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By recording from the brains of bats as they flew and landed, scientists have found that the animals have a "neural compass" - allowing them to keep track of exactly where and even which way up they are, the BBC reported.

These head-direction cells track bats in three dimensions as they manoeuvre.

The researchers think a similar 3D internal navigation system is likely to be found throughout the animal kingdom.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Lead researcher Arseny Finkelstein, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, explained that this was the first time measurements had been taken from animals as they had flown around a space in any direction and even carried out their acrobatic upside-down landings.

"We're the only lab currently able to conduct wireless recordings in flying animals," he told BBC News.

"A tiny device attached to the bats allows us to monitor the activity of single neurons while the animal is freely moving."

Mr Finkelstein and his colleagues' work in bats has revealed that their brains also have "pitch" and "roll" cells. These tell the animal whether it is pointing upwards or downwards and whether its head is tilted one way or the other.

Mr Finkelstein added that an understanding of how animals, including humans, built a "sense of place" was important in our understanding of memory.