Biology subjects

Wohlgemuth, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Wohlgemuth, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Unpredictable Motion Shapes Sensing Behaviors Across Timescales

Locating, tracking, and intercepting objects is a fundamental behavior for many organisms. For instance, predators must track and capture erratically moving prey for their survival. Using the echolocating bat as a model species, we investigate how short-term changes in target motion predictability affect longer-term motor plans when tracking a prey item. We used a paradigm where prey motion is under experimental control, and then applied computational methods to characterize how target motion predictability influences short- and long-term behavioral control. We find that target motion predictability during the tracking phase of insect capture influences both short-term changes in sonar call control, as well as longer-term behavioral control for transitioning between hunting phases. For changes in immediate behavioral control, bats produce more bursts of calls at a higher rate when tracking unpredictable moving prey, an indication that the bat is collecting more information about the targets motion for unpredictable than predictable trials. In terms of longer-term behavioral control, target motion unpredictability delays the transition from tracking to capture phase behaviors. We suggest that the bat does this to collect more information about target motion to time the transition from tracking to capture behaviors for hunting success. Additionally, we find the effects of target motion unpredictability are first seen as changes in the vocal motor plan and then the auditory motor plan (ear motion), hinting at a sequencing of motor changes that warrant further investigation. SummaryWhen presented with a more challenging hunting task, bats will increase their production of bursts of calls at a higher rate and delay their transition into capture behaviors.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Sensorimotor dynamics in the superior colliculus of the echolocating bat

To successfully execute natural tasks, animals must continuously monitor and integrate dynamic sensory information to guide behavior. While this process - known as active sensing - is fundamental to goal-directed behavior, the mechanisms by which sensory information supports motor planning, particularly across different behavioral contexts, remains poorly understood. We investigated sensory and motor activity in the superior colliculus (SC) of echolocating bats, a powerful model system to study active sensing behaviors due to their reliance on self-generated sonar signals. We recorded multichannel SC activity while bats performed spatial navigation and target tracking behaviors. We hypothesized that changes in sensory signals (i.e., returning echoes) drive quantifiable adjustments in SC activity related to sonar call production, and that adaptive changes in SC sensorimotor processing are preserved across behavioral contexts. We examined pooled SC activity using a dimensionality reduction technique to isolate the largest changes in firing rates across multichannel SC recordings. We then examined the variation in SC activity from the time of echo arrival (sensory input) to call production (motor output). Our data show that increases in call rate are associated with shorter trajectory lengths in neural state space, reflecting reduced variability and increased efficiency in population activity. Strikingly, when bats cluster calls into sonar sound groups (SSGs, which are rapid bursts of calls to increase sensory sampling), SC activity is distinct from times when bats produce isolated calls. Notably, we find that successive SSGs lead to progressively shorter trajectory lengths, suggesting a refinement of sensorimotor processing across successive SSGs. Together, our findings demonstrate that sensorimotor population dynamics in the SC follow common principles across distinct behavioral tasks. These results support a fundamental role for the SC in adaptive sensing and highlight its contribution to flexible sensorimotor tranformations in natural behaviors.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Spatially clustered neurons encode vocalization categories in the bat midbrain

Rapid categorization of vocalizations enables adaptive behavior across species. While categorical perception is thought to arise in the neocortex, humans and other animals could benefit from functional organization of ethologically-relevant sounds at earlier stages in the auditory hierarchy. Here, we developed two-photon calcium imaging in the awake echolocating bat (Eptesicus fuscus) to study encoding of sound meaning in the Inferior Colliculus, which is as few as two synapses from the inner ear. Echolocating bats produce and interpret frequency sweep-based vocalizations for social communication and navigation. Auditory playback experiments demonstrated that individual neurons responded selectively to social or navigation calls, enabling robust population-level decoding across categories. Strikingly, category-selective neurons formed spatial clusters, independent of tonotopy within the IC. These findings support a revised view of categorical processing in which specified channels for ethologically-relevant sounds are spatially segregated early in the auditory hierarchy, enabling rapid subcortical organization of call meaning.

neuroscience↗