Bugs and bats: Neural analysis of behaviorally relevant sounds in crickets

Abstract

Hearing in crickets is specialized to serve particular behavioral functions, namely intraspecific communication and predator avoidance. Male crickets produce species-specific acoustic signals (songs) that attract distant females, promote copulation, and contribute to agonistic interactions with rivals. Crickets also hear the echolocation calls of aerially hunting bats, which evoke avoidance responses. These clear behavioral functions of hearing, combined with the relative simplicity of the cricket's nervous system, make it possible to address questions about how behaviorally relevant sensory signals are analyzed at the level of single, uniquely identifiable nerve cells. Cricket songs and bat calls differ both in rhythm and in spectrum, and neurons throughout the auditory processing chain are specialized for processing these two sorts of signal. I will focus on specializations that are evident at early stages of auditory processing, i.e., primary sensory neurons and the first-order interneurons with which they interact.