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Updated: May 3, 2026

Evaluation of Auditory Brainstem Response in Chicken Hatchlings
Published on: April 1, 2022
Lateralization of travelling wave response in the hearing organ of bushcrickets
Arun Palghat Udayashankar1, Manfred Kössl1, Manuela Nowotny1
1AK Neurobiologie und Biosensorik, Institute for Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Abstract:
Travelling waves are the physical basis of frequency discrimination in many vertebrate and invertebrate taxa, including mammals, birds, and some insects. In bushcrickets (Tettigoniidae), the crista acustica is the hearing organ that has been shown to use sound-induced travelling waves. Up to now, data on mechanical characteristics of sound-induced travelling waves were only available along the longitudinal (proximal-distal) direction. In this study, we use laser Doppler vibrometry to investigate in-vivo radial (anterior-posterior) features of travelling waves in the tropical bushcricket Mecopoda elongata. Our results demonstrate that the maximum of sound-induced travelling wave amplitude response is always shifted towards the anterior part of the crista acustica. This lateralization of the travelling wave response induces a tilt in the motion of the crista acustica, which presumably optimizes sensory transduction by exerting a shear motion on the sensory cilia in this hearing organ.
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