ACOUSTIC BEHAVIOR--NEURAL AND COMPARARTIVE BASES

这个项目的目标是了解生物声学和 昆虫声音交流的神经行为学基础，以及 声音本地化背后的机制。昆虫有 证明是研究听觉的很好的模型系统 神经生物学和行为学。我们将对鼓室进行调查 一种声学寄生苍蝇的听觉器官， 因为这种昆虫似乎是“发明”的，在进化过程中 Sense，一种检测声源方向的新方法。 用激光测振仪研究了苍蝇~S的鼓膜力学。 苍蝇的耳膜是一种新型的定向接收器：它们的 对声音的机械反应使它们能够克服 极小的非听觉差异线索，由它们的 与5千赫的长得多的波长相比，小得多的尺寸 刺激，苍蝇必须检测并定位。即便如此，因为 苍蝇~S个头小，耳间视差的大小提示 由中枢神经系统处理的声音定位仍然是 有限的。因此，这项研究将致力于揭示 苍蝇进行时间编码的听觉处理~S紧张 系统。这项调查的发现可能具有潜在的 基于Ormiine的微型麦克风是否与健康相关 苍蝇的耳朵可以被制造出来。这样的装置可能很小 足以赋予助听器方向性。 众所周知且被广泛研究的声学惊吓反应 哺乳动物的ASR与超声ASR有许多相似之处 会飞的蟋蟀。行为和心理声学研究一直是 这表明，蟋蟀的ASR可以作为一种 研究听觉加工机制的模型系统 通常在包括哺乳动物在内的脊椎动物身上进行研究。 这些包括优先效应，习惯化，去习惯化， 敏感化和直截了当的感知。然而，在板球比赛中， 以听觉处理为基础的神经基础由 简单得多的神经系统，在这里以模型的形式呈现 一种系统，用于研究作为基础的神经处理 复杂的声学行为。

The goal of this project is to understand the bioacoustic and neurobehavioral basis of acoustic communication in insects, and the mechanisms underlying sound localization. Insects have proved to be good model systems for studying auditory neurobiology and behavior. We will investigate the tympanal hearing organs of an acoustic parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea, because this insect appears to have "invented," in the evolutionary sense, a novel way to detect the direction of a sound source. Laser vibrometry is used to study the fly~s tympanal mechanics. The fly's eardrums are a new type of directional receiver: their mechanical response to sound permits them to overcome the extremely small ineraural difference cues that result from their minuscule size compared to much longer wavelength of the 5 kHz stimulus, that the fly must detect and localize. Even so, because of the fly~s small size, the magnitude of interaural disparity cues that are processed by the CNS for sound localization is still limited. Therefore this research will be directed at uncovering the auditory processing that underlies time coding in the fly~s nervous system. The findings from this investigation could have potential health relatedness if a miniature microphone based on the Ormiine fly's ears could be produced. Such a device might be small enough to confer directionality to hearing aids. The well-known and widely investigated acoustic startle response (ASR) of mammals as many parallels with the ultrasound ASR of flying crickets. Behavioral and psychoacoustic studies have been performed that show that the ASR of crickets can serve as a model system to investigate mechanisms of auditory processing that are ordinarily studied in vertebrates, including mammals. These include the precedence effect, habituation, dishabituation, sensitization, and categorical perception. In the cricket, however, the neural basis underlying auditory processing is subserved by much simpler neural systems, and it is here presented as a model system in which to investigate the neural processing that underlies complex acoustic behavior.