Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 13 September 1996:
Vol. 273. no. 5281, pp. 1542 - 1544
DOI: 10.1126/science.273.5281.1542
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Categorical Perception of Sound Frequency by Crickets

Robert A. Wyttenbach, Michael L. May, * Ronald R. Hoy dagger

Partitioning continuously varying stimuli into categories is a fundamental problem of perception. One solution to this problem, categorical perception, is known primarily from human speech, but also occurs in other modalities and in some mammals and birds. Categorical perception was tested in crickets by using two paradigms of human psychophysics, labeling and habituation-dishabituation. The results show that crickets divide sound frequency categorically between attractive (<16 kilohertz) and repulsive (>16 kilohertz) sounds. There is sharp discrimination between these categories but no discrimination between different frequencies of ultrasound. This demonstration of categorical perception in an invertebrate suggests that categorical perception may be a basic and widespread feature of sensory systems, from humans to invertebrates.

Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-2702, USA.
*   Present address: American Scientist, Post Office Box 13975, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rrh3{at}cornell.edu


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The cost of assuming the life history of a host: acoustic startle in the parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea.
M. J. Rosen, E. C. Levin, and R. R. Hoy (2009)
J. Exp. Biol. 212, 4056-4064
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Converging Neuronal Activity in Inferior Temporal Cortex during the Classification of Morphed Stimuli.
A. Akrami, Y. Liu, A. Treves, and B. Jagadeesh (2009)
Cereb Cortex 19, 760-776
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Frequency information in the vibration-cued escape hatching of red-eyed treefrogs.
M. S. Caldwell, J. G. McDaniel, and K. M. Warkentin (2009)
J. Exp. Biol. 212, 566-575
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Categorical perception of a natural, multivariate signal: Mating call recognition in tungara frogs.
A. T. Baugh, K. L. Akre, and M. J. Ryan (2008)
PNAS 105, 8985-8988
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Male discrimination of receptive and unreceptive female calls by temporal features.
T. M. Elliott and D. B. Kelley (2007)
J. Exp. Biol. 210, 2836-2842
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Acoustic feature recognition in the dogbane tiger moth, Cycnia tenera.
J. H. Fullard, J. M. Ratcliffe, and C. G. Christie (2007)
J. Exp. Biol. 210, 2481-2488
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tympanal travelling waves in migratory locusts.
J. F. C. Windmill, M. C. Gopfert, and D. Robert (2005)
J. Exp. Biol. 208, 157-168
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Dynamics of Active Categorical Perception in an Evolved Model Agent.
R. D. Beer (2003)
Adaptive Behavior 11, 209-243
   Abstract »    PDF »
Visual Categorization and the Primate Prefrontal Cortex: Neurophysiology and Behavior.
D. J. Freedman, M. Riesenhuber, T. Poggio, and E. K. Miller (2002)
J Neurophysiol 88, 929-941
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Song discrimination by male cicadas Cicada barbara lusitanica (Homoptera, Cicadidae).
P. J. Fonseca and M. A. Revez (2002)
J. Exp. Biol. 205, 1285-1292
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Categorical Representation of Visual Stimuli in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex.
D. J. Freedman, M. Riesenhuber, T. Poggio, and E. K. Miller (2001)
Science 291, 312-316
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Language Discrimination by Human Newborns and by Cotton-Top Tamarin Monkeys.
F. Ramus, M. D. Hauser, C. Miller, D. Morris, and J. Mehler (2000)
Science 288, 349-351
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Neuroethology of the katydid T-cell. I. Tuning and responses to pure tones.
P. Faure and R. Hoy (2000)
J. Exp. Biol. 203, 3225-3242
   Abstract »    PDF »
Neural Coding of Sound Frequency by Cricket Auditory Receptors.
K. Imaizumi and G. S. Pollack (1999)
J. Neurosci. 19, 1508-1516
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Experience-dependent modification of ultrasound auditory processing in a cricket escape response.
J. Engel and R. Hoy (1999)
J. Exp. Biol. 202, 2797-2806
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)