Sex-specific speed-accuracy tradeoffs shape neural processing of acoustic signals in a grasshopper

Speed-accuracy tradeoffs – being fast at the risk of being wrong – are fundamental to many decisions and natural selection is expected to resolve these tradeoffs according to the costs and benefits of behavior. We here test the prediction that females and males should integrate information from courtship signals differently because they experience different payoffs along the speed-accuracy continuum. We fitted a neural model of decision making (a drift-diffusion model of integration to threshold) to behavioral data from the grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus to determine the parameters of temporal integration of acoustic directional information used by male grasshoppers to locate receptive females. The model revealed that males had a low threshold for initiating a turning response, yet a large integration time constant enabled them to continue to gather information when cues were weak. This contrasts with parameters estimated for females of the same species when evaluating potential mat...速度-准确性权衡（speed-accuracy tradeoffs）——即以出错风险为代价换取更快反应——是诸多决策的核心特征，而自然选择被认为会依据行为的成本与收益来优化这类权衡问题。本研究旨在验证如下预测：雌性与雄性个体在求偶信号的信息整合方式上存在差异，因为二者在速度-准确性连续体上所获得的收益各不相同。我们将决策神经模型（面向阈值整合的漂移扩散模型（drift-diffusion model））拟合至蝗虫*Chorthippus biguttulus*的行为数据，以解析雄性个体用于定位可接受交配雌性的声学方向信息的时间整合参数。模型结果显示，雄性个体启动转向反应的阈值较低，而较大的信息整合时间常数使其可在信号较弱时持续收集信息。这与同物种雌性在评估潜在配偶时所估算得到的参数形成鲜明对比……