Bat brain signals illuminate navigation in the dark
With new tech, researchers track nerve cell activity as bats dodge and weave
BAT BRAINS A big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) participates in experiments at Johns Hopkins University’s high-tech bat laboratory.
Ben Falk and Brock Fenton
Ninad Kothari’s workplace looks like something out of a sci-fi film. The graduate student at Johns Hopkins University works in a darkened, red-lit room, where he trains bats to fly through obstacle courses. Shielding within the walls keeps radio and other human-made signals from interfering with transmissions from the tiny electrical signals he’s recording from the bats’ brains as the animals bob and weave.