Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kim Hoke
Projects & Publications
Neural systems have natural rhythmicities. These rhythms can make some behavioral rhythms either easier to produce or more effective if they synergize with the natural rhythms. One example is frog calls, in which the timing of the largely unremarkable call helps determine female preference for those calls. More repetitive, more rhythmic calls are preferred. We can take advantage of the frog's natural responses to its calls to help devise general rules for how rhythms emerge and get produced. Jan Clemens, moving to University of Oldenberg in the next year, has been working on this with crickets, and we now are prepared to analyze mechanisms of rhthmic production and reception in frogs to determine general principles for when these
repetitive calls are appealing.