The Ecology of Animal Senses : Matched Filters for Economical Sensing

The collection of chapters in this book present the concept of matched filters: response characteristics “matching” the characteristics of crucially important sensory inputs, which allows detection of vital sensory stimuli while sensory inputs not necessary for the survival of the animal tend to be filtered out, or sacrificed. The individual contributions discuss that the evolution of sensing systems resulted from the necessity to achieve the most efficient sensing of vital information at the lowest possible energetic cost. Matched filters are found in all senses including vision, hearing, olfaction, mechanoreception, electroreception and infrared sensing and different cases will be referred to in detail. 1. Adaptive Processing In The Insect Olfactory System / Jeffrey A. Riffell And John G. Hildebrand -- 2. A Spider's Sense Of Touch : What To Do With Myriads Of Tactile Hairs? / Friedrich G. Barth -- 3. Matched Filtering In Active Whisker Touch / Robyn A. Grant And Kendra P. Arkley -- 4. Matched Filters In Insect Audition : Tuning Curves And Beyond / Heiner Römer -- 5. Principles Of Matched Filtering With Auditory Examples From Selected Vertebrates / Peter M. Narins And Grace A. Clark -- 6. Matched Filtering And The Ecology Of Vision In Insects / Eric J. Warrant -- 7. Visual Matched Filtering In Vertebrates / R.h. Douglas And T.w. Cronin -- 8. Matched Filter Properties Of Infrared Receptors Used For Fire And Heat Detection In Insects / Helmut Schmitz, Anke Schmitz, And Erik S. Schneider -- 9. Matched Filtering In African Weakly Electric Fish : Two Senses With Complementary Filters / Gerhard Von Der Emde And Tim Ruhl. Gerhard Von Der Emde, Eric Warrant, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Adaptive Processing in the Insect Olfactory System....Pages 3-24 Front Matter....Pages 25-25 A Spider’s Sense of Touch: What to Do with Myriads of Tactile Hairs?....Pages 27-57 Matched Filtering in Active Whisker Touch....Pages 59-82 Matched Filters in Insect Audition: Tuning Curves and Beyond....Pages 83-109 Principles of Matched Filtering with Auditory Examples from Selected Vertebrates....Pages 111-140 Front Matter....Pages 141-141 Matched Filtering and the Ecology of Vision in Insects....Pages 143-167 Visual Matched Filtering in Vertebrates....Pages 169-203 Front Matter....Pages 205-205 Matched Filter Properties of Infrared Receptors Used for Fire and Heat Detection in Insects....Pages 207-234 Front Matter....Pages 235-235 Matched Filtering in African Weakly Electric Fish: Two Senses with Complementary Filters....Pages 237-263 Back Matter....Pages 265-269 Sensory systems have evolved to deal with complex and seemingly infinite sensory information. However, during evolution the morphology and neural circuitry of sensory organs have become 2matched filters3 for the characteristics of the most ecologically crucial stimuli that need to be detected, suppressing or even rejecting other less important stimuli. Not only do these matched filters allow essential sensory stimuli to be rapidly and reliably extracted for further processing, they do so with the most efficient use of the animal{u2019}s limited energy supply. The collection of chapters in this book explore these principles across the senses, in both vertebrates and invertebrates, with a rich smorgasbord of case studies that explain how matched sensory filters are an essential feature in the ecology of animal sensing Sensory systems have evolved to deal with complex and seemingly infinite sensory information. However, during evolution the morphology and neural circuitry of sensory organs have become ĺlmatched filtersĺl for the characteristics of the most ecologically crucial stimuli that need to be detected, suppressing or even rejecting other less important stimuli. Not only do these matched filters allow essential sensory stimuli to be rapidly and reliably extracted for further processing, they do so with the most efficient use of the animalĺls limited energy supply. The collection of chapters in this book explore these principles across the senses, in both vertebrates and invertebrates, with a rich smorgasbord of case studies that explain how matched sensory filters are an essential feature in the ecology of animal sensing