Insect Auditory System: From Nervous System Mechanisms to Practical Applications

Insect hearing is very sensitive, and its auditory neurons can achieve precise sound localization in a complex sound environment. The auditory receptor of insects is a special part of the skin of their body wall, which can sense pressure changes, air or water vibration, and convert this external stimulus into the corresponding nerve impulse transmitted to the cerebral cortex to generate the corresponding sensation. The auditory system of insects shows certain conservative and directional evolution characteristics, and the adaptive evolution of their hearing helps study the biological evolution model of neuroscience. The combination of multidisciplinary knowledge and technical means is helpful for the study of neural mechanisms and the comparison between different groups of auditory systems in insects, as well as the origin-evolutionary relationship. This review summarizes the research progress of insect hearing from the aspects of neural mechanism and evolution of the auditory system, which not only contributes to the study of the biological mechanism of brain processing complex signals, but also promotes the development of bionics and engineering. This paper finds that insect auditory receptors are a class of organs that have specific effects on sound waves. The hearing of insects is particularly sensitive and plays an important role in avoiding predators, intraspecific communication and finding mates.