Gene expression and signal classification in the auditory system of bats

描述(申请人提供)：小棕蝠(Myotis Lucifugus)具有精湛的回声定位能力；它们可以利用声纳系统在黑暗中导航，并检测、识别、定位和跟踪猎物。它们的回声定位信号已被详细研究，但它们的通信叫声特征不太好，尽管它们在社交互动中广泛使用，例如在母婴互动中，以及在防御或广告摄食区。这项研究的目的是描述和确定小棕蝠声音交流信号的行为相关性，以及调查处理这些叫声的解剖学基础。卢氏沼虾的交流叫声将在夜间从单个蝙蝠身上进行录音，并将开发一种自动分类算法，对录音的叫声进行客观分类。为了研究参与通讯信号处理的解剖结构，即刻早期基因ZenK(Zif268，Egr1，NGFI-A，KROX-24)将被用作脑激活的分子标记。在鸣禽中，在接触到鸟类自己的歌声或同种歌声(即它们物种内的歌声)后，Zenk在参与处理这些歌声的特定大脑区域中上调。最近对青蛙的一项研究还表明，Zenk在青蛙听觉中脑的孤立区域显示出依赖于呼叫的激活。这些研究表明，Zenk可以用来阐明处理通信信号的解剖基础。为了确定每种呼叫类型的行为相关性，将向蝙蝠播放单独的呼叫，并对蝙蝠的响应进行视听调查。蝙蝠的听觉系统已成为研究语音处理的有用模型(由于蝙蝠的回声定位[和交流]叫声与人类语音在声音特征上的相似性，以及它们听觉系统的结构和功能组织方面的相似之处)。这项拟议的研究将有助于揭示复杂自然声音的神经处理。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) have exquisite ability to echolocate; they can utilize their sonar system to navigate, and detect, identify, locate and track prey, in darkness. Their echolocation signals have been studied in detail but their communication calls are less well characterized despite the widespread use during their social interactions, e.g. in mother-young interactions, and in defending or advertising feeding areas. The goals of this study are to characterize, and determine the behavioral relevance of, sound communication signals of little brown bats, as well as to investigate the anatomical substrates for processing of these calls. The communication calls of M. lucifugus will be recorded from individual bats overnight, and an automatic classification algorithm will be developed to objectively classify the recorded calls. To study the anatomical structures involved in processing of the communication signals, the immediate early gene ZENK (zif268, egr1, NGFI-A, krox-24) will be used as a molecular marker for brain activation. In songbirds, after exposure to the bird's own songs or conspecific songs (i.e., songs within their species), ZENK is upregulated in specific brain areas involved in processing of these songs. A recent study in frogs also showed that ZENK displays call-dependent activation in isolated regions of the frog auditory midbrain. These studies demonstrate that ZENK can be used to elucidate the anatomical substrates of processing of communication signals. To determine the behavioral relevance of each call type, individual calls will be played back to a bat, and the bat's response investigated audio-visually. The bat auditory system has served as a useful model for studying speech processing (due to the similarities in sound features between bat's echolocation [and communication] calls and human speech sounds, and in structural and functional organizations of their auditory systems). The proposed study would shed light on the neural processing of complex natural sounds.