Plasticity of the electric organ discharge waveform of male Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus . II. Social effects

2001 ◽  
Vol 187 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl R. Franchina ◽  
Vielka L. Salazar ◽  
Claude-Henry Volmar ◽  
Philip K. Stoddard
Keyword(s):  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Brachyhypopomus Pinnicaudatus

The Electric Organ Discharge of Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus

1998 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.A. Caputi ◽  
A.C. Silva ◽  
O. Macadar
Keyword(s):  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Brachyhypopomus Pinnicaudatus

scholarly journals The third form electric organ discharge of electric eels

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Xu ◽  
Xiang Cui ◽  
Huiyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
High Voltage ◽  
Low Voltage ◽  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
The Third ◽  
Electric Organs ◽  
Electric Eel ◽  
New Finding ◽  
Discharge Behavior ◽  
Unique Species

AbstractThe electric eel is a unique species that has evolved three electric organs. Since the 1950s, electric eels have generally been assumed to use these three organs to generate two forms of electric organ discharge (EOD): high-voltage EOD for predation and defense and low-voltage EOD for electrolocation and communication. However, why electric eels evolved three electric organs to generate two forms of EOD and how these three organs work together to generate these two forms of EOD have not been clear until now. Here, we present the third form of independent EOD of electric eels: middle-voltage EOD. We suggest that every form of EOD is generated by one electric organ independently and reveal the typical discharge order of the three electric organs. We also discuss hybrid EODs, which are combinations of these three independent EODs. This new finding indicates that the electric eel discharge behavior and physiology and the evolutionary purpose of the three electric organs are more complex than previously assumed. The purpose of the middle-voltage EOD still requires clarification.

scholarly journals A sodium-activated potassium channel supports high-frequency firing and reduces energetic costs during rapid modulations of action potential amplitude

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (7) ◽  
pp. 1713-1723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Markham ◽  
Leonard K. Kaczmarek ◽  
Harold H. Zakon
Keyword(s):  
Action Potential ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Electric Fish ◽  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Weakly Electric Fish ◽  
Energetic Costs ◽  
Dynamic Regulation ◽  
Voltage Gated

We investigated the ionic mechanisms that allow dynamic regulation of action potential (AP) amplitude as a means of regulating energetic costs of AP signaling. Weakly electric fish generate an electric organ discharge (EOD) by summing the APs of their electric organ cells (electrocytes). Some electric fish increase AP amplitude during active periods or social interactions and decrease AP amplitude when inactive, regulated by melanocortin peptide hormones. This modulates signal amplitude and conserves energy. The gymnotiform Eigenmannia virescens generates EODs at frequencies that can exceed 500 Hz, which is energetically challenging. We examined how E. virescens meets that challenge. E. virescens electrocytes exhibit a voltage-gated Na+current ( INa) with extremely rapid recovery from inactivation (τrecov= 0.3 ms) allowing complete recovery of Na+current between APs even in fish with the highest EOD frequencies. Electrocytes also possess an inwardly rectifying K+current and a Na+-activated K+current ( IKNa), the latter not yet identified in any gymnotiform species. In vitro application of melanocortins increases electrocyte AP amplitude and the magnitudes of all three currents, but increased IKNais a function of enhanced Na+influx. Numerical simulations suggest that changing INamagnitude produces corresponding changes in AP amplitude and that KNachannels increase AP energy efficiency (10–30% less Na+influx/AP) over model cells with only voltage-gated K+channels. These findings suggest the possibility that E. virescens reduces the energetic demands of high-frequency APs through rapidly recovering Na+channels and the novel use of KNachannels to maximize AP amplitude at a given Na+conductance.

Waveform generation of the electric organ discharge inGymnotus carapo

1989 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Macadar ◽  
D. Lorenzo ◽  
J. C. Velluti
Keyword(s):  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Waveform Generation

Sensory coding and corollary discharge effects in mormyrid electric fish

1989 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Electric Fish ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Corollary Discharge ◽  
Weakly Electric Fish ◽  
Central Projection ◽  
Sensory Coding

Weakly electric fish use their electrosensory systems for electrocommunication, active electrolocation and low-frequency passive electrolocation. In electric fish of the family Mormyridae, these three purposes are mediated by separate classes of electroreceptors: electrocommunication by Knollenorgan electroreceptors, active electrolocation by Mormyromast electroreceptors and low-frequency passive electrolocation by ampullary electroreceptors. The primary afferent fibres from each class of electroreceptors terminate in a separate central region. Thus, the mormyrid electrosensory system has three anatomically and functionally distinct subsystems. This review describes the sensory coding and initial processing in each of the three subsystems, with an emphasis on the Knollenorgan and Mormyromast subsystems. The Knollenorgan subsystem is specialized for the measurement of temporal information but appears to ignore both intensity and spatial information. In contrast, the Mormyromast subsystem is specialized for the measurement of both intensity and spatial information. The morphological and physiological characteristics of the primary afferents and their central projection regions are quite different for the two subsystems and reflect the type of information which the subsystems preserve. This review also describes the electric organ corollary discharge (EOCD) effects which are present in the central projection regions of each of the three electrosensory subsystems. These EOCD effects are driven by the motor command that drives the electric organ to discharge. The EOCD effects are different in each of the three subsystems and these differences reflect differences in both the pattern and significance of the sensory information that is evoked by the fish's own electric organ discharge. Some of the EOCD effects are invariant, whereas others are plastic and depend on previous afferent input. The mormyrid work is placed within two general contexts: (a) the measurement of time and intensity in sensory systems, and (b) the various roles of motor command (efferent) signals and self-induced sensory (reafferent) signals in sensorimotor systems.

The electric image in weakly electric fish: perception of objects of complex impedance

2000 ◽  
Vol 203 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Budelli ◽  
A.A. Caputi
Keyword(s):  
Linear Function ◽  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Amplitude Ratio ◽  
Complex Impedance ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Weakly Electric Fish ◽  
Peak Amplitude ◽  
Electrical Characteristics ◽  
Electric Image ◽  
Weakly Electric

Weakly electric fish explore the environment using electrolocation. They produce an electric field that is detected by cutaneous electroreceptors; external objects distort the field, thus generating an electric image. The electric image of objects of complex impedance was investigated using a realistic model, which was able to reproduce previous experimental data. The transcutaneous voltage in the presence of an elementary object is modulated in amplitude and waveform on the skin. Amplitude modulation (measured as the relative change in the local peak-to-peak amplitude) consists of a ‘Mexican hat’ profile whose maximum relative slope depends on the distance of the fish from the object. Waveform modulation depends on both the distance and the electrical characteristics of the object. Changes in waveform are indicated by the amplitude ratio of the larger positive and negative phases of the local electric organ discharge on the skin. Using the peak-to-peak amplitude and the positive-to-negative amplitude ratio of this discharge, a perceptual space can be defined and correlated with the capacitance and resistance of the object. When the object is moved away, the perceptual space is reduced but keeps the same proportions (homothetically): for a given object, the positive-to-negative amplitude ratio is a linear function of the peak-to-peak amplitude. This linear function depends on the electrical characteristics of the object. However, there are ‘families’ of objects with different electrical characteristics that produce changes in the parameters of the local electric organ discharge that are related by the same linear function. We propose that these functions code the perceptual properties of an object related to its impedance.

Mormyromast electroreceptor organs and their afferent fibers in mormyrid fish. II. Intra-axonal recordings show initial stages of central processing

1990 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Line ◽  
Electric Organ Discharge ◽  
Electric Organ ◽  
Direct Stimulation ◽  
Postsynaptic Potentials ◽  
Central Processing ◽  
Refractory Periods ◽  
Synaptic Potentials ◽  
Afferent Fibers ◽  
Stimulation Of

1. Physiologically and morphologically identified primary afferent fibers from mormyromast electroreceptor organs were recorded intracellularly. The fiber recordings were made from the nerve root of the posterior lateral line nerve, where the fibers enter the brain, and from the electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL), near the central terminals of the fibers. 2. The intracellular recordings reveal a variety of potentials, synaptic and nonsynaptic, in addition to the large orthodromic action potentials from the periphery. The goal of the present study was to describe and interpret these various potentials in mormyromast afferent fibers as a first step in understanding the processing of electrosensory information in ELL. 3. Three types of synaptic potentials were recorded inside mormyromast afferent fibers: 1) electric organ corollary discharge (EOCD) excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), driven by the motor command that elicits the electric organ discharge (EOD); 2) EPSPs evoked by electrosensory stimulation of electroreceptors in the skin near the electroreceptor from which the recorded fiber originates or by direct stimulation of an electrosensory nerve; and 3) inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs) evoked by electrosensory stimulation of more distant electroreceptors. These synaptic potentials can be attributed to synaptic input to postsynaptic cells in ELL that is observed inside the afferent fibers because of electrical synapses between the fibers and the postsynaptic cells. 4. The peripherally evoked EPSPs could frequently be shown to be unitary. The unitary EPSPs were identical to the orthodromic spikes in originating from a single electroreceptor, in threshold, and in latency shift with increasing stimulus intensity. These similarities suggest that the unitary EPSPs are electrotonic EPSPs caused by impulses in other mormyromast afferent fibers that terminate on some of the same postsynaptic cells as the recorded fiber. The peripherally evoked IPSPs had a longer latency than the EPSPs or orthodromic spikes, requiring the presence of an inhibitory interneuron. 5. The peripherally evoked EPSPs, both unitary and nonunitary, show absolute refractory periods of 3-8 ms, followed by relative refractory periods of approximately 8 ms, when tested with two identical stimuli to a nerve. These refractory periods are interpreted as because of refractoriness in the fine preterminal branches of the axonal arbor. 6. A depolarizing afterpotential is commonly associated with the orthodromic spike and probably results from the successful propagation of the spike into the entire terminal arbor. The depolarizing afterpotential has a refractory period that is similar to that of the peripherally evoked EPSPs and that is also interpreted as refractoriness in the fine preterminal branches.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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