PHYLOGENY AND ONTOGENY OF AN AUDITORY SYSTEM

这项研究试图发现感官发生了什么变化 聋人进化过程中的外周和中枢神经系统 以及能听到动物的声音。新的处理电路是否专门针对 听证？或者现有的电路被以某种方式修改了？什么是 听力的潜在机械感受性中枢神经系统底物？我们建议使用 昆虫系统作为回答这些问题的模型。这个 螳螂是独一无二的，拥有单一的，超声波敏感的 耳在身体的腹中线，中枢神经系统的终末 鼓室神经与其他昆虫的神经不同。两者都使用 比较(系统发育)和发展(个体发育)战略， 我们将追溯螳螂听觉系统的起源，特别是 中心成分，与其他直翅目昆虫比较，两者 听力正常，耳聋。我们将在解剖学和神经生理学上 将听力正常的动物与原始和继发性失聪的螳螂进行对比， 以及进化出第二个同源序列的物种 耳朵。我们将定义若虫在结构和功能上的变化 螳螂耳朵。免疫组织化学技术将允许比较 聋人螳螂耳的胚胎发育 外群，蟑螂。这两条平行的研究道路将 汇聚在螳螂听觉系统的前体和 通向试镜的过程。

This research seeks to discover what changes occur in the sensory periphery and the CNS during the evolutionary transition between deaf and hearing animals. Do new processing circuits arise specifically for hearing? Or are existing circuits modified somehow? What is the underlying mechanoreceptive CNS substrate for hearing? We propose to use an insect system as a model with which to answer these questions. The praying mantis is unique in possessing a single, ultrasound-sensitive ear in the ventral midline of the body, and the CNS terminations of the tympanal nerve are different from those in any other insect. Using both comparative (phylogenetic) and developmental (ontogenetic) strategies, we will trace the origins of the mantis auditory system, especially the central components, for comparison with other orthopteroid insects, both hearing and deaf. We will anatomically and neurophysiologically contrast hearing animals with primitively and secondarily deaf mantises, and also with species that have evolved a second, serially homologous ear. We will define nymphal changes in structure and function of the mantis ear. Immunohistochemical techniques will allow comparison of the embryological development of the mantis ear with that of a deaf outgroup, the cockroaches. The two parallel research paths will converge on the precursors of the mantis auditory system and the processes leading to audition.