Neural analysis of sound frequency in insects

Insects, like other hearing animals, must extract information from the sounds they hear so that they may respond appropriately. One parameter of sound that carries information is its frequency content. Insects analyze sound frequency to identify mates, to judge the distance to potential competitors, and to detect predators and prey. We review how frequency is analyzed in the insect nervous system, focusing on two taxa in which this problem has been studied most intensively, katydids and crickets. BioEssays 21:295–303, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.