Learning and Memory in Bats: A Case Study on Object Discrimination in Flower-Visiting Bats

Ross, G.M.S.; Holderied, Marc W.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-7397-8_11

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…This suggests that neurons of vampire bats and nectar bats favor glucose uptake to meet the metabolic demands related to neuronal activity, probably associated with their unique locomotor activity (Ripperger & Carter, 2021;C. C. Voigt & Winter, 1999), foraging behavior ( Winter & Stich, 2005;Ross & Holderied, 2013;Muchhala & Serrano, 2015;Ripperger & Carter, 2021), and sensitivity to starvation (McNab, 1973;Freitas et al, 2013;Amaral et al, 2019). Adding to this, we found positive selection in the gene Slc2a1 in the nectar bat Anoura caudifer, which is enriched in brain astrocytes responsible for maintaining synaptic function.…”

Section: Molecular Adaptations Related To Sugar Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 58%

Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats

Camacho¹,

Bernal-Rivera²,

Robb³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Specializations in animal diets drive selective demands on morphology, anatomy, and physiology. Studying adaptations linked to diet evolution benefits from examining Neotropical bats, a remarkable group with high taxonomic and trophic diversity. In this study we performed glucose tolerance tests on wild-caught bats, which revealed distinct responses to three sugars present in different foods: trehalose (insects), sucrose and glucose (fruits and nectar). Insect eating bats responded most strongly to trehalose, while bats with nectar and fruit-based diets exhibited heightened response to glucose and sucrose, reaching blood sugar levels over 600 mg/dL. To reveal positive selection in sugar assimilation genes we performed genome analysis of 22 focal bat species and 2 outgroup species. We identified selection in the ancestral vespertilionid branch (insect-eaters) for the digestive enzyme Trehalase, while sucrase-isomaltase exhibited selection in branches leading to omnivorous and nectar diets. Unexpectedly, the insect-eating lineageMyotisexhibited sucrase-isomaltase selection, potentially explaining their heightened sucrose assimilation. Furthermore, the glucose transporters SLC2A3 and SLC2A2 showed selection in lineages associated with nectar and blood diets. By examining cellular features of the small intestine, we discovered that sugar consumption strongly impacted numerous digestive traits, providing valuable insight into the physiological implications of the identified molecular adaptations. To elucidate this further, we used HCR RNA-FISH to perform single molecule ex vivo gene expression analysis of enterocyte response to a glucose meal in three focal species. We observed unusually high activity in the glucose transporter geneSlc2a2during the fasted state of nectar bats that did not change upon feeding. Comparatively, nectar bats exhibited an enhanced capacity for intestinal absorption of dietary sugar primarily throughSlc2a2, while fruit bats relied on increasing levels ofSlc5a1. Overall, this study highlights the intricate interplay between molecular, morphological, and physiological aspects of diet evolution and provides new insights to our understanding of sugar assimilation mechanisms in mammals.

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Section: Molecular Adaptations Related To Sugar Assimilationmentioning

confidence: 58%

Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats

Camacho¹,

Bernal-Rivera²,

Robb³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Gleaning bats, i.e., species that capture prey from substrates, seem to be especially well suited for food-related associative learning tasks ( Siemers, 2001 ; Page and Ryan, 2006 ; Hulgard and Ratcliffe, 2014 ; Patriquin et al, 2018 ). Nectarivorous bats also exhibit strong associative learning in a foraging context and can be trained to discriminate fine-scale differences between sensory cues ( von Helversen, 2004 ; Simon et al, 2006 ; Ross and Holderied, 2013 ) but they generally rely more on spatial cues than sensory cues ( Thiele and Winter, 2005 ; Stich and Winter, 2006 ; Carter et al, 2010 ). Insectivorous bats can be trained to recognize 3-D objects as acoustic landmarks and associate them with safe passage through a net opening ( Yu et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Associative Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Insectivorous bats can be trained to recognize 3-D objects as acoustic landmarks and associate them with safe passage through a net opening ( Yu et al, 2019 ). In many species, learned associations are flexible and bats can be trained to reverse their initial associations ( Page and Ryan, 2005 ; Clarin et al, 2013 ; Ross and Holderied, 2013 ). There is very little data on how long learned associations are remembered but current evidence suggests that bats have good short‐ and long-term memory ( Ruczyński and Siemers, 2011 ; Page et al, 2012 ; Clarin et al, 2014 ; but see: Hernández-Montero et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Associative Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Bats Have the Necessary Prerequisites for Symbolic Communication?

Knörnschild

Fernandez

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Training animals such as apes, gray parrots, or dolphins that communicate via arbitrary symbols with humans has revealed astonishing mental capacities that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Albeit bats have not yet been trained to communicate via symbols with humans, we are convinced that some species, especially captive Pteropodid bats (“flying foxes”), show the potential to master this cognitive task. Here, we briefly review what is known about bats’ cognitive skills that constitute relevant prerequisites for symbolic communication with humans. We focus on social learning in general, trainability by humans, associative learning from humans, imitation, vocal production learning and usage learning, and social knowledge. Moreover, we highlight potential training paradigms that could be used to elicit simple “symbolic” bat-human communication, i.e., training bats to select arbitrary symbols on a touchscreen to elicit a desired behavior of the human caregiver. Touchscreen-proficient bats could participate in cognition research, e.g., to study their numerical competence or categorical perception, to further elucidate how nonhuman animals learn and perceive the world.

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Should I Stay or Should I Go? Fission–Fusion Dynamics in Bats

Patriquin

Ratcliffe

2016

Sociality in Bats

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Learning and Memory in Bats: A Case Study on Object Discrimination in Flower-Visiting Bats

Cited by 4 publications

References 131 publications

Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats

Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats

Do Bats Have the Necessary Prerequisites for Symbolic Communication?

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Fission–Fusion Dynamics in Bats

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