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Towards an Understanding of the Neural Basis of Acoustic Communication in Crickets

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Insect Hearing and Acoustic Communication

Part of the book series: Animal Signals and Communication ((ANISIGCOM,volume 1))

Abstract

Their conspicuous acoustic communication behaviour makes crickets excellent model systems to study the neural mechanisms underlying signal generation and auditory pattern recognition. Male singing is driven by a central pattern generator (CPG) housed in the metathoracic and anterior abdominal ganglia with rhythmically active opener and closer interneurons that can reset the chirp rhythm. Command neurons descending from the brain control the singing behaviour. Female phonotaxis is tuned towards the species-specific pattern of the male calling song and auditory orientation behaviour demonstrates a parallel organisation of pattern recognition and highly accurate steering. First order auditory processing occurs in the thorax and pattern recognition in the brain. Local auditory brain neurons are tuned to the structure of the calling song, based on fast integration of inhibitory and excitatory synaptic activity. How pattern recognition is linked to the generation of auditory steering commands still remains an open question.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the members of the lab that contributed to the presented data and fruitful discussions: Stefan Schöneich, Kostas Kostarakos, Hannah ter Hofstede, James Poulet, Tom Baden and Alice Witney and also to the BBSRC, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Royal Society for funding.

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

    Berthold Hedwig

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    Berthold Hedwig

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Hedwig, B. (2014). Towards an Understanding of the Neural Basis of Acoustic Communication in Crickets. In: Hedwig, B. (eds) Insect Hearing and Acoustic Communication. Animal Signals and Communication, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40462-7_8

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