Bioacoustics, hearing, and the integrative physiology of bats

蝙蝠的生物声学、听力和综合生理学

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-04879
• 负责人: Faure, Paul
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=650522
• 关键词: Bioacoustics; hearing; integrative; physiology; bats

The long-term goal of my research is to decipher how the nervous system integrates information. To achieve this in the short-term, my lab will conduct novel studies on bioacoustics, hearing, and the integrative physiology of bats. My lab maintains Canada's only captive research colony of insectivorous bats and this unique resource affords us with diverse opportunities to study bat biology.******Bats are ideal subjects for bioacoustics work because we know the sounds important to bats and this simplifies the effort to discover underlying neural mechanisms. Sound recordings will measure how bats adjust echolocation calls when signaling in different acoustical environments. Knowing how bats integrate echoes and alter their vocal design has practical applications for human auditory perception and automated technologies.******To complement our biosonar work, we will conduct a novel developmental study and record responses of auditory neurons from the midbrain of big brown bats born in our captive breeding colony to test the idea that bats that lack proper motor development will also show altered auditory function. Compared to free-flying controls, bats reared in cages and not allowed to fly are expected to have large differences in neural specializations for echolocation. Knowledge of auditory developmental plasticity and sensorimotor integration will lead to a more general understanding of hearing and motor control in mammals.******One focus of my integrative physiology work is cutaneous healing. Bat wings serve locomotory and physiological roles, and biologists routinely biopsy them to mark bats or obtain tissue for molecular work. Although wing injuries are common in nature, little is known about wound healing. We know the tail membrane heals faster than the wing, likely because of its increased thickness and blood supply, but we don't know how energetic costs, membrane vasculature, and wound morphology impact the healing process. While advancing knowledge on tissue repair, this work provides baseline data important to conservation because hibernating bats can suffer extensive membrane damage after surviving an infection with the fungus causing white-nose syndrome.******Another focus of my integrative physiology work examines hormone production, absorption, and transfer in bats. We know where estradiol-the smallest and most powerful sex steroid-binds in bat tissues and that it transfers between conspecifics. Given its potency in regulating female reproduction, this indicates estradiol is a pheromone with males inducing sexual receptivity and ovulation in females. We will measure natural estradiol levels in bat urine, blood, and glandular secretions across the breeding cycle to advance knowledge of how hormonal signals are integrated to modify behaviour.******My diverse and rigorous basic research program seeks to explain how bats integrate exogenous and endogenous signals to generate adaptive behaviour.**

我研究的长期目标是破译神经系统如何整合信息。为了在短期内实现这一目标，我的实验室将对蝙蝠的生物声学、听力和综合生理学进行新颖的研究。我的实验室拥有加拿大唯一的食虫蝙蝠圈养研究群体，这种独特的资源为我们提供了研究蝙蝠生物学的多种机会。******蝙蝠是生物声学工作的理想对象，因为我们知道声音对蝙蝠很重要，这简化了发现潜在神经机制的工作。录音将测量蝙蝠在不同声学环境中发出信号时如何调整回声定位呼叫。了解蝙蝠如何整合回声并改变其声音设计对于人类听觉感知和自动化技术具有实际应用。******为了补充我们的生物声纳工作，我们将进行一项新颖的发育研究，并记录我们圈养繁殖群中出生的大棕色蝙蝠中脑的听觉神经元的反应，以测试缺乏适当运动发育的蝙蝠也会表现出听觉功能改变的想法。与自由飞行的对照组相比，在笼子里饲养且不允许飞行的蝙蝠预计在回声定位的神经特化方面存在很大差异。对听觉发育可塑性和感觉运动整合的了解将使我们对哺乳动物的听觉和运动控制有更全面的了解。******我的综合生理学工作的重点之一是皮肤愈合。蝙蝠翅膀具有运动和生理作用，生物学家经常对它们进行活检以标记蝙蝠或获取用于分子研究的组织。尽管翅膀受伤在自然界中很常见，但人们对伤口愈合知之甚少。我们知道尾膜比翅膀愈合得更快，可能是因为它的厚度和血液供应增加，但我们不知道能量消耗、膜脉管系统和伤口形态如何影响愈合过程。在推进组织修复知识的同时，这项工作提供了对保护很重要的基线数据，因为冬眠的蝙蝠在感染引起白鼻综合症的真菌后会遭受广泛的细胞膜损伤。******我的综合生理学工作的另一个重点是检查蝙蝠体内激素的产生、吸收和转移。我们知道雌二醇（最小且最强大的性类固醇）在蝙蝠组织中的结合位置以及它在同种动物之间的转移。鉴于其调节女性生殖的功效，这表明雌二醇是一种信息素，男性可诱导女性性接受和排卵。我们将在整个繁殖周期中测量蝙蝠尿液、血液和腺体分泌物中的天然雌二醇水平，以增进对激素信号如何整合以改变行为的了解。******我多样化且严格的基础研究计划旨在解释蝙蝠如何整合外源和内源信号以产生适应性行为。**