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Walking in Fourier’s space: algorithms for the computation of periodicities in song patterns by the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

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Abstract

Is discrimination of the envelope of an acoustic signal based on spectral or temporal computations? To investigate this question for the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, pattern envelopes were constructed by the addition of several sine waves and modified by systematic phase changes. The phonotactic response of female crickets towards such sinusoidal but also rectangular pulse patterns was quantified on a locomotion compensator. Envelope patterns that exhibited a modulation frequency of 25 Hz as the dominant frequency were attractive and although changes of phase modified the temporal pattern, the values of attractiveness remained unaffected. Removal of the 25-Hz component reduced the phonotactic scores. Patterns in which other frequency components exhibited a larger amplitude than the 25-Hz component were less attractive. However, the combination of an unattractive pulse period with the attractive modulation frequency of 25 Hz in a pattern revealed that such stimuli were unattractive despite the presence of the 25-Hz component. A comparison of the attractiveness of all patterns revealed that female crickets evaluated the duration of pulse period over a wide range of duty cycles. The combined evidence showed that pattern envelopes were processed in the time- and not in the spectral domain.

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Acknowledgments

Anne Hanschke, Simone Götze, Viktor Naumov and Matti Rothbart kept the crickets running on the Kramer-Kugel. Jan Benda, Jan Clemens, Jannis Hildebrandt and Bernhard Ronacher helped with numerous discussions and comments and their insights to signal processing. The performed experiments comply with the “Principles of animal care”, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and also with the current laws of Germany. Funded by the DFG (he2812/3-1).

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  1. Behavioural Physiology Group, Department of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    R. Matthias Hennig

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Hennig, R.M. Walking in Fourier’s space: algorithms for the computation of periodicities in song patterns by the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus . J Comp Physiol A 195, 971–987 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0473-0

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