Specific Features of the Responses of Auditory System Neurons in Terrestrial Vertebrates to Interspecies Communication Calls (Analytical Review)

One of the main functions of sensory systems is to mediate within-species communication, often by means of exchanging communicative sound signals. It is natural to hypothesize that the emission and reception of these signals should be concordant. In fact, concordance usually is seen in the properties of species communication sounds and the receiving apparatus of the auditory analyzer. However, the extent of this concordance in the neural structures of the brain remains a subject of lively debate. This review examines studies seeking to resolve the issue of the specialized encoding of species-specific signals in different terrestrial vertebrates. Researchers have for many decades sought to find neurons serving as detectors of within-species communication signals. However, analysis of the literature does not identify the existence of any areas in the direct auditory pathway which are specialized for extracting this category of sounds alone. The function of the neurons making up its nuclei appears to be to extract the features of the temporal flow of sounds perceived by the auditory nerve. This process operates on the basis of trained synaptic connections during the process of permanent evolution as determined by the sensory environment. In the central nuclei of the auditory pathway, dynamically organized neuron ensembles with the ability to respond synchronously to some particular sound can be formed. These ensembles can be regarded as the output structures of the auditory analyzer determining perception of the signal and the organism’s motor reactions.