Sensing sound : evolutionary neurobiology of a novel sense of hearing /
Bernd Fritzsch, Department of Biology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.
- First edition.
- xiv, 214 pages ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preface. Introduction. Defining novelty in the neurosensory system. Evolving mechanosensation for gravity and angular orientation, lateral line, and electroreception. Connecting a novel sensory input from the ear to the brain: how to make new neuronal networks and new connections of an auditory system. Defining the auditory system of tetrapods. Sound processing: boundaries for auditory signal processing revealed. The evolution of the auditory system as a blueprint for sensory expansions using established principles – evolving new or adding artificial senses to expand the perception of the world. Summary and conclusions
"Hearing is a prerequisite for the evolution of language and thus the development of the human societies. Hearing is the ONLY major sense whose evolution can be traced among living vertebrates. How hearing related sensory epithelia in the ear evolved and connected to neuronal centers in the brain dedicated to the processing of sound to reliable decode messages formulated by sound modulations provides a unique example of evolutionary developmental neuroplasticity that remains largely unexplored in contemporary theories of neurosensory brain evolution. The project will produce a monograph summarizing insights into this process from molecular to behavioral levels gained in over 40 years by one of the leaders in this field"--