RUI: Neural and Hormonal Regulation of Auditory Behavior Via Identified Neurons

许多动物使用声音进行交流，特别是高度 鸟类和昆虫的求偶叫声。 在 准备交配的雌性蟋蟀表现出一种很容易测量的行为 转向合适的求偶信号源 昆虫也有可接近的单个神经细胞， 整个行为模式的神经机制。 特别 雌性蟋蟀大脑部分的单个神经细胞 被发现在生理上对男性的主要特征有反应， 呼叫模式 在这个项目中，合成调用用于 看看呼叫模式的变化如何改变行为 女性的反应，和具体的探索， 大脑中神经细胞的损伤被用来确定 神经回路对呼叫的反应。 激素 影响也调节女性的反应，因为他们成为 成熟，这个模型系统允许一种新的方法来测试 一种特定的激素对神经系统的影响 听觉反应行为的潜在机制。 这项工作对 一个可访问的，新颖的模型系统将提供重要的 与其他调制通信的比较，以及 提供了基础研究的分子机制， 这些调节作用。 这项工作的影响将不仅是 听觉神经科学，但在工作相关的神经机制， 行为的可塑性和发展，以及 了解昆虫种群的繁殖。

Many animals use sound for communication, particularly for highly species-specific mating calls, as in birds and insects. In crickets, females ready to mate show an easily measurable behavior of turning toward the source of an appropriate mating call. Insects also have accessible single nerve cells that permit testing for the neuronal mechanisms of whole behavior patterns. Particular single nerve cells in parts of the brain of female crickets have been found to respond physiologically to key features of the male calling pattern. In this project a synthesized call is used to see how changes in the call pattern change behavioral responsiveness of the females, and specific explorations and lesions of nerve cells in the brain are used to determine the neural circuit underlying the response to the call. Hormonal effects also modulate the responsiveness of females as they become mature, and this model system allows a novel approach to test directly the effects of a particular hormone on the neural mechanisms underlying the auditory response behavior. This work on an accessible, novel model system will provide important comparisons with other hormonally-modulated communication, and provides groundwork for examining the molecular mechanisms for these modulating actions. The impact of this work will be not only on auditory neuroscience, but on work relating neural mechanisms to behavioral plasticity and development in general, and on understanding breeding in insect populations.