ACOUSTIC BEHAVIOR--NEURAL AND COMPARARTIVE BASES

该项目的目标是了解生物声学和 昆虫声音交流的神经行为基础， 声音定位的机制。 昆虫有 被证明是研究听觉的良好模型系统 神经生物学和行为学。 我们会检查鼓膜 听觉器官的声音寄生蝇，Ormia ochracea， 因为这种昆虫似乎“发明”了 sense是一种检测声源方向的新方法。 本文用激光测振仪研究了果蝇的鼓室力学。 苍蝇的耳膜是一种新型的定向接收器： 对声音的机械反应使它们能够克服 非常小的耳内差异线索，导致他们的 与5 kHz的长得多的波长相比， 刺激，苍蝇必须检测和定位。 即便如此，因为 苍蝇的小尺寸，耳间差异线索的大小 由中枢神经系统处理的声音定位仍然是 有限公司 因此，本研究将致力于揭示 果蝇神经系统中时间编码的听觉处理 系统 这次调查的结果可能 如果一个基于Ormiine的微型麦克风 苍蝇的耳朵是可以制造出来的。 这种装置可能很小 足以给助听器提供方向性。 众所周知的和广泛研究的声音惊吓反应 (ASR)哺乳动物的超声ASR的许多相似之处， 飞行蟋蟀 行为和心理声学研究已经 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 通常在脊椎动物包括哺乳动物中进行研究。 这些因素包括优先效应、习惯化、不适应， 敏感化和分类知觉。 然而，在板球运动中， 听觉处理的神经基础是由 简单得多的神经系统，在这里它是作为一个模型 一种研究神经处理的系统， 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.