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Hearing in Drosophila

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Book cover Insect Hearing

Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 55))

Abstract

Since the first analysis of the Drosophila courtship song in the early 1960s, the molecular and neural mechanisms underlying acoustic communication in fruit flies have attracted the interest of many researchers studying behavioral evolution, neuroethology, sensory systems, motor pattern control, acoustic information processing, and decision making in the brain. Recent studies utilizing a wide array of genetic tools have provided novel insights into the mechanisms of acoustic communication in Drosophila, from genes and cells to neural circuits and behaviors. Drosophila, in addition to the conventional model animals such as other singing insects, mammals, and birds, thus serves as an excellent model system for analyzing the neuronal and molecular mechanisms that are essential for information processing of acoustic signals. This chapter provides an overview of our current knowledge on hearing in Drosophila with an introduction to their acoustic communication, the hearing organs, and cells involved in the function and development of the auditory system and the auditory neural circuits in the brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8602, Japan

    Azusa Kamikouchi & Yuki Ishikawa

Authors
  1. Azusa Kamikouchi
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  2. Yuki Ishikawa
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Correspondence to Azusa Kamikouchi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

    Gerald S. Pollack

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

    Andrew C. Mason

  3. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

    Arthur N Popper

  4. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard R. Fay

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Kamikouchi, A., Ishikawa, Y. (2016). Hearing in Drosophila . In: Pollack, G., Mason, A., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Insect Hearing. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28890-1_10

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