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Trackball Systems for Analysing Cricket Phonotaxis

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The Cricket as a Model Organism

Abstract

In order to analyse cricket phonotactic walking behaviour, different types of trackball systems have been developed. All trackball systems infer the velocity and direction of the walking insect from the movements of the trackball, however, with different degrees of resolution. Closed-loop systems compensate the animal’s displacements via servomotors counter-rotating the sphere on which the cricket is freely walking and turning. In open-loop systems, the tethered cricket actively rotates the trackball but cannot change its orientation in the sound field. Trackball systems can be combined with high-speed video recordings to analyse the walking motor activity or can be incorporated into neurophysiological set-ups to explore the neural activity underlying phonotaxis.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Berthold Hedwig

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  1. Berthold Hedwig
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Correspondence to Berthold Hedwig .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biology and Neuroscience, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA

    Hadley Wilson Horch

  2. Graduate school of Bioscience and Bioindustry, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan

    Taro Mito

  3. Biological Sciences Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

    Aleksandar Popadić

  4. Department of Cytology and Histology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Hideyo Ohuchi

  5. Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan

    Sumihare Noji

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Hedwig, B. (2017). Trackball Systems for Analysing Cricket Phonotaxis. In: Horch, H., Mito, T., Popadić, A., Ohuchi, H., Noji, S. (eds) The Cricket as a Model Organism. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56478-2_19

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