Biology

Dr. Anand Krishnan
Dept of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University

Animals sample and process sensory information to support diverse behavioral tasks. Input from multiple sensory modalities is parsed, processed and integrated to form a cohesive representation of space. Multimodal sensing is critical in a variety of situations, ranging from control and stabilization during locomotion (requiring split-second timing), spatial navigation and orientation to locate food sources and roosting sites, as well as detection and recognition of potential mates or competitors. Sensory systems and signals may be influenced by the environment, interactions with coexisting species (predators or competitors) and evolutionary history.

My talk will be focused on multimodal sensing in diverse behavioral contexts. I will begin by discussing the role of multimodal input in positioning the antennae of flying hawk moths for rapid flight stabilization. From here, I will move on to a behavioral investigation of multimodal sensory information in spatial navigation. I have studied the Egyptian fruit bat as a model animal to understand the interaction between vision and echolocation under conditions of sensory conflict. Finally, I will discuss a third broad role for multimodal sensing: sensory signaling. Using a comparative approach, I examine bird acoustic and visual signals in the context of species
coexistence, ecological and morphological diversification. I will conclude my talk with an outline of plans for future research, aimed at further exploring the ecological and evolutionary diversity of
sensory signals and sensing strategies.