Sex differences in vocalization have been commonly found in vocal animals. It remains unclear, however, how animals perceive and discriminate these differences. The amplitudes and latencies of event-related potentials (ERP) components can reflect the auditory processing efficiency and time course. We investigated the neural mechanisms of auditory processing in the Emei music frog (Nidirana daunchina) using an Oddball paradigm with ERP. We recorded and analyzed eletroencephalogram (EEG) signals from the forebrain and midbrain when the subjects listened to white noise (WN) and conspecific sex-specific vocalizations. We found that (1) both amplitudes and latencies of some ERP components evoked by conspecific calls were significantly higher than those by WN, suggesting the music frogs can discriminate conspecific vocalizations from background noise; (2) both amplitudes and latencies of most ERP components evoked by female calls were significantly higher or longer than those by male calls, implying that the ERP components can reflect sex differences in vocalization; and (3) there were significant differences in ERP amplitudes between male and female subjects, suggesting a sexual dimorphism in auditory perception. Together, the present results indicate that the music frog could discriminate conspecific calls from noise, male’s calls from female’s ones, and sexual dimorphism of auditory perception existed in this species.

中文翻译：

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发声中的性别差异由音乐青蛙中与事件相关的潜在成分反映出来。

在发声动物中通常发现发声的性别差异。然而，尚不清楚动物如何感知和区分这些差异。事件相关电位（ERP）分量的振幅和延迟可以反映听觉处理效率和时程。我们研究了峨眉音乐青蛙（Nidirana daunchina）听觉加工的神经机制。）在ERP中使用Oddball范例。当受试者听白噪声（WN）和特定性别的特定发声时，我们记录并分析了前脑和中脑的脑电图（EEG）信号。我们发现（1）由特定调用引起的某些ERP组件的幅度和延迟都显着高于WN，这表明音乐青蛙可以从背景噪声中区分特定的发声；（2）女性呼叫所引起的大多数ERP成分的振幅和潜伏期均明显高于或大于男性呼叫所引起的振幅和潜伏期，这表明ERP成分可以反映发声中的性别差异；（3）男性和女性受试者的ERP振幅存在显着差异，这表明听觉知觉存在性别二态性。一起，