This book reviews the growing literature that is consistent with the hypothesis that hormones can regulate auditory physiology and perception across a broad range of animal taxa, including humans. Understanding how hormones modulate auditory function has far reaching implications for advancing our knowledge in the basic biomedical sciences and in understanding the evolution of acoustic communication systems. A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how hormones modulate neural circuits and behavior. For example, steroids such as estrogens and androgens are well-known regulators of vocal motor behaviors used during social acoustic communication. Recent studies have shown that these same hormones can also greatly influence the reception of social acoustic signals, leading to the more efficient exchange of acoustic information.

Fish Hearing and Bioacoustics is an anthology of review papers that were presented at a special symposium to honor Arthur Popper and Richard Fay on May 25th 2013 at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, FL. The research presentations at this conference spanned the range of disciplines covered by Fay and Popper during their long and productive careers. The book includes the following thematic areas for the papers in this special volume: morphology and anatomy of the inner ear and lateral line systems; physiology of inner ear, lateral line, and central auditory systems; acoustically mediated behavior, including communication and sound localization; and environmental influences on fish hearing and bioacoustics, including anthropogenic effects of noise on fishes. Each chapter reviews and summarizes the past studies of particular area that will lead the reader up to the current work presented at the symposium. In addition, each chapters includes a perspective of how Arthur Popper and Richard Fay have influenced their particular area of fish bio acoustic research. Each manuscript also includes a hypotheses for future studies. These hypotheses will provide a springboard for future work in each field.

The concept of the “Soundscapes� includes all of the sounds in one’s environment and focuses not only on the sounds itself. Instead, it focuses on the interrelationships between person and activity and place, both in space and time. Soundscape also include influences on the acoustic environment through auditory sensation, its interpretation, and the responses to the acoustic environment in context. The conceptual framework of Soundscape describes the “process of perceiving or experiencing and/or understanding an acoustic environment, highlighting general concepts and their relationships: context, sound sources, acoustic environment, auditory sensation, interpretation of auditory sensation, responses, and outcomes� (International Organization for Standardization, ISO 12913-1:2014 Acoustics Soundscape Part Definition and Conceptual Framework, ISO, Geneva, 2014). With soundscape, one achieves a deeper understanding of acoustic environment and its effects on people.  The ISO standard 12931-1 on soundscape provides an important, and rigorous, distinction in the use of “Soundscape.� But, it is recognizable that some individuals, particularly planners, designers, lay persons, and even those primarily interested in management of the acoustic environment through environmental noise control, will find it convenient to use “Soundscape� as a synonym for the physical acoustic environment. When it comes to noise management and urban planning, soundscape research has the potential to promote healthy urban environments by sharing and incorporating the significant knowledge of all concerned parties. Understandably, this shows that the communication with regard to noise management has to be forced to guarantee that the specifics of Soundscapes (i.e., the relevance of perception) are seriously considered alongside the whole. This book will bridge the gap between soundscape theory and practice and therefore it   will be different from our earlier publications as “Soundscape and the built environment� (ed. by J. Kang and B. Schulte-Fortkamp CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, Fl  2016) and also from the respective Special Issues on Soundscapes  in 2012 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (ed. by B. Schulte-Fortkamp and J. Kang), and also the Special Issue in Acta Acustica 2006 *(ed. by B. Schulte-Fortkamp and D. Dubois), and the E-book on soundscape  This volume will be driven by the difficult process of standardization of Soundscape and its evaluation procedures. The main goal of the proposed volume is to present and review the developments in Soundscape, reflecting the standardization procedure and the diverse inputs.   the needs in management and planning in urban acoustic environments, the book will also focus on the difficulties, as well as the solutions, in interdisciplinary grounded communication, that is, on the one hand, related to science, but on the other to application, that needs guidance.

A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how the nervous system extracts biologically relevant information from the natural environment and how it uses that information to guide and coordinate behavior necessary for reproduction and survival. The electrosensory systems of weakly electric teleost fishes and those of nonteleost fishes are attractive systems for addressing basic questions about neuronal information processing and its relationship to natural behavior. Comparative approaches in these fishes have led to the identification of fundamental mechanisms that have shaped the adaptive evolution of sensory systems across animal taxa. Understanding how sensory systems encode and integrate information about the natural world has far reaching implications for advancing our knowledge in the basic biomedical sciences and in understanding how the nervous system has evolved to control behavior. The primary goal of this book is to provide a comparative perspective on the topic of electroreception and review some of the fundamental insights gained from studies of electrosensory and electromotor systems. Although totally independent, this book follows from volume 21 in the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research series, Electroreception (Bullock, T. H., Hopkins, C. D., Popper, A. N., and Fay, R. R., 2005, Springer-Verlag, New York).

This book reviews the growing literature that is consistent with the hypothesis that hormones can regulate auditory physiology and perception across a broad range of animal taxa, including humans. Understanding how hormones modulate auditory function has far reaching implications for advancing our knowledge in the basic biomedical sciences and in understanding the evolution of acoustic communication systems. A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how hormones modulate neural circuits and behavior. For example, steroids such as estrogens and androgens are well-known regulators of vocal motor behaviors used during social acoustic communication. Recent studies have shown that these same hormones can also greatly influence the reception of social acoustic signals, leading to the more efficient exchange of acoustic information.

Fish Hearing and Bioacoustics is an anthology of review papers that were presented at a special symposium to honor Arthur Popper and Richard Fay on May 25th 2013 at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, FL. The research presentations at this conference spanned the range of disciplines covered by Fay and Popper during their long and productive careers. The book includes the following thematic areas for the papers in this special volume: morphology and anatomy of the inner ear and lateral line systems; physiology of inner ear, lateral line, and central auditory systems; acoustically mediated behavior, including communication and sound localization; and environmental influences on fish hearing and bioacoustics, including anthropogenic effects of noise on fishes. Each chapter reviews and summarizes the past studies of particular area that will lead the reader up to the current work presented at the symposium. In addition, each chapters includes a perspective of how Arthur Popper and Richard Fay have influenced their particular area of fish bio acoustic research. Each manuscript also includes a hypotheses for future studies. These hypotheses will provide a springboard for future work in each field.