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Pulses, patterns and paths: neurobiology of acoustic behaviour in crickets

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Abstract

Crickets use acoustic communication for pair formation. Males sing with rhythmical movements of their wings and the mute females approach the singing males by phonotaxis. Females walking on a trackball rapidly steer towards single sound pulses when exposed to split-song paradigms. Their walking path emerges from consecutive reactive steering responses, which show no temporal selectivity. Temporal pattern recognition is tuned to the species-specific syllable rate and gradually changes the gain of auditory steering. If pattern recognition is based on instantaneous discharge rate coding, then the tuning to the species-specific song pattern may already be present at the level of thoracic interneurons. During the processing of song patterns, changes in cytosolic Ca2+ concentrations occur in phase with the chirp rhythm in the local auditory interneurone. Male singing behaviour is controlled by command neurons descending from the brain. The neuropil controlling singing behaviour is located in the anterior protocerebrum next to the mushroom bodies. Singing behaviour is released by injection of cholinergic agonists and inhibited by γ-butyric acid (GABA). During singing, the sensitivity of the peripheral auditory system remains unchanged but a corollary discharge inhibits auditory processing in afferents and interneurons within the prothoracic auditory neuropil and prevents the auditory neurons from desensitisation.

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Abbreviations

SP:

Syllable (or pulse) period

SPL:

Sound pressure level

ACh:

Acetylcholine

GABA:

γ-butyric acid

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the BBSRC, the Royal Society and in early parts by the DFG. I thank J.F.A. Poulet, A. Nabatiyan, T. Baden, G. de Polavieja, B. Wenzel and R. Ingham for excellent experiments and M. Knepper for professional updating of our software tools. J.F.A. Poulet, S. Rogers, A. Whitney and M. Zorovic made valuable comments on the manuscript.

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    Berthold Hedwig

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Hedwig, B. Pulses, patterns and paths: neurobiology of acoustic behaviour in crickets. J Comp Physiol A 192, 677–689 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0115-8

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