Abstract
Female mate choice is of importance for individual fitness as well as a determining factor in genetic diversity and speciation. Nevertheless relatively little is known about how females process information acquired from males during mate selection. In the Emei music frog, Babina daunchina, males normally call from hidden burrows and females in the reproductive stage prefer male calls produced from inside burrows compared with ones from outside burrows. The present study evaluated changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) power output in four frequency bands induced by male courtship vocalizations on both sides of the telencephalon and mesencephalon in females. The results show that (1) both the values of left hemispheric theta relative power and global lateralization in the theta band are modulated by the sexual attractiveness of the acoustic stimulus in the reproductive stage, suggesting the theta oscillation is closely correlated with processing information associated with mate choice; (2) mean relative power in the beta band is significantly greater in the mesencephalon than the left telencephalon, regardless of reproductive status or the biological significance of signals, indicating it is associated with processing acoustic features and (3) relative power in the delta and alpha bands are not affected by reproductive status or acoustic stimuli. The results imply that EEG power in the theta and beta bands reflect different information processing mechanisms related to vocal recognition and auditory perception in anurans.
Highlights
Mating choices affect the fitness of individuals and contribute to evolutionary diversity and are among the most important decisions made by organisms [1]
Because the electroencephalogram (EEG) allows broad canvassing of brain areas composed of multiple neuronal populations which might be involved in different functions, changes in power output within EEG bands were used to investigate the neural bases of information processing related to mate choice in an anuran species, the Emei music frog, Babina daunchina, in the present study
For the delta and alpha bands, the results of ANOVA showed that all main effects and interactions did not reach statistical significance (p.0.05) (Fig. 2A, 2B, 2E and 2F), suggesting that relative power in these two bands was not affected by the variables considered in this study, time-frequency analysis showed that the activities in the alpha band was lower than for the other EEG bands under low sexually attractive (LSA) and highly sexually attractive (HSA) calls in the reproductive stage (Fig. 3)
Summary
Mating choices affect the fitness of individuals and contribute to evolutionary diversity and are among the most important decisions made by organisms [1]. Because the electroencephalogram (EEG) allows broad canvassing of brain areas composed of multiple neuronal populations which might be involved in different functions, changes in power output within EEG bands were used to investigate the neural bases of information processing related to mate choice in an anuran species, the Emei music frog, Babina daunchina, in the present study. This frog was selected because its vocal communication is well suited to studying female choice [11,12]. In the present study calls recorded from males within burrows were regarded as highly sexually attractive (HSA) calls while those produced outside the burrow were regarded as low sexually attractive (LSA) calls
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