A 2.6-gram sound and movement tag for studying the acoustic scene and kinematics of echolocating bats

This study was supported by the Carlsberg Foundation via a Semper Ardens grant, ONR, N00014-17-1- 2736; AFOSR FA9550-14-1-0398, and NSF NCS-FO:1734744 and a Human Frontiers Science Program Long-Term Fellowship to AS. These experiments were approved by The Danish Council for Experiments on Animals under permit number: 2016-15-0201-00989 and by the Johns Hopkins University Animal Care and Use Committee under protocol number BA17A107. We thank Uwe Firzlaff and Lutz Wiegrebe for their help.1. To study sensorimotor behaviour in wild animals, it is necessary to synchronously record the sensory inputs available to the animal, and its movements. To do this, we have developed a biologging device that can record the primary sensory information and the associated movements during foraging and navigating in echolocating bats. 2. This 2.6 -gram tag records the sonar calls and echoes from an ultrasonic microphone, while simultaneously sampling fine-scale movement in three dimensions from wideband accelerometers and magnetometers. In this study, we tested the tag on an European noctula (Nyctalus noctula) during target approaches and on four big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) during prey interception in a flight room. 3. We show that the tag records both the outgoing calls and echoes returning from objects at biologically relevant distances. Inertial sensor data enables the detection of behavioural events such as flying, turning, and resting. In addition, individual wing-beats can be tracked and synchronized to the bat's sound emissions to study the coordination of different motor events. 4. By recording the primary acoustic flow of bats concomitant with associated behaviours on a very fine time-scale, this type of biologging method will foster a deeper understanding of how sensory inputs guide feeding behaviours in the wild.PostprintPeer reviewe

Adaptive Echolocation and Flight Behaviors in Bats Can Inspire Technology Innovations for Sonar Tracking and Interception

Target tracking and interception in a dynamic world proves to be a fundamental challenge faced by both animals and artificial systems. To track moving objects under natural conditions, agents must employ strategies to mitigate interference and conditions of uncertainty. Animal studies of prey tracking and capture reveal biological solutions, which can inspire new technologies, particularly for operations in complex and noisy environments. By reviewing research on target tracking and interception by echolocating bats, we aim to highlight biological solutions that could inform new approaches to artificial sonar tracking and navigation systems. Most bat species use wideband echolocation signals to navigate dense forests and hunt for evasive insects in the dark. Importantly, bats exhibit rapid adaptations in flight trajectory, sonar beam aim, and echolocation signal design, which appear to be key to the success of these animals in a variety of tasks. The rich suite of adaptive behaviors of echolocating bats could be leveraged in new sonar tracking technologies by implementing dynamic sensorimotor feedback control of wideband sonar signal design, head, and ear movements

Synaptic NF-kappa B pathway in neuronal plasticity and memory

Several transcription factors are present at the synapse, and among these are the Rel-NF-kappa B pathway components. NF-kappa B is a constitutive transcription factor, with a strong presence in the brain of which a considerable part is located in the neuropiles. This localization of the transcription factor, plus evidence pointing to different functions, is what gave place to two general hypotheses for synaptic NF-kappa B: (a) The transcription factor plays a role in the synapse to nucleus communication, and it is retrogradely transported from polarized localizations to regulate gene expression; (b) The transcription factor modulates the synaptic function locally. Evidence indicates that both mechanisms can operate simultaneously; here we will present different possibilities of these hypotheses that are supported by an increasing amount of data. We pay special attention to the local role of the transcription factor at the synapse, and based in the described evidence from different animal models, we propose several processes in which the transcription factor may change the synaptic strength.Fil: Salles, Angeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Romano, Arturo Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Freudenthal, Ramiro A. M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; Argentin

Surface expression of NMDA receptor changes during memory consolidation in the crab Neohelice granulata

The aim of the present study was to analyze the surface expression of the NMDA-like receptors during the consolidation of contextual learning in the crab Neohelice granulata. Memory storage is based on alterations in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. The glutamatergic synapses undergo various forms of N-methyl-D aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent changes in strength, a process that affects the abundance of other receptors at the synapse and underlies some forms of learning and memory. Here we propose a direct regulation of the NMDAR. Changes in NMDAR's functionality might be induced by the modification of the subunit's expression or cellular trafficking. This trafficking does not only include NMDAR's movement between synaptic and extra-synaptic localizations but also the cycling between intracellular compartments and the plasma membrane, a process called surface expression. Consolidation of contextual learning affects the surface expression of the receptor without affecting its general expression. The surface expression of the GluN1 subunit of the NMDAR is down-regulated immediately after training, up-regulated 3 h after training and returns to nave and control levels 24 h after training. The changes in NMDAR surface expression observed in the central brain are not seen in the thoracic ganglion. A similar increment in surface expression of GluN1 in the central brain is observed 3 h after administration of the competitive GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline. These consolidation changes are part of a plasticity event that first, during the down-regulation, stabilizes the trace and later, at 3-h post-training, changes the threshold for synapse activation.Fil: Hepp, Yanil. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Salles, Angeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Carbo, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Pedreira, Maria Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Freudenthal, Ramiro A. M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; Argentin

High-throughput mutagenized cell screening system for selective single cell extraction

The subject invention pertains to a microfluidic apparatus and methods for screening and isolating a target cell from a population of cells. The apparatus comprises a first microfluidic layer comprising microfluidic channels; a second microfluidic layer comprising microfluidic channels; and a microfluidic cell analysis layer comprising a top hanging blocking structure located directly below each location where the first layer microfluidic channels overlap with the second layer microfluidic channels and a cell trap juxtaposed to each of the top hanging blocking structures. The top hanging blocking structures can close or open the juxtaposed cell trap when either or both the first or second layer microfluidic channels located directly above the top hanging blocking structure are sufficiently pressurized and/or sufficiently depressurized. The methods for screening and isolating a target cell from a population of cells comprise screening the population of cells using the apparatus and isolating the target cell interest therefrom.U

Nyctalus_noctula_target_appraoch_experiment_array-recorded

Data collected on Nyctalus noctula in a large flight room at the University of Southern Denmark. The bat was trained to fly across a flight room and land on a target platform. The echolocation signals were recorded simultaneously by an array behind the target sphere as well as from an on-board acoustic tag. This .zip-folder includes the array recorded flights sampled at 250 kHz