title: Hearing in Insects.
abstract: Insect hearing has independently evolved multiple times in the context of intraspecific communication and predator detection by transforming proprioceptive organs into ears. Research over the past decade, ranging from the biophysics of sound reception to molecular aspects of auditory transduction to the neuronal mechanisms of auditory signal processing, has greatly advanced our understanding of how insects hear. Apart from evolutionary innovations that seem unique to insect hearing, parallels between insect and vertebrate auditory systems have been uncovered, and the auditory sensory cells of insects and vertebrates turned out to be evolutionarily related. This review summarizes our current understanding of insect hearing. It also discusses recent advances in insect auditory research, which have put forward insect auditory systems for studying biological aspects that extend beyond hearing, such as cilium function, neuronal signal computation, and sensory system evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Neurobiology, University of Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany; email: mgoepfe@gwdg.de.
authors.forename: Martin C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Göpfert
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Behavioral Physiology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, D-10115 Berlin, Germany; email: matthias.hennig@biologie.hu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: R Matthias
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hennig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006309:Hearing; D007313:Insecta / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: auditory signal processing; chordotonal organ; genetics of hearing; mechanosensory transduction; sensory system evolution