Editors' ChoiceSensory Perception

The Not-So-Quiet Cricket

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Science's STKE  31 Jan 2006:
Vol. 2006, Issue 320, pp. tw45
DOI: 10.1126/stke.3202006tw45

Our own behavior often generates intense sensory feedback, for example, during loud shouting. How do we prevent self-induced desensitization of our auditory pathway and distinguish between self-generated and external sounds? Inhibitory neural signals, called corollary discharges, are sent from motor to sensory areas in the brain that suppress responses at the precise time that we generate sensory information. Using singing crickets as a model system, Poulet and Hedwig identified the cellular basis for a corollary discharge that is indispensable in order to distinguish self-generated sensory feedback from external information. The corollary discharge interneuron in the cricket is driven by the song pattern generator and monosynaptically inhibits crucial elements of the auditory pathway.

J. F. A. Poulet and B. Hedwig, The cellular basis of a corollary discharge. Science 311, 518-522 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]

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