Neural adaptation in the auditory pathway of crickets and grasshoppers [Elektronische Ressource] / von Kai Jannis Hildebrandt

Neural adaptation in the auditory pathway of crickets andgrasshoppersDISSERTATIONzur Erlangung des akademischen Gradesdoctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.)im Fach Biologieeingereicht an derMathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät IHumboldt-Universität zu BerlinvonDipl.-Biol. Kai Jannis Hildebrandt30.8.1976 in GöttingenPräsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin:Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph MarkschiesDekan der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät I:Prof. Dr. Lutz-Helmut SchönGutachter:1. PD Dr. Matthias Hennig2. Dr. Jan Benda3. Prof. Dr. Jutta Kretzbergeingereicht am: 23.2.2010Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 1.6.2010AbstractNeural adaptation serves to adjust the sensory pathway to the current environ-ment of an animal. While the effect and time course of adaptation can be observeddirectly within single cells, its underlying cause is a combination of many differ-ent mechanisms spread out along the sensory pathway. The present work has theobjective to unite these different levels of understanding of the term adaptation.In order to do so, several experimental and theoretical studies were carried out. Intwo of these studies, a combination of current injection and auditory stimulationwas used, in order to disentangle intrinsic adaptation from network effects.