Animal vocal signals encode very important information for communication during which the importance of temporal and spectral characteristics of vocalizations is always asymmetrical and species-specific. However, it is still unknown how auditory system represents this asymmetrical and species-specific patterns. In this study, auditory event related potential (ERP) changes were evaluated in the Emei music frog (Babina daunchina) to assess the differences in eliciting neural responses of both temporal and spectral features for the telencephalon, diencephalon and mesencephalon respectively. To do this, an acoustic playback experiment using an oddball paradigm design was conducted, in which an original advertisement call (OC), its spectral feature preserved version (SC) and temporal feature preserved version (TC) were used as deviant stimuli with synthesized white noise as standard stimulus. The present results show that 1) compared with TC, more similar ERP components were evoked by OC and SC; and 2) the P3a amplitudes in the forebrain evoked by OC were significantly higher in males than in females. Together, the results provide evidence for suggesting neural processing for conspecific vocalization may prefer to the spectral features in the music frog, prompting speculation that the spectral features may play more important roles in auditory object perception or vocal communication in this species. In addition, the neural processing for auditory perception is sexually dimorphic.

中文翻译：

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音乐蛙广告叫声听觉处理中频谱特征的偏好

动物声音信号编码对于交流非常重要的信息，在此期间发声的时间和频谱特征的重要性始终是不对称的和物种特定的。然而，目前尚不清楚听觉系统如何代表这种不对称和物种特异性的模式。在本研究中，对峨眉音乐蛙（Babina daunchina）的听觉事件相关电位（ERP）变化进行了评估，以评估分别引起端脑、间脑和中脑的时间和频谱特征的神经反应的差异。为此，进行了使用奇怪范式设计的声学回放实验，其中原始广告呼叫（OC）、其频谱特征保留版本（SC）和时间特征保留版本（TC）被用作具有合成白光的异常刺激噪音作为标准刺激。目前的结果表明：1）与TC相比，OC和SC诱发了更多相似的ERP成分；2) OC 诱发的前脑 P3a 振幅男性显着高于女性。总之，这些结果提供了证据，表明音乐蛙中同种发声的神经处理可能更喜欢频谱特征，这促使人们猜测频谱特征可能在该物种的听觉对象感知或声音交流中发挥更重要的作用。此外，听觉感知的神经处理是性别二态性的。