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They found that in both random exploration and targeted navigation, such as in the foraging task, bats maintained an accurate memory of the space both in terms of the environment and the routes taken. Experiments revealed that bats also have a spatial awareness of future positions.
“We all have neurons that shoot together, but they represent different parts of a wider path,” Dotson says. “So it represents the past, the present and the future, not right now.”
Being able to map their location over time with this natural GPS system is one of the greatest tools for bat survival, helping them find food and escape predators.
According to the research note, different species can grow in importance in different ways in the importance of past, present, and future experiences. In a survival scenario, such as “monkeys selling among tree branches or man driving a car or skiing downhill at high speed,” for example, future information may be most important for survival.
“Bats need to plan at the local time and in the future to be successful in hunting behaviors,” says Melville Wohlgemuth, a researcher at Batlab University in Arizona. “These are also brain processes that are important to our lives.”
Studying species other than our own has long been a feature of the neuroscience, and studying the hippocampus of bats can give scientists more insight into how certain diseases affect our brains.
For example, knowing more about bats can change how we view Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder that slowly destroys cognitive functions and memory. Alzheimer’s patients have trouble navigating new paths or new locations intuitively, even if they have encountered them several times.
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