The social behavior of anurans (frogs and toads) is mediated by a number of acoustic signals, or calls, that show both inter- and intra-specific differences in temporal pattern and spectral content. These differences provide cues useful for call recognition. Neural mechanisms responsible for detecting and analyzing the temporal and spectral cues of the species vocalizations have been the subject of investigation for almost three decades. Here, I summarize the results of studies conducted in the northern leopard frog, Rana pipiens. These results demonstrate that (1) sound analysis is performed in the central auditory system of anurans by an array of neural filters operating in the time and frequency domain, (2) behaviorally relevant sounds are represented by stimulus-dependent spatio-temporal patterns of excitation among differentially tuned filter neurons, and (3) the time and frequency selectivity of these neurons is determined, in part, by GABA-mediated inhibitory interactions that shape their excitatory input.
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文章 : 英语