The group of researchers forming the CSC have a shared interest in sound communication and hearing in animals. We cover a large range of animals (insects to whales) and a wide spectrum of problems within animal sound communication i.e. the emission, propagation and reception of air-borne or substrate-borne sound and vibrations. Also, the experiments performed range from behavioral studies to biophysical measurements of the vibrations of the sensory structures. The approach at the CSC is comparative and rooted in the understanding of physics and signal analysis. More on research below
A few examples of our research animals...
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and some of the sounds (wav-files) of our experimental animals. Some of the sounds (from insects, bats and whales) are ultrasounds, which are inaudible to humans. They are played with reduced speed to decrease the frequency.
Most researchers at the CSC work in the Neurobiology group, Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense (SDU), but research is also carried out at the Department of Zoophysiology, Institute of Biology, Aarhus University (AU) and Department of Animal Behavior, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University (CU). The CSC began its activities on January 1st, 1994. It has been financed by the Danish National Research Foundation through a grant of 22.5 million Danish kroner (approx. 3.75 million USD) for the 5-year period 1994-1998 and funding (of 25 million Danish kroner, approx. 4 million USD) has been continued for the period 1999-2003.
The sonar group studies echolocation used by bats and
toothed whales for orientation and prey detection. Psychophysical
experiments on trained bats are combined with sound and video
recordings of prey capture in the field. Also, field recordings are
made of whale echolocation sounds. Another topic of investigation of
the group is avoidance responses of the prey of bats (insects) and of
whales (fish) to ultrasound.
The bird group concentrates on two themes: Environmental constraints on acoustic communication in birds and vocal interactions between individuals. Topics include degradation of communication signals during propagation in the birds' habitat, functions of the signals, communication networks and mechanisms of sound production.
The biophysics group studies basic mechanisms of hearing in insect ears. Recent topics include studies of directionality in cricket ears and of the function of the subgenual organ, the main vibration receiver in bees. Another central theme is studies of the information transferred in honey bee dances.
The frog group studies hearing in frogs using a combination
of biophysical, neurophysiological and behavioral experiments. Recent
topics include laser vibrometry measurements of eardrum vibrations,
encoding of directional information in auditory nerve fibers and
vibration sensitivity of frogs.
Finally, the signal analysis unit and the technical
staff serve very important functions in the CSC by developing PC
and DSP programs for diverse signal analysis tasks of all groups and
constructing and customizing electronics equipment for use in the
laboratory and in the field.
Further
information:
The Centre for Sound Communication. Information folder
produced by the CSC, Odense 1995.Available
on request from the
secretariat.
Larsen ON (1996) Research group report. CSC: The Danish Centre for
Sound Communication. Bioacoustics 6: 287-292
Center for Sound Communication,
Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark,
Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark
Phone: +45 6557 2720, fax +45 6593 0457
lyn@biology.ou.dk
Latest update: Oct. 17th, 2000. NeuroMaster:
Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard
