Coevolution of motor cortex and behavioral specializations associated with flight and echolocation in bats.

ABSTRACT: Bats have evolved behavioral specializations that are unique among mammals, including self-propelled flight and echolocation. However, areas of motor cortex that are critical in the generation and fine control of these unique behaviors have never been fully characterized in any bat species, despite the fact that bats compose ∼25% of extant mammalian species. Using intracortical microstimulation, we examined the organization of motor cortex in Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus), a species that has evolved a novel form of tongue-based echolocation.^1,2 We found that movement representations include an enlarged tongue region containing discrete subregions devoted to generating distinct tongue movement types, consistent with their behavioral specializat

SUBMITTER: Halley AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9380833 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature