Bioacoustics, hearing, and the integrative physiology of bats

我研究的长期目标是破译神经系统如何整合信息来产生适应性行为。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的研究。我的实验室拥有加拿大唯一圈养的食虫蝙蝠研究群体，这种独特的资源为我们提供了研究蝙蝠生物学的各种机会。 蝙蝠是生物声学工作的理想对象，因为我们知道蝙蝠的声音很重要，这简化了发现潜在神经机制的努力。录音将测量蝙蝠在发育过程中以及在不同环境和/或具有相同特性的情况下如何调整回声定位叫声。了解蝙蝠如何整合回声和改变它们的叫声，对人类听觉感知和自动化技术具有实际应用价值。 为了补充我们的生物声纳工作，我们将记录单个听觉神经元的反应，以了解中脑如何整合来自耳蜗和脑干的输入，以在中脑中创建具有新颖反应特性的细胞，使蝙蝠能够通过回声定位形成其环境的图像。在一项新的发育研究中，我们将记录在我们繁殖群体中出生的蝙蝠幼崽的中央听觉系统的群体反应，以了解听力在早期生活中是如何变化的。了解蝙蝠的大脑是如何成熟并处理声音的，将为包括人类在内的所有哺乳动物的一般听力机制提供新的知识。 我的综合生理学工作的一个重点是皮肤愈合。蝙蝠的翅膀起着运动和生理的作用，生物学家经常对它们进行活组织检查，以标记蝙蝠或获取组织进行分子工作。尽管翅膀损伤在自然界中很常见，但人们对伤口愈合知之甚少。我们知道尾膜比机翼愈合得更快，可能是因为它的厚度增加和血液供应增加，但我们不知道季节性、膜血管和伤口形态如何影响愈合。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，因为冬眠蝙蝠在感染导致白鼻综合征的真菌后存活后，可能会遭受广泛的膜损伤。 我的综合生理学工作的另一个重点是研究蝙蝠体内激素的产生、吸收和转移。我们知道雌激素在蝙蝠组织中最小和最强大的性类固醇结合的地方，而且它可以在同居的同种生物之间转移。这表明雌二醇可以起到信息素的作用，男性可能会诱导性接受和排卵。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其他类固醇的自然水平，以了解荷尔蒙信号是如何整合来改变行为的。 我的多样化和严谨的研究计划试图解释蝙蝠如何整合外源和内源信号来产生适应行为。

The long-term goal of my research is to decipher how the nervous system integrates information to produce adaptive behaviour. 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 in development and when calling in different environments and/or with conspecifics. Knowing how bats integrate echoes and alter their calls has practical applications for human auditory perception and automated technologies. To complement our biosonar work, we will record responses of single auditory neurons to understand how the midbrain integrates inputs from the cochlea and brainstem to create cells in the midbrain with novel response properties that allow bats to form images of their environment with echolocation. In a novel developmental study, we will record population responses from the central auditory system of bat pups born in our breeding colony to understand how hearing changes in early life. Understanding how the bat's brain matures and processes sounds will provide new knowledge about general mechanisms of hearing relevant to all mammals, including humans. 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 seasonality, membrane vasculature, and wound morphology impact healing. 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 that causes white-nose syndrome. Another focus of my integrative physiology work examines hormone production, absorption, and transfer in bats. We know where estradiolthe smallest and most powerful sex steroidbinds in bat tissues, and that it can transfer between cohabitating conspecifics. This indicates that estradiol can act as a pheromone, with males possibly inducing sexual receptivity and ovulation in females. We will measure natural levels of other steroids in bat urine, blood, and glandular secretions across the breeding cycle to understand how hormonal signals are integrated to modify behaviour. My diverse and rigorous research program seeks to explain how bats integrate exogenous and endogenous signals to generate adaptive behaviour.