Neural Computations Underlying Central Control over Aerial Navigation Using Freely Flying Bats
Abstract
Three-dimensional aerial navigation is a highly complex process that is achieved by a fewselected organisms. Bats are the only flying mammals on the planet and the behavioral aspects oftheir remarkable aerial navigation abilities have been heavily studied. Yet, it remains largelyunknown what are the neural computations are that support the bat’s remarkable aerial capacitiesand in particular, what the mechanisms are that allow higher-level control over three-dimensionalaerial navigation learning. The PI intends to study freely behaving and flying bats to address the above fundamental question.This proposal focuses on the mammalian striatum, which is known to be necessary for goal directedspatial learning. In particular, much emphasis has been placed on its dorso-lateral anddorso-medial subdivisions, which are believed to play complementary, and perhaps evencompeting, roles in this process. Specifically, the dorso-lateral striatum is suggested to supporthard-wired or ‘fixed’ behavioral patterns whereas the dorso-medial striatum supports flexiblebehavior. Yet, understanding how sensory information drives changes in striatal neural activityand importantly, their correspondence to the behavioral dynamics during aerial navigationremains vastly unknown. Using freely flying and echolocating bats the PI will directly address theseopen questions.The PI developed technologies for recording neural activity, at single cell and millisecond resolution, from the brains of freely flying and echolocating bats. More recently, he developed and applied methods for causal manipulation of striatal circuits on both long-term (hours) and short-term (milliseconds) timescales. These advances will now be combined to provide an innovative approach that binds powerful natural behavior with advanced methods for monitoring and manipulating neural activity in a novel model system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501710412
Entities
People
- Michael M Yartsev
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California Regents