April 29, 2024 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm in RNS 410

Bats are auditory specialists, processing acoustic signals to guide their behaviors, including prey tracking, navigation and communication. Most bat species are very social and emit a wide array of communication calls, including food claiming calls, aggressive calls and appeasement calls. There is strong evidence that in humans and other animals, context plays a role in the processing of acoustic signals. Yet, the circuits and mechanisms that govern this process are still not fully understood. Bats emerge as outstanding mammalian models to explore the neural mechanisms underlying acoustic communication processing. In this talk I will provide an overview of my work related to how bats analyze, and process signals used for communication and I will introduce the avenues we are taking in my lab to explore this avenue of research.

Angie Salles is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her career in neuroethology started during her PhD at the University of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, comparatively investigating the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory in mice and crabs. After attending the Neural Systems and Behavior course at the MBL in 2014, she decided to expand her research in neuroethology by approaching new questions, animals, and techniques. Thus, she pursued her postdoctoral work in Dr. Moss’s lab at Johns Hopkins University investigating auditory processing in bats. Currently, Angie’s lab focuses on the neurobiology of communication and social behavior in bats