoustic Cues for 3-D Target Localization by Echolocating Bats. <i>PLoS Biol</i>14(9): e1002544. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002544

The bat midbrain is uniquely organized to facilitate rapid integration of sensory and motor information required for tracking prey using biological sonar, according to neural recordings of wild bats obtained during laboratory experiments described in JNeurosci.

The superior colliculus (SC) is a layered structure in the mammalian brain that uses sensory information to orient the animal to a particular location in its environment. The SC has been well-studied in species that rely primarily on vision to accomplish this task, and almost entirely in artificial settings that preclude understanding SC function during naturalistic behaviors. As bats use echolocation (the process of emitting sound and processing echoes) to navigate their environment, Melville Wohlgemuth and colleagues investigated how auditory input and vocal output might influence the organization and function of the SC in these animals.

The authors recorded SC activity from four big brown bats while manipulating the location of a prey item around a dimly lit room. By comparing the bats' changes in neural activity to their vocalizations and echoes, they found both sensory and motor neurons throughout the SC layers. This finding contributes to previously studied species in which these different neuron types are separated, and integration occurs across layers. SC activity also changed as the bats closed in on the prey, which may support the localization of a target at close distances when processing demands are high.

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Article: Functional organization and dynamic activity in the superior colliculus of the echolocating bat, Eptesicus fuscus

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1775-17.2017

Corresponding author: Melville Wohlgemuth (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA), melville.wohlgemuth@jhu.edu

About JNeurosci

JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.


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