A widespread animal communication tempo may resonate with the receiver's brain

Abstract

During fieldwork in Thailand, we observed nearly identical tempos of co-located flashing fireflies and chirping crickets. Motivated by this, we survey published data showing that an abundance of evolutionarily distinct species communicate isochronously at ~0.5-4 Hz, suggesting that this might be a tempo "hotspot." We hypothesize that this timescale may have a universal basis in the biophysics of the receiver's neurons. We test this by demonstrating that small receiver circuits constructed from elements representing typical neurons will be most responsive in the observed tempo range.