Preference of spectral features in auditory processing for advertisement calls in the music frogs

BACKGROUND: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.