Her odours make him deaf: crossmodal modulation of olfaction and hearing in a male moth
(2005) In Journal of Experimental Biology 208(4). p.595-601- Abstract
- All animals have to cope with sensory conflicts arising from simultaneous input of incongruent data to different sensory modalities. Nocturnal activity in moths includes mate-finding behaviour by odour detection and bat predator avoidance by acoustic detection. We studied male moths that were simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones indicating the presence of a potential mate, and artificial bat cries simulating a predation risk. We show that stimulation of one sensory modality can modulate the response to information from another, suggesting that behavioural thresholds are dynamic and depend on the behavioural context. The tendency to respond to bat sounds decreased as the quality and/or the amount of sex pheromone increased. The... (More)
- All animals have to cope with sensory conflicts arising from simultaneous input of incongruent data to different sensory modalities. Nocturnal activity in moths includes mate-finding behaviour by odour detection and bat predator avoidance by acoustic detection. We studied male moths that were simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones indicating the presence of a potential mate, and artificial bat cries simulating a predation risk. We show that stimulation of one sensory modality can modulate the response to information from another, suggesting that behavioural thresholds are dynamic and depend on the behavioural context. The tendency to respond to bat sounds decreased as the quality and/or the amount of sex pheromone increased. The behavioural threshold for artificial bat cries increased by up to 40 dB when male moths where simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones. As a consequence, a male moth that has detected the pheromone plume from a female will not try to evade an approaching bat until the bat gets close, hence incurring increased predation risk. Our results suggest that male moths' reaction to sensory conflicts is a trade-off depending on the relative intensity of the input to CNS from the two sensory modalities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/146169
- author
- Skals, Niels LU ; Anderson, Peter ; Kanneworff, M ; Löfstedt, Christer LU and Surlykke, Ann
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Experimental Biology
- volume
- 208
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 595 - 601
- publisher
- The Company of Biologists Ltd
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:15695752
- wos:000227813800005
- scopus:15044356320
- ISSN
- 1477-9145
- DOI
- 10.1242/jeb.01400
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 12253402-57d1-46bb-9e14-af36391de8b0 (old id 146169)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:52:16
- date last changed
- 2024-01-07 23:38:44
@article{12253402-57d1-46bb-9e14-af36391de8b0, abstract = {{All animals have to cope with sensory conflicts arising from simultaneous input of incongruent data to different sensory modalities. Nocturnal activity in moths includes mate-finding behaviour by odour detection and bat predator avoidance by acoustic detection. We studied male moths that were simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones indicating the presence of a potential mate, and artificial bat cries simulating a predation risk. We show that stimulation of one sensory modality can modulate the response to information from another, suggesting that behavioural thresholds are dynamic and depend on the behavioural context. The tendency to respond to bat sounds decreased as the quality and/or the amount of sex pheromone increased. The behavioural threshold for artificial bat cries increased by up to 40 dB when male moths where simultaneously exposed to female sex pheromones. As a consequence, a male moth that has detected the pheromone plume from a female will not try to evade an approaching bat until the bat gets close, hence incurring increased predation risk. Our results suggest that male moths' reaction to sensory conflicts is a trade-off depending on the relative intensity of the input to CNS from the two sensory modalities.}}, author = {{Skals, Niels and Anderson, Peter and Kanneworff, M and Löfstedt, Christer and Surlykke, Ann}}, issn = {{1477-9145}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{4}}, pages = {{595--601}}, publisher = {{The Company of Biologists Ltd}}, series = {{Journal of Experimental Biology}}, title = {{Her odours make him deaf: crossmodal modulation of olfaction and hearing in a male moth}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01400}}, doi = {{10.1242/jeb.01400}}, volume = {{208}}, year = {{2005}}, }