Abstract
Acoustic signals trigger various behaviours in insects such as courtship or escape from predators. However, it remains unknown whether insects utilize acoustic signals to recognize environmental contexts. The cricket is a prominent model insect for neuroethological studies on acoustic behaviour because female crickets exhibit positive phonotaxis in response to male calling songs, and flying crickets display avoidance behaviour for high-frequency sounds such as echolocation call of bats. The carrier frequency of these sounds is a major factor in determining whether they initiate these acoustic behaviours. Here, we examined the impacts of different frequencies of tone sounds on cercal-mediated escape behaviour, using a 5-kHz tone corresponding to the calling song and a 15-kHz tone serving as a trigger of avoidance behaviours. Neither frequency elicited a response in the standing cricket by itself, but they had different impacts on walking responses to airflow stimuli. While the 15-kHz tone reduced response probability, extended moving distance, and enhanced turn-angle variability, the 5-kHz tone had no effect. Although both frequencies of tones facilitated walking backward, the 15-kHz tone had a larger effect than the 5-kHz tone. These frequency dependencies of behavioural modulation suggest that crickets can recognize acoustic contexts and alter their escape strategy accordingly.
Highlights
Audition is one of the essential sensory modalities used to sense environments and direct appropriate behaviours
AN1 and AN2 are sensitive to different frequency ranges: AN1 is tuned to a low frequency corresponding to the calling song, while AN2 responds mainly to a higher frequency spanning the echolocation calls[16,17,18]
Both frequencies of sounds facilitated walking in the backward direction, but the backward effect induced by the high-frequency tone was larger in angular magnitude than that of the low-frequency tone. These differences in behavioural modulations between the two frequencies of sounds suggest that crickets can adapt their escape strategy depending on the acoustic context
Summary
Audition is one of the essential sensory modalities used to sense environments and direct appropriate behaviours. We explored the auditory impact on the wind-elicited escape behaviour and reported that a preceding acoustic stimulus of a 10-kHz pure tone that evoked no response alone modulated moving direction and response threshold of wind-elicited walking[26] This fact revealed that a cross-modal interaction between auditory and cercal sensory systems caused behavioural changes in escape strategy, suggesting that crickets perceived the acoustic signals and interpreted them as acoustic contexts. Both frequencies of sounds facilitated walking in the backward direction, but the backward effect induced by the high-frequency tone was larger in angular magnitude than that of the low-frequency tone These differences in behavioural modulations between the two frequencies of sounds suggest that crickets can adapt their escape strategy depending on the acoustic context
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