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Firing-rate resonances in the peripheral auditory system of the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus

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Abstract

In many communication systems, information is encoded in the temporal pattern of signals. For rhythmic signals that carry information in specific frequency bands, a neuronal system may profit from tuning its inherent filtering properties towards a peak sensitivity in the respective frequency range. The cricket Gryllus bimaculatus evaluates acoustic communication signals of both conspecifics and predators. The song signals of conspecifics exhibit a characteristic pulse pattern that contains only a narrow range of modulation frequencies. We examined individual neurons (AN1, AN2, ON1) in the peripheral auditory system of the cricket for tuning towards specific modulation frequencies by assessing their firing-rate resonance. Acoustic stimuli with a swept-frequency envelope allowed an efficient characterization of the cells’ modulation transfer functions. Some of the examined cells exhibited tuned band-pass properties. Using simple computational models, we demonstrate how different, cell-intrinsic or network-based mechanisms such as subthreshold resonances, spike-triggered adaptation, as well as an interplay of excitation and inhibition can account for the experimentally observed firing-rate resonances. Therefore, basic neuronal mechanisms that share negative feedback as a common theme may contribute to selectivity in the peripheral auditory pathway of crickets that is designed towards mate recognition and predator avoidance.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by grants from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (01GQ1001A, 01GQ0901, 01GQ0972, 01GQ1403) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB618, GRK1589/1). We are grateful to Wei Wu for valuable discussion. We thank Manuel Gersbacher, Michael Reichert, Frederic Römschied, Jan-Hendrik Schleimer and Vanessa Stempel for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Behavioral Physiology, Department of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Florian Rau, Jan Clemens, Victor Naumov & R. Matthias Hennig

  2. Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Jan Clemens & Susanne Schreiber

  3. Institute for Theoretical Biology, Department of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstr. 13, Haus 4, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Susanne Schreiber

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  1. Florian Rau
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  4. R. Matthias Hennig
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Correspondence to Florian Rau.

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The experiments conducted in this study comply with the current laws of Germany and the Principles of animal care, publication No. 86–23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health.

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Rau, F., Clemens, J., Naumov, V. et al. Firing-rate resonances in the peripheral auditory system of the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus . J Comp Physiol A 201, 1075–1090 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1036-1

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