Tree cricket hearing shows all the features of an actively amplified auditory system, particularly spontaneous oscillations (SOs) of the tympanal membrane. As expected from an actively amplified auditory system, SO frequency and the peak frequency in evoked responses as observed in sensitivity spectra are correlated. Sensitivity spectra also show compressive non-linearity at this frequency, i.e. a reduction in peak height and sharpness with increasing stimulus amplitude. Both SO and amplified frequency also change with ambient temperature, allowing the auditory system to maintain a filter that is matched to song frequency. In tree crickets, remarkably, song frequency varies with ambient temperature. Interestingly, active amplification has been reported to be switched ON and OFF. The mechanism of this switch is as yet unknown. In order to gain insights into this switch, we recorded and analysed SOs as the auditory system transitioned from the passive (OFF) state to the active (ON) state. We found that while SO amplitude did not follow a fixed pattern, SO frequency changed during the ON-OFF transition. SOs were first detected above noise levels at low frequencies, sometimes well below the known song frequency range (0.5-1 kHz lower). SO frequency was observed to increase over the next ∼30 minutes, in the absence of any ambient temperature change, before settling at a frequency within the range of conspecific song. We examine the frequency shift in SO spectra with temperature and during the ON/OFF transition and discuss the mechanistic implications. To our knowledge, such modulation of active auditory amplification, and its dynamics are unique amongst auditory animals.
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31 May 2018
TO THE EAR AND BACK AGAIN - ADVANCES IN AUDITORY BIOPHYSICS: Proceedings of the 13th Mechanics of Hearing Workshop
19–24 June 2017
St Catharines, Canada
Research Article|
May 31 2018
Tympanal spontaneous oscillations reveal mechanisms for the control of amplified frequency in tree crickets
Natasha Mhatre;
Natasha Mhatre
a)
1Current address: 1265, Military trail,
Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough
, Scarborough, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada
2
School of Biological Sciences, Life Sciences Building
, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, UK
a)Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Daniel Robert
Daniel Robert
b)
1Current address: 1265, Military trail,
Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough
, Scarborough, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
a)Corresponding author: [email protected]
AIP Conf. Proc. 1965, 130002 (2018)
Citation
Natasha Mhatre, Daniel Robert; Tympanal spontaneous oscillations reveal mechanisms for the control of amplified frequency in tree crickets. AIP Conf. Proc. 31 May 2018; 1965 (1): 130002. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5038517
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