From the field to the lab and back: Neuroscience of social communication and navigation in bats

Hosted by: Miguel Concha

In this session, we will explore social communication and navigation through field and laboratory experiments. Dr. Ahana Fernandez will guide us through the vocal learning capabilities of the Greater Sac-winged Bat, with a particular focus on "pup babbling." She is currently “moving to the lab” and researching the neural substrates of vocal learning by studying the role of speech-relevant genes. Dr. Saikat Ray will discuss how hippocampal neurons encode the identities of conspecifics, based on their study of wild Egyptian fruit bats in a naturalistic laboratory-based cave. He will conclude his talk by going “back to the field” and describing pioneering neural recordings conducted in the real world: in bats navigating on a remote oceanic island.

External speaker

Saikat Ray

Position: Laboratory of Nachum Ulanovsky, Weizmann Institute of Science.

Title: Real World Neuroscience: from the lab to the field

Animal brains and behaviours have evolved in the natural world – to allow different species to meet their daily life challenges. However, our understanding of how the brain deals with such diverse conditions stems from constrained laboratory experiments – where an animal exhibits one specific behaviour in one particular task. While this approach has revealed many instances of how the brain can encode isolated behaviours, it leaves the fundamental question unexplored: How does the brain actually represent the real world – in natural and multi-animal settings?

To answer this, I will talk about 2 studies that we performed:

A social group study, where we investigated a group of wild Egyptian fruit-bats, a highly-social mammal, in a naturalistic laboratory-based cave, while conducting wireless neural recordings from their brain. We found that hippocampal neurons invariantly encoded the identities of conspecifics – and represented pertinent social factors, like the sex, dominance hierarchy, and social affiliation of other individuals. These representations were conjoined with spatial representations, indicating that the hippocampal cognitive map evolved to also include social information – forming a socio-spatial cognitive map.

Next, I will talk about a navigation study, where we moved from performing neural recordings in the laboratory to pioneering neural recordings in the real world – in bats navigating on a remote oceanic island. We developed a wireless neural-logger with high-precision GPS and altimeter, and recorded neural activity from hundreds of neurons simultaneously, together with the position and altitude of the animal in the real world. We found that the head-direction system, that encodes the orientation of an animal in small rooms, can function as a global compass in the real world and maintain a stable heading over large spatial scales and in the face of dynamic celestial cues – providing the first view on spatial-coding during real-world navigation.

Together, I will talk about our first insights into the neural encoding of real-world places and societies.

Local Speaker

Ahana Aurora Fernandez

Position: Museum of Natural History Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research

Title: Learning to communicate: from the field to the lab

Bats have developed remarkable auditory and vocal abilities as an adaptation to their nocturnal lifestyle. These abilities encompass extensive vocal repertoires, song production, and vocal learning. What is fascinating is that their vocal communication is not solely shaped by ecological factors but is also influenced by their social environment. These factors make bats a promising taxon for studying the biological foundations and cognitive requirements of complex communication systems and understanding the factors that shape them.

The Greater sac-winged bat Saccopteryx bilineata is a unique mammal with remarkable features, including an extensive vocal repertoire, song, and vocal learning capacities. Notably, a part of this vocal repertoire, referred to as the territorial song, is acquired through vocal imitation, representing an advanced form of vocal production learning. What sets this learning process apart is its unmistakable expression through a vocal practice known as "pup babbling." The detailed study of this babbling behaviour and vocal ontogenetic processes during my doctoral research built the foundation for my current project aimed at exploring the neural substrates of vocal learning –specifically the role of speech-relevant genes - in S. bilineata. My interdisciplinary research bridges ethological and bioacoustics research with neuroethology studying wild bats in their natural habitat in Central America. With my research programme, I aim to advance our understanding of the proximate and ultimate factors crucial for mammalian vocal learning—a fundamental component of human language.

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This event is part of the PostDoc Network Speaker Series.

Guests are welcome!