Central Processing of Communication Sounds in the Anuran Auditory System

SYNOPSIS. The social behavior of anurans (frogs and toads) ismediated by a number of acoustic signals, or calls, that showboth inter- and intraspecific differences in temporal patternand spectral content. These differences provide cues usefulfor call recognition. Neural mechanisms responsible for detectingand analyzing the temporal and spectral cues of the speciesvocalizations have been the subject of investigation for almostthree decades. Here, I summarize the results of studies conductedin the northern leopard frog, Rana pipiens. These results demonstratethat (1) sound analysis is performed in the central auditorysystem of anurans by an array of neural niters operating inthe time and frequency domain, (2) behaviorally relevant soundsare represented by stimulus-dependent spatio-temporal patternsof excitation among differentially tuned filter neurons, and(3) the time and frequency selectivity of these neurons is determined,in part, by GABA-mediated inhibitory interactions that shapetheir excitatory input