Experimental and theoretical explorations of traveling waves and tonotopic tuning in the bushcricket hearing organ (Biophysical Journal)

The ability to detect air-born sound is essential for many animals. Examples from the inner ear of mammals and bushcrickets demonstrate that similar detection strategies evolved in taxonomically distant species. Both mammalian and bushcricket ears possess a narrow strip of sensory tissue that exhibits an anatomical gradient and traveling wave motion responses, used for frequency discrimination. We measured pressure and motion in the bushcricket ear to investigate physical properties, stiffness and mass, which govern the mechanical responses to sound.