# overview
Evolution and Neurobiology of Communication

Communication is an essential part of sociality, and an animal's vocal communications provide a window into their cognitive capabilities, motivations, and behavioral ecology. Communication is also a important model of sensorimotor neurobiology because vocalizations are the motor output of a sophisticated suite of brain pathways that integrate across multiple sensory modalities and time scales. Vocal communication systems are highly diverse because they have been shaped by intense natural and sexual selection. Studying the evolution of communication networks in the brain provides important insight into how environment and ecology molded the social brain.

Our lab studies bats because of their biosonar capabilities and their unusually broad repertoire of communication calls and songs.

Echolocation provides an exciting model system for exploring how multiple brain pathways interact to control behavior on a millisecond time scale. Our neural studies investigate the neurocircuits that guide delicate changes in sonar pulse acoustics. Our behavioral studies of bats echolocating in groups has shed light on how they coordinate their sonar systems to minimize interference with one another. This research has direct relevance to man-made sonar and wireless communications systems.

Singing by bats offers exiting new opportunities to young investigators to explore how mammals and birds converged upon a similar behavior via different neural mechanisms. Identifying and characterizing the functional neurocircuitry of the bat's song production network is a major component of our research.

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1.1 Normal Biological Development And Functioning

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4201 Allied Health And Rehabilitation Science

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4007 Control Engineering, Mechatronics And Robotics

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Occidental College - (Los Angeles, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of California Los Angeles - (Los Angeles, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of California Los Angeles - (Los Angeles, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Maine - (Orono, Maine, United States)

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A neural basis for auditory feedback control of vocal pitch.

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Specializations of bat auditory cortex for processing echoes arriving at different delays

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Auditory-feedback control of temporal call patterns in echolocating horseshoe bats.

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Temporal coding of echo spectral shape in the bat auditory cortex.

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Faster Repetition Rate Sharpens the Cortical Representation of Echo Streams in Echolocating Bats.

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Is Reduced Thermal Sensitivity in Distal Wing Muscles a Functional Adaptation to Bats' Unique Wing Morphology?

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A mechanism for antiphonal echolocation by Free-tailed bats.

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Application of the oddball paradigm for investigating predictive coding in the bat auditory system

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Acetylcholine mediates excitatory input to chromatophore motoneurons in the squid, Loligo pealeii.

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How Noise Affects Bats and What It Reveals About Their Biosonar Systems

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A Mass Spectrometry Imaging Study of Lipid Differentiation in Model Systems

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Suppression of emission rates improves sonar performance by flying bats.

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Specialized facial muscles support sonar beam-forming by free-tailed bats

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Laminar Organization of FM Direction Selectivity in the Primary Auditory Cortex of the Free-Tailed Bat.

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Intra- and Interspecific Variability of Echolocation Pulse Acoustics in the African Megadermatid Bats

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Museum and Institute of Zoology at the Polish Academy of Sciences

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Sensory feedback control of mammalian vocalizations.

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Doppler-shift compensation behavior by Wagner's mustached bat, Pteronotus personatus.

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Versatility and stereotypy of free-tailed bat songs.

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Effect of temperature on electrical resonance in leopard frog saccular hair cells.

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Surface characterization of biological nanodomains using NP-ToF-SIMS.

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Acoustic discrimination of fine surface textures by echolocating free-tailed bats

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Singing strategies are linked to perch use on foraging territories in heart-nosed bats.

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The prefrontal cortex of the Mexican free-tailed bat is more selective to communication calls than primary auditory cortex.

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Effects of echo intensity on Doppler-shift compensation behavior in horseshoe bats.

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Hair cells, hearing and hopping: a field guide to hair cell physiology in the frog.

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Regulation of bat echolocation pulse acoustics by striatal dopamine.

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Chapter 9.2 Vocalrespiratory interactions in the parabrachial nucleus

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Infectivity of attenuated poxvirus vaccine vectors and immunogenicity of a raccoonpox vectored rabies vaccine in the Brazilian Free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis).

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Probabilistic strategies for dynamic coordination of biosonar emissions in social groups

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Role of ecology in shaping external nasal morphology in bats and implications for olfactory tracking.

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Forward masking enhances the auditory brainstem response in the free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis, during a critical time window for sonar reception.

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Groups of bats improve sonar efficiency through mutual suppression of pulse emissions.

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Context-dependent effects of noise on echolocation pulse characteristics in free-tailed bats.

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Influence of signal direction on sonar interference

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Doppler-shift compensation behavior in horseshoe bats revisited: auditory feedback controls both a decrease and an increase in call frequency.

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Vocalrespiratory interactions in the parabrachial nucleus

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Fine control of call frequency by horseshoe bats.

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Singing strategies are linked to perch use on foraging territories in heart-nosed bats

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Olfactory tracking strategies in a neotropical fruit bat.

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Distribution of 2-[I]iodomelatonin binding in the brain of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis).

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A mechanism for vocal-respiratory coupling in the mammalian parabrachial nucleus.

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Audio-vocal feedback in bats and new roles for echolocation calls in social communication

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Functional organization of the primary auditory cortex of the free-tailed bat Tadarida brasiliensis.

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The genome sequence of Tadarida brasiliensis I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1824 [Molossidae; Tadarida].

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Singing away from home: Songs are used on foraging territories in the African megadermatid bat, Cardioderma cor.

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Perception of social vocalizations in bats

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Social context evokes rapid changes in bat song syntax

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Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources.

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The electrical properties of auditory hair cells in the frog amphibian papilla.

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Topographical distribution of spectrotemporal receptive field properties in the bat primary auditory cortex

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Potassium currents in auditory hair cells of the frog basilar papilla.

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The tiny difference between foraging and communication buzzes uttered by the Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis.

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Behavioral response to conspecific songs on foraging territories of the heart-nosed bat

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MSI MALDI-MS for Direct Lipid Profiling of Intact Tissues

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Daily and Seasonal Patterns of Singing by the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat, Tadarida brasiliensis

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Biosonar discrimination of fine surface textures by echolocating free-tailed bats

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Mapping vocalization-related immediate early gene expression in echolocating bats.

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Developing a biomimetic acoustic deterrent to reduce bat mortalities at wind turbines

# researcherOn[].label
Networking Strategies used by Bats to Improve Social Sonar

# researcherOn[].awardedBy.label
National Science Foundation - (Arlington, Virginia, United States)

# streetAddress
Texas A&M University; Biology; 3258 TAMU