报告题目：The Biophysics of Biosonar Sensing in Bats

报 告 人：Rolf Mueller，山东大学

报告时间：11月21日下午3：00

报告地点：物理系三楼报告厅

报告摘要：Biosonar is one of the most capable far senses in nature. Underlying its exceptional performance is built-in physics knowledge: In occupying a diverse set of ecological niches, the approximately 1,000 different bat species have evolved a likewise diverse repertoire of methods to manipulate acoustic wavefields and extract many kinds of sensory information by means of computations in the physical as well as in the neural domain. The outgoing and incoming ultrasonic wavefields are manipulated by intricate beamforming baffle shapes surrounding the sites of sound emission (noseleaves) and reception (outer ears). Computational methods allow it to characterize the functional properties of these structures, uncover the underlying physical mechanisms, and assess their impact on sensory information. Successfully completed case studies have revealed both well-understood and novel functional features of bat biosonar. Common principles of biosonar function such as the simultaneous use of static and scanning beams are emerging from these results. Beyond individual case studies, the diversity in bat biosonar offers an opportunity to learn from evolutionary optimization how a common physical principle can be adapted to many different tasks. To enable this, a database with more than 1,000 high-resolution digital representations of bat noseleaf and outer ear shapes has been compiled. Computational methods are under development to extract design principles from this diversity in form and function.