在两篇《自然》（Nature）论文报道“雄凹耳蛙有超声通讯能力”和“雌凹耳蛙叫声诱发雄蛙非凡趋声行为”之后，6月14日，《自然—通讯》（Nature Communications）发表了题为“超声蛙听觉频率灵敏度显示非同寻常的性别差异”一文，特别报道了中科院生物物理研究所“雌蛙对超声没有反应”这项重要成果。该文的第一作者和通讯作者为生物物理所沈钧贤研究员。研究表明，作为通讯方式之一，仅雄凹耳蛙进化了超声听觉。
声通讯在蛙繁殖行为中起着重要作用。已证实雄凹耳蛙有超声通讯能力，但还不清楚雌蛙是否有超声通讯。生物物理所沈钧贤研究员及同事进行声学、电生理学及激光测振实验发现，将雄凹耳蛙求偶声回放给雌蛙，记录到雌蛙对正常范围叫声的反应（趋声，有时还发出雌蛙特有的高频短声），但对超声范围(频率高于20千赫)的求偶声没有反应。
雌蛙中脑听觉电生理研究进一步证实：在超声范围内观测不到雌蛙有听觉反应。激光多普勒测振实验也提示，雌蛙鼓膜对超声不敏感。他们认为，凹耳蛙听觉存在显著的性别差异：雄蛙进化了超声听觉，而雌蛙听不见超声。在脊椎动物中，凹耳蛙是唯一已知听觉性别差异如此巨大的物种。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Nature Communications DOI：10.1038/ncomms1339
Ultrasonic frogs show extraordinary sex differences in auditory frequency sensitivity
Jun-Xian Shen; Zhi-Min Xu; Zu-Lin Yu; Shuai Wang; De-Zhi Zheng; Shang-Chun Fan
Acoustic communication has an important role in the reproductive behaviour of anurans. Although males of the concave-eared frog (Odorrana tormota) have shown an ultrasonic communication capacity adapted to the intense, predominately low-frequency ambient noise from local streams, whether the females communicate with ultrasound remains unclear. Here we present evidence that females exhibit no ultrasonic sensitivity. Acoustic playback experiments show that the calls from male evoke phonotaxis and vocal responses from gravid females, whereas the ultrasonic components (frequencies above 20 kHz) of the calls do not elicit any phonotaxis or vocalization in the females. Electrophysiological recordings from the auditory midbrain reveal an upper frequency limit at 16 kHz in females. Laser Doppler vibrometer measurements show that the velocity amplitude of the tympanic membranes peaks at 5 kHz in females and at ~7 kHz in males. The auditory sex differences in O. tormota imply that ultrasonic hearing has evolved only in male anurans.
