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SUMMARYResearch has demonstrated that certain midbrain neurons of anurans 'count' interpulse intervals (IPIs). Some neurons fire after exposure to fewer intervals than do others. Counting can be reset to zero if an IPI falls outside the cell's tolerance range. We tested female gray treefrogs for behavioral correlates of these neural response patterns using phonotaxis tests in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanistic bases of female responses to calls. For example, previous work demonstrated females often prefer longer to shorter pulsed advertisement calls, even when the former occur at lower rates. Call attractiveness can also be reduced when pulse duration and timing have been manipulated experimentally or disrupted by acoustic interference. In this study, female responses were consistent with neural data, emphasizing the importance of IPIs. Females discriminated in favor of calls with normal interpulse timing relative to those in which a single IPI was too long or too short. Our data suggest that neural resetting of interval counting by inappropriate intervals may more strongly influence females than reduced firing in response to such intervals on an individual basis. Data also suggest a transition point between 125ms and 175ms at which an interval between pulse strings is treated as an interval between calls.

Male gray treefrogs advertise for mates using calls that consist of a series of pulses. Pulse duration, interpulse interval, and pulse shape determine whether a call is recognized as a conspecific signal by females. Females use call rate and call pulse number to assess relative calling performance by males, and prefer males that display high calling efforts. However, within choruses call overlap among males and background noise can compromise the ability of females to detect and correctly interpret temporal information in calls. Phonotaxis tests using calls suffering from different patterns of overlap or with internal gaps were used to investigate specific consequences of interference and masking as well as mechanisms that might alleviate such problems. Our data indicate that females do not employ a process analogous to phonemic restoration to ‘‘fill in’’ missing call segments; however, if a sufficient percent of call elements fall within species-specific ranges, females may ignore call anomalies. Additional findings are generally consistent with those from a recent study on anuran auditory midbrain neurons that count and indicate that inappropriate pulse intervals can reset the pulse counting process. [Work supported by NSF and a Pace University Eugene M. Lang Research Fellowship.]