Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Collaborative Research Center for Theoretical Biology

Mechanisms of adaptation and their consequences for signal processing in a small auditory module

Adaptation is an integral part of neuronal processing and leads to an adjustment to existing but nevertheless changing environmental conditions on different time scales. An important task of nervous systems is to recognize the same object in different situations and adaptation can significantly contribute to such a formation of invariances. Nevertheless it is in many cases unclear, how different mechanisms of adaptation add to achieve this goal.
In this project we investigate the mechanisms of adaptation in a simple system, the auditory pathway of the cricket. We use electrophysiological as well as modelling techniques to quantify the contribution of adaptation to auditory processing, formation of invariance and robustness towards changing conditions.

Project B6 in the SFB 618 ‚ Robustness, Modularity and Evolutionary Design of Living Systems’
Jan Benda
Matthias Hennig

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