Bats Adapt to Hearing Loss Using Hard-Wired Neural Strategies
Bats adapt to hearing loss with innate strategies, providing insights into auditory resilience.
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Bats, highly reliant on sound for navigation, demonstrate a remarkable ability to adapt when their hearing is impaired, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University published in Current Biology. The findings reveal that bats employ hard-wired strategies to compensate for diminished hearing, suggesting similar mechanisms may exist in other animals and humans.
Experimental approach and key findings
In the study, bats were trained to fly down a corridor and through a window to retrieve a reward. Researchers then temporarily blocked a key auditory pathway in the bats’ midbrains using a reversible drug-induced technique that disrupts most auditory signals to the brain. Despite this impairment, the bats immediately adjusted their flight and echolocation behavior to complete the task successfully, though with reduced agility and occasional collisions.
“Bats have this amazing flexible adaptive behavior that they can employ anytime,”
Dr. Cynthia F. Moss
Echolocation
A biological process where animals emit sound waves and use the returning echoes to navigate and locate objects. Bats rely on echolocation for flight and hunting.
Auditory cortex
The part of the brain that processes sound signals, interpreting them into meaningful information such as location and pitch.
Bandwidth
In this context, the range of frequencies used in echolocation calls. Expanding bandwidth can enhance the clarity and detail of echoes.
Key adaptive behaviors included:
- Flying closer to walls for spatial orientation.
- Increasing the number and duration of echolocation calls.
- Broadening the bandwidth of calls to enhance echo strength.
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Subscribe for FREEThese adjustments highlight the bats' ability to compensate for internal auditory deficits using pre-existing neural circuits.
Hard-wired compensatory mechanisms
The study found that the bats' adaptations were innate rather than learned. The lack of improvement in performance across repeated trials suggests the behaviors were embedded in the bats’ neural architecture. This built-in flexibility underscores the brain's resilience and ability to adapt to sensory disruptions.
Implications for auditory processing in other species
Interestingly, the bats retained some hearing capability despite the midbrain impairment. Researchers speculate that previously unknown auditory pathways or compensatory mechanisms in unaffected neurons might allow sound signals to bypass the disabled region.
“Can this work tell us something about auditory processing and adaptive responses in humans? Since no one has done this, we don’t know. The findings raise important questions that will be exciting to pursue in other research models.”
Dr. Cynthia F. Moss
The team plans to explore whether these findings extend to other animals and humans. Understanding these innate compensatory strategies may provide insights into auditory processing and rehabilitation in humans.
Reference: Diebold CA, Lawlor J, Allen K, et al. Rapid sensorimotor adaptation to auditory midbrain silencing in free-flying bats. Current Biology. 2024:S0960982224014404. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.045
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