Abstract
Like males of many anuran species, fire-bellied toads (Bombina orientalis) call antiphonally, which demonstrates an auditory input into the call-generating network. Males produce their calls by an inspiratory airstream, which is generated exclusively by contraction of the muscles of the buccal cavity. The painted frog (Discoglossus pictus) possesses a combined inspiratory and expiratory call mechanism, and also uses only buccal muscles. These muscles are controlled by branchial motoneurons, which receive vocal premotor input mainly from the pretrigeminal nucleus. The interconnections between the auditory pathway and the vocal pathway were examined by neuroanatomical tracing and intracellular recording. Mesencephalic auditory nuclei, laminar and magnocellular nucleus of the torus semicircularis, and tegmental nuclei constitute strong descending efferents, which, in turn, form collaterals that terminate in vocal premotor nuclei. These finding simply fast audio-vocal interfacing, which is a prerequisite for the control of antiphonal calling.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 122-126 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | European Journal of Morphology |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 2-4 |
| State | Published - 1994 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- acoustic communication
- audio-vocal interface
- auditory pathway
- neural vocal network
- vocal motor pattern