Multisensory information processing and decision making in foraging fruit bats

• Applicant: Dr. Susanne Stefanie Babl
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 567451373

This research investigates the behavioral and neuronal mechanisms underlying multisensory integration and decision making in foraging fruit bats (Carollia perspicillata). The study aims to bridge the fields of systems neuroscience and behavioral ecology by combining behavioral experiments in wild-living bats with neuronal recordings using captive individuals. Bats are auditory specialists and rely not only on their own echolocation calls, but also on the social vocalizations of conspecifics to navigate their environment. In fruit bats, also olfactory cues play an important role to locate food sources. However, the mechanisms by which these multisensory stimuli are processed and used for adaptive decision making remain largely unexplored. The project seeks to address this gap through three main objectives: (1) analyzing foraging decisions in wild bats in response to olfactory and acoustic social stimuli, (2) comparing these responses to captive-bred bats to assess the impact of life experiences on decision making, and (3) recording neuronal activity in the frontal cortex of bats to uncover neuronal mechanisms of multisensory processing and decision making. The research will be conducted at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama for fieldwork, and at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute Frankfurt in Germany for neurophysiological recordings. Wild fruit bats will undergo behavioral tests to determine how olfactory cues (e.g., ripe vs. rotten fruit scents) interact with social vocalizations (e.g., echolocation calls vs. distress calls) and impact the animals’ foraging choices. Similar experiments will be conducted with captive-bred bats to identify potential behavioral differences. Finally, electrophysiological recordings in the frontal cortex during passive stimulus perception and during foraging in free flight will provide insight into neuronal encoding of multisensory information and following behavioral action. This interdisciplinary project goes beyond traditional laboratory-based neuroscience by incorporating ecologically relevant behaviors observed in the wild. By investigating how fruit bats integrate multiple sensory cues during foraging and linking these behavioral patterns to neural mechanisms, the study will provide new insights into decision making in complex natural environments. The findings may have broader implications for understanding multisensory integration and cognition in mammals.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position