Light and Electron-Microscopic Studies of Auditory Hair-CellInnervation in the Leopard Frog

青蛙是脊椎动物，有两个截然不同的听觉器官，而不是哺乳动物的单一耳蜗。关于青蛙的叫声交流行为，以及青蛙听觉系统的生理学，人们已经知道了很多。然而，与哺乳动物的情况不同，感觉毛细胞如何神经支配的解剖细节和超微结构鲜为人知。这些细节对于形成关于观察到的频率选择性和青蛙听力生理机制的假说很重要。这项工作将使用光学和电子显微镜来评估这两个器官中的感受器细胞是如何被听神经支配的，然后研究功能已知的选定区域中单个神经纤维的功能接触-突触的详细结构。这一结果不仅对包括生理和行为在内的听觉功能的比较方面具有重要意义，而且对频率编码机制的一般原理也很重要，而频率编码机制对听神经科学至关重要。

Frogs are vertebrates with two distinct auditory organs, rather than the single cochlea of mammals. A great deal is known about frog calling communication behavior, and about the physiology of frog auditory systems. However, unlike the case in mammals, the anatomical details and ultrastructure of how the sensory hair cells are innervated is poorly known. Such details are important in forming hypotheses about mechanisms for the observed frequency selectivity and physiology of frog hearing. This work will use light and electron microscopy to assess how the receptor cells are innervated by the auditory nerve in both these organs, and then to study the detailed architecture of the functional contancts, the synapses, of single nerve fibers in selected regions where function is known. The results will be important not only to comparative aspects of auditory function including physiology and behavior among species, but also to general principles of frequency coding mechanisms which are crucial to auditory neuroscience.