Reproduction-Related Sound Production of Grasshoppers Regulated by Internal State and Actual Sensory Environment

Heinrich, Ralf; Kunst, Michael; Wirmer, Andrea

doi:10.3389/fnins.2012.00089

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…The function of the PB itself has not been extensively studied, although the CX as a whole is thought to be involved in higher locomotion control (Strauss 2002) and has been implicated in courtship song production in both Drosophila and grasshoppers (Popov et al 2003;Heinrich et al 2012). Some work has specifically examined the role of the PB using mutants with structural defects specific to the bridge -early studies with the no-bridge mutant indicate deficits in learning, walking speed, and courtship (Bouhouche et al 1993;Hall 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserved role of Drosophila melanogaster FoxP in motor coordination and courtship song

Lawton

Wassmer

Deitcher

2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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FoxP2 is a highly conserved vertebrate transcription factor known for its importance in human speech and language production. Disruption of FoxP2 in several vertebrate models indicates a conserved functional role for this gene in both sound production and motor coordination. Although FoxP2 is known to be strongly expressed in brain regions important for motor coordination, little is known about FoxP2's role in the nervous system. The recent discovery of the well-conserved Drosophila melanogaster homolog, FoxP, provides an opportunity to study the role of this crucial gene in an invertebrate model. We hypothesized that, like FoxP2, Drosophila FoxP is important for behaviors requiring fine motor coordination. We used targeted RNA interference to reduce expression of FoxP and assayed the effects on a variety of adult behaviors. Male flies with reduced FoxP expression exhibit decreased levels of courtship behavior, altered pulse-song structure, and sex-specific motor impairments in walking and flight. Acute disruption of synaptic activity in FoxP expressing neurons using a temperature-sensitive shibire allele dramatically impaired motor coordination. Utilizing a GFP reporter to visualize FoxP in the fly brain reveals expression in relatively few neurons in distributed clusters within the larval and adult CNS, including distinct labeling of the adult protocerebral bridge - a section of the insect central complex known to be important for motor coordination and thought to be homologous to areas of the vertebrate basal ganglia. Our results establish the necessity of this gene in motor coordination in an invertebrate model and suggest a functional homology with vertebrate FoxP2.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserved role of Drosophila melanogaster FoxP in motor coordination and courtship song

Lawton

Wassmer

Deitcher

2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…The near-perfect integration of information (Table 1) could be implemented as a recurrent network or through synaptic plasticity (27,28). Otherwise, the slow accumulation of intracellular calcium or of extracellular signaling molecules has also been implied in information integration (29)(30)(31).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetrical integration of sensory information during mating decisions in grasshoppers

Clemens

Krämer

Ronacher

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Decision-making processes, like all traits of an organism, are shaped by evolution; they thus carry a signature of the selection pressures associated with choice behaviors. The way sexual communication signals are integrated during courtship likely reflects the costs and benefits associated with mate choice. Here, we study the evaluation of male song by females during acoustic courtship in grasshoppers. Using playback experiments and computational modeling we find that information of different valence (attractive vs. nonattractive) is weighted asymmetrically: while information associated with nonattractive features has large weight, attractive features add little to the decision to mate. Accordingly, nonattractive features effectively veto female responses. Because attractive features have so little weight, the model suggests that female responses are frequently driven by integration noise. Asymmetrical weighting of negative and positive information may reflect the fitness costs associated with mating with a nonattractive over an attractive singer, which are also highly asymmetrical. In addition, nonattractive cues tend to be more salient and therefore more reliable. Hence, information provided by them should be weighted more heavily. Our findings suggest that characterizing the integration of sensory information during a natural behavior has the potential to provide valuable insights into the selective pressures shaping decision-making during evolution.O ne crucial decision in the lifetime of an animal is the decision with whom to mate. The males of many animals have evolved elaborate traits to attract females (1). These traits often involve the production of calling or courtship songs (2-4). Females base their decision to engage in courtship and to mate on the properties of these signals. Though many different factors drive and constrain the evolution of behavioral decisions in general (5, 6), the way information is integrated in the context of mate selection may reflect the fitness costs and benefits associated with mate choice. These costs depend on the mating system, e.g., the abundance of potential mating partners, the likelihood and costs of multiple matings, direct benefits of mating, and the costs of assessing a potential mate (7-10).Here, we investigate the implementation of a decision-making strategy by studying the integration of song features during courtship in grasshoppers. Acoustic courtship in the species Chorthippus biguttulus involves bidirectional communication. Males produce calling songs consisting of a sequence of simple stereotyped subunits-30-50 syllable-pause pairs. The female waits until the end of this song and indicates her readiness to further engage in a courtship ritual by producing a response song that allows the male to localize and approach the female (11) (Fig. 1A). This phase of courtship constitutes a first, important preselection step before females make their final assessment of an approaching mating partner. Not responding or responding to a male calling from a distance i...

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“…Laboratory-reared males were the F1 offspring from wild-caught individuals and were isolated by sex at the last instar nymph stage and reared in cages separated by sex. Wild-caught males could have mated previously but were kept separate from females for at least 3 days before the experiments, which is sufficient for them to regain motivation to respond to female signals [ 33 , 34 ]. To further minimize variation in male motivation to respond, we only tested males that responded to a test signal from an attractive female, indicating high motivation to engage in courtship behaviour.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific speed–accuracy trade-offs shape neural processing of acoustic signals in a grasshopper

2021

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Speed–accuracy trade-offs—being fast at the risk of being wrong—are fundamental to many decisions and natural selection is expected to resolve these trade-offs according to the costs and benefits of behaviour. We here test the prediction that females and males should integrate information from courtship signals differently because they experience different pay-offs along the speed–accuracy continuum. We fitted a neural model of decision making (a drift–diffusion model of integration to threshold) to behavioural data from the grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus to determine the parameters of temporal integration of acoustic directional information used by male grasshoppers to locate receptive females. The model revealed that males had a low threshold for initiating a turning response, yet a large integration time constant enabled them to continue to gather information when cues were weak. This contrasts with parameters estimated for females of the same species when evaluating potential mates, in which response thresholds were much higher and behaviour was strongly influenced by unattractive stimuli. Our results reveal differences in neural integration consistent with the sex-specific costs of mate search: males often face competition and need to be fast, while females often pay high error costs and need to be deliberate.

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Reproduction-Related Sound Production of Grasshoppers Regulated by Internal State and Actual Sensory Environment

Cited by 10 publications

References 82 publications

Conserved role of Drosophila melanogaster FoxP in motor coordination and courtship song

Conserved role of Drosophila melanogaster FoxP in motor coordination and courtship song

Asymmetrical integration of sensory information during mating decisions in grasshoppers

Sex-specific speed–accuracy trade-offs shape neural processing of acoustic signals in a grasshopper

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