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| Author(s): |
Vitor Hugo Rodrigues
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) |
| Defense date: | 2009-03-04 |
| Examining board members: |
José Guilherme de Souza Chaui Mattos Berlinck;
Luiz Henrique Alves Monteiro;
Silvia Cristina Ribeiro de Souza
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| Advisor: | José Guilherme de Souza Chaui Mattos Berlinck |
| Abstract | |
Biological systems interact with their environment in many forms. The way these interactions occur can be assigned, ultimately, as the transmission of messages. Transmission of messages by sound waves, in animals, is a well studied subject because they are an important way of communication used by many groups. The objective of the present work is to verify whether the central nervous system presents entropy generation minimization in processing communicating sound signals. The approach employed is derived from Shannons Information Theory. The temporal organization of the time intervals between successive vocalizations was the subject of analysis. Recordings of three anuran species, Scinax perpusillus, Hypsiboas faber and Hypsiboas pardalis were used. Non-linear analyses were performed by tools as Volumetric Approximated Entropy, Power Spectrum Analysis and Poincaré Plot in order to address the variability of the signals emitted by a single animal, as well as the signals exchanged among individuals of the same species. The time-series data analyzed present highly variability and can be adequately described by Lévys distributions. The time-series data of the interactions among individuals also present high variability, however such a variability is not as high as the variability of single individuals. The results suggest that the neural system works in a way that reduces the probability of vocalizations overlapping. The reduction in variability of the interactions among individuals is, perhaps, linked to a minimization of entropy generation in the communication process of these animals. (AU) | |