Abstract
Experiments on the cercal wind-sensing system of the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana, showed that the firing rate of the interneurons coding wind information depends on the bandwidth of random noise wind stimuli. The firing rate was shown to increase with decreases in the stimulus bandwidth, and be independent of changes in the total power of the stimulus with constant spectral composition. A detailed analysis of ethologically relevant stimulus parameters is presented. A phenomenological model of these relationships and their relevance to wind-mediated cockroach behavior is proposed.
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Abbreviations
- 2D:
-
two dimensional
- FOWD:
-
fiber-optic wind detector
- GI:
-
giant interneurons
- STA:
-
spike-triggered average
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Acknowledgements
It is our pleasure to acknowledge the many helpful discussions and occasional critique of our work provided by Rob De Ruyter, Tom Adelman, Naama Brenner, Misha Chertkov, and Alan Gelperin at various stages of this work.
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Rinberg, D., Davidowitz, H. Wind spectra and the response of the cercal system in the cockroach. J Comp Physiol A 189, 867–876 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0460-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0460-9