The recognition of the male calling song is essential for phonotaxis in female crickets. We investigated the responses toward different models of song patterns by ascending, local, and descending neurons in the brain of standing and walking crickets. We describe results for two ascending, three local, and two descending interneurons. Characteristic dendritic and axonal arborizations of the loca...

Prepulse inhibition (PPI; also termed startle reduction or reflex modification, see Ref. [H.S. Hoffman, J.R. Ison, Reflex modification in the domain of startle: I. Some empirical findings and their implications for how the nervous system processes sensory input, Psychol. Rev. 87 (1980) 175-189]) provides an efficient and accurate method to assess both simple and complex acoustic discrimination ...

Bats echolocating in the natural environment face the formidable task of sorting signals from multiple auditory objects, echoes from obstacles, prey, and the calls of conspecifics. Successful orientation in a complex environment depends on auditory information processing, along with adaptive vocal-motor behaviors and flight path control, which draw upon 3-D spatial perception, attention, and me...

Social interaction is essential in improving robot human interface. Such behaviors for social interaction may include to pay attention to a new sound source, to move toward it, or to keep face to face with a moving speaker. Some sound-centered behaviors may be difficult to attain, because the mixture of sounds is not well treated or auditory processing is too slow for real-time applications. Re...

Presenting information to multiple sensory systems can (depending on conditions) either facilitate or hinder processing. The current study examined the effects of crossmodal presentation on statistical learning. The first experiment examined statistical learning within auditory and visual modalities, while using comparable experimental conditions across the two modalities. The findings suggest ...

The auditory system consists of the ascending and descending (corticofugal) systems. One of the major functions of the corticofugal system is the adjustment and improvement of auditory signal processing in the subcortical auditory nuclei, i.e., the adjustment and improvement of the input of cortical neurons. The corticofugal system evokes a small, short-term reorganization (plasticity) of the i...