TY - JOUR
T1 - Bats adjust their mouth gape to zoom their biosonar field of view
AU - Kounitsky, Pavel
AU - Rydell, Jens
AU - Amichai, Eran
AU - Boonman, Arjan
AU - Eitan, Ofri
AU - Weiss, Anthony J.
AU - Yovel, Yossi
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/5/26
Y1 - 2015/5/26
N2 - Active sensing, where sensory acquisition is actively modulated, is an inherent component of almost all sensory systems. Echolocating bats are a prime example of active sensing. They can rapidly adjust many of their biosonar parameters to optimize sensory acquisition. They dynamically adjust pulse design, pulse duration, and pulse rate within dozens of milliseconds according to the sensory information that is required for the task that they are performing. The least studied and least understood degree of freedom in echolocation is emission beamforming - the ability to change the shape of the sonar sound beam in a functional way. Such an ability could have a great impact on the bat's control over its sensory perception. On the one hand, the bat could direct more energy into a narrow sector to zoom its biosonar field of view, and on the other hand, it could widen the beam to increase the space that it senses. We show that freely behaving bats constantly control their biosonar field of view in natural situations by rapidly adjusting their emitter aperture - the mouth gape. The bats dramatically narrowed the beam when entering a confined space, and they dramatically widened it within dozens of milliseconds when flying toward open space. Hence, mouth-emitting bats dynamically adjust their mouth gape to optimize the area that they sense with their echolocation system.
AB - Active sensing, where sensory acquisition is actively modulated, is an inherent component of almost all sensory systems. Echolocating bats are a prime example of active sensing. They can rapidly adjust many of their biosonar parameters to optimize sensory acquisition. They dynamically adjust pulse design, pulse duration, and pulse rate within dozens of milliseconds according to the sensory information that is required for the task that they are performing. The least studied and least understood degree of freedom in echolocation is emission beamforming - the ability to change the shape of the sonar sound beam in a functional way. Such an ability could have a great impact on the bat's control over its sensory perception. On the one hand, the bat could direct more energy into a narrow sector to zoom its biosonar field of view, and on the other hand, it could widen the beam to increase the space that it senses. We show that freely behaving bats constantly control their biosonar field of view in natural situations by rapidly adjusting their emitter aperture - the mouth gape. The bats dramatically narrowed the beam when entering a confined space, and they dramatically widened it within dozens of milliseconds when flying toward open space. Hence, mouth-emitting bats dynamically adjust their mouth gape to optimize the area that they sense with their echolocation system.
KW - Active sensing
KW - Bats
KW - Beamforming
KW - Echolocation
KW - Sensory perception
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930226172&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422843112
DO - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422843112
M3 - مقالة
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 112
SP - 6724
EP - 6729
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 21
ER -