LAUSR

As an animal moves in its natural environment, to seek food, track targets, and steer around obstacles, its distance and direction to objects continuously change, invoking dynamic feedback between 3D scene representation, attention, and action-selection. Animals that rely on active sensing provide powerful systems to investigate neural underpinnings of sensory-guided behaviors, as they produce the very signals that inform motor actions. Echolocating bats, for example, transmit sonar signals and process auditory information carried by echoes to guide behavioral decisions for spatial orientation. Further, the bat adapts its echolocation signal design in response to 3D spatial information computed from echo returns, and therefore, the directional aim and temporal patterning of its calls provide a window into the animal’s attention to objects in its surroundings. In addition, the bat actively controls pinna position and head movements to enhance auditory cues about 3D target position. These adaptive behaviors...