Simultaneous spike-time locking to multiple frequencies

Sinz, Fabian H.; Sachgau, Carolin; Henninger, Jörg; Benda, Jan; Grewe, Jan

doi:10.1101/149906

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 57 publications

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“…During interactions of two electric fish, the difference between the two EOD frequencies is the relevant frequency for the tuning of P-type electroreceptor afferents (Bastian, 1981;Walz et al, 2014). P-type afferents thus encode relative and not absolute EOD frequency in their firing rate (but see Sinz et al, 2017). The question arises whether allospecific EOD frequencies are encoded by P-type afferents or whether electric fish have species-specific frequency channels?…”

Section: Eod Interactions Across Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Henninger¹,

Krahe

Sinz

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Field studies on freely behaving animals commonly require tagging and often are focused on single species. Weakly electric fish generate a species-and individual-specific electric organ discharge (EOD) and therefore provide a unique opportunity for individual tracking without tagging. We here present and test tracking algorithms based on recordings with submerged electrode arrays. Harmonic structures extracted from power spectra provide fish identity. Localization of fish based on weighted averages of their EOD amplitudes is found to be more robust than fitting a dipole model. We apply these techniques to monitor a community of three species, Apteronotus rostratus, Eigenmannia humboldtii, and Sternopygus dariensis, in their natural habitat in Darién, Panamá. We found consistent upstream movements after sunset followed by downstream movements in the second half of the night. Extrapolations of these movements and estimates of fish density obtained from additional transect data suggest that some fish cover at least several hundreds of meters of the stream per night. Most fish, including Eigenmannia, were traversing the electrode array solitarily. From in-situ measurements of the decay of the EOD amplitude with distance of individual animals we estimated that fish can detect conspecifics at distances of up to 2 m. Our recordings also emphasize the complexity of natural electrosensory scenes resulting from the interactions of the EODs of different species. Electrode arrays thus provide an unprecedented window into the so-far hidden nocturnal activities of multispecies communities of weakly electric fish at an unmatched level of detail. Summary statementDetailed movement patterns and complex electrosensory scenes of three species of weakly electric fish were tracked without tagging using a submerged electrode array in a small Neotropical stream.Keywords animal behavior | tracking | weakly electric fish | localization | electrosensory scenes | movements | nocturnal

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Section: Eod Interactions Across Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Henninger¹,

Krahe

Sinz

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Henninger

Krahe

Sinz

et al. 2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Field studies on freely behaving animals commonly require tagging and often are focused on single species. Weakly electric fish generate a species-and individual-specific electric organ discharge (EOD) and therefore provide a unique opportunity for individual tracking without tagging. Here, we present and test tracking algorithms based on recordings with submerged electrode arrays. Harmonic structures extracted from power spectra provide fish identity. Localization of fish based on weighted averages of their EOD amplitudes is found to be more robust than fitting a dipole model. We apply these techniques to monitor a community of three species, Apteronotus rostratus, Eigenmannia humboldtii and Sternopygus dariensis, in their natural habitat in Darień, Panama. We found consistent upstream movements after sunset followed by downstream movements in the second half of the night. Extrapolations of these movements and estimates of fish density obtained from additional transect data suggest that some fish cover at least several hundreds of meters of the stream per night. Most fish, including E. humboldtii, were traversing the electrode array solitarily. From in situ measurements of the decay of the EOD amplitude with distance of individual animals, we estimated that fish can detect conspecifics at distances of up to 2 m. Our recordings also emphasize the complexity of natural electrosensory scenes resulting from the interactions of the EODs of different species. Electrode arrays thus provide an unprecedented window into the so-far hidden nocturnal activities of multispecies communities of weakly electric fish at an unmatched level of detail.

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Statistics of Natural Communication Signals Observed in the Wild Identify Important Yet Neglected Stimulus Regimes in Weakly Electric Fish

et al. 2018

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Sensory systems evolve in the ecological niches that each species is occupying. Accordingly, encoding of natural stimuli by sensory neurons is expected to be adapted to the statistics of these stimuli. For a direct quantification of sensory scenes, we tracked natural communication behavior of male and female weakly electric fish, , in their Neotropical rainforest habitat with high spatiotemporal resolution over several days. In the context of courtship, we observed large quantities of electrocommunication signals. Echo responses, acknowledgment signals, and their synchronizing role in spawning demonstrated the behavioral relevance of these signals. In both courtship and aggressive contexts, we observed robust behavioral responses in stimulus regimes that have so far been neglected in electrophysiological studies of this well characterized sensory system and that are well beyond the range of known best frequency and amplitude tuning of the electroreceptor afferents' firing rate modulation. Our results emphasize the importance of quantifying sensory scenes derived from freely behaving animals in their natural habitats for understanding the function and evolution of neural systems. The processing mechanisms of sensory systems have evolved in the context of the natural lives of organisms. To understand the functioning of sensory systems therefore requires probing them in the stimulus regimes in which they evolved. We took advantage of the continuously generated electric fields of weakly electric fish to explore electrosensory stimulus statistics in their natural Neotropical habitat. Unexpectedly, many of the electrocommunication signals recorded during courtship, spawning, and aggression had much smaller amplitudes or higher frequencies than stimuli used so far in neurophysiological characterizations of the electrosensory system. Our results demonstrate that quantifying sensory scenes derived from freely behaving animals in their natural habitats is essential to avoid biases in the choice of stimuli used to probe brain function.

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Simultaneous spike-time locking to multiple frequencies

Cited by 3 publications

References 57 publications

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Tracking activity patterns of a multispecies community of gymnotiform weakly electric fish in their neotropical habitat without tagging

Statistics of Natural Communication Signals Observed in the Wild Identify Important Yet Neglected Stimulus Regimes in Weakly Electric Fish

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