Summary
The electric organ of a fish represents an internal current source, and the largely isopotential nature of the body interior warrants that the current associated with the fish's electric organ discharges (EODs) recruits all electroreceptors on the fish's body surface evenly. Currents associated with the EODs of a neighbor, however, will not penetrate all portions of the fish's body surface equally and will barely affect regions where the neighbor's current flows tangentially to the skin surface. The computational mechanisms of the jamming avoidance response (JAR) in Eigenmannia exploit the uneven effects of a neighbor's EOD current to calculate the correct frequency difference between the two interfering EOD signals even if the amplitude of a neighbor's signal surpasses that of the fish's own signal by orders of magnitude. The particular geometry of the fish's own EOD current thus yields some immunity against the potentially confusing effects of unusually strong interfering EOD currents of neighbors.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- DF :
-
frequency difference
- ELL :
-
electrosensory lateral line lobe
- EOD :
-
electric organ discharge
- JAR :
-
jamming avoidance response
References
Bastian J (1986) Gain control in the electrosensory system: A role for the descending projections to the electrosensory lateral line lobe. J Comp Physiol A 158:505–515
Bastian J, Bratton B (1990) Descending control of electroreception. I: Properties of nucleus praeeminentialis neurons projecting indirectly to the electrosensory lateral line lobe. J Neurosci 10:1226–1240
Bastian J, Heiligenberg W (1980) Neural correlates of the jamming avoidance response in Eigenmannia. J Comp Physiol 136:135–152
Heiligenberg W (1991) Neural nets in electric fish. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Heiligenberg W, Bastian J (1980) The control of Eigenmannia's pacemaker by distributed evaluation of electroreceptive afferences. J Comp Physiol 136:113–133
Heiligenberg W, Baker C, Matsubara J (1978) The Jamming Avoidance Response in Eigenmannia revisited: The structure of a neuronal democracy. J Comp Physiol 127:267–286
Kawasaki M (1991) African electric fish, Gymnarchus, use the identical computational algorithm as South American electric fish for their jamming avoidance response. Neuroscience Meeting (New Orleans) Abstract: 650.11
Rose GJ, Heiligenberg W (1986) Limits of phase and amplitude sensitivity in the torus semicircularis of Eigenmannia. J Comp Physiol A 159:813–822
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heiligenberg, W., Kawasaki, M. An internal current source yields immunity of electrosensory information processing to unusually strong jamming in electric fish. J Comp Physiol A 171, 309–316 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223961
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223961