Jamming Avoidance Responses in Weakly Electric Fishes: A Biological View of Signal Processing

摘要

Electric fishes generate an AC electric field around themselves by the electric organ in the tail. Spatial distortion ofthe field by nearby objects is detected by an electroreceptor array located all over the body surface to localize the object electrically when other senses such as vision and mechanosense are useless. Each fish has its own 'frequency band' for its electric organ discharges, and jamming of the electrolocation system occurs when two fish with similar discharge frequencies encounter. To avoid jamming, the fish shift their discharge frequencies in appropriate directions. A computational algorithm for this electrical behavior and its neuronal implementation by the brain have been discovered. The design features of the system, however, are rather complex for this simple behavior and cannot be readily explained by functional optimization processes during evolution. To gain insights into the origin of the design features, two independently evolved electric fish species which perform the same behavior are compared. Complex features of the neuronal computation may be explained by the evolutionary history of neuronal elements.