Research Hit: Surprising Discovery on the Social Brain

How bat's brains are wired for collective behaviour

Today’s quick brain update looks at a surprising discovery in how bat’s brains encode social information.

You did say “bat’s brains”

Yes, I often report on various animal studies because this gives us strong clues as to how brains in general work.

And do bats have friends and social networks?

Well, we obviously know that most bats live in large colonies together and so there are all sorts of social interactions together. The bats used were Egyptian fruit bats but the researchers used an innovative technique to measure brain activity while flying and resting in a large flight room i.e. in a naturalistic environment.

And what did they do?

Angelo Forli and Michael Yartsev of the University of California used wireless technology to measure activity in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. Because it was wireless they could measure them in more natural interactions and while flying (and also specific brain cells - neurons).

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And what did they discover that was surprising?

Well, as I said they had wired up the hippocampus in the brain. This area is very well researched and known for its involvement in memory but particularly in navigation - that’s why it is interesting to measure in bats. There are different navigation brain cells but some are called place neurons because they activate to specific places.