DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c2fqz61hz
title: Sensory-motor tuning allows generic features of conspecific acoustic scenes to guide rapid, adaptive, call-timing responses in Túngara frogs

description: Male frogs court females from within crowded choruses, selecting for
 mechanisms allowing them to call at favorable times relative to the calls
 of rivals and background chorus noise. To accomplish this, males must
 continuously evaluate the fluctuating acoustic scene generated by their
 competitors for opportune times to call. Túngara frogs produce highly
 frequency- and amplitude-modulated calls from within dense choruses. We
 used similarly frequency- and amplitude-modulated playback tones to
 investigate the sensory basis of their call-timing decisions. Results
 revealed that different frequencies present throughout this species’ call
 differed in their degree of call inhibition, and that lower-amplitude
 tones were less inhibitory. Call-timing decisions were then driven by
 fluctuations in inhibition arising from underlying frequency- and
 amplitude-modulation patterns, with tone transitions that produced steeper
 decreases in inhibition having higher probabilities of triggering calls.
 Interactions between the varied behavioral sensitivities to different
 conspecific call frequencies revealed here, and the stereotyped amplitude-
 and frequency-modulation patterns present in this species’ calls, can
 explain previously surprising patterns observed in túngara frog choruses.
 This highlights the importance of understanding the specific sensory
 drivers underpinning conspecific signaling interactions, and reveals how
 sensory systems can mediate the interplay between signal perception and
 production to facilitate adaptive communication strategies.
description: In this study, we preformed playback experiments to calling male
 túngara frogs to see how amplitude and frequency modulation in tonal
 playback stimuli influenced their call-timing decisions. From the results,
 we gained some clues regarding the functioning of their call timing
 mechanisms.
description: # **Sensory-Motor Tuning Allows Generic Features of Conspecific Acoustic
 Scenes to Guide Rapid, Adaptive, Call-Timing Responses in Túngara Frogs**
 About the Study: In this study, we preformed playback experiments to
 calling male túngara frogs to see how amplitude and frequency modulation
 in tonal playback stimuli influenced their call-timing decisions. From the
 results, we gained some clues regarding the functioning of their call
 timing mechanisms. **Version Information and Packages Used** -     
  RStudio v2021.09.0/351 running R v4.2.2. Packages used: o  
 tidyverse_v2.0.0 o   lme4_v1.1.31 o   DHARMa_v0.4.6 o   MuMIn_v1.47.5 o  
 sjPlot_v2.8.12 o   ggplot2_v3.4.1 o   lmerTest_v3.1.3 o   car_v3.1.2 o  
 splines_v4.2.2 o   afex v1.3-0 o   RColorBrewer v1.1-3 o   viridis v0.6.4
 o   cairo v1.6-0 o   patchwork v1.2.0 **Data Included** *
 **'gap_detection_dat_final.csv'**: a csv file containing results
 of our playback experiments, which provides the data for running our
 logistic regression model discussed in-text using the code in
 ‘Main_Text_Logistic_Regression_and_Figs.rmd’. Each row of the dataframe
 represents a single call produced by the male being tested, and each call
 included in this dataframe occurred during one of our tonal playback
 stimuli. Variable description:        o   ‘block_ID’: The night on which
 the male was tested (multiple males were tested each night); ‘male_ID’: A
 unique identifier for the male being tested.        o   ‘stim_ID’: A
 description of the tonal stimulus during which the call occurred. The
 first frequency stated is the reference tone frequency, the second is the
 test tone frequency, and the decimal number is the relative amplitude of
 the test tone (as a proportion) as compared to the reference tone of that
 stimulus. E.g., ‘400hz(bg)_850hz(gap)_0.37’ states that the stimulus
 consisted of a 400Hz reference tone and a 850Hz test tone, with the test
 tone amplitude being 37% of the reference tone amplitude.        o  
 ‘stim_onset_uncorr’: The onset time of the stimulus during which a call
 occurred during a playback trial. ‘Uncorr’ refers to this being
 uncorrected (as opposed to corrected: see next variable).        o  
 ‘stim_onset_corr’: The onset time of the stimulus during which a call
 occurred, corrected to reduce errors occurring due to the effector delay
 males exhibit when calling. It takes ~70ms for a triggered call to be
 produced in this species, so we excluded responses occurring within the
 first 70ms of stimuli as these were likely triggered prior to stimulus
 onset and so did not represent an actual response to features of the
 stimulus. So, this corrected onset is just the uncorrected onset time plus
 70ms.        o   ‘stim_end’: The time when that stimulus ended during the
 playback trial.        o   ‘reference_Hz’: The frequency of the reference
 tone of that stimulus.        o   ‘test_Hz’: The frequency of the test
 tone of that stimulus.        o   ‘test_amp_reduc’: The relative amplitude
 of the test tone as compared to the reference tone for that stimulus (as a
 proportion).        o   ‘call_t’: The onset time of that call during the
 playback trial.        o   ‘prior_IOI’: The inter-onset interval preceding
 the current call (i.e. the time elapsing between the onset of the current
 call by the focal male and the onset of his most recent call immediately
 preceding it).        o   ‘in_test.1.yes’: Indicates whether that call
 occurred during the reference tone or test tone of that stimulus. 1 states
 that it occurred during the test tone, 0 that it occurred during the
 reference tone.        o   ‘test_t’: For calls that occurred during test
 tones, this is the onset time of the test they occurred during.        o  
 ‘test_ord’: For calls that occurred during test tones, this is the ordinal
 test tone segment the call occurred in within the stimulus, e.g. 1
 indicates it was the 1st test tone segment of the stimulus, 2 the 2nd,
 etc.        o   ‘male_ID’: A unique identifier for the male being tested.
        o   ‘mass’: Male mass in grams.        o   ‘svl’: Male SVL in mm.  
      o   ‘temp’: Temperature of the water the male called in during
 playback (C).        o   ‘total_calls’: The total number of calls he
 produced during playback. Not all males called through the whole session.
 * ***‘binary_dat_final.csv’***: This is a csv used to do the analysis
 mentioned in section SI2 using the code in
 ‘SupplementalSI2_Logistic_Regression.rmd’. All variables with identical
 names to those in ‘Gap_Detection_Data.csv’ above have identical
 descriptions.        o   ‘called.1.yes.’: A binary male response to each
 individual stimulus he encountered while calling during a playback trial.
 1 indicates that he called at least once during that stimulus, and 0
 indicates that he refrained from calling at all during the entire
 stimulus. * ***'IOIs_combined.csv’***: For plotting figure 4B
 in-text. This figure compares inter-onset intervals observed in the
 current study to those observed in a previous study on this same species
 in which males called in live choruses.        o   ‘IOI_curr’: Inter-onset
 intervals (s) observed during the current study.        o   ‘IOI_AN’:
 Inter-onset intervals (s) observed in the previous study (Larter and Ryan
 (2024), American Naturalist). * ***‘Inhibition_sensitivity_ranks.csv’***:
 This contains the inhibition ranks of the different frequencies we used in
 out experiments as revealed by our in-text logistic regression model, as
 well as the sensitivities to these different frequencies as reported in
 several previous neurophysiology studies. Used for creating figure 5.    
    o   ‘hz’: the frequency for which a rank is displayed per row.      
  o    ‘inhibition_ranks’: Rankings of how inhibitory the different
 frequencies used in our experiment were as indicated by our in-test
 logistic regression model. 1 indicates the least inhibitory frequency, and
 6 the most inhibitory.        o   ‘ponnath’: Sensitivity rankings for the
 same frequencies extracted from Ponnath et al. (2022), Plos One. For all
 sensitivity ranks, 1 indicates the least sensitive frequency, and 6 the
 most sensitive.        o   ‘ryan: Sensitivity rankings for the same
 frequencies extracted from Ryan et al. (1990), Nature.        o   ‘taylor:
 Sensitivity rankings for the same frequencies extracted from Taylor et al.
 (2019), Current Zoology.        o   ‘wilczynski: Sensitivity rankings for
 the same frequencies extracted from Wilczynskiet al. (2001), Brain,
 Behavior, and Evolution **Code for Analysis and Figures Included** *
 ‘***Main_Text_Logistic_Regression_and_Figs.rmd***’: An R markdown file
 which processes and analyses the data used for our in-text logistic
 regression model, and which uses the above CSVs to plot all within-text
 figures. Some figures were edited slightly after being exported from R.
 Fairly extensive comments within this code should guide the reader through
 the different steps involved in all of these tasks. *
 ‘***SupplementalSI2_Logistic_Regression.rmd***’: An R markdown file which
 processes and analyses the data used for the supplementary analysis
 described in the supplementary information SI2. Fairly extensive comments
 within this code should guide the reader through the different steps
 involved in all of these tasks.