Department of Psychology/Neuroscience Unit, MTFS, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7489, Trondheim, Norway,
Cell Tissue Res. 2014 Feb;355(2):289-302. doi: 10.1007/s00441-013-1749-9. Epub 2013 Dec 10.
Many noctuid moth species perceive ultrasound via tympanic ears that are located at the metathorax. Whereas the neural processing of auditory information is well studied at the peripheral and first synaptic level, little is known about the features characterizing higher order sound-sensitive neurons in the moth brain. During intracellular recordings from the lateral protocerebrum in the brain of three noctuid moth species, Heliothis virescens, Helicoverpa armigera and Helicoverpa assulta, we found an assembly of neurons responding to transient sound pulses of broad bandwidth. The majority of the auditory neurons ascended from the ventral cord and ramified densely within the anterior region of the ventro-lateral protocerebrum. The physiological and morphological characteristics of these auditory neurons were similar. We detected one additional sound-sensitive neuron, a brain interneuron with its soma positioned near the calyces of mushroom bodies and with numerous neuronal processes in the ventro-lateral protocerebrum. Mass-staining of ventral-cord neurons supported the assumption that the ventro-lateral region of the moth brain was the main target for the auditory projections ascending from the ventral cord.
许多夜蛾科昆虫通过位于后胸的鼓膜耳朵感知超声波。虽然听觉信息的神经处理在周边和第一突触水平得到了很好的研究，但对于夜蛾大脑中更高阶的声音敏感神经元的特征知之甚少。在对三种夜蛾科昆虫，Heliothis virescens、Helicoverpa armigera 和 Helicoverpa assulta 的大脑 lateral protocerebrum 进行细胞内记录时，我们发现了一组对宽带瞬态声音脉冲有反应的神经元集合。大多数听觉神经元从腹索上升，并在腹侧外侧protocerebrum 的前区域密集分枝。这些听觉神经元的生理和形态特征相似。我们还检测到一个额外的声音敏感神经元，一个位于蘑菇体冠下的大脑中间神经元，其许多神经元过程位于腹侧外侧protocerebrum。腹索神经元的大规模染色支持了这样的假设，即来自腹索的听觉投射的主要目标是夜蛾大脑的腹侧外侧区域。
