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。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，因为我们知道蝙蝠听起来很重要，这简化了发现潜在神经机制的努力。录音将测量蝙蝠在不同声学环境中发出信号时如何调整回声定位叫声。了解蝙蝠如何整合回声并改变其发声设计，对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，我们将进行一项新的发育研究，并记录在我们圈养繁殖群体中出生的大棕色蝙蝠的中脑听觉神经元的反应，以测试缺乏正常运动发育的蝙蝠也会表现出听觉功能改变的想法。与自由飞行的控制相比，笼养和不允许飞行的蝙蝠在回声定位的神经专门化方面预计会有很大的差异。关于听觉发育可塑性和感觉运动整合的知识将使我对哺乳动物的听力和运动控制有更全面的了解。*我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。我们知道尾膜比翅膀愈合得更快，可能是因为它的厚度和血液供应增加了，但我们不知道能量成本、膜血管和伤口形态如何影响愈合过程。在提高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症的真菌后可能遭受广泛的膜损伤。*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。我们知道雌激素--最小和最强大的性激素--在蝙蝠组织中的结合位置，以及它在同种物质之间的转移。鉴于其在调节雌性生殖方面的效力，这表明雌二醇是一种信息素，雄性诱导性接受和雌性排卵。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，以促进对荷尔蒙信号如何整合以改变行为的了解。我的多样化和严谨的基础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 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.**