Department of Zoology and Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2538 The Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2009 Nov;195(11):1071-88. doi: 10.1007/s00359-009-0480-1. Epub 2009 Sep 27.
The fish auditory system encodes important acoustic stimuli used in social communication, but few studies have examined response properties of central auditory neurons to natural signals. We determined the features and responses of single hindbrain and midbrain auditory neurons to tone bursts and playbacks of conspecific sounds in the soniferous damselfish, Abudefduf abdominalis. Most auditory neurons were either silent or had slow irregular resting discharge rates <20 spikes s(-1). Average best frequency for neurons to tone stimuli was approximately 130 Hz but ranged from 80 to 400 Hz with strong phase-locking. This low-frequency sensitivity matches the frequency band of natural sounds. Auditory neurons were also modulated by playbacks of conspecific sounds with thresholds similar to 100 Hz tones, but these thresholds were lower than that of tones at other test frequencies. Thresholds of neurons to natural sounds were lower in the midbrain than the hindbrain. This is the first study to compare response properties of auditory neurons to both simple tones and complex stimuli in the brain of a recently derived soniferous perciform that lacks accessory auditory structures. These data demonstrate that the auditory fish brain is most sensitive to the frequency and temporal components of natural pulsed sounds that provide important signals for conspecific communication.
鱼类听觉系统对用于社会交流的重要声刺激进行编码，但很少有研究检查中枢听觉神经元对自然信号的反应特性。我们确定了发声鲷，Abudefduf abdominalis 的后脑和中脑听觉神经元对音爆和同种声音回放的特征和反应。大多数听觉神经元要么沉默，要么静息放电率缓慢且不规则，<20 个 spikes s(-1)。神经元对音调刺激的最佳平均频率约为 130 Hz，但范围从 80 到 400 Hz，具有很强的相位锁定。这种低频敏感性与自然声音的频带相匹配。听觉神经元也被同种声音的回放所调制，其阈值与 100 Hz 音调相似，但这些阈值低于其他测试频率的音调。对自然声音的神经元的阈值在中脑中比在后脑中更低。这是首次在最近衍生的缺乏辅助听觉结构的发声鲈形目鱼类的大脑中比较简单音调与复杂刺激的听觉神经元反应特性的研究。这些数据表明，听觉鱼类的大脑对提供同种交流重要信号的自然脉冲声音的频率和时程成分最为敏感。
