Pattern recognition in field crickets: concepts and neural evidence

Abstract

Since decades the acoustic communication behavior of crickets is in the focus of neurobiology aiming to analyze the neural basis of male singing and female phonotactic behavior. For temporal pattern recognition several different concepts have been proposed to elucidate the possible neural mechanisms underlying the tuning of phonotaxis in females. These concepts encompass either some form of a feature detecting mechanism using cross-correlation processing, temporal filter properties of brain neurons or an autocorrelation processing based on a delay-line and coincidence detection mechanism. Current data based on intracellular recordings of auditory brain neurons indicate a sequential processing by excitation and inhibition in a local auditory network within the protocerebrum. The response properties of the brain neurons point towards the concept of an autocorrelation-like mechanism underlying female pattern recognition in which delay-lines by long lasting inhibition may be involved.