Abstract
The time course of habituation in response to pure tones was examined at three levels of the auditory nervous system in the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. Single‐unit activity in the eighth nerve showed no evidence of habituation, even at stimulus repetition rates as rapid as one every second (stimulus duration 300 ms). Multi‐unit and evoked potential activity from the torus semicircularis in the midbrain exhibited habituation decrements only at repetition rates of one every second or faster. Evoked potentials from the central nucleus of the dorsal thalamus showed rapid decrements in amplitude at repetition rates of one every ten seconds or faster. Maximal response amplitudes were maintained at repetition rates of one every twenty to thirty seconds. Latencies of the neural responses did not vary with repetition rate at any level of the auditory pathway. Adult male bullfrogs maintained in a seminaturalistic environment reliably produced mating calls in response to taped conspecific calls when playback repetition rate was one every twenty to thirty seconds. These results suggest that acoustical processing in the dorsal thalamus plays a significant role in mediating the evoked calling behavior of the bullfrog. [Supported by NIH fellowships to A.L.M. and NIH grant NS‐09244 to R.R.C.]
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call