Modeling active sensing reveals echo detection even in large groups of bats
Modeling active sensing reveals echo detection even in large groups of bats
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1821722116
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发表时间：
2019-12-26
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Goerlitz, Holger R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beleyur, Thejasvi;Goerlitz, Holger R.
主动感知动物通过发射能量探针和分析环境如何调节这些探针来感知周围环境。然而，同种动物的探针会干扰主动感知，这对主动感知动物群体来说会造成问题。这个问题被称为回声定位蝙蝠的鸡尾酒会噩梦：当蝙蝠倾听自己大声呼叫的微弱回声时，这些回声会被附近其他蝙蝠的大声呼叫所掩盖。尽管存在这个问题，许多蝙蝠还是群居和群居。在这里，我们提出了一个生物参数化框架来量化回声检测。结合回声定位、心理声学、声学和群体飞行的特性，我们量化了成群飞行的蝙蝠在受到干扰的情况下能够发现彼此的能力。在一群蝙蝠中间的焦点蝙蝠可以探测到多达100只蝙蝠的邻居。随着群体规模的增加，只有最近的和正面的邻居被检测到。更长的呼叫间隔，更短的呼叫持续时间，更密集的群体，以及更可变的飞行和声纳波束方向，改进了邻居检测。我们的结果提供了一个量化的感觉输入回声定位蝙蝠在集体群体飞行，如交配群或紧急情况。我们的研究结果进一步预测了蝙蝠可能使用的感官策略，以减少鸡尾酒会噩梦中的干扰。最后，我们认为回声定位器的空间有限的感觉场导致群体内的互动有限，因此集体行为是通过跟随最近的邻居来实现的。
Active sensing animals perceive their surroundings by emitting probes of energy and analyzing how the environment modulates these probes. However, the probes of conspecifics can jam active sensing, which should cause problems for groups of active sensing animals. This problem was termed the cocktail party nightmare for echolocating bats: as bats listen for the faint returning echoes of their loud calls, these echoes will be masked by the loud calls of other close-by bats. Despite this problem, many bats echolocate in groups and roost socially. Here, we present a biologically parametrized framework to quantify echo detection in groups. Incorporating properties of echolocation, psychoacoustics, acoustics, and group flight, we quantify how well bats flying in groups can detect each other despite jamming. A focal bat in the center of a group can detect neighbors in group sizes of up to 100 bats. With increasing group size, fewer and only the closest and frontal neighbors are detected. Neighbor detection is improved by longer call intervals, shorter call durations, denser groups, and more variable flight and sonar beam directions. Our results provide a quantification of the sensory input of echolocating bats in collective group flight, such as mating swarms or emergences. Our results further generate predictions on the sensory strategies bats may use to reduce jamming in the cocktail party nightmare. Lastly, we suggest that the spatially limited sensory field of echolocators leads to limited interactions within a group, so that collective behavior is achieved by following only nearest neighbors.