SC Talk: Paul Faure, Neuroethologist, McMaster Bat Lab, “Development of Echolocation and Hearing in the Big Brown Bat”
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January 19, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Speaker Information for January 19, 2022 at 1pm [PLEASE NOTE EARLY START]
Speaker: Paul A. Faure, Dept. of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University
Introducer and Host: Daphne Maurer
Title: “Development of echolocation and hearing in the big brown bat”
Abstract: I will summarize work on the maturation of Eptesicus fuscus—a model for mammalian vocal and auditory development. Big brown bats are born naked and blind but can fly by 30 days after birth and look adult-like by 45 days. I will describe how the vocalizations of pups shift from isolation calls that facilitate reunions with the mother to downward frequency modulated (FM) sweeps that are used in echolocation. I will compare those shifts to changes in the pups’ auditory sensitivity, which I monitored using auditory brainstem responses. Notably, the shifts in auditory sensitivity occur around the time young bats first begin to fly and echolocate.
Bio: Paul Faure studies bioacoustics, hearing, and the integrative physiology of bats and some other animals. Other topics include the effect of rabies, steroid hormones, and flight membrane wounds on bats’ behaviour. The research from his lab and his international collaborations has appeared in high impact peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, The Journal or Neuroscience, Journal of Neurophysiology, Hearing Research, Journal of Comparative Physiology, Journal of General and Comparative Endocrinology, Animal Behaviour.
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/dnyN2uNLs4
The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only. The deadline to register is 8:00am on the morning of the event.