Researchers trained bats to fly around obstacles in a room, and recorded the bat's locations and all vocalizations the bat made. They built a model to calculate the direction of all those sounds and when they arrive at the bat's ears, and integrated that with neurological recordings to understand how the bat brains comprehend 3-D space. Studying the brains of free-flying bats--bats in their natural environment--reveals a more nuanced understanding of the brain.

Credit: Courtesy of Cindy Moss and the Johns Hopkins University Auditory Neuroethology Lab

Researchers record the brains of bats as they echolocated, while waiting on a platform for a mealworm treat. They focused on a particular area of the brain, the mid-brain superior colliculus, which plays a role in orienting behaviors. This data has led to a more nuanced understanding of how bat brains understand 3-D space, at the neural level.

Credit: Courtesy of Cindy Moss and the Johns Hopkins University Auditory Neuroethology Lab