Mario PennaUniversity of Chile · Programa de Fisiología y Biofísica
Mario Penna
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Publications (90)
Estimating repeatability allows a first approximation that may indicate a potential response to selection of sexual traits. Acoustic sexual signals comprise spectral and temporal variables, where the former generally have lower intra‐individual variation and higher repeatability values. Studies of repeatability in anurans have been conducted mainly...
Geckos stand out among lizards for communicating by means of visual, chemical, and acoustic modalities. Although these lizards are known for using these three modalities, the number of studies using them as subjects is restricted, especially those focused on the Chilean endemic genus Garthia. Here, we quantify the social behaviour of G. gaudichaudi...
Birds generally produce vocalisations in specific daily temporal windows. Describing diel-calling activity patterns along with taxonomic group and guild membership increase the knowledge about potential factors shaping the behaviour of these animals. This information is also highly relevant for the enhancement of monitoring plans for conservation....
Many lizards (Superorder Lepidosauria) can regenerate their tail after fully or partially autotomizing it. However, abnormalities in regeneration can sometimes occur, such as the growth of one or more additional tails from wounds produced, for example, by incomplete autotomy. In this work, we describe the growth of an additional tail (i.e., bifurca...
We investigated response selectivities of single auditory neurons in the torus semicircularis of male frogs Batrachyla leptopus (72 neurons) and B. taeniata (57 neurons) to synthetic stimuli of different temporal structures. Series of stimuli in which note and pulse rate, note and pulse structure and call duration varied systematically were present...
The release calls of Rhinoderma rufum (Philippi 1902) are described quantitatively based on recordings of four males of this species obtained in 1981 from a population in central Chile. This record corresponds to the last scientific sighting of the species. The release calls of R. rufum consist of sequences of complex notes containing harmonics and...
Effective communication requires a match among signal characteristics, environmental conditions, and receptor tuning and decoding. The degree of matching, however, can vary, among others due to different selective pressures affecting the communication components. For evolutionary novelties, strong selective pressures are likely to act upon the sign...
Phonotactic female and vocal male responses of frogs to advertisement calls have been shown to encompass broader ranges than those of variation of natural mate-attracting signals. Anuran aggressive calls contribute to expand the range of sound features significant for communication. Evoked vocal responses (EVRs) of males of Batrachyla leptopus to s...
Sexual signals in different animals are expected to be dimorphic when both sexes signal, but cases of monomorphism are known to occur, and we lack a clear understanding about the factors that modulate the level of sexual dimorphism in signals. In this study, we evaluated the hypothesis that the lack of dimorphism in sexual signals might evolve in s...
Vertebrate predation by invertebrates has been classically underexplored and thus underestimated, despite the fact that many arthropods consume vertebrates. To shed some light on the relevance that spider predation may have upon lizards in the Neotropical and Andean regions, we compiled the available information in the literature on this trophic in...
Sound-producing organs generate acoustic signals that have a fundamental role in communication systems. In species exhibiting different biogeographic patterns, variations of these structures can explain a large part of interpopulation differences of their signals. Pleurodema thaul is an anuran with an extensive geographic distribution in Chile and...
In animals, the expression of diverse reproductive behaviors is hormonally regulated. In particular, vocalizing during courtship has been related to circulating androgen levels, and reciprocally, conspecific vocalizations are known to modulate androgen secretion in vertebrates. The effect of natural sounds of abiotic origin on hormonal status has v...
Los gecos (infraorden Gekkota) destacan entre los lagartos por ser los más vocíferos, ya que, a diferencia de la mayoría de los saurios, estos emiten sonidos en diferentes contextos intra-e interespecíficos. En Chile existen escasos antecedentes sobre emisión de sonidos en gecos nativos, señalándose solo de manera anecdótica la producción de sonido...
Sound-producing organs generate acoustic signals that have a fundamental role in communication systems. In species exhibiting different biogeographic patterns, variations of these structures can explain a large part of interpopulation differences of their signals. Pleurodema thaul is an anuran with an extensive geographic distribution in Chile and...
Background. In animal reproductive contexts, calling behaviour is mostly performed by males but in species in which females call, it is not known how vocal interaction occurs between sexes, particularly when sexual dimorphism in signals is low, as in cases in which call repertoire is identical but acoustic properties differ. In Darwin’s frog ( Rhin...
Background. In animal reproductive contexts, calling behaviour is mostly performed by males but in species in which females call, it is not known how vocal interaction occurs between sexes, particularly when sexual dimorphism in signals is low, as in cases in which call repertoire is identical but acoustic properties differ. In Darwin’s frog ( Rhin...
Evoked vocal responses of male frogs Batrachyla taeniata to synthetic advertisement calls and variants having different temporal features altered parametrically were studied to identify patterns of evoked vocal responses (EVRs) that conform with static and dynamic modes of variation and with corresponding selective processes affected by different t...
Stridulation is a type of communication in which a mechanical signal is emitted by the friction of two rigid structures. Stridulation is present in kissing bugs (Reduviidae: Triatominae), where the friction of the proboscis against the prosternal stridulatory sulcus generates a vibroacoustic signal. In the present study, we combine microscopy techn...
Bergmann's rule states that endothermic species from cool areas tend to have larger body sizes than those from warm areas. Allen's rule maintains that endothermic species from cool environments should have shorter extremities than their counterparts from warm areas. Although a number of studies have supported both rules, the validity of these trend...
Animal communication occurs in environments that affect the properties of signals as they propagate from senders to receivers. We studied the geographic variation of the advertisement calls of male Pleurodema thaul individuals from eight localities in Chile. Furthermore, by means of signal propagation experiments, we tested the hypothesis that loca...
The microhabitat preferences of prey animals can modulate how they perceive predation risk, and therefore, their antipredator behaviour. We tested under standardized conditions how microhabitat preferences of two Liolaemus lizards affected their responses when confronted with two types of ambush predators (raptor vs. snake), under two levels of pre...
Animals adopt different strategies to communicate by means of sound in noisy environments such that some species increase, while others decrease their vocal activity in the presence of interference. Anuran amphibians from diverse latitudes exhibit both kinds of responses. Recent studies have shown that males of Batrachyla taeniata and Batrachyla an...
Arginine vasotocin (AVT) is the non-mammalian homolog of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and, like vasopressin, serves as an important modulator of social behavior in addition to its peripheral functions related to osmoregulation, reproductive physiology, and stress hormone release. In amphibians and reptiles, the neuroanatomical organization of brain A...
Degradation phenomena affecting animal acoustic signals may provide cues to assess the distance of emitters. Recognition of degraded signals has been extensively demonstrated in birds, and recently studies have also reported detection of degraded patterns in anurans that call at or above ground level. In the current study we explore the vocal respo...
Animals relying on acoustic signals for communication must cope with the constraints imposed by the environment for sound propagation. A resource to improve signal broadcast is the use of structures that favor the emission or the reception of sounds. We conducted playback experiments to assess the effect of the burrows occupied by the frogs Eupsoph...
Animals obtain information about their social environment by means of communication signals, which provide relevant subtle cues for individual recognition. An important requisite for this process is the existence of larger between- than within-emitter signal variation. Acoustic signals are complex traits susceptible of variation in their spectral a...
The acoustic adaptation hypothesis predicts that sound communication signals have an optimal relationship with animals' native environments. However, species sharing a habitat produce signals stratified in the spectral domain and exhibit different temporal patterns resulting in acoustic niche partitioning. The diversity generated is likely to affec...
Sexual selection is one of the main evolutionary forces that drive signal evolution. In previous studies, we have found out that males of Pleurodema thaul, a frog with an extensive latitudinal distribution in Chile, emits advertisement calls that show remarkable variation among populations. In addition, this variation is related to intense inter-ma...
The auditory sensitivity in three species of the anuran genus Alytes (Alytidae) was examined to determine patterns of intra- and interspecific variation, relating these measurements to behavioural preferences measured in previous studies and to the adaptive and evolutionary significance of this sensory function. The audiograms obtained with multi-u...
Interfering sounds from biotic and abiotic origins are likely to shape the responsiveness of sound communicating animals. Among these sources of interference, interactions among acoustically active species have been studied to quite a limited extent. The vocal responses of 20 male frogs Batrachyla leptopus from the temperate austral forest in Chile...
The efficiency of acoustic communication depends on the power generated by the sound source, the attributes of the environment across which signals propagate, the environmental noise and the sensitivity of the intended receivers. Eupsophus emiliopugini, an anuran from the temperate austral forest communicates by means of an advertisement call of mo...
Divergence of acoustic signals in a geographic scale results from diverse evolutionary forces acting in parallel and affecting directly inter-male vocal interactions among disjunct populations. Pleurodema thaul is a frog having an extensive latitudinal distribution in Chile along which males' advertisement calls exhibit an important variation. Usin...
The matched filter hypothesis proposes that the tuning of females' auditory sensitivity matches the spectral energy distribution of males' signals. Such correspondence is expected to arise over evolutionary time, as it promotes conspecific information transfer and reduces interference from other sound sources. Our main objective was to determine th...
Invasive species are a leading cause of the current biodiversity decline, and hence examining the major traits favouring invasion is a key and long-standing goal of invasion biology. Despite the prominent role of the advertisement calls in sexual selection and reproduction, very little attention has been paid to the features of acoustic communicati...
The study of intraspecific variation of acoustic signals and its relationship with genetic divergence is important for understanding the origin of divergence in communication systems. We studied geographical variation in the acoustic structure of advertisement calls from five populations of the four-eyed frog, Pleurodema thaul, and its relationship...
Vocal learning and other experience-dependent processes play a crucial role in the emergence
of complex social systems. Among birds, Songbirds (Order Passeriformes) have been the
canonical model for the study of vocal learning. Parrots (Order Psittaciformes) have received
surprisingly less attention, despite the fact that they are versatile vocal l...
The study of acoustic communication in lizards has been restricted and mainly focused on Gekkota. The rest of the lizards, Unidentata, are generally considered voiceless, although there are sparse reports on vocal sound production in members of different families. We analyzed the spectro-temporal characteristics of the distress calls emitted by the...
The efficiency of acoustic communication depends on the power generated by the sound source, the quality of the environment across which signals propagate, the environmental noise and the sensitivity of the intended receivers. Eupsophus calcaratus, an anuran from the temperate austral forest, communicates by means of an advertisement call of weak i...
Animals adopt different strategies to communicate by means of sound in noisy environments. Some animals increase, while others decrease, their vocal activity in the presence of interference. Anuran amphibians from diverse latitudes exhibit both kinds of responses. Recent studies have shown that males of Batrachyla taeniata and Batrachyla antartandi...
Propagation patterns of animal acoustic signals provide insights into the evolution of signal design to convey signaler's information to potential recipients. However, propagation properties of vertebrate calls have been rarely studied using natural calls from individuals; instead playback calls broadcast through loudspeakers have been used extensi...
Acoustic communication represents a cornerstone for social behavior in most vertebrate social species. In this domain, vocal learning fosters complex communicative systems, and has been consolidated as a central topic of neuroethological research. Passerine birds, in which adult male song is learned from a social tutor during early stages of develo...
Propagation patterns of animal acoustic signals and degradation affecting these sounds provide insights into the evolution and adaptation of signal design to convey signaler's information to potential recipients. Previous studies using pre-recorded playback calls broadcast through loudspeakers have shown that burrowing frogs Eupsophus from the temp...
Animals are communicating by sound face interference from biotic and abiotic sources. Contrasting strategies have been reported in different taxa in the presence of prolonged noises, but in particular, interactions among acoustically active species have been studied to a very limited extent. In addition, reactions of a single species to interferenc...
Species of the spinulosus group of Bufo, B. chilensis, B. atacamensis, and B. spinulosus, do not emit a mating call during their reproductive activity. A release call is emitted by clasped males and the acoustic component of this signal produces rejection of the clasping male. Temporal and spectral analysis shows that these signals are species spec...
Animals using sound communication employ different strategies to overcome interferences from biotic and abiotic sources. However, interactions among acoustically active species have been studied to a very limited extent. The evoked vocal responses of 20 male frogs Batrachyla taeniata from the temperate austral forest in Chile were tested with consp...
The advertisment calls of the recently described frog Eupsophus queulensis (Cycloramphidae) are analyzed, based on recordings of seven males. Eupsophus queulensis emits an advertisment call consisting of a harmonic-rich frequency modulated note, with dominant second and third harmonics. The temporal parameters of the calls had large intra- and inte...
Sound stimulates the tympanic membrane (TM) of anuran amphibians through multiple, poorly understood pathways. It is conceivable that interactions between the internal and external inputs to the TM contribute to the nonlinear effects that noise is known to produce at higher levels of the auditory pathway. To explore this issue, we conducted measure...
The voice as a representation of the psychic world of patients in psychotherapeutic interventions has not been studied thoroughly. To explore speech prosody in relation to the emotional content of words, voices recorded during a semi-structured interview were analyzed. The subjects had been classified according to their childhood emotional experien...
Es te capítulo resume el conocimiento existente a la fecha respecto a los aspectos básicos de la ecofisiología de herpetozoos residentes de Chile. Dado que el mayor desarrollo teórico y experimental de la ecofisiología de herpetozoos es en reptiles, el capítulo parte con la discusión de los estudios concernientes a termorregulación, energética y he...
Thresholds for evoked vocal responses and thresholds of multiunit midbrain auditory responses to pure tones and synthetic calls were investigated in males of Pleurodema thaul, as behavioral thresholds well above auditory sensitivity have been reported for other anurans. Thresholds for evoked vocal responses to synthetic advertisement calls played b...
The voice as a representation of the psychic world of patients in psychotherapeutic interventions has not been studied thoroughly. To explore speech prosody in relation to the emotional content of words, voices recorded during a semi-structured interview were analyzed. The subjects had been classified according to their childhood emotional experien...
Lizards from different families use acoustic signals in different communicative contexts. This study characterizes the hissing sounds emitted by individuals of Pristidactylus volcanensis (Polychrotidae) of both sexes, when confronted with a threatening stimulus. These hissing sounds have broadband spectra centered at 2.4–3.6 kHz throughout most of...
Animals that communicate by means of acoustic signals show diverse strategies in the presence of noise interference. Penna et al. (2005, Animal Behaviour, 70, 639e651) found that the leptodactylid frog Eupsophus calcaratus from the temperate austral forest increases its vocal output in the presence of natural noises and a band-pass noise overlappin...
Localization of a sound source is important for animals in mating contexts: females generally orient towards signalling males, and males can estimate the position and quality of potential rivals. In anurans, the effect of sound direction on evoked vocal responses has been studied in males of Rana catesbeiana, which alter their vocal responses depen...
In previous studies, calling sites of two species of burrowing frogs Eupsophus in southern Chile have been shown to amplify conspecific vocalizations generated externally, thus providing a means to enhance the reception of neighbour's vocalizations in breeding aggregations. In the current study the amplification of vocalizations of Eusophus roseus...
En muchas especies de vertebrados e invertebrados los machos producen un rango de señales acústicas cuyas funciones son: atracción de hembras, defensa de territorios y/o el rechazo de otros machos, tanto a nivel interespecífico como intraespecífico. En anfibios anuros, la emisión de señales de comunicación auditiva juega un rol fundamental en la co...
This study compares the efficiency of transmission of the advertisement calls of two species of midwife toads, Alytes cisternasii and A. obstetricans, in both native and non-native habitats in the Iberian Peninsula. Recorded calls of both species and pure tones were broadcast at ten sites native to either the relatively small A. cisternasii or the...
The variability of the advertisement calls of males from two Chilean populations of the leptodactylid frogs, Eupsophus calcaratus and E. roseus was studied and their calling behaviour further defined. Characteristic audio spectrograms and oscillograms for each species are presented. The spectral and temporal features of the calls were analysed, and...
The variability of the advertisement calls of males from two Chilean populations of the leptodactylid frogs, Eupsophus calcaratus and E. roseus was studied and their calling behaviour further defined. Characteristic audio spectrograms and oscillograms for each species are presented. The spectral and temporal features of the calls were analysed, and...
Animals using sound communication have developed different strategies to overcome noise interference, but studies have rarely examined animals behaving in their natural environments. Males of the leptodactylid frog Eupsophus calcaratus exposed to natural noises of wind, rain, creek and sea surf and to a band-pass noise encompassing the main spectra...
Thresholds for evoked advertisement calling for 18 males were measured in a temperate forest in southern Chile, in order to relate this behavior to the intensities of neighbors' calls that males of this species encounter in nature. Stimuli used were bouts of natural single-note advertisement calls played back at increasing intensity in steps of 6–1...
A variety of animals that communicate by sound emit signals from sites favoring their propagation, thereby increasing the range over which these sounds convey information. A different significance of calling sites has been reported for burrowing frogs Eupsophus emiliopugini from southern Chile: the cavities from which these frogs vocalize amplify c...
Studies of anuran vocal behavior in the South American temperate forest may represent the southernmost influence of Robert Capranicas comparative approach to sound communication. Vocalizations of leptodactylid frogs in this region exhibit patterns of propagation characteristic for different microhabitats. Calls containing frequencies above about 1...
We investigated the response selectivities of single auditory neurons in the torus semicircularis of Batrachyla antartandica (a leptodactylid from southern Chile) to synthetic stimuli having diverse temporal structures. The advertisement call for this species is characterized by a long sequence of brief sound pulses having a dominant frequency of a...
Variation of the amplification effect of burrows of the leptodactylid frog Eupsophus emiliopugini on conspecific calls generated externally was investigated. Advertisement calls broadcast through a loudspeaker placed in
the vicinity of a burrow were monitored with small microphones positioned inside and outside the cavity. For 150 presentations
of...
Sound pressure levels and the spectral structure of the advertisement calls of five species of frogs from the South American
temperate austral forest were analyzed. Males of Eupsophus emiliopugini, Batrachyla antartandica and B. leptopus call from the ground in bogs, while males of Hylorina sylvatica and Pleurodema thaul call from the water surface...
The advertisement call of the leptodactylid frogBatrachyla antartandicafrom southern Chile consists of a train of brief percussive tone pulses whose energy is centred at about 2 kHz. To gain an understanding of the temporal features that are essential for call recognition, playback experiments were conducted with 11 males. Subjects were presented w...
The leptodactylid frogs Batrachyla taeniata, B. antartandica and B. leptopus in southern Chile produce advertisement calls composed of short pulses, repeated in species-specific patterns. Batrachyla leptopus has a call with a complex structure relative to the other species, with pulses grouped in notes. Male frogs were presented with synthetic imit...
Relationships between testosterone plasma levels and evoked vocal responses of males of the leptodactylid frog Batrachyla taeniata from southern Chile were studied. Evoked vocal responses were elicited in the field with playbacks of a synthetic imitation of the conspecific advertisement call and variants of this signal for which different temporal...