The Active Electric Sense of Pulse Gymnotiformes

Caputi, Ángel A.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809324-5.24200-4

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…Such systems deploy energy into the environment, for the respective sensory mechanisms to receive and make use of the reflections evoked by these deployments. It is a hallmark of active scanning systems that energy deployments are highly structured, similar to spectral features of bat calls (Schnitzler and Kalko, 2001) or waveforms of electric discharges in fish (Caputi, 2021). Whisking, using stereotyped, highly rhythmic whisker movements, is no exception (Welker, 1964; Bermejo et al, 1998).…”

Section: How Versatile Is Whisking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Whisking in Mice

Chakrabarti

Nambiar

Schwarz

2022

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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Rodents generate rhythmic whisking movements to explore their environment. Whisking trajectories, for one, appear as a fixed pattern of whisk cycles at 5–10 Hz driven by a brain stem central pattern generator. In contrast, whisking behavior is thought to be versatile and adaptable to behavioral goals. To begin to systematically investigate such behavioral adaptation, we established a whisking task, in which mice altered the trajectories of whisking in a goal-oriented fashion to gain rewards. Mice were trained to set the whisker to a defined starting position and generate a protraction movement across a virtual target (no touch-related tactile feedback). By ramping up target distance based on reward history, we observed that mice are able to generate highly specific whisking patterns suited to keep reward probability constant. On a sensorimotor level, the behavioral adaptation was realized by adjusting whisker kinematics: more distant locations were targeted using higher velocities (i.e., pointing to longer force generation), rather than by generating higher acceleration (i.e., pointing to stronger forces). We tested the suitability of the paradigm of tracking subtle alteration in whisking motor commands using small lesions in the rhythmic whisking subfield (RW) of the whisking-related primary motor cortex. Small contralateral RW lesions generated the deterioration of whisking kinematics with a latency of 12 days post-lesion, a change that was readily discriminated from changes in the behavioral adaptation by the paradigm.

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Section: How Versatile Is Whisking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Whisking in Mice

Chakrabarti

Nambiar

Schwarz

2022

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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“…The solution in both modalities for extending their communication range is to generate high amplitude signals by synchronizing the oscillations of cells in the effector organs (muscle fibers of the vocal muscles and electrocytes of the electric organ) ( Bennett et al, 1967b ; Bass and Baker, 1990 ). Such synchrony is achieved in both systems by several specializations, including reduction in the number of motoneurons innervating the effector organ or by coupling motoneuron activation via presynaptic inputs and/or gap junctions ( Bennett et al, 1967b ; Bennett, 1971a ; Bass and Baker, 1990 ; reviewed in Caputi, 2020 ). An extreme example of reduced central control is in electric catfish ( Malapterurus) , which have a single bilateral pair of motoneurons, each one innervating several millions of ipsilateral electrocytes ( Bennett et al, 1967a ; Bennett, 1971a ).…”

Section: Neural Circuits Underlying Vocal and Electric Signalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocal and Electric Fish: Revisiting a Comparison of Two Teleost Models in the Neuroethology of Social Behavior

Dunlap

Koukos

Chagnaud

et al. 2021

Front. Neural Circuits

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The communication behaviors of vocal fish and electric fish are among the vertebrate social behaviors best understood at the level of neural circuits. Both forms of signaling rely on midbrain inputs to hindbrain pattern generators that activate peripheral effectors (sonic muscles and electrocytes) to produce pulsatile signals that are modulated by frequency/repetition rate, amplitude and call duration. To generate signals that vary by sex, male phenotype, and social context, these circuits are responsive to a wide range of hormones and neuromodulators acting on different timescales at multiple loci. Bass and Zakon (2005) reviewed the behavioral neuroendocrinology of these two teleost groups, comparing how the regulation of their communication systems have both converged and diverged during their parallel evolution. Here, we revisit this comparison and review the complementary developments over the past 16 years. We (a) summarize recent work that expands our knowledge of the neural circuits underlying these two communication systems, (b) review parallel studies on the action of neuromodulators (e.g., serotonin, AVT, melatonin), brain steroidogenesis (via aromatase), and social stimuli on the output of these circuits, (c) highlight recent transcriptomic studies that illustrate how contemporary molecular methods have elucidated the genetic regulation of social behavior in these fish, and (d) describe recent studies of mochokid catfish, which use both vocal and electric communication, and that use both vocal and electric communication and consider how these two systems are spliced together in the same species. Finally, we offer avenues for future research to further probe how similarities and differences between these two communication systems emerge over ontogeny and evolution.

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Distinct neuron phenotypes may serve object feature sensing in the electrosensory lobe of Gymnotus omarorum

Nogueira

Castelló

Lescano

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Early sensory relays circuits in the vertebrate medulla often adopt a cerebellum-like organization specialized for comparing primary afferent inputs with central expectations. These circuits usually have a dual output, carried by center ON and center OFF neurons responding in opposite ways to the same stimulus at the center of their receptive fields. Here we show in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of Gymnotiform weakly electric fish that basilar pyramidal neurons, representing ‘ON’ cells, and non-basilar pyramidal neurons, representing ‘OFF’ cells, have different intrinsic electrophysiological properties. We used classical anatomical techniques and electrophysiological in vitro recordings to compare these neurons. Basilar neurons are silent at rest, have a high threshold to intracellular stimulation, delayed responses to steady state depolarization and low pass responsiveness to membrane voltage variations. They respond to low intensity depolarizing stimuli with large, isolated spikes. As stimulus intensity increases the spikes are followed by a depolarizing after-potential from which phase-locked spikes often arise. Non-basilar neurons show a pacemaker-like spiking activity, smoothly modulated in frequency by slow variations of stimulus intensity. Spike frequency adaptation provides a memory of their recent firing, facilitating non-basilar response to stimulus transients. Considering anatomical and functional dimensions we conclude that basilar and non-basilar pyramidal neurons are clear-cut, different anatomo-functional phenotypes. We propose that, in addition to their role in contrast processing, basilar pyramidal neurons encode sustained global stimuli as those elicited by large or distant objects while non-basilar pyramidal neurons respond to transient stimuli due to movement textured nearby objects.

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The Active Electric Sense of Pulse Gymnotiformes

Cited by 3 publications

References 127 publications

Adaptive Whisking in Mice

Adaptive Whisking in Mice

Vocal and Electric Fish: Revisiting a Comparison of Two Teleost Models in the Neuroethology of Social Behavior

Distinct neuron phenotypes may serve object feature sensing in the electrosensory lobe of Gymnotus omarorum

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