Bat Nav: Animals’ 3D Brain Compass Found

A study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel, has used new technology to discover an internal navigation system within the brains of bats that allows them to maneuver while flying. First published in the journal Nature, the study utilized a small brain activity recording device that gave in-depth readings while allowing the animals to freely move in flight without any interference. Building on previous research that determined that rats had a three dimensional sense of their surroundings, bats were found to have a sense of both pitch and roll, which enabled them to maintain full spatial awareness during even the most acrobatic movements. The lead researcher explained, “Bats and rats are separated by millions of years of evolution. And yet, if you look at the same brain regions of these two species, you find place cells, head-direction cells, and you find grid cells. That’s why we think this might be relevant for humans too.” Future efforts will attempt to find similar functions in other animals to better understand how mammal brains perceive location, hopefully leading to analysis in humans. To learn more about this study, click here.