A universal animal communication tempo resonates with the receiver's brain
Neurons and Cognition
2025-09-01 v1 Biological Physics
Populations and Evolution
Abstract
During fieldwork in Thailand we observed nearly identical frequencies of co-located flashing fireflies and chirping crickets. Motivated by this, we perform a meta-analysis and show an abundance of evolutionarily distinct species that communicate isochronously at ~0.5-4 Hz, suggesting that this might be a frequency "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 frequency range.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.21530,
title = {A universal animal communication tempo resonates with the receiver's brain},
author = {Guy Amichay and Vijay Balasubramanian and Daniel M. Abrams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.21530},
year = {2025}
}