Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2012 Apr;22(2):201-7. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2011.12.011. Epub 2012 Jan 7.
Echolocating bats detect prey using ultrasonic pulses, and many nocturnally flying insects effectively detect and evade these predators through sensitive ultrasonic hearing. Many eared insects can use the intensity of the predator-generated ultrasound and the stereotyped progression of bat echolocation pulse rate to assess risk level. Effective responses can vary from gentle turns away from the threat (low risk) to sudden random flight and dives (highest risk). Recent research with eared moths shows that males will balance immediate bat predation risk against reproductive opportunity as judged by the strength and quality of conspecific pheromones present. Ultrasound exposure may, in fact, bias such decisions for up to 24 hours through plasticity in the CNS olfactory system. However, brain processing of ultrasonic stimuli to yield adaptive prey behaviors remains largely unstudied, so possible mechanisms are not known.
回声定位蝙蝠利用超声波脉冲探测猎物，而许多夜间飞行的昆虫则通过灵敏的超声波听觉有效地探测和躲避这些捕食者。许多有耳朵的昆虫可以利用捕食者产生的超声波的强度和蝙蝠回声定位脉冲率的刻板进展来评估风险水平。有效的反应可以从温和地远离威胁（低风险）到突然随机飞行和俯冲（高风险）不等。最近对有耳飞蛾的研究表明，雄性会根据同种信息素的强度和质量来平衡即时的蝙蝠捕食风险和繁殖机会。事实上，通过中枢神经系统嗅觉系统的可塑性，超声波暴露可能会在长达 24 小时的时间内影响这些决策。然而，对于超声波刺激产生适应性猎物行为的大脑处理过程在很大程度上仍未得到研究，因此尚不清楚可能的机制。
